Occupational Health & Safety
sb admin | July 20, 2009Last fall, Mr. Rosaulino Montano, 46, a worker on my campus at the George Washington University, died when he fell seven stories while installing windows on a new $75 million residence hall. Mr. Montano was an employee of Engineered Construction Products,  and because his work-related death occurred at my place of employment, I was particularly interested in tracking the OSHA investigation until the case was closed. I wondered whether there was a "controlling employer," such as a general contractor or even if my employer, GWU, and whether they had some responsibility for safety at…
sb admin | July 17, 2009Last week, the Small Business Advocacy Review Panel submitted its "Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act" (SBREFA) Panel Report to acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab, on the draft proposed rule on worker exposure to diacetyl. The 259-page document summarizes (and attaches) the comments of 16 "small entity representa-tives" (SERs) who would be potentially affected by the rule.  SER participants included Weaver Popcorn, American Popcorn and Tee Lee Popcorn, (see full list on page 40 of the report) and the issues seem to fall out naturally among three types of employers: the…
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 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 | 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 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 19, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
Swine flu infection of health care workers (or as CDC refers to them, health care personnel or HCP) was of interest early in the pre-pandemic phase for at last two reasons. One was the obvious goal of estimating the risk to front line workers and devising best practices for their protection. Another was the belief, reinforced by the SARS outbreak in 2003, that spread to HCP was an early warning that the virus was easily transmissible from person to person. SARS is a disease where patients are most infectious in the later stages when they are…
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 11, 2009Less than two weeks ago, Dr. George Tiller, one of the few health providers who would still perform late-term abortions, was murdered. (Judith Warnerâs column on Dr. Tiller's important work is well worth a read.) Police arrested Scott Roeder of Kansas City, and the office manager of a Kansas City womenâs clinic says that Roeder matches the description of a man found vandalizing the clinic on two recent occasions, including the day before Tillerâs murder. The office manager filed police reports after both incidents and gave details to the FBI, including the suspectâs license plate number.…
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 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…
sb admin | June 1, 2009by Kas
Introduction
The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) coordinates Federal R&D activities related to nanotechnology. Currently, the NNI involves the activities of 25 Federal agencies, 13 of which have budgets planned for 2010. Four of these agencies have specific responsibilities to address environmental, health, and safety (EHS) nanotechnology research needs as outlined by the 2008 NNI publication Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials. The four agencies are: USEPA, NIOSH, NIST, and NIH (thatâs the Environmental Protection…
sb admin | May 24, 2009By Ellen Smith
The nation may have a new President with grand ideas about the Freedom of Information Act, but letâs be clear: at MSHA, nothing regarding FOIAÂ has changed.
The same people are still in charge of FOIA, offering ridiculous redactions and refusing to divulge information which, previous to 2002, was openly shared with the public.  The latest redaction battle comes from Tony Oppegard, a minersâ rights advocate.  (See Oppegard's response to MSHA's FOIA denial.)  Oppegard has filed 135 cases on behalf of miners, but in his latest case, MSHA is denying Oppegard information…
sb admin | May 22, 2009By Bill Borwegen
While the news coming out of California this week has focused on the budget crisis, something else of historic importance in advancing worker protections was achieved by Californiaâs healthcare workers. Yesterday in a 6-0 vote, the CalOSHA Standards Board adopted the nationâs first aerosol transmissible diseases standard.
In 1986 when unions petitioned OSHA for a bloodborne pathogens standard to protect against HIV and Hepatitis, the American Dental Association told us that if dentists wore gloves, everyone would be scared and that no one would go to the dentist.  Since…
sb admin | May 20, 2009Two months ago, I applauded OSHA for announcing that its SBREFA panel meeting on a draft diacetyl proposed rule would be open to the public. Today, I feel schnookered. OSHA hosted its teleconference-meeting yesterday (5/19) and today (5/20) with specially-selected small employers, but failed to provide meaningful notice to allow the public to participate. Is a meeting really "public" if you don't tell the public? Or is it really public if you only tell a select few? Â
 Not in my book.
In my March 17 post OSHA's new direction on diacetyl, I noticed that OSHA's Federal Register…