Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
of Lecturer, Texas State University & Professorial Lecturer Milken Institute School of Public Health.
cmonforton
Posts by this author
July 18, 2010
Congressman Tom Price MD (R-GA) is apparently offended by the suggestion that some companies are not model employers. During last week's hearing in the House Education and Labor Committee on a bill to modernize a few provisions of the OSHA and MSHA statutes, he seemed annoyed that asst. secretary…
July 16, 2010
In an amazing and comprehensive report entitled "Picked Apart," the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante and the International Human Rights Law Clinic of American University College of Law reveal the ugly, dark side of the Maryland crab industry. Some employers are skirting the law and exploiting…
July 14, 2010
Thanks to Frank Gallagher blogging at FireDogLake for providing us the quote of the day courtesy of WYMT-TV in eastern Kentucky. In "US Chamber of Commerce goes astroturfing to sink miner safety bill," he writes about the front-group sponsored by the Chamber and other business groups to oppose…
July 13, 2010
I happened upon a statement issued last week by the Labor Department saying that OSHA was seeking a first-ever "enterprise-wide" remedy to compel the US Postal Service (USPS) to fix electrical hazards in its 350 processing and distribution (P&D) centers. Twenty-nine of the 350 P&D…
July 13, 2010
The web address is "working for safety.com" but the Coalition for Workplace Safety is just another well-funded attempt by the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce, and more than 20 other industry groups to oppose fundamental improvements to the 40 year old OSHA law.…
July 7, 2010
OSHA and Imperial Sugar reached an agreement this week stemming from the agency's investigations following a February 2008 dust explosion that ultimately claimed 14 workers' lives. OSHA originally issued more than 100 willful citations for violations at the company's Port Wentworth, GA (site of…
July 5, 2010
Last fall, acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab said the agency would be beefing up oversight of the 27 State programs that operate their own worker health and safety regulatory and enforcement systems. The OSHA State Plans, as they are known, are typically subject to annual reviews by federal OSHA, but…
July 2, 2010
The Mine Safety and Health Administration took an important step yesterday to meet a goal set in the Labor Secretary's regulatory agenda: proposing a rule to prevent black lung disease. According to data on RegInfo.gov MSHA submitted yesterday a proposed rule entitled "Lowering Miners' Exposure to…
July 1, 2010
Cong. George Miller (D-CA) is a man of tough talk and swift action. Today, along with 15 other House members, he introduced H.R. 5663 a bill to upgrade provisions of our nation's key federal workplace health and safety laws. Every year, tens of thousands of workers are killed and made ill because…
June 23, 2010
When President Obama nominated Prof. Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) many of us in the public health community were worried. He was, afterall, an academic who authored a paper entitled, "Is OSHA unconstitutional?" and another "Is the Clean Air Act…
June 22, 2010
MSHA took another step toward openness by posting on its website the "preliminary report of accident" form for the most recent fatal injury incidents at US mining operations. The MSHA Form 7000-13 is the first record made by agency personnel when they are notified of a worker death, serious injury…
June 21, 2010
When one of the nation's largest mobile cranes--the Versa TC 36000---collapsed on July 18, 2008 at the LyondellBasell refinery in Pasadena, TX, four workers lost their lives:
Marion "Scooter" Hubert Odom III, 41; John D. Henry, 33; Daniel "DJ" Lee Johnson; Rocky Dale Strength, 30. I wrote about…
June 15, 2010
If there was any doubt in your mind that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is detached from the reality of workers, worker rights and safety, he made it eminently clear in a letter he sent to his constituent Ms. Tammy Miser of Lexington, Kentucky. She'd written the Senator McConnell asking for his…
June 10, 2010
I noticed today on OSHA's website a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the US Coast Guard (USCG). Under the heading "Information Sharing: Enforcement," OSHA says it:
"will notify the Federal On Scene Coordinator (FOSC) when it intends to take any enforcement action against BP, BP's…
June 9, 2010
As Coal Tattoo reports in "MSHA lost a major 'pattern of violation' case against Massey," the federal mine safety agency was foiled in its effort to place Massey Energy's Tiller No.1 mine on a pattern of violations. This particular underground coal mine is located in Tazewell, Virginia and had…
May 31, 2010
Speaking on a "matter of public concern," is protected speech, according to a federal jury in Becky McClain v. Pfizer, Inc. In this case, the jury found that being exposed at work to a genetically engineered virus or other biotech agents is indeed a legitimate matter of public concern. It…
May 26, 2010
In a blog post seven months ago, I gave federal OSHA credit for placing worker fatality information front-and-center on its homepage. The sobering feature deserving kudos was the scrolling list of fatal-injury incidents in which men and women died recently at US workplaces.
