Occupational Health & Safety
lborkowski | May 18, 2010Although most of us are focusing on BP because of the oil rig explosion and gushing well in the Gulf, it's also important to consider the company's safety record at its refineries. Because I keep track of workplace disasters, I knew that BP had earned the distinction of having the worst refinery death toll in the industry. Until I read the results of a new Center for Public Integrity investigation, though, I had no idea just how much worse BP's refineries are compared to their industry peers.
Jim Morris and MB Pell report that when the worst safety violations identified by inspectors over the…
lborkowski | May 16, 2010We're delighted to welcome journalist Elizabeth Grossman as a new writer for The Pump Handle. Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health, and other books. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Scientific American, Salon, The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Grist, and the Huffington Post. Chasing Molecules was chosen by Booklist as one of the Top 10 Science & Technology Books of 2009 and won a 2010 Gold…
cmonforton | May 15, 2010John M. Peters, MD, DSc, MPH, the Hastings Professor of Preventive Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine passed away at age 75 on May 6 from pancreatic cancer. The School's dean, Carmen A. Puliafito, said
"one of the legends of environmental and occupational health. His work took him from the freeways of Los Angeles to the tire factories of Akron to the granite mines of Vermont. The focus of his research was to investigate and quantify environmental risks and then contribute to strategies to mitigate that risk in the workplace and in everyday life."
My dear friend and former deputy…
cmonforton | May 15, 2010I can't keep up with Ken Ward Jr.'s coverage of the trouble brewing, battle, strong difference of opinion between Secretary Hilda Solis/MSHA Asst. Secretary Joe Main and the United Mine Workers (UMWA), family members of deceased coal miners and journalists about the Department of Labor's decision to have closed-door interviews of witnesses as part of the Massey Upper Big Branch disaster investigation.
Lest you think the press and blogs are the only way to take the pulse of the public, think again. Mr. Dennis O'Dell, the current UMWA H&S director, is sharing his disgust about MSHA's…
cmonforton | May 15, 2010Beginning in December 2006, I've written five blog post commenting on the content of the Department of Labor's (DOL) regulatory agenda for worker health and safety rulemakings. Most of my posts [see links below] have criticized the Labor Secretary and senior OSHA and MSHA staff for failing to offer a bold vision for progressive worker protections. Now that the Obama & Solis team have been on board for more than a year, I'm not willing to cut them any slack for being newbies. Regrettably, as with the Bush/Chao agendas, my posts today will question rather than compliment the OSHA team (…
cmonforton | May 15, 2010Last week Labor Secretary Solis released in the Federal Register on April 26, 2010, her Spring 2010 regulatory agenda for the Department, including her rulemaking priorities for MSHA and OSHA. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act it was published on time in April, in contrast to her Fall 2009 agenda which was six weeks late.
This document is described by the Secretary as a:
"...listing of all the regulations it expects to have under active consideration for promulgation, proposal, or review during the coming 1-year period. The focus of all departmental regulatory activity will be…
cmonforton | May 15, 2010A month after the March 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, a small team of public health experts prepared a report identifying the potential health hazards and making strong recommendations for protective action for the cleanup workers. The team included Eula Bingham, PhD (former OSHA chief), Matt Gillen (now at NIOSH), Mark Catlin (now at SIEU), Don Elisburg, and Jane Seegal. The team had been assembled at the invitation of the Alaska Commissioner of Labor after concerns were expressed
"about whether the cleanup workers' health and safety have been adequately protected. Among other things,…
lborkowski | May 15, 2010Elizabeth Weise's USA Today article about potential health effects of the Gulf oil disaster and its cleanup notes that we don't have a whole lot of research to draw on about this kind of exposure. Residents and cleanup workers alike will be exposed both to the oil itself and to cleanup agents, particularly the chemical dispersants.
Weise references a Korean study conducted following the 2007 sinking of an oil tanker of the Korean coast, which found that residents had an increased risk of headaches, nauseau, and neurological and respiratory symptoms. With regards to the dispersants, she…
sb admin | September 25, 2009by Ken Ward, Jr., cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog
During a public hearing last night in Georgia, the federal Chemical Safety Board tried to answer critics who complained the board had backed off its strong recommendation that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) write new rules to protect workers nationwide from the dangers of explosive dust. In approving a final report on the disastrous explosion that killed 14 workers at and Imperial Sugar refinery, board members unanimously added this language as a recommendation to OSHA:
Proceed…
sb admin | September 24, 2009WTOC in Savannah, GA is reporting that Georgia's Senators, Republicans Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, are calling on OSHA to issue a regulation to protect workers from the dangers related to combustible dust. WTOC says that the Senators were brief today by officials of the Chemical Safety Board on the causes of the Feb. 7, 2008, explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery that killed 14 people and left others with serious burns and injuries.
