Confined Space @ TPH
sb admin | May 2, 2007John Browne, BPâs CEO has abruptly resigned over revelations about his sex life. For quite some time, Houston Chronicle's business columnist Loren Steffy has been writing about Browne and the safety debacle known as BP. Steffy's comments on Browneâs resignation are priceless:
Let me see if I've got this right. BP's Texas City refinery blows up, killing 15 people. It's later determined that a primary cause was the company's desire to save money by scrimping on safety. That year, the company's chief executive, John Browne, got a raise.
A year later, a BP pipeline in Alaska, corroded from years…
sb admin | April 30, 2007By David Michaels
All of a sudden, America has become acutely aware of the terrible lung disease caused by workplace exposure to artificial butter flavor. Last week, the failure of OSHA to do anything in response to the outbreak of cases across the country was the subject of several powerful newspaper articles (including a front page story and editorial in the New York Times) and hearings in the House and Senate. In addition, the obstructive lung disease cases in the flavor industry were discussed in an alarming article in CDCâs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The article reported that…
sb admin | April 27, 2007By David Michaels
Following up on a powerful indictment of OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl and other hazards published two days ago in the New York Times, todayâs edition of the newspaper has a scathing editorial on the demise of OSHA under the Bush Administration. The editorial writers particularly go after OSHA Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke, whom they refer to as âone of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues.â
The problem goes beyond the actions (or inactions) of one anti-regulatory zealot â OSHA has been beaten down and handcuffed for so long, even well-…
sb admin | April 26, 2007By David Michaels
On April 26, 2002, exactly five years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the risk of a terrible and sometime fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in microwave popcorn workers. The report appeared in the CDC's widely-disseminated Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Since then, dozens of workers at factories where artificial butter flavors are produced, mixed or applied have become sick, and at least three workers have died. Others are awaiting lung transplants.
By coincidence, today CDC has issued a new report in MMWR about…
sb admin | April 25, 2007OSHA's failure to keep up with today's workplace hazards is the subject of two Congressional hearings and one New York Times article this week (see our post on the topic, too). Senator Kennedy is set to introduce new legislation, called the Protect America's Workers Act, tomorrow; earlier this week, Senator Patty Murray held a hearing and introduced a bill on domestic violence in the workplace.
Also on the subject of workplace hazards and Capitol Hill, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization has posted a short video featuring John Thayer, supervisor of the crew of workers who were…
sb admin | April 25, 2007By David Michaels
On the front page of todayâs New York Times, reporter Stephen Labaton highlights a trend that weâve been writing about here at The Pump Handle for some time: Occupational Safety and Health Administration has delayed or halted work on important standards for worker protection and put more of its energies into voluntary programs that let employers decide how far theyâre willing to go to protect workersâ health and lives.
Labatonâs article focuses on OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring that numerous scientific studies have linked to…
sb admin | April 24, 2007By Lee Friedman
The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), based on OSHA logs, indicates that occupational injuries and illnesses in the U.S. have steadily declined by 35.8% between 1992-2003. However, major changes to the OSHA recordkeeping standard occurred in 1995 and 2001. A recent study we published illustrates that the steep decline in reported occupational injuries and illnesses during the past 10 years in the U.S. workforce is an artifact resulting from changes to the recordkeeping rules and regulations
rather than an improvement in workplace safety.
In February…
sb admin | April 24, 2007By David Michaels
As regular readers of this blog know, worker health advocates have been pushing for regulation of diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring chemical thatâs been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, a terrible, sometimes fatal lung disease.
Today, in anticipation of two Congressional hearings and a major newspaper article due out tomorrow, OSHA has announced that it will take its first steps to protect diacetyl-exposed workers. Unfortunately, OSHA has announced it will ignore thousands of workplaces where workers are being exposed with no protection, and will focus only on…
sb admin | April 23, 2007Two congressional committees, one in the House the other in the Senate will hold oversight hearings this week on OSHA. The timing is quite fitting: Saturday, April 28 is Worker Memorial Day.Â
On Tuesday, April 24, the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Education and Labor Committee's hearing "Have OSHA Standards Kept Up with Workplace Hazards?" will feature testimony from OSHA Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke. On Thursday, April 26, the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety will conduct a hearing entitled "Is OSHA Working for Working People?"
Witnesses…
sb admin | April 23, 2007Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 117 workplace deaths, including the following:
Vernon Christensen, a 72-year-old resident of Stayton, Oregon, was crushed by a reversing logging truck while working as a flagger on a logging road.
Lina Shearer, a 43-year-old resident of Clay City, Kentucky, was killed when a piece of machinery broke in the manufacturing plant where she worked and struck her in the neck.
