occupational fatalities
kkrisberg | February 7, 2017Not violating federal labor law seems like a commonsense precursor for being awarded lucrative federal contracts. House Republicans, however, disagree.
Last week, majority members in the House of Representatives successfully passed a resolution to get rid of federal disclosure requirements included in President Barack Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which he originally signed in 2014. Those disclosure requirements directed businesses bidding for federal contracts of $500,000 or more to report any violations of 14 labor laws within the prior three years. Among those 14…
kkrisberg | January 4, 2017At the Toronto Star, Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on the “lethal legacy” of a General Electric plant in the Canadian city of Peterborough, Ontario, where hundreds of compensation claims have been filed for illnesses that workers say were caused by occupational chemical exposures. In fact, one occupational health expert described the plant as a “cancer generator.”
Mojtehedzadeh reports that a study commissioned by General Electric and that the Star obtained found that male workers at the plant were up to 57 percent more likely to die of lung cancer than the general population, while female…
kkrisberg | December 20, 2016At the Center for Public Integrity, Jim Morris reports on working conditions at the nation’s oil refineries, writing that more than 500 refinery incidents have been reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 1994, calling into question the adequacy of EPA and federal labor rules designed to protect workers as well as the public. Morris begins the story with John Moore, who in 2010 was working at a Tesoro Corporation oil refinery north of Seattle — he writes:
Up the hill from Moore, in the Naphtha Hydrotreater unit, seven workers were restoring to service a bank of heat…
cmonforton | December 7, 2016Bud Wesley, 65, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Wednesday, November 30, while working at Spectrum Industries in Belding, Michigan. The Daily News reports:
The incident occurred at about 5 a.m.
The city’s police chief said that Mr. Wesley “was a part of the night maintenance crew at the facility. They were doing some high-level work and he fell from his working position.”
The company’s president said that Mr. Wesley was employed by the firm since 1998.
Spectrum Industries is a privately-held firm with 400 employees. Its business involves “the application of functional and decorative…
kkrisberg | December 6, 2016At Stat, Eric Boodman reports on whether a Trump administration might deprive miners of compensation for disabilities related to black lung disease.
In particular, Boodman examines a little-known provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that shifted the burden of proof from miners and onto mining companies. In other words, if miners had spent at least 15 years underground and can prove a respiratory disability, it’s assumed to be an occupational illness. However, if the ACA is repealed in full — as candidate Trump promised on the campaign trail — that provision would go away as well, making…
kkrisberg | November 23, 2016At In These Times, Elizabeth Grossman writes about whether workplace safety will survive a Trump presidency, noting that “Trump’s transition team has said he will introduce a moratorium on new regulations and cancel executive orders and regulations ‘that kill jobs and bloat government.’” In interviewing labor, health and safety advocates, Grossman writes that a number of federal protections could land on the chopping block, including the new overtime rule, proposed beryllium rule and fall protections. Grossman writes:
How does Trump’s promise to reduce and eliminate regulations square with…
cmonforton | November 11, 2016I’m not easily shocked to learn about injustice against workers. But my jaw hit the floor in fall 2013 when I read Chris Hamby’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning series on the lengths to which coal companies go to dispute that miners have coal-dust related lung disease (a.k.a. black lung.) My jaw hit the floor a second time when Hamby (then with the Center for Public Integrity) exposed that Johns Hopkins University and its employee Dr. Paul Wheeler where star players on the coal operators’ teams.
The families of Steve Day, 67, and Junior McCoy Barr, 79, have now filed a lawsuit against the…
kkrisberg | October 11, 2016At the Denver Post, John Ingold and Monte Whaley authored a year-long investigative series into the dangerous conditions facing Colorado’s oil and gas workers, the role of subcontracting in heightening worker safety risks, and the lack of employer accountability and oversight. The series, “Drilling through danger,” noted that 1,333 workers died in the nation’s oil and gas fields between 2003 and 2014, with 2014 being the second-most lethal year for oil and gas workers in Colorado in a decade. According to the newspaper’s analysis, there was about one oil and gas worker death per every 12 rigs…
cmonforton | September 16, 2016Emilio Dodd, 55, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, September 6, while working at the Waste Management landfill on Railroad Street. The Lewisville Texan reports:
the incident occurred at about 3:30 pm
according to Lewisville police, “a resident with an F-350 pickup and dual-axle trailer had brought in a load of demolition debris to dump. Dodd was directing the driver as he backed the trailer up in the dumping area”
”a handle protruding from the trailer became entangled in Dodd’s clothing, causing Dodd to be pulled down. The 9,000 pound trailer drove over Dodd’s chest.”
Federal and…
cmonforton | September 8, 2016Harold Felton’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings from Washington State-OSHA in the agency’s recent citations against Alki Construction.
The 36 year-old was working in January 2016 on a sewer repair project in a West Seattle neighborhood. The initial press reports indicated that Mr. Felton was working inside a 10-foot deep trench which was situated between two homes. King5.com reported: “…the walls of the trench gave way and buried the man under several feet of soil.”