Senator Isakson said:
"I believe we should embrace the findings of the Chemical Safety Board, including the recommendation that OSHA…
sb admin | September 24, 2009by Ken Ward, Jr., cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is scheduled to release the findings of its investigation into the terrible explosion that killed 14 workers at a Georgia sugar refinery in February 2008.
Itâs another big test for the CSB, which has been under fire recently. Organized labor harshly criticized the board for backing off a strong recommendation on the need for OSHA and EPA to write new rules to prevent accidents involving highly reactive chemicals. The board refused to support its own staffâs call for a safety…
sb admin | September 23, 2009We long been hearing moans and groans from many in the business community about how OSHA rules stiffle the economy, or worse, from employers who insist that following OSHA rules will cost them jobs.  The sad truth is the exact opposite: failing to meet basic health and safety standards can shutter the doors of your business.  Just look at what was announced by ConAgra last week about their Slim Jim plant near Garner, NC, the site of massive explosion in June that killed three workers.  They are laying-off more than 300 workers. In the words of the USW's Jim Frederick:
"The…
sb admin | September 23, 2009Bans on smoking in restaurants and other public places don't just make nonsmokers' working and dining experiences more enjoyable, they also protect our health. Reducing exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke reduces the risk of heart attacks - and the places that have enacted bans are finding that the health improvements are significant. Two new studies that pool results from several communities that enacted such bans found that a year after the bans took effect, heart attack rates were at least 17% lower.
The Wall Street Journal's Ron Winslow describes the studies and their limitations, and he…
sb admin | September 21, 2009Members of Congress George Miller (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Corrine Brown (D-FL)  sent a letter to acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab urging the agency to expand its process safety management standard (PSM) to address reactive chemicals. Reactives are highly unstable that can violently generate heat, energy and/or toxic gases when they come into contact with air, water or other substances.   The letter reminds Mr. Barab that members of Congress wrote to his predecessor, Asst. Secretary Foulke, in January 2008 asking him to begin the rulemaking process to address the hazards…
sb admin | September 17, 2009Today, Andrew Schneider at Cold Truth tells us that way back in April, acting Surgeon General Steven Galson issued a long-awaited statement about the dangers of asbestos, a statement urged for years by asbestos-disease victims, their families and public health advocates.  Galson's action was so stealth (intentionally, perhaps?) that the individuals who had been calling for it were never even notified--Not the Senators who marshalled a  Senate Resolution urging a Surgeon General's warning or the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) who supported the congressional…
sb admin | September 16, 2009The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its report and recommendations yesterday on the December 19, 2007 explosion at the T2 laboratory in Jacksonville, Florida. The violent explosion took the lives of four individuals: Charles Budds Bolchoz, 48, Karey Renard Henry, 35, Parish Lamar Ashley36, and Robert Scott Gallagher, 49. The CSB compared to blast to one from 1,400 pounds of TNT, and one "capable of flinging a one-ton chunk of the steel reactor onto a set of railroad tracks, then into a building 400 feet from where it had stood."  At the time of the disaster, the company…
sb admin | September 15, 2009The Associated Press is reporting that urgent recommendations proposed by the Chemical Safety Board's (CSB) hands-on investigators of the ConAgra Slim Jim factory explosion, which killed three workers in June 2009, were rejected by the CSB's Board. The AP story reads:
"Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that staff members of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board wanted the agency to immediately distribute a safety bulletin and recommendations, saying the June blast exposed weaknesses in nationwide standards. The staff proposed guidelines that would require more controls on how…
sb admin | September 14, 2009 Earlier this month, the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center (ACLC) sent a petition to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) urging the agency to revise its regulations on respirable coal mine dust to better protect mine workers from pneumoconiosis and other disabling respiratory ailments.  The ACLC's motto is "Working for Justice in the Appalachian Coalfields."  The ACLC's petition is just the latest in a long list of calls on MSHA to put an end to black lung and silicosis---diseases that are 100% preventable.  I personally believe there should be no higher regulatory…
sb admin | September 10, 2009The Mountain Eagle ( Whitesburg, KY) reports that coal miner Scott Howard was retaliated against by management at Arch Coal's Cumberland River Coal Co. mine for his safety complaints and other protected activity. In "Judge Agrees with finding that miner was being punished," the paper notes that an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (MSHRC) ordered that Mr. Howard be reinstated. The ALJ's decision comes about two weeks after a hearing on the matter.
Here's the full text of the 9/9/09 article from The Mountain Eagle:
An…
sb admin | September 9, 2009A Washington Post editorial entitled "Down and Out" (9/8/09) alerted me to a new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) on working conditions experienced by low-wage workers in the U.S. The 72-page report "Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers:  Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America's cities," describes the results of a survey conducted in 2008 of more than 4,300 workers employed in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, and their experience with wage-and-hour violations, and retaliation for attempting to organize or pointing out safety problems.
Among the …