government
egrossman | February 25, 2014On January 9, 2014 a leak was reported at Freedom Industries’ storage tanks on the banks of the Elk River just upstream of a water treatment plant that services tap water for about 300,000 residents in and around Charleston, West Virginia. The resulting release of at least 10,000 gallons of toxic chemicals used to clean coal contaminated the community’s water supply, making it unfit for use. More than a month later, it remains unclear if this water is truly safe to drink and what the health consequences of exposure to these chemicals may be.
But this is far from the only disastrous toxic…
cmonforton | February 24, 2014The Hartford Courant’s Dave Altimari and Matthew Kauffman reported recently on what has transpired since the February 2010 explosion at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, CT. Six workers were killed in the incident at the new, nearly-completed electric power plant. The Courant story’s headline says a lot: “4 Years After Deadly Plant Explosion: No Ban On Gas Blows, Fines Slashed.” It’s a must-read piece.
The technical cause of the accident was Keystone Construction’s decision to use highly-pressurized natural gas to clean fine construction debris from the pipe structures. The term used to…
cmonforton | February 17, 2014There’s a good reason---a lifesaving reason---that machine guards and light curtains are installed on equipment. To prevent workers from being maimed or killed in them. But those safeguards weren't in place last August at the Wire Mesh Sales manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida. The consequence was a 32 year old worker lost his life. The man was retrieving a metal bar that had fallen inside a piece of machinery. OSHA reports,
“he was struck and killed by a part that feeds the wire into the machine's welding area.”
How did it happen?
“The light curtain that would have automatically…
kkrisberg | February 14, 2014Most people infected with mosquito-borne West Nile virus don’t experience any symptoms at all. However, the tiny percentage of cases that do end up in the hospital total hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs and lost productivity.
Published earlier this week in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, researchers estimated that the cumulative cost of reported hospitalized cases of West Nile virus between 1999 and 2012 totaled $778 million. The study is the first to examine the economic burden of West Nile on infected patients who were hospitalized with conditions such…
cmonforton | February 13, 2014The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have offered their endorsement to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) regulatory efforts to reduce workers’ exposure to respirable silica. It’s a hazard that can cause the disabling lung disease silicosis, as well as lung cancer and other disorders. The ACS’s and AMA’s official statements of support are found in the agency's rulemaking for its proposed silica rule. The docket closed on Tuesday for this phase of the rulemaking process.
The AMA’s support comes in the form of a policy statement…
kkrisberg | February 7, 2014Higher insurance rates don’t mean people stop seeking care at publically funded health centers, found a recent study of family planning clinics in Massachusetts. The findings speak to serious concerns within public health circles that policy-makers may point to higher insurance rates as a justification to cut critical public health funding.
Published in the Jan. 24 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the study examines trends among uninsured patients seeking care at Massachusetts health centers that receive Title X Family Planning Program funds. (The federal Title X program…
cmonforton | February 6, 2014[June 25, 2014: Updated below]
Seven workers were fatally injured in April 2010 from an explosion and fire at a Tesoro petroleum refinery in Washington State. They were: Daniel J. Aldridge, 50; Matthew C. Bowen, 31; Darrin J. Hoines, 43; Matt Gumbel, 34; Lew Charles Janz, 41; Kathryn Powell, 29; and Donna Van Dreumel, 36. You won’t find their names listed, however, in the official investigation report prepared by the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB).
Earlier this week, TPH contributor Lizzie Grossman reported on the CSB’s recent public meeting at which it released a draft of its investigation…
egrossman | February 4, 2014The city of Anacortes – population about 16,000 – sits on shores of Fidalgo Island, the eastern-most island in the San Juan archipelago, the string of islands clustered off the northwest coast of Washington State. Located at the western end of Skagit County, known regionally for its agriculture, Anacortes’ petrochemical plants – Tesoro and Shell refineries and a chemical plant recently acquired by the Canadian company ChemTrade -- together make up the city’s largest single-industry employer. On a rainy January evening, smoke plumes from these plants that sit near the water’s edge merge with…
cmonforton | February 3, 2014MSHA recently issued two fatality investigation reports for incidents at quarries involving haulage trucks. Both incidents, one in Missouri and the other in Pennsylvania, occurred in September 2013. The reports caught my attention in particular because both include this statement:
“Additionally, he was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the haul truck which contributed to the severity of his injuries.”
What do we know, or not know, about why some workers fail to wear their seatbelts?
First, here are a few details about the fatalities:
One involved a 1980 Caterpillar 773B haul truck…
kkrisberg | January 31, 2014In a first-of-its-kind study, a researcher has estimated that the health-related economic savings of removing bisphenol A from our food supply is a whopping $1.74 billion annually. And that’s a conservative estimate.
“This study is a case in point of the economic burden borne by society due to the failure to regulate environmental chemicals in a proactive way,” study author Leonardo Trasande told me.
With evidence mounting that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure is a serious health risk, Trasande, an associate professor in pediatrics, environmental medicine and health policy at New York University,…
cmonforton | January 28, 2014Several recent newspaper editorials have gotten under USDA’s skin. Editors at the Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News Observer, Bellingham (WA) Herald and Gaston (NC) Gazette are skeptical that the USDA’s plan to “modernize” the poultry slaughter inspection process is a wise move.
