Confined Space @ TPH
sb admin | January 22, 2009Last week The Pump Handle featured an article by Carole Bass entitled Why is Black Lung back? In response, a former coal miner offers his views on why coal miners in the U.S. continue to develop and suffer from this occupational lung disease that is 100% preventable. He writes:
Thank you for your article on the resurrection of black lung disease. As a former coal miner and someone who has worked in the field of workplace health and safety most of my life, I have a few insights that you should consider:
1. NIOSHâs Dr. Petsnok and team have identified a sentinel event regarding the…
sb admin | January 16, 2009In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary-Designee Tom Daschle, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) urged the new administration to emphasize the health of the workforce. Laura Walter writes in EHS Today:
ACOEMâs workforce-centered health reform plan is built on four principles that include investing in preventive health programs for workers; creating new linkages between the workplace, homes and communities to reinforce good health; providing financial incentives to promote preventive health behaviors among workers; and taking steps to ensure that…
sb admin | January 13, 2009Yesterday, I was pressed for time when I wrote "OSHA revises its field ops manual."  I didn't have time to comb through the new 322-page manual , let alone spend much time writing the blog post itself. A funny thing happens sometimes when I rush to put together a blog post---like a magnet, I'm pulled back to the topic, forced to look for something obvious that I missed in the first round.  On further consideration, here's what I should have mentioned yesterday about OSHA's revised how-to guide for OSHA compliance S&H officers (CSHO's) and field staff:
Observation #1:Â Â The…
sb admin | January 12, 2009OSHA released on Friday, Jan 9, a new Field Operations Manual (FOM) for OSHA compliance officers and their supervisors who work in OSHA's area and regional offices. The 322-page manual is the procedural how-to guide for scheduling and conducting inspections, documenting violations of workplace safety and health standards, and proposing penalties. In the news release announcing the new manual for inspectors, the acting asst. secretary said it:
"...gives compliance officers important guidance in implementing OSHA's balanced approach to workplace safety and health: enforcement,…
sb admin | January 9, 2009The Washington Post reported yesterday that President-elect Obama wants Harvard law professor Cass R. Sunstein to serve as the head of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs ( OIRA).  I'm not prepared at this point to tangle intellectually with a  magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, who was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and a law professor for 27 years.  I am seriously worried, however, by some of what I've read of Professor Sunstein's abundant writings, and how his views may influence efforts to protect public health and the…
sb admin | January 9, 2009During our holiday hiatus, the Washington Post published an article looking back at OSHA during the Bush years. R. Jeffrey Smith writes:
[During the Bush administration], political appointees ordered the withdrawal of dozens of workplace health regulations, slow-rolled others, and altered the reach of its warnings and rules in response to industry pressure.
The result is a legacy of unregulation common to several health-protection agencies under Bush: From 2001 to the end of 2007, OSHA officials issued 86 percent fewer rules or regulations termed economically significant by the Office of…
sb admin | January 9, 2009Senator Edward Kennedy's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP Committee) held a hearing today to consider the nomination of Hilda Solis to be the nation's 25 Secretary of Labor. A webcast replay of the proceedings is available (here), as is a copy of Ms. Solis' written testimony. Here are a few highlights from her written remarks:
"The Labor Department just assure that American workers get the pay they have earned working in safe, healthy and fair workplaces. The Labor Department is charged with assuring compliance with dozens of employment laws. I believe…
sb admin | January 8, 2009Mr. Martimiano Torres, 37, was finishing up his 12-hour shift at about 5:30 am at the  Hallett Materials aggregate operation on Oct 1, 2008, when his pick-up truck curved off the road into a dredge pond. He drowned. The surface mine is located in Porter, Texas, outside of Houston, and owned by the multi-national corporation CRH.   MSHA released today its investigation report of the fatality involving Mr. Torres, asserting:
"...the accident occurred because the victim did not maintain control of the pickup truck";Â and
"Root Cause: the victim did not maintain control of the…
sb admin | January 7, 2009What do the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the Migrant Clinicians Network, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and 65 other organizations have in common? They've all endorsed the "Protecting Workers on the Job Agenda", a collaborative product of the American Public Health Association's Occupational Health and Safety Section and the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. The platform, released just in time for Labor Secretary-Designee Hilda Solis' confirmation hearing on Friday, outlines seven goals for improving our nationâs programs for preventing work-…
sb admin | January 6, 2009by Carole Bass (posted with permission from the On-Line Journalism Project, New Haven (CT) Independent)
Black lung disease used to be nearly as common as dirty fingernails among American coal miners. Roughly a third of them got the fatal illness. Starting in the 1970s, a federal law slashed that rate by 90 percent. But now it's back.
