Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
of Lecturer, Texas State University & Professorial Lecturer Milken Institute School of Public Health.
cmonforton
Posts by this author
January 12, 2017
Chronic beryllium disease is a horrible illness, as is lung cancer. Both diseases are the rationale for a new health standard issued by OSHA on January 9.
The rule is designed to protect the health of an estimated 60,000 workers in the U.S. who are exposed to the light-weight, super-strong metal:…
December 21, 2016
I’m still haunted by the voice on my car radio. It was one of those “NPR moments.”
We were parked at our destination, but there was no way we were getting out of the car. National Public Radio’s (NPR) Howard Berkes was reporting from eastern Kentucky and interviewing Mackie Branham. The 39 year old…
December 21, 2016
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) deserves credit for rapidly publicizing information about serious injury incidents and close call events. A brief recap and single photo make an easy lesson for a pre-shift safety meeting or toolbox talk. But MSHA needs to reject language in its…
December 15, 2016
Canada's Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan announced today that her country plans to implement a comprehensive ban on asbestos by 2018. The proposal includes:
Banning the import of asbestos-containing products such as construction materials and brake pads;
Expanding the on-line registry of asbestos…
December 13, 2016
Poultry processing workers and food safety inspectors are being doused with chemicals in the name of food safety. A slew of antimicrobial agents are approved by the USDA to be used on meat and poultry. The chemicals are considered edible for consumers, but no assessments are made by USDA (or other…
December 8, 2016
EPA deserves another pat on the back. The agency is again moving swiftly to use its authority under the chemical safety law passed by Congress earlier this year. Yesterday the agency announced a proposed rule to ban the use of trichloroethylene (TCE) in two specific applications. If adopted, TCE…
December 7, 2016
Bud 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…
November 30, 2016
Good for them! They beat Congress’ deadline by 20 days.
That’s the first thing that came to mind yesterday when I read EPA’s announcement about the first 10 chemicals it's selected for risk evaluations. EPA’s announcement is the first major milestone established by Congress when it passed sweeping…
November 21, 2016
The Butterball turkey plant in Huntsville, Arkansas ramps up production beginning in October to meet the demand for fresh (not frozen) Thanksgiving turkeys. The working conditions are already dismal. The bad situation is magnified during this peak season as workers on the production line try to…
November 17, 2016
Two new reports describe the working conditions for some of the 21 million workers in the U.S. food industry. Food workers constitute 14 percent of the U.S. workforce. They are employed across the system from those who work on farms and in canning plants, to meat packers, grocery store clerks and…
November 14, 2016
The environmental justice, public health, and other communities are mourning the death of Steve Wing. Dr. Wing was an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. I did not have the privilege of personally knowing Dr. Wing, but I…
November 11, 2016
I’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…
November 3, 2016
Kim Krisberg and I were in Denver this week at APHA’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition — the year’s largest gathering of public health professionals. In our blog posts from earlier this week (here, here, here) we recapped just a few of the scientific sessions and events from the week. Below are…
November 3, 2016
The American Public Health Association (APHA) adopted 11 new policy statements which will guide its work in the coming years. They include:
Raising the minimum wage: The policy calls on states to increase their minimum wage, index the minimum wage to inflation, and prohibit state-government…
November 2, 2016
Kim Krisberg and I are currently in Denver at APHA’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition — the year’s largest gathering of public health professionals. In yesterday’s blog post, Kim recapped just a few of the scientific sessions and events from Sunday and Monday. Below are some highlights from…
October 18, 2016
The Casper Star-Tribune’s Heather Richards profiles the struggle of Malco Bielefeld, 53, a roughneck who was seriously injured on the job.
“Once, he viewed the world from the top of a 70-foot oil derrick. …He would use his whole body to keep balance, attaching solid steel piping that weighed…
October 6, 2016
That’s the title of a report released this week by the Labor Department. It came in response ProPublica’s and National Public Radio’s investigative series, which began in March 2015, called “Insult to Injury.” The series had many revelations and interesting features. My favorite was an interactive…
October 5, 2016
I wasn’t in the room, but watching the webcast I could feel the public’s lingering dissatisfaction and distrust. It was last week's (Sept. 28) public meeting held by the Chemical Safety Board on its investigation into the 10,000 gallons of a toxic soup that poured in January 2014 into the Elk River…
September 21, 2016
The temperature yesterday in Austin, TX was 97 and the heat index was 104. My USPS mail carrier was feeling the heat in more ways than one.
As is the case most mornings, we exchange waves with each other. He begins his rounds in my neighborhood around 8 am and I’m using walking 12 year-old Laredo,…
September 16, 2016
Emilio 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…
September 8, 2016
Harold 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…
September 5, 2016
The fifth edition of “The Year in US Occupational Health & Safety: Fall 2015 – Summer 2016” was released today, Labor Day 2016. This annual tradition profiles the most notable events over the past 12 months in worker safety and health policies, research, and investigative reporting. I wrote…
August 26, 2016
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought a lawsuit last week in U.S. district court against a Georgia-based poultry company for discriminating against an employee with a work-related injury. The firm, Wayne Farms, is one I’ve written about previously (e.g., here, here, here.) …
August 19, 2016
Rick 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…
August 12, 2016
It wasn’t the first time an industry made wild exaggerations about a proposed safety regulation, but one made by the coal industry in 2011 was a doozy. Now five years later, we have the data to show how big a doozy it really was.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration had proposed a new…
August 9, 2016
When 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…
August 2, 2016
It sounds like malpractice to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking ever since learning how poultry workers are treated (and not treated) for work-related injuries.
The latest example comes from Pilgrim’s Pride, the largest US poultry processing company. Last week OSHA issued the first-ever citation…
July 27, 2016
Kevin 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,…
July 21, 2016
Timothy 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.”…
July 21, 2016
The 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…