Occupational health
revere | March 16, 2010If there's one thing I have a zero tolerance policy for, it's zero tolerance policies. We see too many incredibly stupid implementations of rigid and mandatory policies (including mandatory sentencing), no matter how reasonable they sound when first advocated, to believe there should ever be policies that provide absolutely no flexibility. The world is a messy place and not everything fits into pre-envisioned boxes.
The latest miscarriage of common sense and humane behavior comes to us from those good people at WalMart, who fired a long time, loyal and effective employee because he failed a…
revere | January 27, 2010Carl "Dan" Fish worked at Dupont's Belle plant for 32 years until last Saturday. That's the day he was sprayed in the face by phosgene gas. Sunday he was dead:
On Saturday, Fish was hit with a small cloud of phosgene that leaked from a line used to transfer phosgene from storage cylinders to a crop protection chemical production unit, plant officials said.
The fatal accident was the third in a series of four incidents at the Belle plant in just two days, including Friday's discovery of a 1,900-pound leak of toxic and flammable methyl chloride that went undetected for nearly a week. (Ken Ward…
revere | December 15, 2009There's a lot to like about Canada (their health care system, for starters) but there are some things that are less than praiseworthy (I understate), and towards the top of that list would have to be a hundred years of peddling, with government support, protection and outright lying, a product that brought the world one of the 20th century's greatest public health catastrophes: asbestos.
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that exists in two main categories, the serpentine minerals and amphibole group. Asbestos saw myriad uses and 90% of those used the serpentine form whose main representative is…
revere | December 4, 2009We've just received news that last night the Senate unanimously confirmed our friend and colleague, Dr. David Michaels as an Assistant Secretary of Labor -- specifically, Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He starts sometime next week.
Now the top two posts (Michaels as Director, Jordan Barab as Deputy) are held by strong advocates for the health and safety of workers. We will say here publicly what we said to David and Jordan privately. The way ahead will be difficult but we're all here to help. Just ask.
For those who want to more background, see our posts…
revere | November 12, 2009I don't know if the rest of the world laughs at the US, but I feel quite sure they at least shake their collective heads when they hear how we lack one of the most important non-pharmaceutical measures against pandemic flu: paid sick leave. Of course only those countries with a policy of paid sick leave would be shaking their heads. It turns out, though, that's just about everybody:
The United States is one of only five countries in the world without a national policy on paid sick leave, Dodd said.
"We're in the company - and I say this respectfully of these countries - of Lesotho, Liberia,…
revere | November 4, 2009It's being described as a "dramatic settlement" that will set a pattern for the nation. Let's hope so, because the agreement reached yesterday by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and hospital player Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) sounds like just what the doctor ordered. It covers 32 CHW facilities in California and Nevada, where CNA/NNOC represents 13,000 registered nurses.
Some details:
A centerpiece of the agreement is the creation of a new system-wide emergency task force, comprised of CNA/NNOC RNs and hospital representatives following…
revere | October 5, 2009In an earlier post I said I opposed mandatory vaccination for adults (but not for children), the one exception being for health care workers because they come in contact with people at high risk. My view then was that if you work in a health care institution and won't get vaccinated against flu, then you shouldn't come to work. Now I am re-evaluating my position as a result of some cogent and pragmatic comments from lawyer-bioethicist George Annas, professor of health law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public Health, and author of "The Rights of Patients." I know…
revere | September 15, 2009It was only a matter of time before the Right Wing smear machine set its sites on Obama's nominee for Director of OSHA, Dr. David Michaels. And now that time has come. David is a friend and colleague and his name is not a stranger here (and here, here, here and probably other posts as well). His name comes up not because he's my friend but because of his contributions to public health. His PhD is in occupational epidemiology and he's made important contributions in the area of popcorn workers lung (despite the humorous name, it is a deadly disease) and beryllium poisoning. He knows government…
revere | September 7, 2009Today is a federal holiday in the United States, the one we call "Labor Day." In most countries the labor movement celebrates on May 1 (May Day), but the origin of the US holiday ironically was in Canada where the fight for the nine-hour working day in the 1870s was celebrated at the end of summer. American labor leader Peter J. McGuire saw one of these celebrations and organized the first one in New York in 1882. After US soldiers and marshals put down a peaceful strike at the Pullman plant in bloody fashion in 1894, a fear of escalating labor unrest (the depression of 1893 was in full swing…
revere | July 30, 2009It seems our enthusiasm for Obama's nomination of epidemiologist David Michaels to be the next head of OSHA was noted over at the high profile Science Magazine blog, ScienceInsider by Jocelyn Kaiser. Ms. Kaiser is among an elite group of science reporters and she almost always gets things right. Recognizing the importance of this nomination is certainly getting things right. My only complaint is that after noting that we (and many others) are delighted by the choice, she also notes that Michaels "is not without critics." That would be fair enough if the "critics" were fair enough. You'll find…
