Confined Space @ TPH
sb admin | June 20, 2007Following up on their investigative series on conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Washington Postâs Dana Priest and Anne Hull have written a series of wrenching articles on veterans returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder. Bureaucratic confusion and a shortage of mental health resources leave many PTSD sufferers with little hope, and the problem is expected to worsen as fighting continues. Visit the series home;Â find information and resources on PTSD; or read individual articles:
The War Inside: Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological…
sb admin | June 20, 2007âAs fire fighters, we know the risks of answering the call, but it does not lessen our pain when the worst happens,â said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the Int'l Association of Fire Fighters.
Nine fire fighters, aged 27 to 56, died on June 18 battling a blaze at a furniture warehouse in Charleston, SC. The city's fire chief said the men died "doing what they loved to do -- fight fires."
The nine brave public servants who lost their lives in the line of duty are:
Captain William "Billy" Hutchinson, 48
Captain Theodore M. "Mike" Benke, 49
Captain Louis Mulkey, 34
Engineer…
sb admin | June 19, 2007Several members of the U.S. House and Senate introduced bills today to strengthen mine safety and health protections.  A  statement issued by Congressman George Miller (D-CA) says the bill builds upon the legislation passed in June 2006 called the MINER Act.Â
The House bills are HR 2768 and HR 2769  with co-sponsors of these House bills are: Bishop, Timothy (D-NY), Chandler, Ben (D-KY); Hare, Phil (D-IL); Holt, Rush (D-NJ); Kucinich, Dennis (D-OH); Mollohan, Alan B. (D-WV); Murtha, John (D-PA); Payne, Donald M. (D-NJ); Rahall, Nick J., II (D-WV); Sarbanes, John P. (D-MD); Woolsey,…
sb admin | June 15, 2007MSHA issued a news release yesterday announcing that eight mine operators have been put on notice for potential enforcement under the "pattern of violation" provisions of the Mine Act.  MSHA's release does not list the names of the mining operations, but the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward is reporting that two of the mines are metal/non-metal operations and six are coal mines, including three in West Virginia.
In his written statement, MSHA' Assistant Secretary Richard Stickler said:
"The purpose of these letters is to put mine operators on notice about the repercussions they face if…
sb admin | June 13, 2007As David Michaels reported earlier today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue standards for occupational exposure to diacetyl (an interim standard within 90 days and a final standard within two years). This artificial butter-flavoring substance has been linked to severe lung disease in workers exposed to it in airborne form. Workers from flavoring, microwave popcorn, and other food manufacturers have become ill, many after only a year or two of exposure.
As with other pressing issues, Californiaâs legislature has decided not to wait for the…
sb admin | June 13, 2007By David Michaels
The simple, powerful statement on the website of FEMA, The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, summarizing the trade association's position:
The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States supports H.R.2693, legislation to assure workplace safety in flavor manufacturing.
Thank you FEMA. Read their press release here.
David Michaels heads the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) and is Professor and Associate Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, the George Washington…
sb admin | June 13, 2007By David Michaels
Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of the many workplace hazards that OSHA has failed to address, including silica, beryllium, and, of course, diacetyl â the artificial butter-flavoring chemical thatâs associated with severe lung disease in workers at flavoring, food, and microwave popcorn plants. (Click here for our past posts on the subject.)
Today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue a standard protecting workers exposed to diacetyl. We fully support the bill, but the fact that it is needed at all highlights…
sb admin | June 12, 2007The Houston Chronicle is reporting that over the next two years, OSHA will be sending 300 federal inspectors to petroleum refineries to evaluate operators processes for handling hazardous chemicals. This announcement comes after the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued its comprehensive investigation report of the BP Texas City refinery explosion which took the lives of 15 people and injured 180 other individuals. An earlier story by the Chronicle noted OSHA officials' displeasure with the CSB's criticism.
In the CSB's report of the BP Texas City explosion, the investigators noted:
âOSHA…
sb admin | June 11, 2007Tomorrow (June 12th), the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing entitled âAn Examination of the Health Effects of Asbestos and Methods of Mitigating Such Impacts.â The first witness listed is Senator Patty Murray, who for the past several years has been pushing to ban asbestos in the U.S.; as chair of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety (of the Committee on Health Education, Labor, and Pensions), she held a hearing on asbestos on March 1st.
Tomorrowâs hearing includes a total of nine witnesses:
Panel I
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Panel II…
sb admin | June 8, 2007Richard Stickler, the Asst. Secretary for MSHA, announced a new educational campaign to increase awareness about black lung disease. This latest initiative comes in response to surveillance data showing newly diagnosed cases of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) among miners working in Lee County and Wise County, Virginia.  Stickler's "Control the Dust/Prevent Black Lung" campaign, which includes a personal letter sent to each and every underground coal mine operator in the country, is heavy on hand-holding with mine operators.  My question:
Mr. Stickler, where's the…
sb admin | June 6, 2007Breaking news: Another contract worker has been killed on the job at BPâs Texas City refinery â the site of the deadly 2005 explosion that took 15 workersâ lives. The worker, whose name has not been released, was electrocuted while working on an idle unit that was being reconditioned.
