regulation
cmonforton | March 30, 2011If you want to keep all your digits and limbs, you probably want to avoid working at Anheuser-Busch's Metal Container Corp., in Arnold, Missouri. That worksite was recently cited by OSHA for hazards related to incidents last fall in which one worker lost fingers in machinery, and another worker had a foot amputated because of a forklift incident. The 13 serious and one willful violation come with a proposed $107,200 penalty. Those two work-related amputations are just two of the estimated 3.9 million cases of injuries and illness that occur each year in U.S. workplaces. About a third of…
cmonforton | March 25, 2011The New York Times'' headline read: STREET STREWN WITH BODIES; PILES OF DEAD INSIDE. The article went on this way:
"Nothing like it has been seen in New York since the burning of the General Slocum. The fire was practically all over in half an hour. ...it was the most murderous fire that New York has seen in many years. The victims...were mostly girls of 16 to 23 years of age. They were employed at making shirtwaists by the Traingle Waist Company. ...Most of them could barely speak English. Most of them came from Brooklyn. Almost all were the main support of their hard-working…
cmonforton | March 18, 2011Imagine testifying before a congressional committee as the head of the FDIC and you're asked "do the vast majority of banks care deeply and passionately about their customers?" Or as the head of the FAA and you're asked "do you think the vast majority of airlines care deeply and passionately about their passengers?" Or the head of a State Insurance Bureau and you're asked "do you think the vast majority of HMO's care deeply and passionately about their policy holders?" That's one of the odd questions posed to OSHA chief David Michaels,PhD, MPH at a hearing on March 16 before a subcommittee…
lborkowski | March 4, 2011Earlier this week, the EPA released a report that quantifies costs and benefits of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments - and, surprise, surprise, the benefits substantially outweigh the costs: $2 trillion vs. $65 billion in 2020.
Specifically, The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990 to 2020 evaluates the costs and benefits of programs implemented pursuant to the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, comparing today's outcomes with what would've been expected had control programs remained only as stringent as they were before the 1990 changes took effect. The figures cover not only the…
cmonforton | March 3, 2011Editors of The (WV) Charleston Gazette had perfect timing. On the morning of a congressional oversight hearing on the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) performance, their front page featured an article by reporter Ken Ward Jr. about incomplete inspections and inadequate enforcement actions in 2009 in at least 25 of the agency's field offices. In "Report details MSHA lapses prior to disaster," Ward describes a previously unpublished letter sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee just two weeks before the Upper Big Branch disaster. The letter summarized…
cmonforton | February 28, 2011Roxanne Moyer wondered why managers at her husband's worksite would allow an obvious dangerous condition to exist. Workers could be so "close to molten steel [that it] just poured over on them." Her husband, Samuel Moyer, 32 died earlier this month at Arcelor Mittal's LaPlace, Lousiania steel mill in exactly that way. He was fatally burned with molten steel.
Mrs. Moyer sounds like a generous and forgiving soul, saying:
"I don't want it to happen to anybody else. And they've already changed things there. We've talked to fellow workers, and they've already put up a shield there and you can't…
egrossman | February 22, 2011By Elizabeth Grossman
As I've watched the hearings House Republicans have been holding over the past couple of weeks on the economic impact of environmental and occupational health and safety regulations, I've been thinking about what I've learned about and seen of the working and environmental conditions in places that are now the hub of world manufacturing. I've been picturing the smog that hangs over Chinese cities. I've been thinking about the fatal despair of young high-tech workers at Foxconn and Samsung factories in China and South Korea, about the depressed wages and severe working…
lborkowski | February 9, 2011Last week, Mark Bittman published the New York Times column "A Food Manifesto for the Future," in which he proposed ways to "make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring." Among his suggestions was outlawing concentrated animal feeding operations, so it wasn't surprising to see a letter to the editor from Randy Spronk, Chairman of the Environment Committee of the National Pork Producers Council in the Times a few days later (hat tip to Maryn McKenna's Twitter feed). It's interesting to see how Spronk responded to…
cmonforton | February 8, 2011I was already tired of President Obama repeating the Republican's rhetoric about big, bad regulations, how they stifle job creation, put an unnecessary burden on businesses, and make our economy less competitive. He did so last month in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and in his State of the Union address. But yesterday, the White House went too far.
