Confined Space @ TPH
sb admin | July 15, 2009Updated below (7/18/09)
What does Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee have to do with a COSH group, specifically the Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health (ConnectiCOSH)?
Well, one of the witnesses invited to testify by the minority (Republican) members of the Committee is New Haven, CT fire fighter, Frank Ricci. He was the lead plaintiff in a discrimination case, ruled upon by a three-judge panel which included judge Sotomayor, and overturned in a 5-4 decision last month by the U.S. Supreme…
sb admin | July 15, 2009Last year, coal miner Scott Howard of Letcher County, Kentucky sued the Mine Safety and Health Administration for failing to "promulgate a respirable dust regulation that will eliminate respiratory illness caused by work in coal mines." Howard alleged that this failure left him in unsafe working conditions; he filed his suit after new studies found bluck lung disease increasing among Appalachian miners. As Ken Ward Jr. reports in the Charleston Gazette, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now ruled that "Howard could not successfully bring the lawsuit because he had not yet petitioned…
sb admin | July 6, 2009The White House announced today 10 nominations for senior administration positions, including Mr. Joe Main to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health (MSHA).   The biography provided with the announcement notes that he:
"... began working in coal mines in 1967 and quickly became an advocate for miners safety as a union safety committeeman as well as serving in various local union positions in the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). He was employed by the UMWA in 1974 as a Special Assistant to the International President, and joined the UMWA Safety Division…
sb admin | July 6, 2009Last week, OSHA's area office in Wilmington issued citations to Valero Energy Corp's Delaware City oil refinery, including four repeat* and nine serious violations of process safety management rules. Because Valero boasts that its "process safety program instills safety and reliabiity at every refinery," how is it that they have been found with REPEAT violations of OSHA's process safety management standard. A repeat violation means that Valero was cited previously for the same or substantially similar condition in the last three years.Â
OSHA conducted its inspection of the Valero…
sb admin | July 6, 2009The Washington Postâs Pamela Constable reports on brickmakers in Pakistan, where a worker might toil from 4:30am to sundown, produce 1,200 bricks, and earn $3.50 for the dayâs labor.
Brickmakers toil near the bottom of Pakistan's economic and social ladder, forever at the mercy of heat, dirt, human greed and official indifference. By law, they cannot be compelled to work or be kept in bondage; in practice, the great majority are bound to the kilns by debt. The work is seasonal and families move often, but if they leave one kiln for another, their debt is transferred to the new owner. If they…
sb admin | July 3, 2009At a Queens, New York waste transfer station, investigators read the signs of a tragic story: Harel Dahan, 23, descended a ladder into a stinking well that caught runoff water from the recycling yard, and was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. His father, Shlomo Dahan, 49, went down after him but was also overcome by the fumes. Rene Francisco Rivas, 52, tried to help the two men but met the same fate. A firefighter wearing protective clothing and enclosed breathing apparatus retrieved the three workersâ bodies from the well.
Shlomo Dahanâs company, S. Dahan Piping and Heating Corporation,…
sb admin | June 30, 2009Two recent studies add the knowledge about the risks associated with on-the-job exposure to pesticides. University of Ottowa researchers analyzed 35 studies on parental occupational exposure to pesticides and childhood leukemia, and found that children whose mothers were exposed to pesticides at work while pregnant have twice the risk of developing childhood leukemia.
Researchers at Franceâs national institute for health research have helped confirm the link between occupational exposures to pesticides and Parkinsonâs disease, which has been found in other recent studies, too. They found…
sb admin | June 29, 2009We are approaching day 160 of the Obama Administration, yet the Solicitor of Labor is not yet in place,  neither are the Assistant Secretaries for most other DOL agencies, including Employment Training Administration, MSHA, OSHA, VETS and Women's Bureau.  Attorney Patricia M. Smith was nominated by President Obama on March 19 to serve as the Solicitor, and her confirmation hearing on May 7 seemed quite tame. I'd not imagined that I'd be writing this blog post 8 weeks after that Senate proceeding, with her nomination stuck in Committee. The slow pace of the Solicitor of Labor's…
sb admin | June 23, 2009I've often suspected that some federal agencies apply very broad definitions to the exemptions provided under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Now, thanks to one diligent journalist I can judge for myself whether the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is an offender.Â
Ellen Smith of Mine Safety and Health News requested records from MSHA and the Solicitor's Office (SOL) about its legal determination that the haulage road on which coal-truck drive Chad Cook, 25, died, was under MSHA jurisdication. MSHA had made a gross error in 2005-2006 when it concluded that the…
sb admin | June 22, 2009Friday (6/19) was the final day for participants from OSHA's public hearing on its proposed cranes and derricks rule to submit comments to the agency; by my count, seven organizations responded. The Edison Electric Institute  offered the lengthiest document (94 pages), and it was peppered with provocative language, such as
"...these and many other vexing questions arise from OSHAâs convulated proposed regulatory scheme."
