Occupational Health & Safety
sb admin | August 1, 2008Kane at Osha Underground has posted an insightful, deservedly hostile response to OSHA Administrator Ed Foulke's testimony at Tuesday's Senate hearing on combustible dust explosions.
In response to Foulke's insistence that "The fatalities and injuries at the Port Wentworth sugar refinery probably could have been prevented, had Imperial Sugar complied with existing OSHA standards on housekeeping and other OSHA requirements", Kane notes:
Ed's insistence that [National Fire Protection Association] codes on explosive dust do not need to be adopted is defying the experience of the industry that…
sb admin | August 1, 2008Celeste was the first to draw attention to the Department of Labor's proposed risk-assessment rule, whose title appeared suddenly on the Office of Management and Budget website without having been published first in DOL's regulatory agenda, and she's continued to track the news about it and explain how it threatens worker health. Yesterday, Congressman George Miller introduced a bill (which also has 11 cosponsors) to block the rule, stating, "This Congress will not stand for the further weakening of worker protections, particularly when itâs done in secretâas this Administration heads out of…
sb admin | July 31, 2008Congressman George Miller (D-CA) along with 11 co-sponsors introduced a bill yesterday (H.R. 6660) to prohibit Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao from issuing her proposed rule mandating new requirements for health risk assessments prepared by MSHA and OSHA. The Congressman's statement accompanying the bill makes plain his disdain for the Bush Administration's 7 1/2 year assualt on workers' rights and protections.  Miller promises:
"This Congress will not stand for the further weakening of worker protections, particularly when it's done in secret--as this Administration heads out of town."Â…
sb admin | July 30, 2008In the Wausau Daily Herald, Gannett Wisconsin Media reports that an explosion at the Packaging Corp of America in Bradley, Wisconsin killed three workers: Randy Hoegger, 55, and Steve Voermans, 52, both of Tomahawk, and Donald Snyder, 46, of Merrill.
According to a company human resources manager, the men were performing maintenance on top of a recycling fiber storage tank when it exploded. The cause of the blast is under investigation.
In other news:
Pantagraph (Illinois): Ironworker Josh M. Dawe, 33, was killed when a crane collapsed on the basket in which he was working at a construction…
sb admin | July 29, 2008Thanks to Carol Leonnig at the Washington Post and her confidential sources, we can see the true measure of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao's disrespect for U.S. workers, embodied in her proposed rule on risk assessement. I blogged first about this "secret rule" on July 8, with follow-ups (here and here), but the challenge for advocates of worker rights and public health is articulating why this issue is important: How might it affect protections for my husband's health, my sister's health, my neighbor's health.
My friend and retired Department of Labor colleague Pete Galvin, who just…
sb admin | July 28, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
As we noted two days ago in a post about how the produce industry is now interested in tracking regulations they previously opposed after being whacked with billions of dollars in losses because of a protracted Salmonella outbreak whose source was presumably produce but couldn't be easily traced, the sugar industry is now also interested in OSHA regulations for combustible dusts. All it took was the deaths of 13 workers at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah, Georgia. That and the thrid largest fine in OSHA history, $8.7 million. The facts suggest…
sb admin | July 25, 2008"Destined to fail." That is the troubling conclusion of MSHA's 12-month investigation of the coal mine disaster at the Crandall Canyon coal mine that killed nine men last August. They were: Kerry Allred, 58; Dale Black, 48; Don Erickson, 50; MSHA's Gary Jensen, 53; Brandon Kimber, 29; Luis Hernandez, 23; Brandon Phillips, 24; Carlos Payan, 22; and Manuel Sanchez, 41. It is terribly disturbing to realize how these families' lives would so be different today, had someone made the conclusion "destined to fail" before these engineering plans were being develop and approved.
Mike Gorrell…
sb admin | July 24, 2008Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have strongly urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to withdraw the proposed rule on occupational health risk assessment which her Department submitted to OMB on July 7.  Their letter says:
"we are deeply disappointed that the Department of Labor is working to slip through a rule that may have a profound negative impact on the health and safety of American workers."
The Secretary's policy chief, Leon R. Sequeira, and press officer, David James, dismiss claims that this rulemaking is being done in "secret." (Never mind…
sb admin | July 23, 2008Following The Pump Handle's July 8 post "Secret Rule on OSHA Risk Assessment" (and July 10 here), a front-page Washington Post article provides more details on the Bush Administration's plan to "reform" the system used by OSHA and MSHA to assess workers' risk from toxic materials. In U.S. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin Rules, Post reporter Carol Leonnig obtained a draft copy of the proposed rule, which would direct the risk assessment assumptions and procedures used by MSHA and OSHA when developing regulations to protect workers health hazards. Leonnig reports that Bush…
sb admin | July 19, 2008The Houston Chronicle has reporters covering the devastating crane collapse which occurred on Friday, July 18 at 1:20 pm local time. The crane was owned and operated by Deep South Crane & Rigging which has official statements posted on the company website.  The Chronicle reports that the four deceased and the seven injured workers were contractor-employees at the LyondellBasell refinery.  The fatally injured workers were  Marion "Scooter" Hubert Odom III, 41; John D. Henry, 33; Daniel "DJ" Lee Johnson, 30; and Rocky Dale Strength, 30.Â
A related story in the Chronicle…
sb admin | July 16, 2008The Central Valley Business Times reports on another apparent farmworker heat death:
Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez, 48, a father of two and employed by a farm labor contractor, died in Selma Thursday afternoon after working all day in a Reedley vineyard.