In “Fed's proposed shift in poultry rules troubling,” the Charlotte Observer’s editorial board wrote this on January 20:
“Warning horns should blast full force around the Obama administration approving a change in federal law to replace most federal inspectors on poultry processing lines with company workers who would…
kkrisberg | January 24, 2014The day I spoke with Idaho minimum wage activist Anne Nesse, it was quite cold in her hometown of Coeur d'Alene — 29 degrees, to be exact. The harsh winters came up more than once during our conversation about low wages in the northwestern state.
“We’re at the bottom,” Nesse said. “We have the lowest wages in the whole nation and we’re cold up here.”
Staying warm should hardly be a luxury in a state notorious for its cold winters, but keeping up with basic necessities can be a challenge for Idaho’s working families. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Idaho leads the nation in the…
cmonforton | January 23, 2014[Updated (April 9, 2015) below]
[Updated (July 21, 2014) below]
That’s a common phrase offered by government officials after workers are killed on-the-job. It’s the sentiment shared yesterday by Labor Secretary Tom Perez in response to the January 20 incident that claimed the lives of Keith Everett, 53 and David Ball, 47. The worksite, International Nutrition, manufactures additives for livestock and poultry feed.
Perez’s exact remark was:
“There are many questions yet to be answered about what caused this disaster, but I am confident that the answers provided by federal, state and local…
cmonforton | January 20, 2014It was one of those weeks when two seemingly unrelated topics crossed my desk. Only later did it strike me that they were connected. Both involved toxic substances and what we know about their adverse health effects. One concerned the contaminated water supply in West Virginia. The other involved a commentary by attorney Steve Wodka about a newish revision to OSHA’s chemical right-to-know regulation.
The drinking water emergency in West Virginia---thousands of gallons of MCHM (methylcyclohexanemethanol) which flowed into the water supply--- has focused attention on the inadequacy of the key…
egrossman | January 16, 2014In 2012, a Frontline and Pro Publica investigation of the cell (or wireless) tower industry found that between 2003 and 2010 the average fatality rate for the US tower industry was more than 10 times greater than that of the construction industry. A January 6, 2014 story by KUOW reporter John Ryan about the death in January 2013 of tower climber Mike Rongey in Mount Vernon, Washington is a reminder that the industry remains extremely dangerous. It is also a reminder that the employers of the workers killed in these incidents may only be fined minimally and that the wireless service providers…
kkrisberg | January 14, 2014It’s probably my earliest public health memory — the image of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and his grandfatherly beard on the television warning my elementary school self about the dangers of smoking. He was the first doctor I knew by name.
But while Koop may be the surgeon general that people of my generation most likely associate with the public health movement to reduce smoking, he wasn’t the first to speak out against tobacco. Koop was carrying on a legacy that began decades before with the nation’s ninth surgeon general, Luther Terry, who on Jan. 11, 1964, released the first surgeon…
Let's not call it a "spill," thousands of gallons of MCHM in water supply of 300,000 West Virginians
cmonforton | January 13, 2014When a glass of milk tips over, that's a spill. When thousands of gallons of a chemical used to separate coal from rock, flows into the source water of 300,000 West Virginia residents, it is not a spill, it's a public health emergency.
Headlines from this weekend's Charleston (WV) Gazette describe the story on the ground:
"State ignored plan for tougher chemical oversight" (here)
"Wasn't there a plan?" (here)
"What is 'Crude MCHM'? Few know" (here)
"Crisis pulls back curtain on water threats" (here)
"Water being given out in many locations, updated list" (here)
"Without water, soup…
cmonforton | January 9, 2014[Updates below]
Angel Garcia, 28 is being remembered as a son who dearly loved his family, and basketball. He died last month while working on a $450 million renovation project at Texas A&M University’s football stadium. Garcia, a construction worker who was employed by Lindamood Demolition, fell four stories and died shortly thereafter.
OSHA is conducting a post-fatality inspection at the scene and of Lindamood’s operations. Just last year, the firm was subject to an inspection by OSHA at a demolition site in Wichita Falls, TX. The company received a citation and $4,900 penalty for a…
kkrisberg | January 8, 2014With so much pressure on the Affordable Care Act to immediately live up to high expectations, and with opponents who seem gleeful at the news that Americans are having a hard time signing up for affordable health care, it’s reassuring to read that the health reform law can readily take a few blows and keep moving forward.
In a December analysis released by the Urban Institute, authors Linda Blumberg and John Holahan write that the “Affordable Care Act is unlikely to suffer long-term damage even if the marketplaces experience low enrollment and some adverse selection in the first year.” (…
cmonforton | January 7, 2014(Update below (1/10/2014))
Obama’s “regulatory tsunami” is the term used by the US Chamber of Commerce to describe an expected flood of new regulations. Their message to the business community is that the floodgates will soon open and all of them will drown in red tape. The Chamber’s president Tom Donohue said it last month in a speech, and he’s been saying it for years. But him saying it, and us seeing it are two different things.
In the worker health and safety world, there’s been no tsunami. For Obama’s first five years, it’s been more like a slow drip at the kitchen faucet. Remember, this…