In advance of the President's speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the chief of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) threw two OSHA initiatives under the bus. Right after mentioning President Obama's January 18…
cmonforton | February 3, 2011The contrast is striking. Look at the screenshot of the outcome of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs' (OIRA) review of two Labor Department rules to address flaws in our worker health and safety system. One is a proposal by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to crack down on mine operators who habitually violate mine safety regulations. No more warning letters or slaps on the wrist. Once a mine operator is notified he has a "pattern of violations," a single serious violation of the law observed by an inspector at any time in the next 90 days will result in…
cmonforton | February 1, 2011The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP) is known for challenging the status quo. Its scientists and policy analysts refuse to accept we have to live in a world where parents are worried about toxic toys, or companies feel forced to choose between earning profits and protecting the environment. Leave it to LCSP researchers to describe six cases of systemic worker health and safety failures, yet manage to identify small successes or opportunities to create them. That's the Lowell way:
"...infuse hope and opportunity into a system that may appear severely broken."
In "Lessons…
cmonforton | January 25, 2011The new chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor the Workforce will hold the panel's inaugural hearing on Wed. Jan 26, 2010. The topic: the "State of the American Workforce" with invited testimony from the current Governor of Virginia, president of a conservative think tank, a North Carolina small businessman representing the National Association of Manufacturers, and an economist from a progressive think tank. I'm eager to hear how the witnesses and the Committee members characterize the strengths of and challenges faced by U.S. workers. Will any relay this kind of account…
cmonforton | January 20, 2011The construction trade association Associated Building Contractors (ABC) was one of 150 business groups that received a letter from Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) in December, asking for their ideas about federal regulations "that have negatively impacted job growth." ABC responded with a list heavy on opposition to labor protections, such as requirements for prevailing wage and labor-management agreements on federal construction projects.
The trade association's hit list also includes three OSHA initiatives, one of which was withdrawn just yesterday by the agency.
I'm particularly…
lborkowski | January 19, 2011In the new executive order, which Rena Steinzor wrote about yesterday, President Obama stated that agencies must "propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs." This isn't a revolutionary requirement; public-health agencies are already required to demonstrate cost-effectiveness of proposed regulations. For instance, when Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently revised its crane and derrick standard, it estimated the annualized costs of implementing the rule to be $154 million and the benefits - in the form of 22 lives…
lborkowski | January 18, 2011by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPR Blog
Sixteen months ago, President Obama stood in the well of Congress and issued a ringing call for a progressive vision of government. Working to persuade Members of Congress to adopt health care reform, he said that
"large-heartedness...is part of the American character." Our ability to stand in other people's shoes. A recognition that we are all in this together; that when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand."
Many took comfort from that vision, the first avowedly affirmative one we had heard from a President…
lborkowski | January 13, 2011by Eileen Senn, MS
The multiple options that OSHA is considering to address their badly outdated rules for chemical hazards were described in my November 17 post. They include updating OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) which are erroneously considered to be safe levels for chemicals in workplace air. In reality, it's wrong to call them "safe" levels. Most PELs are based on toxic ignorance, that is, our lack of sound and complete toxicology data on most chemicals. It is the rare chemical that has been tested for all disease endpoints including cancer and effects on reproductive,…
cmonforton | December 21, 2010By the end of 2011, the Labor Department's worker safety agencies expect to issue six new rules to better protect workers from on-the-job hazards. In the Department's regulatory plan issued yesterday, OSHA projects it will finalize four rules while MSHA expects to complete two new standards. As I've written before, these plans quickly become stale because target dates are missed, new issues emerge and political winds shift, but they still give us a snapshot inside the agencies and the Administration's regulatory strategies at a moment in time.
Of the four rules OSHA expects to finish in…
cmonforton | December 20, 2010Updated 12/21/2010
Every two weeks, OSHA issues a mini-newsletter called Quick Takes about the agency's activities and other worker health and safety news. The twice monthly electronic publication highlights 8-12 items and nearly always includes at least one report of a major enforcement action. I looked back at the OSHA Quick Takes from early 2010 and read gutsy language from OSHA chief David Michaels, such as:
"It is unfortunate but true that you need a sizable fine to get the attention of employers who don't respect the lives of their employees." (Vol 9, Issue 2)
I started to wonder…
lborkowski | December 17, 2010by Eileen Senn, MS
OSHA's intention to finalize a list of chemicals on which to focus the agency's efforts to address outdated rules on workplace chemical exposures was officially announced in the December 1 issue of OSHA Quick Takes and described in my November 17 post, "OSHA Poised to Action on Chemical Hazards." No matter what approach or combination of approaches OSHA ultimately takes on chemical exposures, employer education and training must lay the foundation for voluntary compliance and enforcement. OSHA will need to undertake a campaign to teach employers, employees, and union…
cmonforton | December 7, 2010As I've previously written, a minor revision to the form on which some U.S. employers are required to record work-related injuries remains stuck in the office of the White House's regulatory czar. His review has now extended for 145 days.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects a sample of these forms annually to estimate national rates of work-related injuries. The change proposed by OSHA involves adding a column to the form so that work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) would be distinguished from other conditions like amputations, burns, fractures, etc. After soliciting…