Cancer
The Pump Handle
Category archives for Cancer
Tony Mazzocchi: a man who hated work and loved labor
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on June 6, 2012 Tony Mazzocchi was a visionary who was in the forefront of the labor movement’s efforts to secure protections for working people, including strong workplace health and safety laws. He was inducted this week in the Labor Department’s Hall of Fame.
No longer a couch potato, the Mesothelioma cancer named Theo is back
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on May 25, 2012 Debbie Brewer, a 53-year-old mother of three, has mesothelioma. It’s most likely due to asbestos exposure from the work clothes of her father, who succumbed to his own asbestos-related disease in 2006.
Ideas galore on ways to speed process for new worker safety protections. Where is the leadership to implement them?
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on May 1, 2012 Earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on the snail’s pace of the OSHA process of issuing new rules to protect workers from health and safety hazards on-the-job. One telling table in the document showed the agency issued about 20 new major regulations in each of the previous two decades (i.e.,…
Mitt Romney’s idea of freedom: businesses free to do whatever they darn well please?
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 17, 2012 Mr. Mitt Romney spoke this weekend at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual convention and kicked off his remarks applauding the gun-lovers group’s defense of the 2nd amendment to the Constitution. “This fine organization is sometimes called a single-issue group,” Romney said. “That’s high praise when the single issue is freedom. I love my freedom…
Worker safety rule stuck in White House black hole, disease risk persists
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 12, 2012 More than 425 days—-that’s 14 months—-have passed since the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a draft proposed regulation designed to protect workers who are exposed to respirable crystalline silica. The hazard is one of the oldest known causes of work-related…
Muvmuv Brewer calls her cancer Theo, asbestos is the culprit
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 3, 2012 Phillip Northmore worked for the UK’s Ministry of Defense in Plymouth, England from 1963 to 1966. His job as a lagger meant he spent his day repairing and applying asbestos insulation around pipes and ductwork in the bowels of buildings. His wife recalled him coming home from work covered in dust. It would take three…
Moving from the “Right to Know” to the “Right to Understand”: Global harmonization of OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 21, 2012 by Elizabeth Grossman His job, the Metalworkers Alliance of the Philippines union leader told us, was assembling the electronics – the wire- or cable-harnesses – that go into cars. The work involved soldering, using flux, along with epoxies, and various degreasers or solvents. He and his co-workers didn’t know the actual names of the substances…
Lung cancer risk of diesel-exposed workers reconfirmed, kudos to MSHA for addressing hazard 10 years ago
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on March 5, 2012 The Center for Public integrity’s Jim Morris was the first to report that two long awaited cancer mortality studies of US workers exposed to diesel exhaust finds significantly elevated levels of lung cancer. Researchers with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) proposed the studies two decades…
What’s taking so long?
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on February 17, 2012 “What’s taking so long?” might be uttered by a youngster waiting for a parent to assemble a swing set, or an art patron waiting for a conservator to restore a masterpiece. When the wait is finally over and the eager child or art lover see the final product, they realize the time was well spent.…
Asbestos company owners convicted on criminal charges in Italy; but asbestos still lethal and legal in the US
Posted by The Pump Handle on February 16, 2012 by Elizabeth Grossman What’s being called the first-ever such criminal conviction, an Italian court has returned a guilty verdict against owners of Eternit, the Switzerland-based building materials company. Two weeks ago, W.R. Grace announced its bankruptcy case settlement for the residents of Libby, Montana where the company’s vermiculite plant exposed residents to deadly asbestos fibers…