safety
cmonforton | September 10, 2013Occupational health hazards are often hidden, and may not even be appropriately disclosed to workers who are exposed. They are usually shielded from public view, meaning they don't get the attention needed to ensure protections are put in place to address them. But every once in a while, hazards to workers' health are right in front of you.
Yesterday morning, I was driving on FM 1626 in Kyle, TX and passed this scene: Two construction workers standing in a nasty cloud of dust. The men were working at the new campus of Austin Community College in Hays County, TX and were cutting stone…
cmonforton | September 5, 2013This week, Liz and I have been highlighting parts of our second annual review of U.S. occupational health and safety. The first two sections of the report summarize key studies in the peer-reviewed literature, and an assessment of activities at the federal level. In section three of the report we present high points---and a few low points---from state and local governments on workers’ rights and safety protections. These include:
New laws in Portland, Oregon and New York City requiring many employers to offer paid sick leave to their employees. With 22 percent of the U.S. workforce in…
cmonforton | September 3, 2013As Liz Borkowski noted yesterday, we are following up on a tradition that we started last year to mark Labor Day. We released our second annual review of U.S. occupational health and safety for Labor Day 2013.
Liz explained in her post our objectives in preparing the report. She also highlighted its first section which profiles some of the best research from the year published in both peer-reviewed journals and by non-profit organizations. Here’s a peek at section two of the report on activities at the federal level:
Sequestration and other budget cuts have affected our worker protection…
kkrisberg | August 30, 2013For older workers, the most dangerous occupational move may be getting behind the wheel.
Last Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that among highway transportation incidents, which are the leading cause of occupational death in the country, the highest fatality rates occur among workers ages 65 years old and older. In fact, workers in that age group experienced a fatality rate three times higher than workers ages 18 to 54. The unfortunate trend was seen across industries and occupations and among most demographic groups, according to data published in…
cmonforton | August 23, 2013Marshall Turner, 55 and James "Bubba" Rains, 34 were part of an asphalt paving crew, working on I-55 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. On the evening of April 16, 2013, a pick-up truck driven by an Illinois man swerved into the closed-off construction work zone and struck Turner and Rains. Both men were fatally injured.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, on average, 110 workers are killed each year while working in roadway and highway work zones. In 2011, the most recent year in which data is available, the number of fatalities was 119. Thirteen of the deaths occurred in Texas,…
kkrisberg | August 16, 2013In their efforts to protect the most vulnerable workers from illegal workplace practices and conditions, worker centers have now attracted the million-dollar ire of formidable anti-union forces. And while advocates say it's a sign of worker centers' success, it's still a worrisome trend that's made it all the way to the halls of Congress.
In late July, a full-page ad ran in the Wall Street Journal accusing worker centers of being fronts for labor unions. The ad was paid for by a group calling itself the Center for Union Facts, a nonprofit with a $3 million-plus budget run by industry lobbyist…
cmonforton | August 12, 2013More than 400 inspectors with the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) worked, on average, more than 120 hours each two-week pay period. Those were the findings of the agency's Inspector General in an report issued late last month. Their investigation covered FY 2012, and included field work conducted from November 2012 through February 2013.
FSIS inspectors are assigned to more than 6,000 meat, poultry and egg processing plants in the U.S. They are responsible for ensuring that the product sold by companies to consumers is safe and wholesome. These firms process tens of…
cmonforton | August 9, 2013Federal OSHA announced this week a settlement agreement with Wal-Mart for serious safety violations found at its store on Chili Avenue in Rochester, NY. Lots of companies sign settlement agreements with OSHA, but few of them involve making safety corrections at multiple worksites controlled by the same firm. This settlement agreement will apply to 2,857 of Wal-Mart's 4,600 retail establishments in the U.S. The 2,857 stores are all of the stores located in States where federal OSHA has enforcement jurisdiction.
How will OSHA monitor Wal-Mart's compliance with the settlement agreement? In…
cmonforton | August 6, 2013Here we go again. Worker killed on-the-job. The employer decides---after the fact----it would be smart to install a piece of safety equipment that likely would have prevented the death. That's what happened after coal miner John Houston "Hollywood" Myles, 44, was killed on-the-job.
Myles worked at the Metinvest's Affinity Mine in Raleigh County, WV. The veteran of Operation Desert Storm (1991) had worked as a coal miner for a total of four years, one of which at the Affinity mine. On February 19, 2013, Myles was shoveling loose coal and material from the mine floor. In an adjacent entry…
kkrisberg | August 2, 2013Fair working standards for construction workers and financial profit for developers aren't incompatible, according to a new report from Texas' Workers Defense Project. In fact, consumers are actually willing to pay more to live in places built on principles of safety, economic justice and dignity.