When Anita Wolfe and her co-workers discovered that the rate of black lung has doubled among U.S. coal miners in recent years, she took it personally. The daughter and granddaughter of West Virginia miners, Wolfe watched her father die of black lung disease…
sb admin | January 5, 2009Like her boss President G.W. Bush, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is offering her version of Labor Department history over the last 8 years. She posts prominently on the Department's homepage her "accomplishing milestones for American workers" including the claim:Â
"the current workplace injury and illness rate is at its lowest level in history having dropped 21% since 2002."
I suppose she and those at OSHA who drank the Kool-Aid choose to ignore the empirical evidence that suggests that this substantial decline "corresponds directly with changes in OSHA recordkeeping rules."Â Â […
sb admin | December 22, 2008President-elect Obama's news release on Sunday, Dec 21 said that VP-elect Joe Biden will be chairing a new White House Taskforce on Working Families.  I was surprised, but thrilled to see that workplace safety standards are part of this group's charge.  I am not kidding. Seriously, it says, "Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety."   Very cool.  I'm encouraged to know that the Obama-Biden team recognizes that what happens in the workplace does NOT stay in the workplace, but affects the heart, soul and health of working families. Whether it's the physical toll…
sb admin | December 19, 2008The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is thrilled by President-elect Obama's selection of Cong. Hilda Solis to serve as Secretary of Labor.
"Rep. Solis has been a leader in fighting for healthier communities, a cleaner environment, and economic justice for the most vulnerable in society. We believe that she will have the vision and political will to oversee a much needed overhaul of the nation's system for ensuring worker safety, which has failed to provide adequate protections to America's workers over the past eight years." (See full News Release)
There…
sb admin | December 19, 2008Weâve written before (here, here, and here) about National Guard troops exposed to an orange, sand-like dust at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq. Soldiers complained of health problems, including burning eyes, nosebleeds, and rashes. They were told that the orange dust was just a mild irritant â but it turned out to be the carcinogen sodium dichromate. The plant was shut down in 2003.
Now, the Indianapolis Star reports that 16 Indiana Guardsmen have filed a federal lawsuit accusing KBR, the company in charge of rebuilding the plant, of concealing the risk that the troops faced.
In…
sb admin | December 17, 2008In late November, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments on the two petitions for review of OSHA's health standard on hexavalent chromium (CrVI).  The transcript of the proceeding (52-page PDF) reveal that these judges did their homework. They knew the history and content of the final rule.  I was heartened to read one judge interrupt the Labor Department attorney with:
"Well, one thing that concerns me [about this final rule] is the requirement for notifying employees at the action level of the risk. And I'm not certain why…
sb admin | December 16, 2008[See update at end of post]
The OMB website which lists those rules currently under review by OIRA has a new item today: something from OSHA on Diacetyl.  (See this screenshot for the OMB listing, and this reference to the rule on Regs.gov.) You'll recall this is the butter-flavoring agent associated with severe respiratory disease in exposed workers, including individuals working in microwave popcorn plants.
It's difficult to determine from either of these screenshots exactly what kind of document OMB/OIRA is reviewing for OSHA. The only hint I see is the "prerule"…
sb admin | December 15, 2008OSHA issued a good final rule on Friday, Dec 12 designed to clarify employers' duty to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and train employees on the proper use of the PPE (link here). It will take effect on January 12, 2009. The rule was necessary because of some down-right awful and/or inconsistent OSH Review Commission decisions, and an adverse majority ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It was one particular outrageous case of an employer's disregard for workers' health that was the straw that finally broke OSHA's back. More on that below; …
sb admin | December 11, 2008TO:  All worker health and safety advocates, seekers of justice and protections for working people, and friends of healthy work environments: Â
The American Public Health Association's (APHA) OHS Section has not, and will not, forget about the deadly and disabling illnesses caused by workplace exposure to the butter flavoring agent diacetyl. Our solidarity with workers is demonstrated through our scientific research, teaching and policy practice, and advocacy---and most recently, in song.Â
The "Popcorn Lung Roadhouse Blues," with lyrics written and sung by Luis Vazquez,…
sb admin | December 10, 2008In Brooklyn, a bus driver refused to give a transfer to a man who hadnât paid â and the man responded by stabbing the bus driver to death. Edwin Thomas, 46, had an 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter. He was driving the B46 route when he was killed. In the New York Times, Robert D. McFadden says this about violence against New York bus drivers:
Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, said it was the first killing of a city bus driver since Oct. 10, 1981, when Harvey Shild, 28, operating a B44 bus in Brooklyn, was shot to death under remarkably similar…
sb admin | December 10, 2008After my post yesterday "More Delays on OSHA's Overdue Crane Rule,"  I thought more about why OSHA's decision to extend the comment period really perturbs me. Â
Some might say "we're in the middle of the Bush-to-Obama Transition. It's not like an additional 45 days will make that much difference." Here's why it does make a difference:
If OSHA had stuck to its original Dec 8 due date for public comments, the work reviewing and reconciling the public input would now be underway.  Over the next six weeks before Mr. Obama is sworn in, the OSHA staff could have assembled a list…