Occupational Health & Safety
The Pump Handle
Category archives for Occupational Health & Safety
“Lead Wars” – The politics of prevention and responsibility
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 22, 2013 A new book from Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner tells the disheartening story of our country’s ongoing failure to fully protect children from lead poisoning
Wage theft in South Florida: Nation’s first county with wage theft protections reports on progress and perils
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 14, 2013 Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers wrapped up their latest legislative session. And nearly 500 miles south of Tallahassee in Miami-Dade County, workers’ rights advocates breathed yet another sigh of relief.
From the dentist’s chair, remembering how they cried wolf
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on May 7, 2013 In the early 1990′s, the American Dental Association put up quite a fight to oppose an OSHA regulation requiring dentists to provide gloves, masks and goggles to employees who could be exposed to blood-contaminated saliva.
Preventing fire fighter deaths, learning from the fallen
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 23, 2013 CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a special role in the West Fertilizer plant explosion. Its Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program will be investigating the factors that led to the deaths of the 10 volunteer fire fighters.
Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 19, 2013 Eric Rodriguez and his colleagues at the Latino Union of Chicago quite literally meet workers where they’re at — on the city’s street corners. Many of the day laborers who gather there are hired to work construction at residential housing sites. Work arrangements are hardly formal and day laborers are frequently subjected to unnecessary and illegal dangers on the job. Unfortunately, worker safety is often kicked to the curb in the street corner marketplace.
Cracking down on deadbeat bosses: Wage theft victory a milestone in Chicago’s worker center movement
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 15, 2013 For Angel Nava, Chicago’s newly adopted wage theft ordinance is particularly personal. Until recently, Nava had worked at the same car wash business in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood for 14 years. The 55-year-old employee did it all — washing, detailing, buffing — for about 50 hours each week. Then, his boss decided to stop paying overtime.
New study highlights need for workplace interventions that reduce depression risk
Posted by The Pump Handle on November 26, 2012 Exploring reliable links between work and depression, which is a significant health and economic burden for individuals as well as society, is somewhat murky. But a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health used two analytic strategies to address such criticism.
Occupational Health News Roundup
Posted by Liz Borkowski on November 9, 2010 This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, which was passed in response to the problem of healthcare workers being exposed to bloodborne pathogens (HIV, hepatitis, etc.) via sharps injuries. The Act directed OSHA to modify its existing bloodborne pathogen standard to require that employers update their exposure control plans…
On the Gulf Coast, Everyone is a Worker
Posted by The Pump Handle on June 29, 2010 by Eula Bingham & Anthony Robbins On April 20th, when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, eleven workers died. Since then thousands of Gulf Coast citizens have responded to the disaster. Few are professional clean-up workers, but these responders stepped forward rapidly to protect their communities from the consequences of the man-made catastrophe. Health…