Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
of Lecturer, Texas State University & Professorial Lecturer Milken Institute School of Public Health.
cmonforton
Posts by this author
Fatal work injury that killed Stanley Thomas Wright was preventable, Nevada OSHA cites Rebel Oil Co.
January 1, 2015
Stanley Thomas Wright’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of Nevada OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer, Rebel Oil Company. The 47-year-old was working in August 2014 at a railyard in North Las Vegas, NV. Wright was asphyxiated while working…
December 31, 2014
Individuals with chronic occupational exposure to lead have an 80 percent higher odds of developing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) than individuals who do not have the exposure. Those are the findings of a recently published meta-analysis of 13 studies of individuals with “Lou Gehrig’s disease…
December 30, 2014
While we take a breather during this holiday season, we’re re-posting content from earlier in the year. This post was originally published on January 6, 2014.
by Liz Borkowski, MPH
Now that it’s 2014, millions more people in the US have health insurance coverage (either Medicaid or private…
December 26, 2014
While we take a breather during this holiday season, we’re re-posting content from earlier in the year. This post was originally published on May 6, 2014.
by Kim Krisberg
Two years ago, domestic workers in Houston, Texas, took part in the first national survey documenting the conditions they face…
December 24, 2014
While we take a breather during this holiday season, we’re re-posting content from earlier in the year. This post was originally published on June 30, 2014.
by Liz Borkowski, MPH
Last week’s White House Summit on Working Families – hosted by the White House Council on Women and Girls, the…
December 24, 2014
Chandler Warren’s work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of Tennessee OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer Federal Express. The 19-year-old was working in July 2014 on the night shift at the company’s World Hub in Memphis, TN. News reports…
December 22, 2014
They may have a green logo and they may have written environmental stewardship policies, but the work environment at Dollar Tree is dangerous. This month their employees may be wearing Christmas hats and jingle bells, but those will do little good protecting them from falling boxes and blocked fire…
December 19, 2014
Gary Keenen, 26, and Kelsey Bellah, 27 suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Friday, December 19 while working on a drilling rig two miles west of Colgate, OK. News reports provide some initial information on the workers’ deaths:
The explosion and fire occurred at a rig owned by Pablo Energy.
A…
December 17, 2014
[Updated below (March 13, 2015)]
In September 2013, fifteen civil rights and labor organizations sent a 72-page petition to OSHA. The groups were urging the agency to develop a regulation to protect poultry and meatpacking workers from repetitive motion injuries. More than 16 months later, OSHA has…
December 9, 2014
Ricardo Ramos’ work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of Michigan OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer, Hillshire Brands. The 49-year-old was working in May 2014 on the overnight cleaning crew at the company’s Zeeland, Michigan plant when he was…
December 5, 2014
I took a little time this week to review the regulatory agenda of worker health and safety initiatives which was issued by the Labor Department. The November 21 document contains a mixed bag of unaddressed workplace hazards and slipped deadlines, as well as a few new topics for possible regulatory…
December 4, 2014
Jesus Velazquez Mendizabal, 43, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Friday, November 28, while working for Formica Construction in Travis, NY located on Staten Island. SILive.com provides some of the details on the worker’s death:
“Mendizabal and three workers were dismantling the old [Dana Ford…
November 27, 2014
The goofy Thanksgiving tradition took place at the White House again this year: the pardoning of a turkey. Two gobblers, “Mac” and “Cheese,” were competing for the Presidential dispensation which was determined by votes on Twitter. Wednesday morning, I received a White House news alert inviting me…
November 24, 2014
(Updates made 11/26/15 appear in [ ])
The Houston Chronicle’s Lise Olsen and Mark Collette continue their reporting of the November 15 incident at DuPont’s La Porte, TX facility that killed four workers. Wade Baker, 60, Gilbert "Gibby" Tisnado, 48, Robert Tisnado, 39, and Crystle Rae Wise 53, were…
November 21, 2014
Health and safety hazards encountered by custodians, palm tree workers, day laborers, nurses, and bakery workers are just some of the dozens of different occupations examined in research presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The association’s…