I remarked that the…
May 25, 2010
I began writing this post as an open letter to Senator Graham and Administrator Reilly as they embarked in their work as co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe. I planned to urge them to read investigation reports on the BP Texas City disaster…
May 17, 2010
Late last month, OSHA chief David Michaels announced the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, (SVEP) a new iniative targeted at
"recalcitrant employers who endanger workers by demonstrating indifference to their responsibilities under the law."
OSHA says once these bad actor employers are…
May 15, 2010
John M. Peters, MD, DSc, MPH, the Hastings Professor of Preventive Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine passed away at age 75 on May 6 from pancreatic cancer. The School's dean, Carmen A. Puliafito, said
"one of the legends of environmental and occupational health. His work took him from…
May 15, 2010
I can't keep up with Ken Ward Jr.'s coverage of the trouble brewing, battle, strong difference of opinion between Secretary Hilda Solis/MSHA Asst. Secretary Joe Main and the United Mine Workers (UMWA), family members of deceased coal miners and journalists about the Department of Labor's decision…
May 15, 2010
As I noted in "Perplexed by OSHA's reg agenda," I've made a habit of commenting on the content of the Dept of Labor's semi-annual regulatory agenda [see links below]. I'll be the first to admit that our system for protecting workers from well-known hazards with new regulations is onerous and…
May 15, 2010
Beginning in December 2006, I've written five blog post commenting on the content of the Department of Labor's (DOL) regulatory agenda for worker health and safety rulemakings. Most of my posts [see links below] have criticized the Labor Secretary and senior OSHA and MSHA staff for failing to…
May 15, 2010
Last week Labor Secretary Solis released in the Federal Register on April 26, 2010, her Spring 2010 regulatory agenda for the Department, including her rulemaking priorities for MSHA and OSHA. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act it was published on time in April, in contrast to her Fall…
May 15, 2010
A month after the March 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, a small team of public health experts prepared a report identifying the potential health hazards and making strong recommendations for protective action for the cleanup workers. The team included Eula Bingham, PhD (former OSHA chief), Matt…
February 26, 2009
By Celeste Monforton
Last August 28, Bill Oxley and Barry Withrow, 45 were working at the Bayer CropScience’s plant in Institute, WV when a massive fireball erupted in an area where methomyl for the carbamate insecticide thiodicarb (Larvin) is produced. Mr. Withrow was killed immediately in the…
November 4, 2008
by Liz Borkowski
Tomorrow we’ll know who this country’s next president will be and what the next Congress will look like. Economic stimulus will be at the top of their priority list, so I hope they’ll all take a look at a handy chart from the Economic Policy Institute, which tallies the economic…
October 2, 2007
By Liz Borkowski
Hundreds of nurses are on strike in Kentucky and West Virginia after contract negotiations with Appalachian Regional Healthcare failed. The nurses refused to accept a package that reduced their holiday pay and increased their insurance premiums (canceling out the proposed wage…
November 20, 2006
by Celeste Monforton
From the Ground Zero construction site to an expansion of the Los Angeles International Airport, the tide seems to be turning for cleaner diesel engines, particulate filters and low-sulfur fuels. As Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Alex Frangos writes: âInstead of belching…
November 17, 2006
by Celeste MonfortonÂ
Who was the most compelling speaker at last weekâs 134th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association? It wasnât a scholarly epidemiologist warning about pandemic flu, or an emeritus professor presenting research on health disparities. No, the superstar…