A June 29 U.S. District Court decision ordered the Department of Labor (DOL) to disclose its Worker Exposure to Toxic Substances Database, the largest known compilation of workplace toxic chemical sampling data.

Adam Finkel, former Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) chief regulator and regional administrator, filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with OSHA for the exposure data in June 2005. After failing to receive any response to his requests or administrative appeals, Finkel filed a lawsuit against OSHA for the data in November 2005. The database contains worker exposure data critical to Finkel's research to evaluate the outdated beryllium standards and current industry and OSHA practices.

Beryllium is a naturally occurring metal mined mostly for its use in electronic parts, nuclear and medical technology. Potentially carcinogenic, beryllium is directly linked to pulmonary conditions called Acute and Chronic Beryllium Disease. General scientific consensus is that the sixty-year-old OSHA exposure limit (2 micrograms per cubic meter) is unsafe. EPA, for instance, estimates that a lifetime exposure of 0.00004 micrograms per cubic meter can result in a one-in-one thousand chance of cancer.

In court, OSHA claimed that the database should be withheld because disclosure of the information would reveal trade secrets and compromise inspector privacy. However, the agency received no support from industry to support the claims of trade secret threats. After OSHA appealed to companies for examples, not a single company claimed it asked for sample result protection. Finkel explained, "Industry knows it has nothing to fear from a scholarly analysis of trends in workplace exposure." Judge Mary Cooper found DOL's claims of trade secrecy and privacy insubstantial and ordered the agency to release the database.

Finkel's work on beryllium exposure began in 2002. As regional administrator in the Rocky Mountain states, he revealed OSHA's refusal to provide basic follow-up and screening for workers likely exposed to beryllium in their inspections. After being fired for trying to protect active and retired inspectors at risk from beryllium exposure, Finkel sued OSHA for whistleblower retaliation and successfully negotiated a settlement. He then returned to academia, where he has continued research about beryllium hazards in the workplace.

Results from OSHA's own medical monitoring program, initiated primarily due to Finkel's whistleblowing, support the need for expanded research. Four percent of the inspectors tested positive for sensitization, an unexpectedly high incidence.

It may be that OSHA sought to withhold the data for self-serving purposes. If the data reveals a vastly flawed system for analyzing and appropriately responding to occupational toxic exposure, as researchers suspect it will, then OSHA would be held accountable.