I wrote about the incident shortly after it occurred. The State of Washington's…
kkrisberg | September 6, 2016From the weakening of workers’ compensation to the lives of America’s nuclear plant workers, it was another year of stellar news reporting on worker health and safety.
Myself, along with Celeste Monforton and Roger Kerson, did our best to highlight such reporting, as well as new worker health research, in “The Year In U.S. Occupational Health & Safety: Fall 2015 – Summer 2016,” which we released, appropriately, on Labor Day. Among the journalistic highlights, reporters at the Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica and NPR continued investigative efforts into the dismantling of…
kkrisberg | August 30, 2016At KCRW (an NPR member station), Karen Foshay reports on occupational injuries among low-wage restaurant workers in California and the retaliatory barriers that often keep them from speaking up. She cited a 2011 Restaurant Opportunities Center survey of Los Angeles restaurant workers that found 42 percent experienced cuts, 43 percent experienced burns and more than half reported working while sick. Foshay writes:
At a recent meeting in Azusa (in eastern Los Angeles County), several workers showed off their appointment cards for clinics like Santa Adelina. Three men lifted their pant legs to…
cmonforton | August 19, 2016Rick Simer, 64 suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, August 9 while working at KBP Coil Coaters. The Denver Post reports:
"he was caught in an aluminum splitter machine."
The company’s website says:
“KBP Coil Coaters, Inc. is a leader in supplying pre-painted aluminum and steel coil, using state of the art coil coating equipment and methods. KBP rigorously tests and certifies every coil before it leaves our coil coating facility.”
Using OSHA’s on-line database, I did not find a record of an OSHA inspections at the KBP Coil Coaters, at least dating back to 2006.
The AFL-CIO’s 2016…
cmonforton | August 9, 2016When I heard the news about the 10 year old who died on Sunday at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, I couldn't help but remember Nico Benavides, 20.
Benavides died in March 2013 while a lifeguard at Schlitterbahn's park on San Padre Island, TX. Benavides and a co-worker were assigned to do maintenance on the park's wave pool. They were struck and pinned underneath a mechanical door. Benavides family kept him on life support for several days until his organs could be donated.
OSHA investigators found that the company did not have an effective lock-out/tag-out program. It is a basic…
cmonforton | July 27, 2016Kevin Purpura's work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see OSHA's findings in the agency’s recent citations against Woda Construction and Sandow Development (here and here.)
The 39 year-old was working in January 2016 at a loft-style apartment redevelopment project in Wheeling, WV. The initial press reports indicated that Purpura was:
"inspecting metal studding surrounding an elevator shaft” when he fell several stories to his death.
I wrote about the incident shortly after it occurred.
The (Wheeling, WV) Intelligencer reported that the project developer was the Woda Group…
cmonforton | July 21, 2016Timothy Dubberly, 58, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Friday, July 15 while working for Kinder Morgan at the Port of Fernandina. KTXL reports:
Mr. Dubberly was doing electrical work on a crane.
"It appears a [crane] cable snapped, causing the operations cab he was in to fall about 100 feet.”
the accident occurred at the Kinder Morgan Nassau Terminal.
Kinder Morgan is the “largest energy infrastructure company in North America.” The firm operates 180 terminals including one at the Port of Fernandina.
Using OSHA’s on-line database, federal OSHA and the States that operate their own OSHA…
cmonforton | July 21, 2016The leading cause of death among retail workers is robbery-related assaults. One of the latest victims is Zachary Benavidez, 23, a clerk at the Diamond Food Mart in San Antonio, TX. He died on June 8 from gunshot wounds inflicted by criminals during an attempted robbery.
Workers like Benavidez are seven times more likely to die from work-related violence than workers in other industries. Convenience store owners and those of other retail establishments can take precautions to prevent such incidents. The industry’s trade associations and law enforcement groups have developed best practices to…
kkrisberg | July 12, 2016Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in America, with more than 600 workers dying in fatal workplace incidents between 2004 and the beginning of July. And many more miners die long after they’ve left the mines from occupational illnesses such as black lung disease, while others live with the debilitating aftermath of workplace injuries. Today, researchers know a great deal about the health risks miners face on the job, but some pretty big gaps remain.
Kristin Yeoman and her colleagues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) hope to begin closing that knowledge…
cmonforton | June 28, 2016Eric McClellan’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings from Virginia-OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer Reynolds Metals, a subsidiary of Alcoa.
The 55 year-old was working in November 2015 at the company’s plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The initial press reports indicated that McClellan got “caught in a machine.” I wrote about the incident shortly after it occurred.
Virginia-OSHA issued a citation to Reynolds Metals for one serious violation related to machine guarding. Specifically, a guard
“designed and constructed as to…
cmonforton | June 14, 2016Kenneth Schultz work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) in the agency’s recent citations against his employer, Labor Ready.
The 56 year-old was working in October 2015 at a construction project in Oceanside, CA. It’s the site of a new FedEx distribution facility. The initial press reports indicated that Schultz
‘…was using a hand-held hydraulic machine to compact dirt in a drainage channel’ when a retaining wall ‘fell on him.’
I wrote about the incident shortly after it was reported by local press.
A Cal/OSHA spokesperson…