cmonforton | October 6, 2011It's been 8 weeks now since two 17 year-old workers lost legs in an industrial auger while employed at a grain handling facility in Kremlin, Oklahoma. One of the young men remains in the hospital, but may be released soon to a rehabilitation facility. When I first wrote about this horrible incident, I noted that the safety rules governing young agricultural workers were more than 40 years old, the Labor Department was trying to update them, but proposed revisions were stalled (for 9 months) at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The young worker and farm safety…
lborkowski | October 5, 2011The Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News has put together an excellent - and alarming - story on salmonella in chicken. Jeffrey Benzing, Esther French and Judah Ari Gross outline the problem this way:
Salmonella is found in a range of food products, including meat, produce and eggs. Chicken is the single biggest source of infection among cases where a food has been identified, causing about 220,000 illnesses, 4,000 hospital stays and at least 80 deaths annually in the U.S., according to an analysis of CDC data by the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.
But gaps in…
cmonforton | October 4, 2011I'm eager to listen in on tomorrow's congressional hearing about workplace safety. It's being conducted by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, with the title "Workplace Safety: Ensuring a Responsible Regulatory Environment." That's a heading that probably means different things to different people, and those of us watching would probably benefit if Members define the phrase, "responsible regulatory environment" and explained responsible to whom?
The subcommittee chairman, Tim Walberg (R-MI), has noted previously the "creative tension"…
lborkowski | October 4, 2011If you haven't already seen Spencer Scoper's in-depth story on working conditions at Amazon.com's Lehigh Valley warehouse, it's well worth a read. The Morning Call's investigation into the warehouse involved interviews with 20 current and former warehouse workers, and most of them were temporary employees hired by Integrity Staffing Solutions rather than Amazon itself. Workers reported that they were expected to maintain a demanding units-per-minute rate -- and it became especially hard to keep up the pace when summer temperatures inside the warehouse soared above 100 degrees. Scoper writes:…
lborkowski | October 3, 2011One thing that drove me nuts during the healthcare reform debate was the scare tactic of claiming that proposed legislation would result in rationing of healthcare. The problem with making such a claim is that healthcare is already rationed in the US. We ration healthcare based on insurance status and ability to pay. And, as a story from NPR's Richard Knox points out, we ration when there are supply shortages -- as there are now with several important drugs. Here's Knox's overview of the problem:
The shortages involve a wide range of medications: cancer chemotherapy agents, anesthetics,…
cmonforton | September 30, 2011Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) and his Republican members of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Labor Department don't think coal miner deserve better protection from black lung disease. In their FY 2012 appopriations bill they would prohibit the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) from using any funds to develop, promulgate, enforce or otherwise implement a new rule to protect miners from exposure respirable coal dust. (See page 36 in the bill.) This is a rule that has been in the works since at least 1996 when a federal advisory committee made…
cmonforton | September 29, 2011One Middleton, Massachusetts resident thought it was an earthquake. Others said it sounded like a sonic boom. When Mr. Charlie Veradt heard the explosion, he said "I knew right off the bat that it was down the street," referring to the Bostik Inc. chemical plant owned by the global giant, petrochemical firm TOTAL. Just before 8:00 pm on Sunday, March 13, part of the plant exploded.
"'...We were sitting having dinner and then all of the sudden we thought the house was caving in,' said Joyce Cucchiara, who lives near the explosion. 'It was just unbelievable.'"
The explosion sent four…
egrossman | September 28, 2011by Elizabeth Grossman
Why some people who inhaled the airborne contaminants unleashed by the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 became sick for only a short time, why some have become chronically ill, and others terminally ill, may never be known. What is known, however, is that the dust and aerosols released in that disaster contained a potentially treacherous mix of everything that was in those enormous buildings and in those aircraft. What is also known is that, as Paul J. Lioy, professor and vice chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine…
lborkowski | September 27, 2011DC's Capital Bikeshare program has had a fantastic first year. Stations full of sturdy red bikes have been popping up all over the city, and the system logged its one millionth ride one the eve of its first anniversary. Members can take a bike from any of the more than 100 stations, and the ride is free if they return it within half an hour to any station. (The system is still figuring out how to keep the most popular stations from being emptied out or completely full at rush hour, but the new stations that will come online over the next year should help.) Now I learn that Capital Bikeshare…
cmonforton | September 26, 2011Funny how a bill touted by Members of Congress as one that will "cut red tape" will actually add a dozen new steps before a rule to protect people's health or safety is put in place. Last week, several Republican and Democratic Senators and Representatives did just that when they introduced the "Regulatory Accountability Act" (S.1606, H.R. 3010). As Daniel Rosenberg at NRDC's blog explains these lawmakers pitch their bill as moderate and reasonable, but that's far from the truth.