Mr. Ramiro complained being sick from the heat and was taken home by his foreman. He passed out there and was dead on arrival at a local hospital, the UFW says.
This brings the Central Valleyâs farmworker heat-death toll to four for the summer. Abdon Felix, 42, was working in a vineyard; Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, 17, was working in another…
sb admin | July 15, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
What's a little sodium dichromate, anyway? So it's a known human carcinogen and can do a lot of other nasty things. No big deal. Not for Iraq war contractor, KBR, anyway. At the time KBR was a subsidiary of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton. So when they were given a lucrative contract to clean up and safeguard Iraqi oilfields after the Bush Mission was Accomplished in 2003, they told the soldiers and workers that the chemical, used as an antirust agent and then strewn all over the oil facilities,…
sb admin | July 14, 2008Starting in August, roughly 17,000 employees of the state of Utah will switch from five-day to four-day workweeks. Essential services like police and public schools wonât be affected, but an estimated 1,000 of the stateâs 3,000 buildings will be closed on Fridays. The state expects to save $3 million, and affected workers will pay for fewer commutes, which have gotten pricier as gas prices have risen.
Itâs a smart way to save energy, but how will workers deal with the new 7am â 6pm workdays? For anyone doing a job thatâs very demanding, either mentally or physically, longer workdays might…
sb admin | July 10, 2008Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Congressman George Miller (D-CA) are demanding answers from Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on her mysterious proposed rule on risk assessment.  I reported earlier this week that the Secretary's office sent a proposed rule to OMB on July 7 entitled "Requirements for DOL Agencies' Assessment of Occupational Health Risks." Although this proposal might sound innocuous, past experience at so-called "regulatory reform" of risk assessment tells us to be very wary of plans to "improve" the risk assessment process. In layman's terms, it means workers'…
sb admin | July 9, 2008In the New York Times, David Tuller describes the on-the-job violence nurses face, and efforts to make their workplaces safer:Â
Three years ago, an enraged patient â 6 feet 4 inches and 275 pounds â smacked another patient, bit a health aide, threatened to kill [psychiatric nurse Karen] Coughlin and lunged forward to strike her. He was restrained before he reached her.Â
âI really thought that my life was in danger,â she said. âIt was probably the most terrified Iâve been in my 24 years of nursing.âÂ
In recent years, nurses like Ms. Coughlin have sounded the alarm about workplace violence,…
sb admin | July 8, 2008I found the most curious item on OMB OIRA's webpage today, and my paranoia about end-of-the-term mischief by the Bush Administration kicked into high gear. The item is listed as a proposed rule submitted to OIRA for review on July 7 titled:
"Requirements for DOL Agencies' Assessment of Occupational Health Risks" (RIN: 1290-AA23)Â (Link here, select DOL) or (screenshot)
Whenever the term risk assessment is uttered by the Bush Admininstration, I know they are up to no good. Recall their earlier effort at a major overhaul of agency's risk assessment procedures; this was a proposal that…
sb admin | July 4, 2008The United Steelworkers, North America's largest private sector union with 1.2 million members, and Unite the Union, the largest labor organization in the United Kingdom and Ireland with 2 million members, signed an agreement to create the world's first global union called Workers Uniting. The announcement was made at the USW's 2008 Constitutional Convention.
In a video news release featuring USW Int'l President Leo W. Gerard and Unite the Union's General Secretary Derek Simpson, the two trade unionists describe the power of the two institutions coming together with a shared "vision of a…
sb admin | July 3, 2008The Chipotle restaurant chain's corporate philosophy is "Food with Integrity":
"we can always do better in terms of the food we buy. And ...we mean better in every sense of the word---better tasting, coming from better sources, better for the environment, better for the animals, and better for the farmers who raise the animals and grow the produce."
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and others wants to know how Chiptole's philosophy translates to the farmworkers who pick the tomatoes used in the restaurant's burritos.Â
CIW offers this snapshot into the workday of a Florida …
sb admin | July 2, 2008For PBS, Bill Moyersâ Journal and Exposé: Americaâs Investigative Reports went to the Charlotte Observer to learn more about their excellent series on injured poultry workers, The Cruelest Cuts. Reporters actually stumbled on the story in 2005, when they were reporting on avian influenza. Poultry workers told them that, yes, an avian flu outbreak would hurt them, but they were more concerned about on-the-job injuries. Observer reporters started filing Freedom of Information Act requests for more than 800 inspection files, looking at publicly available records, and tracking down workers who'd…
sb admin | July 2, 2008The State of Rhode Island's efforts, which began in 1999, to force lead-paint manufacturers to clean-up contaminated homes received a mortal blow when the State's Supreme Court reversed a lower court's 2006 decision. (Full decision from 7/1/2008)  This early ruling was a result of the longest civil jury trial in Rhode Island history, with the decision going against the defendants Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries, and Millennium Holdings, holding them liable for creating a public nuisance by selling lead-based paint.Â
The R.I. Supreme Court said:
"We do not mean to minimize the severity…