Occupational Health & Safety
sb admin | March 19, 2009Weâve written before about Alexandra Berzonâs fantastic Las Vegas Sun articles on construction-site dangers, so we were delighted to learn that the paper has won the 2009 Roy W. Howard public service reporting award from the Scripps Howard Foundation for its coverage of Las Vegas construction deaths.
In all, Berzon wrote 53 stories and the Sun carried 21 editorials related to construction safety. The Sun began its reporting in response to a horrific death toll among construction workers: nine had died on Las Vegas Strip construction site during a 16-month period. The coverage explored how the…
sb admin | March 18, 2009University of California Berkeley's Health Research for Action is calling on OSHA to revise its occupational health standard on lead, which is now 30 years old. In a report entitled "Indecent Exposure: Lead Puts Workers and Families at Risk," the authors describe the adverse health effects of lead in workers with blood-lead levels of 5-10 ug/dL---a fraction of OSHA's medical removal trigger of 60 ug/dL. They note:
"...extensive research has shown that lead causes significant health problems in adults at much lower levels. Cumulative exposure to low to moderate levels of lead has been…
sb admin | March 17, 2009With an announcement today in the Federal Register, Labor Secretary Solis' OSHA is moving in a new direction to address occupational exposure to diacetyl. The butter-flavoring agent is associated with respiratory harm, including bronchiolitis obliterans. Just six days ago, Ronald Kuiper, 69, a former American Pop Corn Co succumbed to the disease.
OSHA announced it is withdrawing the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) issued on January 21, 2009, and planning to convene a panel of small business representatives (SERs) as required by SBREFA.* With this move, OSHA may be …
sb admin | March 10, 2009On March 17, OSHA will begin the public hearing phase of its rulemaking to improve workplace safety standards for cranes and derricks used in construction.  More than 30 individuals or organizations have notified OSHA of their intent to give testimony at the hearing, including several who also participated in the year-long negotiated rulemaking (NegReg) process used in 2003-2004 to develop the proposed rule.  The NegReg members' participation at the public hearing may be a blessing, or it might make me wonder whether "consensus" is ever possible under the current OSH regulatory…
sb admin | March 4, 2009Or is it: what wouldn't we know without investigative journalist Andrew Schneider??? Would the town Libby, Montana mean anything? How about the words Zonolite, Diacetyl, or GRAS?  These terms and places are familiar because of Andy Schneider, the Pulitzer Prize (and other) award winning reporter, who's an integral part of our public health community. Schneider's worked recently for papers in Seattle, St. Louis, Baltimore and back to Seattle, but no matter where his feet land, stellar investigations follow.        Â
Right now, it appears that Schneider is staked out…
sb admin | March 2, 2009Cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog Â
by Ken Ward, Jr.
Bayer CropScience hasnât said yet if it will challenge $143,000 in fines issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 13 serious and 2 repeat violations related to the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two Institute plant workers. But a vigorous court fight seems likely, given who Bayer has hired as its lawyer in the matter.Â
Robert C. Gombar is well known for his efforts to help companies that butt heads with OSHA over allegations that they werenât complying with workplace…
sb admin | March 2, 2009Updated below (3/17/09)
OMB Director Peter Orszag announced in a Federal Register notice last week that his office is interested in hearing your views on the federal regulatory process. The Request for Comments on new Executive Order on Federal Regulatory Review comes 4-weeks after President Obama's January 30 memorandum to department and agency heads (previous post here) announcing his plan to issue a new E.O., noting "...the principles governing regulation in generalâshould be revisited.â You better hurry if you want to share your views with OMB on a new E.O.; the comment…
sb admin | February 27, 2009The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision this week on legal challenges to OSHA's 2006 rule to protect workers from exposure to hexavalent chromium. In the simpliest terms, Public Citizen's Health Research Group and the Steelworkers argued that OSHA's rule was not protective enough, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) argued that they should be exempt from it. The three-judge panel, which included retired U.S. Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Connor, rejected all but one of the petitioners' claims, deferring largely to OSHA's authority. Circuit Judge…
cmonforton | February 26, 2009By Celeste Monforton
Last August 28, Bill Oxley and Barry Withrow, 45 were working at the Bayer CropScience’s plant in Institute, WV when a massive fireball erupted in an area where methomyl for the carbamate insecticide thiodicarb (Larvin) is produced. Mr. Withrow was killed immediately in the blast, and Mr. Oxley died after 43 days in a Pittsburgh burn center. When I first wrote about this disaster, in "911 operator: “I’m only allowed to tell you we have an emergency," I focused on reporting by the Charleston-Gazette's Ken Ward, who used excerpts from the 911 emergency call transcripts…
sb admin | February 26, 2009By a vote of 80-17, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed Hilda Solis as the 25th Secretary of Labor. The Department of Laborâs website has posted photos of her arrival at agency headquarters.
