safety
sb admin | August 26, 2008Hmph!  I just read on the OMB/OIRA website that they have completed their review of Labor Secretary Chao's proposal to change the way that OSHA and MSHA assess workers' risk of health hazards. The OIRA website notice says their review was completed on August 25, and it was approved "consistent with change."Â
Well, I guess I didn't really expect Secretary Chao or one of her political associates to call me personally to discuss the August 14 letter that 80 public health scientists sent to her. In that letter, we urged Elaine Chao to withdraw her proposal from OMB review. I…
sb admin | August 25, 2008On Saturday afternoon, I sat at my computer screen and watched Barack Obama announce Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. I think it's a good pick for a multitude of reasons---some personal, some political and some practical. When Biden spoke on Saturday, I found myself smiling and nodding my head in agreement. When he said the following,
"...of all my years in the Senate, I have never in my life seen Washington so broken. I have never seen so many dreams denied and so many decisions deferred by politicians who are trying like the devil to escape their responsibility and…
sb admin | August 19, 2008I recently started helping track worker fatalities over at The Weekly Toll, and it has been quite a harrowing couple of weeks. There's something about waiting to get news of another fatality-- a fatality that more than likely could have been prevented-- that leaves me feeling a little edgy, maybe even a little sick. Which is why for the last couple of weeks I have been wringing my hands at the number of deaths resulting from falls. Falls from roofs, falls from water towers, falls down elevator shafts.... you get the idea. And maybe I've been a little naive, because apparently, fatal…
revere | August 16, 2008One of the effects of high gas prices is to encourage people to use bicycles. This also includes the police, where some jurisdictions are taking cops out of cruisers and putting them on foot or on bikes. Bike police (and bicycle messengers, people who use their bikes in crowded urban areas to endanger pedestrians), spend much more time in the saddle than most, other than professional racers and bike fanatics. A new study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine says the continual pressure on thei perineum is causing genital numbness in males. The culprit seems to be the nose on the traditional bike…
sb admin | August 5, 2008Tom Bethell of The Mountain Eagle urges us (and policymakers) to read the independent investigation of MSHA and the Crandall Canyon disaster, by two former MSHA District Managers, to understand how the Secretary of Labor's demand for 'compliance assistance' programs set the groundwork for the deadly workplace conditions for our nation's mine workers.Â
Posted with permission from The Mountain Eagle (Whitesburg, KY), "Destined to Fail"
by Tom Bethell
Exactly a year ago â on August 6, 2007 â the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah caved in, trapping six coal miners. Here in eastern Kentucky weâre…
sb admin | August 4, 2008Tom Barton, the editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News, blasts the behavior and attitude of the Imperial Sugar CEO John Sheptor and other senior executives in the wake of last week's Senate hearing and the July 25 announcement by OSHA of a $8.8 million penalty against the firm. Thirteen inviduals were killed in the combustible-dust disaster, three remain hospitalized and 33 other workers were injured.
In Heads should roll at Imperial, Barton writes about how two former Savannah families used to own and operate the sugar refinery:Â
"...workers were treated like extended…
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 22, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
The tomatoes-peppers-cilantro-? Salmonella story is starting to break, although which way is hard to say at this moment. Beginning about 3 pm yesterday afternoon newswire stories began to report that the FDA had found a single jalapeno pepper in a small distribution center in McAllen, Texas, contaminated with the same uncommon Salmonella serovar (S. stpaul) implicated in a large outbreak that has infected over 1200 people in 43 states. This is the first time any food item has turned up positive for this Salmonella strain in the 14 weeks federal and…
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…
revere | July 16, 2008A recent news article by Helen Branswell of Canadian Press ("Wait an hour to swim after eating? Says who?") contained two pieces of information, one that surprised me and one that didn't. Branswell was writing about the well worn safety advice to wait at least an hour after eating before going in swimming. This was a rule I remember as far back as I remember anything about what I was told about water safety. She points out that no one seems to know the basis of the alleged fact that to do otherwise courts the risk of developing muscle cramps that could lead to drowning. The theory, as I…
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 | June 27, 2008Earlier this month, William Scott Hill, 33, of Staffordsville, KY was killed while cutting trees to prepare for a surface coal mine for the Premier Elkhorn Coal Company (TECO Energy). Mr. Hill was employed by Gopher Contracting of Jackson, KY. His death on June 3 reminded me of other fatalities involving tree cutters working at mining operations, including Lawrence Payne, 32, who was killed in March 2004 and William S. Woods, 44, who was killed in December 2004.** Â
Just as I was reading about Mr. Hill's death, OSHA sent an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on June 19 to OMB…
sb admin | June 16, 2008Updated below ( 6/18/08 )
Earlier this month I wrote in "Crashing Cranes, Deaths and the White House's Edict" about the inexcusable inaction by the US Department of Labor and OSHA to address the decades-old problem of crane-related deaths. I am not alone in my disgust at this regulatory system, which yet again is failing to protect our nation's workers. I'm pleased to report that two parties familiar with an attempt at crane safety rulemaking have strongly expressed their own dissapointment with OSHA's failure to act. First are members of the negotiated rulemaking committee (…
sb admin | June 9, 2008OSHA's Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke flopped and fumbled during CBS's 60 Minutes "Is Enough Done to Stop Explosive Dust?" which aired last night. Correspondent Scott Pelley pressed Foulke to explain how the 50 OSHA inspectors who have been trained to identify combustible dust hazards will be able inspect the estimated 30,000 worksites with this dangerous volatile hazard.