revere | July 28, 2009Liz Borkowski at The Pump Handle has the scoop, but it's a win for every worker: our friend and epidemiologist colleague and member of the Pump Handle blogger team, Dr. David Michaels, has just been nominated by President Obama to be the next head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). This is the top health and safety position in the nation. One of his Deputy's is Jordan Barab, currently Acting Director, another long time health and safety professional who worked for the Chemical Safety Board and then the Congress and whose blog, Confined Space, was the premier health…
revere | June 9, 2009You learn a lot when you move from investigator to subject. I just heard about Drive-by Tylenol for day-care and school age kids. This is the practice of stuffing a couple of Tylenol down the little tyke's throat to bring down a fever just before entering the daycare center. The objective is to get 4 or 5 hours of work in before being called to school because your child has a fever. The underground lore about it includes not using any flavored Tylenol preps with red dye in them so that when the child urps up everthing after lunch there will be no tell-tale pink color savvy teachers will…
revere | May 18, 2009You probably have never heard of the Chemical Safety Board (unless you are a specialist in that area -- or you read The Pump Handle!). The CSB is an independent government agency that has a pretty low profile. Its mission, as its name implies, is to investigate industrial chemical accidents. The CSB is important enough, however, to have its Board members subject to Senate confirmation. CSB was authorized under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments but didn't become operational until 1998. Thus it has lived most of its life obscured in the shadow of the Bush administration. Now things have changed…
revere | April 23, 2009There are plenty of tragedies in this story about a plant manager sentenced to almost 6 years in prison for criminal conspiracy, covering up safety violations that killed a fork lift worker, and polluting the Delaware River. Fifty-nine year old John Prisque worked for Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co., a company that two years ago was convicted of 32 of 34 charges of polluting the Delaware with oil (its garbage caused an eight and half mile oil slick in 1999).
Prisque, who was the manager of the Phillipsburg plant, was convicted of making false statements to federal investigators after three…
revere | April 14, 2009If you have any of your clothes dry cleaned it's more than likely you are being exposed to a chlorinated solvent called PCE (for perchloroethylene aka perc aka tetrachloroethylene/tetrachloroethene). You may be lucky enough to also get some in your drinking water, too (which means you are also breathing it and absorbing it through your skin) -- because PCE is also one of the most prevalent groundwater contaminants in the US. It has some other nice properties: it causes cancer and birth defects and probably autoimmune disease. And it isn't needed to dry clean clothes. Other than that, no…
revere | April 11, 2009The Weekly Toll is at once inspiring and heartwrenching, a record of unending and unnecessary death in America's workplaces. We've posted about it a couple of times in years past (here, here; read some of the entries), but not for a while. The Weekly Toll appeared for some years on Jordan Barab's superb health and safety blog, Confined Space, and yesterday we brought you the wonderful news that Jordan has been selected as Deputy Assistant Secretary at OSHA (and in fact will be Acting OSHA Director starting next week). That's the good news. The bad news is that Death didn't decide to give it…
revere | April 10, 2009When we started Effect Measure almost four and half years ago, there were few public health oriented blogs. One notable exception -- and an exceptional exception it was -- was blogger Jordan Barab's Confined Space. It wasn't just a health and safety blog. It was the health and safety blog. It was almost the only way most health and safety professionals could keep track of what was happening in their field politically. When we started this blog Jordan had been blogging daily for about 18 months, and we met for coffee. Neither of us expected my blog would outlast his, but a couple of years ago…
revere | January 6, 2009I will admit to a prejudice that may disqualify me from civilized company. I don't like the game of golf. When I was a youngster the first paying job I had (if I don't count delivering newspapers) was as a golf caddy at a ritzy country club (the kind that didn't admit people like me as members, even if we could afford it. However people were generally nice to me, so I can't complain.). No one had golf carts in those days (early 1950s) so the caddy carried the bags, often leather, usually with 16 clubs in each, and sometimes two bags at a time (one on each shoulder). Maybe it doesn't sound so…
revere | December 30, 2008About ten people sent us links to the Washington Post front page news that isn't news to anybody in occupational health. "Under Bush," the headline read, "OSHA Mired in Inaction." You don't say!
In early 2001, an epidemiologist at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sought to publish a special bulletin warning dental technicians that they could be exposed to dangerous beryllium alloys while grinding fillings. Health studies showed that even a single day's exposure at the agency's permitted level could lead to incurable lung disease.
After the bulletin was drafted, political…
revere | December 12, 2008Energy may be the topic du jour but it's been the 800 lb. gorilla in the room for, oh, a couple of centuries. In a sense it's responsible for one of the greatest occupational health catastrophes of the 20th century, and a new report from CDC demonstrates once again it's still with us and killing working people. I'm talking about asbestos-related disease. Asbestos and the asbestos industry is a creature par excellance of the age of energy in the 19th century. Its primary uses were for insulating steam pipes and boilers, where heat loss was measured in dollars of coal energy down the drain. I'…