November 20, 2014
Juan Carlos Reyes’ work-related death could have been prevented. That’s how I see the findings of federal OSHA in the agency’s citations against his employer, Angel AAA Electric, LLC. The 35-year-old was working at a construction site in Harlingen, TX for a new Marriott hotel. He suffered fatal…
November 14, 2014
US attorney Booth Goodwin II and assistant attorney Steven Ruby announced yesterday a four-count indictment against former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. Their four year investigation came following the April 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) coal mine which killed 29 workers. The…
November 11, 2014
This Veterans’ Day, it will be a cold night in most parts of the country, and especially cold for the homeless. On any given night in the US, more than 578,000 children and adults are homeless, including 31 percent who were not in shelters. Homelessness among military veterans is troubling.…
November 10, 2014
It’s been five years since the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) petitioned OSHA for a regulation to protect workers from infectious diseases. This week, OSHA will be taking a major step toward proposing such a rule. The agency and the Small Business…
November 6, 2014
Researchers with Michigan State University’s (MSU) Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine have done it again. First it was work-related burns. Then it was work-related amputations. Now it is work-related skull fractures. The MSU researchers continue to poke holes in the federal…
November 3, 2014
Milton “Tito” Rafael Barreto Hernandez, 22, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, October 28, while working for Scott Materials in Scott, Louisiana. KLFY provides some initial information on the worker’s death:
His employer, Scott Materials, is a “concrete crushing company.”
A supervisor…
October 30, 2014
OSHA proposed serious and repeat violations yesterday to Wayne Farms for a variety of safety hazards, including those that led to musculoskeletal injuries among the company’s poultry processing workers. By my calculation, it was the first time in more than a decade that the Labor Department used…
October 23, 2014
Exclusions, barriers, bans and hurdles describe many injured workers’ experiences with workers’ compensation. A system that was supposed to assist them and provide streamlined procedures to recoup medical costs and lost wages has become a nightmare for individuals who’ve been injured on-the-job. A…
October 16, 2014
John Dunnivant, 57, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Tuesday, October 7, while working at a Kia Motors manufacturing plant. The facility is located in West Point, Georgia, off of I-85 near the Alabama-state line. WTVM provides some initial information on the worker's death:
Police and fire…
October 15, 2014
Earlier this month a federal judge upheld citations issued by OSHA to Murray’s Chicken. The company, located 100 miles north of New York City, was cited by OSHA in June 2012 for repeat and serious violations of worker safety regulations. Among others, Murray’s Chicken failed to provide information…
October 8, 2014
It was too late for textile workers Grover Hardin and Louis Harrell to be helped by OSHA’s cotton dust standard. By 1978 when the rule was issued, both men suffered from byssinosis (a.k.a., brown lung disease) and would die from it. Harrell’s face and Hardin’s words, however, would have meaning for…
October 6, 2014
When Sherman Holmes, 55, was killed on-the-job by a felled tree, his employer’s profit on the lumber was more than enough to pay the penalty for the three safety violations identified by Michigan OSHA. That penalty was only $1,525.*
WyoFile’s Dustin Bleizeffer reported last week on one family’s…
October 1, 2014
William Jeffrey Belk, 29, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Friday, September 26 while working at the Boise Cascade Wood Products plant in Moncure, NC. News reports provide some initial information on the worker’s death:
“The Chatham County Sheriff's Office says a worker at a wood products…
September 18, 2014
Ernesto Rodriguez, 41, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Wednesday, September 10 while working at an oil rig site in southern Oklahoma. Local news reports provide some initial information on the worker’s death:
The incident occurred at an XTO Energy well near Mannsville, OK (about 2 hours north…
September 15, 2014
“OSHA nunca llego.” [Translation: "OSHA never came."] That was the disappointed phrase I heard from a worker who told me about his on-the-job injury. He was a temp worker hired by a moving company to relocate a small manufacturing company. The worker’s shoe got caught in a faulty industrial…