Solis served in Congress from 2001-2009, representing Californiaâs 32nd Congressional District. DOLâs press release notes that she authored the Green Jobs Act, which provides funding for green-collar job training for veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth, and members of families living below 200% of the federal poverty line. She also served for several years in California government, âbecoming the first…
sb admin | February 24, 2009(Updated 3/2/09 below)
The U.S. economy is in the tank----the national unemployment rate for January was 7.6% and 46 States are facing serious budget shortfalls-----but these hard times are NO EXCUSE to roll-back worker safety protections.  Yet, that is exactly what some Kentucky lawmakers are proposing for workers employed at small underground coal mines.
Just two years ago, Kentucky adopted new rules requiring all underground coal mining operations to have at least two workers on-site (at least one underground) who are also trained as emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The…
sb admin | February 18, 2009Last week, Salon.com published a disturbing in-depth series, called âComing Home,â about the tragic consequences of the Armyâs inability to provide adequate care to soldiers returning from Iraq. Focusing on just one base â Fort Carson, Colorado â they found the following:
Salon put together a sample of 25 suicides, prescription overdoses and murders among soldiers at Colorado's Fort Carson since 2004. Intensive study of 10 of those cases exposed a pattern of preventable deaths, meaning a suicide or murder might have been avoided if the Army had better handled the predictable, well-known…
sb admin | February 16, 2009When the U.S. Senate reconvenes on Tuesday, February 24th, I've learned that they will move ahead with a vote on the nomination of Hilda Solis to serve as 25th Secretary of Labor.  This confirmation vote will take place 35 days following President Obama's inauguration.  If Mrs. Solis can secure the confirmation of our Asst. Secretaries for MSHA and OSHA in her first 35 days, I for one will be satisfied.
sb admin | February 12, 2009Linda Reinstein is a mother and grandmother.  Linda Reinstein is an asbestos-disease widow. Her husband Alan Reinstein, 67, died on May 22, 2006 from mesothelioma. Like her husband, Linda Reinstein is a fighter, an organizer, an activist.  Following Alan Reinstein's mesothelioma diagnosis in 2003, they founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) which is now entering its sixth year. The organization strives to serve as the "voice of the victims."
Next month, the ADAO will host its 5th annual Asbestos Awareness Day conference (March 27-29, Manhattan Beach,…
sb admin | February 10, 2009As weâve noted before, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was the federal entity that responded most appropriately to respiratory problems among workers exposed to the butter-flavoring chemical diacetyl. They evaluated the hazards at workplaces using diacetyl and recommended steps to reduce exposures; as affected workers were probably sad to learn, though, NIOSH doesnât have the power to set standards for workplace hazards. OSHA has that responsibility, but its progress on the diacetyl issue has been disappointing, to say the least.
NIOSH does have one important power:…
sb admin | February 10, 2009Cross-posted from CPR Blog, by Rena Steinzor
Weâve written a great deal about Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor who is expected to get the nod to be the âregulatory czarâ for the Obama Administration.  In a nutshell, our concern is that Sunstein will stifle the efforts of health, safety, and environmental protection agencies to struggle to their feet after eight long years of evisceration by the Bush Administrationâs regulatory czars, John Graham, and his protégé, Susan Dudley.
But, we got to thinking. Just because the 30-year tradition of regulatory czars is to kill regulations…
sb admin | February 3, 2009President Obama issued an order on Jan 30 signaling his desire to improve the manner in which the Office of Management and Budget reviews federal agencies' regulatory initiatives. In his Memorandum to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, the President noted:
"For well over two decades, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the OMB has reviewed Federal regulations. ...The fundamental principles and structures governing contemporary regulatory review were set out in Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993.  A great deal has been learned since that time.…
sb admin | February 2, 2009I had high hopes that a new Secretary of Labor would hit the ground running on Jan. 20. I had visions of bright beams of light and positive energy radiating from the Department's Frances Perkins building, as an Obama crew under Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' leadership worked to restore DOL agencies' dedication to workers.  I was ready to start watching DOL's employees get back to their mission of ensuring that federal labor laws are enforced vigorously and enhanced appropriately to meet the conditions faced by workers today.Â
Instead, day after day, I read on the DOL website:
"A new…
sb admin | February 2, 2009By Myra L. Karstadt, Ph.D
Whether you Twitter, IM, text or use plain old-fashioned English, hereâs an important message for occupational health professionals: material safety data sheets (MSDSs) are deeply flawed, and something has to be done to change that situation. Steps are needed to improve the sheets and to ensure that the major OSHA toxic chemicals hazard communication program, the HazCom (hazard communication) standard (OSHA 1983 and amendments), which is based on those flawed sheets, is altered to provide workers with useful information that they control concerning the toxic…
sb admin | January 26, 2009Legal scholars with the Center for Progressive Reform issued today "The Choices Facing Cass Sunstein," an assessment of the writings of President Obama's nominee for the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The authors reviewed Prof. Sunstein's writing and report specifically on his staunch support for cost-benefit analysis and the "centralization of authority over regulatory decisionmaking in OIRA." They conclude:
"The Obama Administration has a unique opportunity to fix the [regulatory] system, by recognizing the failings of cost-benefit. But Cass Sunstein…