the rule "...would de-stabilize settled principles [and] would be highly ill-advised....could stimulate more litigation...and [create] an avalanche of state and…
sb admin | June 22, 2009In Texas, a construction worker dies every two and a half days. In the Texas Observer, Melissa Del Bosque explains that itâs because of âlax enforcement of labor and safety regulations, too many overtime hours without rest breaks and a lack of safety training and equipment.â The Austin-based nonprofit Workers Defense Project, which helps construction workers seek restitution for injuries, spent three months visiting construction sites to interview workers about these issues. Del Bosque summarizes their findings:
Researchers found that Austin construction workersâwhether theyâre legal…
sb admin | June 19, 2009As we learned this week, Cal/OSHA and the OSH Appeals Board are in a state of disarray.  A daring group of state employees have raised their voices in protest (see "CalOSHA inspectors demand change") reminding us that dysfunction in their agency can translate into more injuries and illnesses for California's workers. The collective action of these inspectors and staff is vital. So too is the sole voice of individuals who share their experience and insight.Â
Meet Jack Oudiz, who joined Cal/OSHA in 1985.  Mr. Oudiz is retiring from Cal/OSHA and shares the following:
My…
sb admin | June 17, 2009A group of 47 H&S inspectors, supervisors and managers from California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) sent a pointed letter to the three-person OSH Appeals Board demanding they "cease and desist" their destructive practices. This Appeals Board is equivalent to the OSH and MSH Review Commissions; it exists because California is one of the 23 States that operates its own OSHA program. Â
The CalOSHA employees wrote, we:
 "strongly protest Board policies and practices that have significantly undermined our ability to do our job of protecting the lives, health and safety of California's workers."
It's…
sb admin | June 17, 2009The 1,050 State public health experts who make up the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) is urging the States and CDC to adopt a new case definition for adults of elevated blood-lead levels (BLL) and to require laboratories to report ALL blood lead test results to NIOSH's Adult Blood Lead and Epidemiology (ABLES) Program. CSTE recommends the definition of an "elevated BLL" change from 25 ug/dl and greater, to 10 ug/dl and greater.Â
The CSTE's policy statement is grounded on the growing body of evidence linking "low" levels of lead in adults with decreased …
sb admin | June 17, 2009The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. reports that one of West Virginia's oldest and largest law firms, Jackson Kelly PLLC, is being sued for hiding evidence of coal miners' black lung disease. Ward writes:
"Earlier this year, an investigative panel of the state's Lawyer Disciplinary Board filed misconduct charges against Douglas A. Smoot. Smoot hid a key portion of coal miner Elmer Daugherty's medical examination report during a 2001 case, a board investigative panel alleged. A hearing on those allegations is scheduled to start June 18. And two lawsuits filed last month in Raleigh…
sb admin | June 15, 2009Home health workers who care for the elderly and disabled are an indispensable part of our healthcare workforce â but the Bush Administrationâs Department of Labor decided that they shouldnât be covered by the same wage and hour laws that protect most workers. The Associated Pressâs Sam Hananel explains that the administration based this determination on their interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that was amended in 1974 to exempt babysitters and companions to the elderly and sick. Earlier this week, a group of 15 Democratic Senators, headed by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, urged…
sb admin | June 9, 2009Updated below (6/13/09)
The Associated Press and other news sources are reporting on an explosion today at a meat processing facility in Garner, NC. Four workers are missing, at least 41 are injured, including several with very severe burns. One worker reports:
"I was picking up a piece of meat off the line and I felt it, the percussion [force of explosion] in my chest.  One of the guys I was working with got blown back, he flew backwards."
A local news source WRAL.com reports the explosion:
"...caved in parts of the roof, sparked fires and caused an ammonia leak. ...Many [workers]…
sb admin | June 8, 2009As the public health community mourns the loss of a great scientist and colleague, The Pump Handle would like to share some of what has been written about Kate Mahaffey. Please leave your own remembrances in the comments section below.
"I have known Kathryn as a colleague for more than a decade, but most recently have been impressed with her steadfast scientific integrity while at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She always managed to honestly communicate scientific findings that while unpopular with some, were critically important to protecting public health.  ...Kathryn is a…
sb admin | June 5, 2009It is with deep sadness we inform you of the sudden passing of Kathyrn R Mahaffey, PhD.   Kate had an exceptional and diverse career, with appointments at FDA, NIOSH, NIEHS and EPA.  Most recently, Kate served as a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University School of Public Health.
Her husband, David Jacobs offers the following remembrance and tribute to her significant contributions to the public's health.  Information about a memorial service appears at the end of this post.
Kathryn R. Mahaffey passed away peacefully in her sleep June 2, 2009 after decades of…
sb admin | June 4, 2009Of the many disturbing and damaging policies instituted during the G.W. Bush Administration, high on my list is abuse of FOIA. It started with the post 9/11-Ashcroft memo, which was institutionalized into downstream agencies, and reconfigured and rejustified over Mr. Bush's remaining 7 years.  In the public interests, one journalist sought to find out how the Labor Department's FOIA practices were "evolving" under G.W. Bush's non-disclosure philosophy.Â
In March 2005, Mine Safety and Health News (MSHN) received an anonymous tip, urging the editor, Ellen Smith, to request…