Lt. Corey Dahlem, a 45-year-old police officer from Gainesville, Florida, died after…
sb admin | April 18, 2007Â Among the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech were five faculty members:
James Bishop
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin Granata
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Librescu was a 76 year-old Holocaust survivor who blocked his classroom doorway from the gunman while his students leapt to freedom.
The Roanoke Times has profiles of all the victims here.
LA Times: Amvac Chemical Corp. has settled a lawsuit alleging that its pesticide DBCP caused agricultural workers in Nicaragua to become sterile; the company will pay $300,000 to 13 former banana plantation workers.
Standard-Examiner: It is…
sb admin | April 15, 2007By David Michaels
Weâve been wondering why the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration still hasnât issued new rules reducing worker exposure to silica, beryllium, diacetyl and other well-documented but under-regulated hazards. Now we understand. OSHA is hard at work, using its limited resources to weaken existing standards.
OSHA has just issued a proposed rule modifying the rules that are supposed to protect workers engaged in the manufacture, storage, sale, transportation, handling, and use of explosives. This modification was done at request of the munitions industry, which…
sb admin | April 13, 2007The owners-operators of the Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1, Ralph Napier, Connie G. Napier, and John D. North, were assessed a $336,000 penalty by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for violations related to the May 20, 2006 explosion and death of five coal miners. Press reports indicate that MSHA officials met for four hours yesterday with family members of the deceased miners, along with Paul Ledford, the only survivor from the crew, to discuss their investigation, findings and the citations issued to the mine operator.Â
The Louisville Courier-Journalâs Ralph Dunlop…
sb admin | April 11, 2007If you only read one article on the issue of occupational health and safety this week, make it Ray Ring's "Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields," published last week in High Country News. "The core of the story can be classified as straightforward investigative coup," editor John Mecklin explains in an accompanying piece . "In six months of amassing documents, scouring lawsuits and prodding databases, Ring was able to map out the general scope of a little-noticed reality: Since the start of the second Bush presidency, as skyrocketing energy prices drove a wild increase in oil and…
sb admin | April 11, 2007By David Michaels
The Bush Administration has gone all out to make sure states play no role in setting health and safety standards. This is not surprising, of course, since many states are far more committed to health and safety protection than the folks who currently run the federal government. Yesterday I talked about California's efforts to protect workers from diacetyl. Todayâs example: chemical plant safety.
Some weeks ago, I wrote about how Vice President Cheneyâs son-in-law Philip Perry orchestrated a backroom maneuver that cut EPA out of chemical plant safety. Perry made sure…
sb admin | April 10, 2007By David Michaels
Labor health advocates in California are supporting legislation banning diacetyl, the flavoring chemical implicated in numerous cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating lung disease, among workers in the food industry. The ban may never occur, but by demanding it we are getting closer to protecting workers and the public from this very toxic material.
The threat of a ban has forced the food industry into an unusual position - industry representatives are now praising the California OSHA program, which is also moving to issue regulations limiting exposure to the…
sb admin | April 9, 2007In continuation of the tradition begun at Jordan Barabâs Confined Space blog, Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. (It was posted on April 1; my apologies for not linking to it sooner.) It gives short writeups on 59 workplace deaths, including the following:
Daniel Contreras, a 32-year-old construction worker from Oxnard, California, died when the trench he was working in collapsed.
Jeffrey Lowenthal, 53, was fatally shot during a robbery in the Maywood, Illinois hardware store he managed.
Anthony Shands, a 72-year-old…
sb admin | April 4, 2007This week, health advocates are drawing attention to some important safety hazards.
The Senate just passed a resolution proclaiming the first week in April National Asbestos Awarenss Week and urging the Surgeon General, as a public health issue, to warn and educate people that asbestos exposure may be hazardous to their health. Meanwhile, EPA released a new pamphlet educating mechanics about how to minimize their asbestos exposure (many cars' brake systems contain asbestos), and the Minnesota Health Department announced that it will study whether an unexpected number of mesothelioma…
sb admin | April 4, 2007By David Michaels
The Wall Street Journal (sub required) is reporting that the White House will bypass the Senate confirmation process and announce later today that President Bush has given a recess appointment to Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The office, part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), oversees all of the Administrationâs regulatory and especially anti-regulatory activities. (Some background on President Bushâs efforts to get her confirmed are here and here).
Public Citizen and OMB Watch have compiled an extensive collection…
sb admin | March 30, 2007By David Michaels
Every month, more workers exposed to artificial butter flavor are being diagnosed with lung disease. Last July, two unions, with the help of the Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy Project, petitioned OSHA for an Emergency Temporary Standards to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl, a flavoring chemical that causes bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Nine months have passed, several workers have died, and, as far as I can tell, OSHA has done NOTHING. This continues to be a case study in regulatory failure.
Meanwhile, things are…