Companies vehicles expelling fumes

[Mrcharles]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I work for a security company that has a fleet of late 80's / early 90's ex police car crown victorias. The majority of these vehicles are not well maintained because of money issues which results in them having various problems, most notably the amount of fumes that they are releasing into the cabin. Every vehicle burns excessive amounts of oil and requires you to refill it everynight, this burnt oil creates fumes which enters the vehicles through either the vents or windows.

I've brought this issue up to the boss and he asks me to take other vehicles, most of these other vehicles have the same or worse problem than the previous and of the 1-2 that are the least problematic, they are driven by other workers leaving me with the fume heavy cars.

I recently had a serious conversation with my employer saying how I was concerned about my health. He told me that their wasn't a whole lot he could do about the vehicles but he called the mechanic in front of me anyways. The mechanic said that their was a oil or transmission leak which led to the fumes and my boss asked the mechanic to check it out the following day.

My employer wasn't in when I next drove the vehicle so I couldn't ask if it had been fixed and nobody else knew whether it had been worked on, so I drove it and sure enough it had substantial amounts of oil fumes coming through the vents and windows.

What are my options seeing as how a follow up email that day has yet to be answered? It seems unacceptable for anyone to have to work for hours and breath in any amounts of vehicle fumes but more so the fact that legitimate attempts at getting the problem resolved results in unenthusiastic attempts at fixing the issue.

Is quitting a legitimate decision? Can you expect to collect unemployment for quitting for health reasons?

 

[cyjeff]

Quitting for health reasons is a legitimate reason... but you have no proof.

Have you measured the fumes coming into the cabin?
Do you have at least two doctors willing to testify that they can link specific medical issues to the fumes you measured?

You can't just make general statements and expect to be believed. You have to have professional opinions.

 

[Mrcharles]

Quitting for health reasons is a legitimate reason... but you have no proof.

Have you measured the fumes coming into the cabin?
Do you have at least two doctors willing to testify that they can link specific medical issues to the fumes you measured?

You can't just make general statements and expect to be believed. You have to have professional opinions.

Thank you for the response, it's been difficult to get a clear answer on a method of measuring the fumes in the car, organizations such as OSHA say that because it's in a vehicle and not a workplace that they have no jurisdiction over it, my local hospital says that they could test for carbon monoxide (or other toxins) but since it stays in your blood for only a couple of hours after exposure I would have to go in immediately after work, which seems like my best option.

Is having two doctors to testify something that is absolutely required or is being able to prove that the vehicle clearly does have unsafe amounts of fumes entering the cabin alone enough evidence to quit a job?

 

[cyjeff]

You are saying there is a health risk.

You have to prove a health risk exists.

Health risks are proven by doctors.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Put the air on recirculate so it doesn't draw fumes from outside.