regulation
sb admin | February 4, 2009It doesnât seem to have made the news yet, but President Obama has just taken a very important step for the health of our water, air, and workplaces. An executive order published in todayâs Federal Register revokes EO 13422, by which President Bush gave the White House the power to interfere with regulatory agenciesâ activities.
Bushâs order created new requirements for the agencies and allowed the White House to exert control over a wide range of activities, including issuing guidance documents. Public health advocates warned that it would institutionalize an anti-regulatory approach and…
revere | February 4, 2009The financial industry (what's left of it) now knows what the food industry is learning (or never learned; take your pick). Effective regulation is good for business. Or rather, poor regulation is (very) bad for business. Latest exhibit: the gigantic recall of peanut products (international in scope: here's a long list of newly recalled Canadian products) after a relatively modest player (less than 1% of peanut products in US) ran a sloppy operation (for years), wasn't caught and now is dragging down everyone:
The economic wallop from a salmonella outbreak in peanut products continues to…
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.…
revere | January 28, 2009Even as the the peanut cum salmonella recall spreads (sorry, couldn't resist), we learn that the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia thought to be its source has a history of "problems":
The plant in Georgia that produced peanut butter tainted by salmonella has a history of sanitation lapses and was cited repeatedly in 2006 and 2007 for having dirty surfaces and grease residue and dirt buildup throughout the plant, according to health inspection reports. Inspection reports from 2008 found the plant repeatedly in violation of cleanliness standards.
Inspections of the plant…
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…
sb admin | January 23, 2009by Ellen SmithÂ
A supervisor was hurt in a roof fall December 10, 2008 at a six-employee anthracite mine that owes more than $100,000 in delinquent civil penalties, MSHA records showed. The foreman at S & M Coal Co.'s Buck Mountain Slope in Dauphin County, Pa., met loose roof while he was working alone in a heading, according to a preliminary report. Mining height in the operation is about 3-feet. He placed temporary roof jack about 5 feet 5 inches back from the face. At that point, however, a chunk of rock came down between him and the roof jack. The 5-inch thick…
sb admin | January 22, 2009Last week The Pump Handle featured an article by Carole Bass entitled Why is Black Lung back? In response, a former coal miner offers his views on why coal miners in the U.S. continue to develop and suffer from this occupational lung disease that is 100% preventable. He writes:
Thank you for your article on the resurrection of black lung disease. As a former coal miner and someone who has worked in the field of workplace health and safety most of my life, I have a few insights that you should consider:
1. NIOSHâs Dr. Petsnok and team have identified a sentinel event regarding the…
revere | January 21, 2009While we were busy with the pageant of the new administration, we are still cleaning up the messes from past administrations (not just Bush although Bush was the examplar of incompetence). Past messes like a broken food safety system. The latest example, of course, is the peanut butter and peanut paste salmonella debacle (see here, here, here), which just keeps getting worse. Bulk supplied institutional peanut butter containers were the first to be implicated and the connection was first made from nursing homes that used these. Supermarket peanut butter sold to consumers wasn't implicated.…
revere | January 18, 2009The four month old salmonella outbreak (here, here) that has already claimed at least five lives seems now to be an "ingredient" affair. The ingredient is peanut butter made in a Georgia plant of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) and sold to food distributors in bulk for use in institutions and not to consumers but also as as a peanut paste ingredient used other foods like cookies, crackers, cereal, candy, ice cream, baked goods or cooking sauces that are sold to consumers. As a result, CDC is now advising consumers to postpone eating products that contain peanut butter (such as cookies…
sb admin | January 16, 2009The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward reports:
"Less than a week before leaving office, the Bush administration is preparing to issue an emergency health advisory for drinking water polluted with the toxic chemical C8. ...EPA plans to recommend reducing consumption of water that contains more than 0.4 parts per billion of C8, according to a draft of the agency advisory [6-page PDF] obtained by the Charleston Gazette. ...The [new] advisory level is tighter [and] a guideline in effect for residents near a DuPont Parkersburg [WV chemical] plant...are both 10 times weaker than a similar C8…
sb admin | January 13, 2009Yesterday, I was pressed for time when I wrote "OSHA revises its field ops manual."  I didn't have time to comb through the new 322-page manual , let alone spend much time writing the blog post itself. A funny thing happens sometimes when I rush to put together a blog post---like a magnet, I'm pulled back to the topic, forced to look for something obvious that I missed in the first round.  On further consideration, here's what I should have mentioned yesterday about OSHA's revised how-to guide for OSHA compliance S&H officers (CSHO's) and field staff:
Observation #1:Â Â The…
sb admin | January 12, 2009OSHA released on Friday, Jan 9, a new Field Operations Manual (FOM) for OSHA compliance officers and their supervisors who work in OSHA's area and regional offices. The 322-page manual is the procedural how-to guide for scheduling and conducting inspections, documenting violations of workplace safety and health standards, and proposing penalties. In the news release announcing the new manual for inspectors, the acting asst. secretary said it:
"...gives compliance officers important guidance in implementing OSHA's balanced approach to workplace safety and health: enforcement,…
revere | January 11, 2009We are getting the first hints of a potential foodborne vehicle for the multi-state salmonella outbreak that began in September. We've seen it before:
The source of the outbreak of Salmonella [t]yphimurium that has sickened at least 400 and may have contributed to one death has been identified in Minnesota as King Nut peanut butter. Peanut butter tainted with the genetic fingerprint matching the outbreak was tested by the Minnesota Health Department. The product is suspected as the source of the nation-wide illnesses, which began showing up in September 2008 and have been documented in 42…
sb admin | January 9, 2009The Washington Post reported yesterday that President-elect Obama wants Harvard law professor Cass R. Sunstein to serve as the head of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs ( OIRA).  I'm not prepared at this point to tangle intellectually with a  magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, who was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and a law professor for 27 years.  I am seriously worried, however, by some of what I've read of Professor Sunstein's abundant writings, and how his views may influence efforts to protect public health and the…
sb admin | January 9, 2009Senator Edward Kennedy's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP Committee) held a hearing today to consider the nomination of Hilda Solis to be the nation's 25 Secretary of Labor. A webcast replay of the proceedings is available (here), as is a copy of Ms. Solis' written testimony. Here are a few highlights from her written remarks:
"The Labor Department just assure that American workers get the pay they have earned working in safe, healthy and fair workplaces. The Labor Department is charged with assuring compliance with dozens of employment laws. I believe…
revere | January 9, 2009You may be surprised to learn (I was) that the US is having a large (almost 400 people) multistate (42) salmonella outbreak (S. typhimurium, often but not always associated with poultry and dairy products). So far 67 hospitalizations, with patients spanning the age spectrum (ages 1 to 103).DNA fingerprinting has established all cases are related (a common source or sources). Oh, and one more thing. It didn't just begin. Apparently it's been going on since sometime in September.
Like the plat du jour, this is the salmonella outbreak du jour. Last summer we were treated to the tomatoes-cilantro…
sb admin | January 8, 2009Mr. Martimiano Torres, 37, was finishing up his 12-hour shift at about 5:30 am at the  Hallett Materials aggregate operation on Oct 1, 2008, when his pick-up truck curved off the road into a dredge pond. He drowned. The surface mine is located in Porter, Texas, outside of Houston, and owned by the multi-national corporation CRH.   MSHA released today its investigation report of the fatality involving Mr. Torres, asserting:
"...the accident occurred because the victim did not maintain control of the pickup truck";Â and
"Root Cause: the victim did not maintain control of the…
sb admin | January 7, 2009What do the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the Migrant Clinicians Network, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and 65 other organizations have in common? They've all endorsed the "Protecting Workers on the Job Agenda", a collaborative product of the American Public Health Association's Occupational Health and Safety Section and the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. The platform, released just in time for Labor Secretary-Designee Hilda Solis' confirmation hearing on Friday, outlines seven goals for improving our nationâs programs for preventing work-…
sb admin | January 6, 2009by Carole Bass (posted with permission from the On-Line Journalism Project, New Haven (CT) Independent)
Black lung disease used to be nearly as common as dirty fingernails among American coal miners. Roughly a third of them got the fatal illness. Starting in the 1970s, a federal law slashed that rate by 90 percent. But now it's back.
When Anita Wolfe and her co-workers discovered that the rate of black lung has doubled among U.S. coal miners in recent years, she took it personally. The daughter and granddaughter of West Virginia miners, Wolfe watched her father die of black lung disease…
sb admin | January 5, 2009Like her boss President G.W. Bush, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is offering her version of Labor Department history over the last 8 years. She posts prominently on the Department's homepage her "accomplishing milestones for American workers" including the claim:Â
"the current workplace injury and illness rate is at its lowest level in history having dropped 21% since 2002."
I suppose she and those at OSHA who drank the Kool-Aid choose to ignore the empirical evidence that suggests that this substantial decline "corresponds directly with changes in OSHA recordkeeping rules."Â Â […