"We're not gonna get in every work site every year. It would be physically impossible from a monetary standpoint and on a personnel standpoint to get in every facility once a year. Or even every five years."
Foulke said…
sb admin | June 5, 2008Do you know of any cases of Parkinson's disease among workers at flavoring companies? Â
David Egilman, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Brown University, is aware of two cases of Parkinson's disease in men in their fifties who were flavorists at a large flavorings company.  The plant alone had 15 "flavorists." (The average age of onset for Parkinson's is 60 and it is a relatively rare disease.) Dr. Egilman is making an appeal to see if others are aware of a possible disease-exposure relationship. As Pump Handle readers know, workers are typically the canaries for the rest…
sb admin | June 5, 2008Set your wristwatch alarms or your VCR for this Sunday (June 7) at 7:00 pm (EST) to watch CBS's 60 Minutes and a hard-hitting story on OSHA and its failure to protect workers and communities from combustible dust explosions. CBS's correspondent Scott Pelley  interviews Carolyn Merritt (former Member of the US Chemical Safety Board), Tammy Miser (whose brother Shawn was killed in an aluminum dust explosion), Edwin Foulke (OSHA Asst. Secretary), and at least one EXPERIENCED but UNDISCLOSED speaker. Â
Many thanks to the CBS crew who pursued and persisted with this story: David…
sb admin | June 3, 2008The 65 or so high school seniors of Tygarts Valley High School shared a moment of silence during their graduation ceremony last night (The InterMountain reports) to mourn the death of Adam Lanham, 18, who died on Friday, May 30 at ICG's Sentinel Mine. The young coal miner was a 2007 graduate of Tygarts Valley High School, and reportedly was pinched between the mine rib and a coal scoop. News reports (here) state that the "red hat" (apprentice) miners' father and two brothers also worked at the Sentinel Mine.Â
ICG's website makes no mention of the young man's death. The company says:
"…
sb admin | May 29, 2008by Susan F. Wood, PhD
Last year, Congress passed new legislation on the Food and Drug Administration, known as the FDA Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007.This legislation, while limited, made some significant steps forward, see here and here. It reauthorizes the user fee systems for drugs, biologics and medical devices, and expands FDAâs authority on labeling, requires new transparency for the Agency and establishes broader registries of clinical trials and requires results from clinical trials to be released to the public The public concern over the handling of medications like Vioxx and Ketek…
sb admin | May 29, 2008In 1999, the CDC announced its selections for the 10 greatest achievements in U.S. public health history in the 20th century, and among them was improvements in motor vehicle safety.  I've nothing against looking at success over a long term, but we know that much still needs to be done. The rate of motor vehicle fatalities has indeed declined substantially over the last 100 years, but the rate of deaths and serious injuries in roof-crush and rollovers has actually increased.
In 2006, (the most current NHTSA data available), nearly 11,500 people died in rollover crashes, and another 163,…
sb admin | May 28, 2008How do you best teach workers about safety? How do you change peopleâs attitudes?Â
The Workersâ Comp board in Ontario, Cananda, and many safety instructors along with them, believes that gruesome pictures or videos work best. Like driving by the scene of a car accident, it is hard not to look. Perhaps by showing a horrific accident, workers will be more careful or take more precautions. The Ontario Worker Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) produced a series of five short (30 second) videos for different industries each showing an âaccidentâ which occurs and then saying how this could…