Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
of Lecturer, Texas State University & Professorial Lecturer Milken Institute School of Public Health.
cmonforton
Posts by this author
July 25, 2013
The fourth largest city in the U.S. may be the next major metropolis taking action against wage theft. Members of Houston's City Council held a public hearing this week to discuss a proposed city ordinance targeted at employers who fail to pay the minimum wage or legally due overtime pay, force…
July 23, 2013
My mailbox today contained an example that Obamacare is working for healthcare consumers. In an envelope from my health insurance provider was a check for $124.08. The cover letter from Humana explained it was a rebate of a portion of my premium, as required by the Affordable Care Act's (ACA)…
July 16, 2013
In its short history dating back to 1998, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has conducted more than 100 investigations of industrial chemical explosions, unplanned toxic releases, spills and other incidents. Some of the disasters made the headlines, such as the 2005 explosion at the BP refinery in…
July 15, 2013
[Update 1/21/2014 below]
Christopher Michael Cantu, 22, loved Tejano music and was proud of his Mexican heritage. His family says he was always happy, full of energy and a hard worker. Those are probably some of the qualities that helped him get a job in May at Coastal Plating Inc. in Corpus…
July 11, 2013
"A worker's first day at work shouldn't be his last day on earth," was OSHA chief David Michaels' reaction to the work-related death of Lawrence Daquan "Day" Davis. The 21-year old was crushed in a palletizer machine on August 16, 2012 at the Bacardi Bottling facility in Jacksonville, FL. Davis…
July 9, 2013
A memorial service honoring the 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill, AZ wildfire will be held today at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ. Forty eight hours earlier, an honor guard escorted 19 hearses carrying members of the 20-person Granite Mountain Hotshots on a 125-mile route…
July 3, 2013
Is it unpatriotic to dread the Fourth of July? I wonder if some U.S. veterans do, in fact dread Independence Day because of the bottle rockets, shot missiles and other fireworks set off to mark the occasion.
NBC News contributor Bill Briggs wrote last year about Iraq War veteran Pete Chinnici, 26…
July 2, 2013
Employers in British Columbia's (BC) construction industry recognized that workers were exposed to respirable silica and other rock dust. What they needed was a standard from the province's worker safety regulatory body on how to identify and control the hazard. The BC Construction Association,…
June 25, 2013
Civil rights groups filed a petition today with the Organization of American States' (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asserting that the U.S. government has failed to protect poultry and meatpacking workers from permanently disabling and life altering work-related injuries and other…
June 25, 2013
The Houston-based firm Piping Technology & Products devotes a page on its website to "company safety." There are photos of safety banners displayed at its manufacturing facility, and pledges of continuous improvement. The company says:
"Safety is extremely important to us." "At PT&P,…
June 20, 2013
[Updated below (July 12, 2013)]
[Updated below (June 21, 2013)]
"His skin was on fire," is the lead sentence in a story that I knew wouldn't have a happy ending. Dianna Wray of the Houston Press writes about the July 2012 incident at Dow Chemical/Rohm & Haas plant in Deer Park, TX which took…
June 17, 2013
Uro Ama Orji, 54, a livery driver in Brooklyn, NY planned to spend Fathers' Day, with his five children. The family didn't get the chance. Three days earlier, Mr. Orji was fatally stabbed in the eye with an umbrella by a passenger. He is the 17th cab driver this year killed on-the-job in the U.S…
June 12, 2013
Themes related to time---meeting deadlines, doing retrospective reviews----were heard frequently today by President Obama's nominee to direct his Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Howard Shelanski, JD, PhD, the President's choice for his "regulatory czar" post, appeared for his…
June 10, 2013
The way some companies operate, it's no wonder that thousands of workers in the U.S. are lead poisoned each year.
