CMU School of Drama


Sunday, September 07, 2008

The Downey Toxic Hell Hole

Indybay: "Stuart Lichter also realized that cheap property in the Los Angeles area could be used in the movie industry for sets that could make a financial killing for him. He built the Downey Studios and leased out the facilities to other movie production companies such as Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures. Unfortunately for the movie industry, workers and the community, the site in fact had not been properly cleaned up and the workers began getting rashes, headaches and had severe health reactions. Studio workers also began to discover extensive mold and fungus as they crawled in the dirt at the massive hangar to put up giant sets in major studio films like 'The Island' “GI Joe”, “Transformer” and 'Santa Claus 1, 2 & 3.'"

4 comments:

Ethan Weil said...

Sounds like both the government and the union, whose jobs are to protect people completely fell down on the job multiple times for the benefit of corporations. Shocking news. Glad that the media at least is still willing to report on some of it.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised that Cal-OSHA's done nothing about this. Workers were subjected to terrible working conditions without even their knowledge (theatre/film people willingly poison themselves all the time...) and are receiving no sort of compensation? Absolutely ridiculous and disgusting.

I wonder if any workers who develop mesothelioma will be projected under other OSHA endorsed class action lawsuits, or if this entire situation has screwed workers from any kind of protection or benefits.

NatalieMark said...

The coverage of this story is very important. I am glad that the news is bringing these kinds of events to light. The people who work on shows and movies don't usually end up in the news, I'm glad they did this time.

Anonymous said...

it's kind of shocking that things like this can slip by government agency and corporate inspections in california. i mean this is the state where companies and firms are constantly getting shut down and or halted in their processes for violations of health and safety codes. i am curious if it has to do with being in a lower income area.