Summary

Administrative weaknesses have caused delays in developing standards to protect workers from cancer-causing and other dangerous substances.

Although workers are exposed to thousands of toxic substances, hundreds of which may cause cancer, Government efforts have produced standards for only 15 substances. The bleak occupational health conditions which the Congress sought to improve still exist and may be getting worse. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) has submitted recommendations and supporting information on 53 substances to the Department of Labor, but standards have been issued by Labor on only two of these substances.