In January, federal OSHA issued 14 willful and 11 repeat violations to Panthera Painting for exposing its employees to lead. The workers were using abrasive blasting equipment to…
June 4, 2013
[Updated below 7/1/2013]
A public memorial service will be held tomorrow at Houston's Reliant Stadium to honor the city's four firefighters who died on-the-job on May 31. About 150 firefighters responded to tackle the blaze at the Southwest Inn, a two-story motel adjacent to the I-59 freeway in…
May 29, 2013
Nearly 40 percent of work-related injuries and illnesses seen in U.S. emergency rooms are not billed to workers’ compensation---the insurance program that’s designed to cover them. An increasing number of patients suffering from injuries or illnesses caused by exposures at work are using their…
May 23, 2013
When they toured the devastation caused by the April 17 explosion at West Fertilizer, Texas' U.S. Senators pledged that investigators would get to the bottom of what happened. The disaster killed 15, injured hundreds of residents, and destroyed dozens of homes and buildings. Senator Ted Cruz said…
May 20, 2013
I've done it myself. Ask a teenager a healthy place to eat, she'll respond "Subway or Chipotle." What about a less healthy place? Response: "McDonald's or Burger King." But do fast food restaurants that are perceived "healthier" by teens actually translate into fewer calories consumed by them…
May 16, 2013
The residents of Battlement Mesa didn't want their "Colorado Dream" ---the community's slogan----to turn into their nightmare. The unincorporated 3,200 acre, residential community offers its 5,000 residents high desert mountain views above the Colorado River, and boasts of opportunities for hiking…
May 15, 2013
Spring 2013 looked like it would be a banner season for progress by the Obama Administration on new worker safety regulations. In the Labor Department's most recent regulatory agenda, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)…
May 8, 2013
The rate of work-related fatal injuries in some States is more than three times the national rate of 3.5 deaths per 100,000 workers. That's just one disturbing fact contained in the AFL-CIO's annual Death on the Job report which was released this week. In Wyoming, for example, the rate of fatal…
May 7, 2013
"Snazzy safety glasses," I said to the dental hygienist who was just about to ask me to open wide. Something about the pink rims caught my eye and led me to a remark that showed my age:
"I remember when dentists didn't wear gloves, or masks, or eye protection."
I not only recall the bare hands of…
May 1, 2013
Steve McGraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), told members of the Texas legislature that responsibility for informing residents about the chemical hazards in their communities----such as at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas----falls to local officials. The Dallas…
April 30, 2013
I take mine black, but millions of U.S. coffee drinkers love their java beans flavored to taste like hazelnut, buttered toffee, french toast and amaretto. One supplier in Florida boasts of 47 different flavors. Fans of flavored coffee beans pay a premium for them, but some workers in the bean…
April 25, 2013
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack seems determined to implement a new poultry slaughter inspection system, despite strong calls from the food safety and public health communities for him to withdraw it. At an April 17 congressional hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture,…
April 23, 2013
The funeral services are beginning this week for the 10 volunteer firefighters and the five other individuals who were fatally injured by the horrific explosion at West Fertilizer. The initial call about the fire at the plant was made to the West Volunteer fire department at 8:30 pm. The…
April 17, 2013
A comprehensive, bi-partisan immigration reform bill was filed today by the "gang of eight" U.S. Senators. We've written previously about the abuses endured by many workers under the existing guest worker programs (here, here, here, here) and I am particularly curious to see the remedies proposed…
April 16, 2013
An analysis by Mine Safety and Health News (MSHN) finds that nearly $70 million in delinquent penalties are owed to the U.S. Treasury by mining companies for violations of federal mine safety and health regulations. One of the top offenders is James C. Justice II, the owner of the Greenbriar…
April 10, 2013
Getting more than one helping of food is obviously a draw for patrons of all-you-can-eat restaurants. But can one predict how many trips to the buffet a particular diner will make? Does scoping out the buffet before grabbing a plate lead to more trips? How does sitting in a chair that faces the…
April 5, 2013
Three years ago today, April 5, 2010, at approximately 3:02 pm (ET) a coal dust explosion ripped through Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia. Twenty-nine miners were killed by the blast, suffering fatal injuries from the explosion itself or from carbon monoxide…