Released this week in collaboration with the University of Texas' Center for Sustainable Development, "Green Jobs for Downtown Austin: Exploring the Consumer Market for Sustainable Buildings" studied consumer attitudes toward sustainable construction jobs and explored the market for certification…
cmonforton | August 1, 2013Finally! After far too much hullabaloo about the cost of regulations, there was a U.S. Senate hearing today on why public health regulations are important, and how delays by Congress and the Administration have serious negative consequences for people's lives. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the hearing entitled "Justice Delayed: The Human Cost of Regulatory Paralysis," the first one conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee's newly created Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action. The witnesses included a parent-turned advocate for automobile safety, AFL-CIO…
cmonforton | July 30, 2013Pilgrim's Pride can't seem to get its act together safely handling highly toxic and explosive gases. The firm---the second largest poultry producer in the world with annual net sales of $8.1 Billion---received citations again from federal OSHA concerning its failed safety management of anhydrous ammonia.
OSHA announced this month $170,000 in proposed penalties for 9 serious, 1 willful and 1 repeat violation at the company's De Queen, Arkansas plant. All of the alleged violations involve requirements under OSHA's process safety management standard for control of highly hazardous chemicals…
egrossman | July 24, 2013On July 15 and 16, about two dozen farmworkers paid an unprecedented visit to Capitol Hill to ask Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House to support increased protection from exposure to pesticides. Farmworkers have lobbied Congress before, but this is the first time such a visit focused entirely on pesticide exposure issues, explained Farmworker Justice director of occupational and environmental health, Virginia Ruiz. Farmworkers are asking Congress to support strengthening the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard for pesticides, a regulation that has not been…
kkrisberg | July 19, 2013When I asked Teresa Schnorr why we should be worried about the loss of a little-known occupational health data gathering program, she quoted a popular saying in the field of surveillance: "What gets counted, gets done."
Schnorr, who serves as director of the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies at CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), was referring to the Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance program (ABLES), a state-based effort that collects and analyzes data on adult lead exposure. For more than two decades, NIOSH has been…
cmonforton | July 16, 2013In its short history dating back to 1998, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has conducted more than 100 investigations of industrial chemical explosions, unplanned toxic releases, spills and other incidents. Some of the disasters made the headlines, such as the 2005 explosion at the BP refinery in Texas City, TX which killed 15 workers, but others garnered much less public attention. Accompanying the CSB's investigation reports are detailed recommendations made to the companies involved, as well as trade associations, consensus standard-setting groups, unions, the US EPA and Occupational…
cmonforton | July 15, 2013[Update 1/21/2014 below]
Christopher Michael Cantu, 22, loved Tejano music and was proud of his Mexican heritage. His family says he was always happy, full of energy and a hard worker. Those are probably some of the qualities that helped him get a job in May at Coastal Plating Inc. in Corpus Christi, TX. But after just three days on the job, Cantu died from a fatal work-related injury. KIII TV reported:
"Cantu was killed when a piece of heavy equipment, a 2,600 pound metal tank, fell on him. ...Cantu's fellow employees rushed to his aid, but the tank he was working on was so massive,…
kkrisberg | July 12, 2013In a recent study comparing workers at industrial livestock operations and those employed at antibiotic-free livestock operations, researchers found that industrial workers were much more likely to carry livestock-associated strains of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, more commonly and scarily known as MRSA.
First, it's important to note that both groups of workers had a similar prevalence of S. aureus and methicillin-resistant S. Aureus (MRSA); however, it was overwhelmingly workers at industrial livestock operations, sometimes known as concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs,…
cmonforton | July 11, 2013"A worker's first day at work shouldn't be his last day on earth," was OSHA chief David Michaels' reaction to the work-related death of Lawrence Daquan "Day" Davis. The 21-year old was crushed in a palletizer machine on August 16, 2012 at the Bacardi Bottling facility in Jacksonville, FL. Davis was a temp worker hired by Remedy Intelligent Staffing. It was his first day on assignment to the Bacardi plant.
An OSHA inspection following the fatality resulted in citations against Bacardi for two willful and nine serious violations. Five of the violations, including those classified as willful…
cmonforton | July 9, 2013A memorial service honoring the 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill, AZ wildfire will be held today at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ. Forty eight hours earlier, an honor guard escorted 19 hearses carrying members of the 20-person Granite Mountain Hotshots on a 125-mile route from Phoenix to Prescott. This string of somber ceremonies started Monday, July 1 when a crew of 12 firefighters were permitted on the mountain to remove the firefighters' bodies.
In "It's something you never want to see again," The (Arizona) Republic's Kristina Goetz describes a brotherhood of…
cmonforton | June 25, 2013The Houston-based firm Piping Technology & Products devotes a page on its website to "company safety." There are photos of safety banners displayed at its manufacturing facility, and pledges of continuous improvement. The company says:
"Safety is extremely important to us." "At PT&P, we know that all injuries can be prevented." "Together, we can eliminate unsafe situations and strive for an accident-free workplace on a daily basis."
Those words ring hollow when you look at the firm's encounters with federal OSHA. Just this week, Piping Technology & Products received a…