Stress on the job has been in the news lately. Troops serving in Iraq and in other violent conflicts face intense stress daily, and the pressure doesnât just disappear when they return home. Suicides among veterans whoâve recently returned from Iraq have galvanized some families and veteransâ groups to demand…
sb admin | June 5, 2007OSHA issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) asking for public input for a possible new safety regulation on mechanical power presses. The existing OSHA regulation is based on a 1971 standard issued by the American National Standards Institute. The ANPRM lists 37 specific questions, and the responses provided by commenters will help the agency decide whether and/or in what manner to proceed to proposing a new rule. In announcing the ANPRM, OSHA Asst. Secretary Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. said
"This standard has been around as long as OSHA. ...This effort will allow us to…
sb admin | June 4, 2007By Peter Dooley
The stories of injury and illness among workers at the Toyota Georgetown plant (reported in the Washington Post story this past week) remind us all about the plight of workers without representation in their workplace. Facing termination after an injury, being transferred to a less desirable job or being discriminated against for standing up for basic rights are daily occurrences in workplaces without unions or contracts to challenge a company's one-party system of management. Health and safety is the clearest example of how this lack of representation becomes an…
sb admin | June 4, 2007The editors at the Charleston Gazette and the Louisville Courier-Journal deserve a pat on the back for allowing their reporters to follow-up on worker safety and health stories.  Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette is still covering important matters related to MSHA and the Sago mine, more than 15 months after the terrible January 2, 2006 disaster.  In "MSHA citations detail Sago problems" (June 3) he describes 169 pages of citations released by MSHA because of a Freedom of Information Act request.  Likewise, the story by Ralph Dunlop at the Louisville Courier-Journal "Mine scrutiny…
sb admin | June 1, 2007Caution: Put down your fork before reading this post.
In a recent op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun, colleagues at Johns Hopkins University put in perspective the recent revelations about contaminated animal feed imported from China.Â
...we should be at least as concerned about the "business as usual" ingredients that are routinely fed to the animals we eat...[which are] produced within an industrial system reliant on feeds that include...chicken manure, factory wastes, plastics, and cyanuric acid---all deemed acceptable ingredients in feed for animals that end up on our dinner tables.…
sb admin | May 31, 2007"On January 11, 2006, my husband and best friend, Clyde Jones, was taken from me and the children, family, friends and community...  He went to work one morning for the City that he loved to a job that he loved.  He never came home."Â
These are the words of Casey Jones, yet another heart-broken wife left widowed by a preventable workplace disaster. Her nightmare began when her husband and two other men, working for the City of Daytona Beach at its waste management plant, were instructed to repair a damaged roof.   Mrs. Jones nightmare continued when she learned her husband---a…
sb admin | May 31, 2007Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 57 workplace deaths, including the following:
* David Kessler, Jr., a 27-year-old communications worker from Marysville, Washington, died of severe shock after coming into contact with an electrical wire at the Wild Waves water park.
* Melinda Morrell, 23, was fatally shot while working at the Check N' Go loan store in Waukegan, Illinois.
* Matthew Rouse, a 44-year-old construction worker from Jonesboro, Arkansas, died after falling from a forklift and then…
sb admin | May 30, 2007Manuel Roig-Franzia at the Washington Post reports that over the past six years, more than 30 journalists have been killed in Mexico, and countless more have been kidnapped. Grenades have been thrown into newspaper offices in Cancun, Hermosillo and Nuevo Laredo, and last week, a newspaper in Sonora announced that it was temporarily shutting down because of attacks and threats. The campaign of intimidation is attributed to the countryâs drug cartels, and it has made Mexico the second deadliest country in the world for journalists after Iraq.
In other news:
Orlando Sentinel: Casey Jones of…
sb admin | May 29, 2007By David Michaels
"The cooperation of ConAgra Foods and the EPA has yielded a comprehensive understanding of butter flavor emissions for consumers."
- Patricia Verduin, Senior Vice President Product Quality & Development, ConAgra Foods, Inc. in a November 29, 2004 letter to Paul Gilman, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA
As regular readers of this blog know, my colleagues and I at the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) have been pushing for regulation of occupational exposure to artificial butter flavoring, which has been…
sb admin | May 29, 2007By David Michaels
We've been writing for the past few months about U.S. regulatory agencies' failure to take meaningful action on diacetyl, a toxic component of artificial butter flavor, despite having been aware of its risks since at least the start of this decade. Now, mounting evidence suggests that some flavor manufacturers have known about diacetyl's association with severe lung disease and failed to take appropriate action for even longer - since the early 1990s, when diacetyl started killing workers in flavor plants. Disabled workers are currently suing flavor manufacturers over their…