"The legislation proposes a sweeping rewrite of the Administrative Procedure Act, which has been the cornerstone…
egrossman | September 23, 2011by Elizabeth Grossman
It's now ten years since the streets of lower Manhattan roiled with clouds of toxic dust and debris from the horrific events of September 11, 2001, but it was clear from discussions and presentations at the September 16 conference hosted by the New York Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) that the dust has not yet settled when it comes to issues of protecting worker and community health from environmental hazards of a disaster - nor from the ongoing impacts of 9/11. In the course of the day-long meeting held on lower Broadway a few blocks from the World…
cmonforton | September 22, 2011At a recent congressional hearing called "Workforce challenges facing the agricultural industry," one Minnesota employer explained why he relies on "guest workers" to fill his seasonal jobs:
"...few Americans who are seriously seeking work will apply for, accept, and remain in seasonal and intermittent employment, especially in the agricultural sector. Many who are hired do not last long as they find the work too physically demanding or repetitive, are not willing to work in unfavorable weather conditions, or find the work schedule too demanding."
Under the U.S. Labor Department's H-2A…
lborkowski | September 21, 2011By Kim Krisberg
Just a few days ago, an event in the small town of Lilburn, Georgia, may have saved the life of someone living half a world away. It wasn't a black-tie gala or a celebrity telethon. It wasn't even about a disease that most of us here in the United States think much about. In fact, it was as easy as doing what us animal lovers would do anyway: vaccinating our beloved Fido or Whiskers against rabies.
In honor of World Rabies Day, which takes place Sept. 28, Lilburn's Banfield Pet Hospital held a rabies vaccination clinic, half of the proceeds from which were donated to the…
lborkowski | September 20, 2011If you hold a job right now, here's something to think about: If you became disabled and were no longer able to work, how would you pay your bills? If your disability were due to an on-the-job injury or an occupational illness, you might be able to get workers' compensation benefits. But what if you were paralyzed after falling down a flight of stairs at home or suffering a stroke? If you're lucky, you'll have disability insurance, which some employers offer as a benefit. But for most people whose ability to work becomes compromised before they're able to retire, disability payments from…
cmonforton | September 19, 2011The winners of this year's American Public Health Association's (APHA) recognition awards for achievement in occupational health and safety illustrate the diversity of talent among those committed to ensuring workers' rights to a safe workplace. Martin Cherniak, MD is a clinician and researcher at the University of Connecticut; Amy Liebman is with the Migrant Clinicians Network; Dr. Salvador Moncada i LluÃs is with Spain's Union Institute of Work Environment and Health; LaMont Byrd is Director of Safety and Health for the Teamsters; and Barbara Rahke, a grassroots leader in Philadelphia's…
cmonforton | September 16, 2011[Update (10/11/2011) below]
Phyllis Zorn of the Enid (OK) News and Eagle reports that the employer of the two teenage workers who lost legs last month in a grain auger failed to maintain workers' compensation insurance. She writes:
"Oklahoma Department of Labor has fined the company $750 for failing to comply with workers' compensation law, the maximum fine allowed in the scenario under current law. 'Zaloudek Grain Co. had not carried workers' compensation insurance for the five months prior to the accident,' Labor Commissioner Mark Costello said. 'Zaloudek had obtained workers'…
lborkowski | September 14, 2011A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Terror and Bioterror: 9/11 to 10/4 (This is the first in a series on the bioterrorism fears - some of which were realized - that followed the 9/11 attacks.)
Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times: India's night rat killers: Hunting shadows that scurry
Scicurious at The Scicurious Brain: Can probiotic yogurt cure your psychiatric ills?
Matt Chaban at the New York Observer: Janette Sadik-Khan Is the Best Mechanic the City Streets Have Had in a Generation--So Why Do Motorists Hate Her So Much?
Charles Ornstein, Tracy Weber, and Dan…
cmonforton | September 13, 2011March 2, 2011 may have seemed like any other workday for David Clark Jr., 51, when he arrived at the Lee Creek potash mine in Aurora, NC at 5:50 am to start his shift. Clark and a small crew would be excavating a large ditch near the R9 roadway and burying a 22-inch diameter polyethylene (HDPE) pipe. The pipe would be used to carry the "slurry" created by processing the phosphate ore.
The task involved fusing four large sections of the HDPE pipe together to make one length of pipe. Clark was a 24-year employee of Trader Construction Company and had worked as a contractor at the Lee Creek…
lborkowski | September 12, 2011As Jori Lewis notes in the case study about World Trade Center recovery workers' health and safety, those who showed up at Ground Zero on the days and weeks after 9/11 got some misleading information about the risks they faced. Most notably, the EPA issued reassuring statements about the air quality - when, according to a 2003 EPA Inspector General report, the agency had insufficient data and analyses to support calling the air there safe. More accurate information might have increased the use of respirators and delayed people's return to homes and offices in the vicinity of Ground Zero. Now…
lborkowski | September 11, 2011Among the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks are workers who responded to the scene of the disaster and suffered severe - in some cases, fatal - health problems as a result. Those who showed up at the World Trade Center site for rescue, recovery, and cleanup operations were exposed to a range of toxic and mechanical hazards, as well as psychological trauma. Many of the estimated 40,000 workers have since developed respiratory, mental health, and other medical conditions.
Celeste and I asked freelance journalist Jori Lewis (whose reporting you might have heard on PRI's The World…