Confined Space @ TPH
sb admin | March 10, 2009In 2007 and 2008, 12 construction workers were killed on the Las Vegas Strip. The Las Vegas Sunâs Alexandra Berzon wrote an excellent series on the breakneck pace of construction in Las Vegas, which creates deadly conditions, and the disappointing response from the stateâs OSHA. Now, a bill has been introduced in the Nevada Assembly that would require the stateâs construction workers to complete 10 hours of safety training, and supervisors to complete 30 hours. Nevada OSHA would be responsible for certifying that workers have completed the training and for citing and fining employers who…
sb admin | March 4, 2009Or is it: what wouldn't we know without investigative journalist Andrew Schneider??? Would the town Libby, Montana mean anything? How about the words Zonolite, Diacetyl, or GRAS?  These terms and places are familiar because of Andy Schneider, the Pulitzer Prize (and other) award winning reporter, who's an integral part of our public health community. Schneider's worked recently for papers in Seattle, St. Louis, Baltimore and back to Seattle, but no matter where his feet land, stellar investigations follow.        Â
Right now, it appears that Schneider is staked out…
sb admin | March 4, 2009The escalating drug-cartel violence in Mexico is especially dangerous for those trying to govern and enforce the law. Drug traffickers demanded that Ciudad Juarez Police Chief Chief Roberto Orduña Cruz should resign, and promised to kill a police officer every 48 hours. After Orduñaâs deputy, four other police officers, and a prison guard were murdered, Orduña resigned and fled the city. The federal government has sent 5,000 soldiers to take over the cityâs police department. The New York Timesâ Mark Lacy reports:
Right now, the Juárez police are no match for the outlaws. Last year, the…
sb admin | March 2, 2009Cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog Â
by Ken Ward, Jr.
Bayer CropScience hasnât said yet if it will challenge $143,000 in fines issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 13 serious and 2 repeat violations related to the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two Institute plant workers. But a vigorous court fight seems likely, given who Bayer has hired as its lawyer in the matter.Â
Robert C. Gombar is well known for his efforts to help companies that butt heads with OSHA over allegations that they werenât complying with workplace…
sb admin | March 2, 2009Updated below (3/17/09)
OMB Director Peter Orszag announced in a Federal Register notice last week that his office is interested in hearing your views on the federal regulatory process. The Request for Comments on new Executive Order on Federal Regulatory Review comes 4-weeks after President Obama's January 30 memorandum to department and agency heads (previous post here) announcing his plan to issue a new E.O., noting "...the principles governing regulation in generalâshould be revisited.â You better hurry if you want to share your views with OMB on a new E.O.; the comment…
sb admin | February 27, 2009The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision this week on legal challenges to OSHA's 2006 rule to protect workers from exposure to hexavalent chromium. In the simpliest terms, Public Citizen's Health Research Group and the Steelworkers argued that OSHA's rule was not protective enough, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) argued that they should be exempt from it. The three-judge panel, which included retired U.S. Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Connor, rejected all but one of the petitioners' claims, deferring largely to OSHA's authority. Circuit Judge…
cmonforton | February 26, 2009By Celeste Monforton
Last August 28, Bill Oxley and Barry Withrow, 45 were working at the Bayer CropScience’s plant in Institute, WV when a massive fireball erupted in an area where methomyl for the carbamate insecticide thiodicarb (Larvin) is produced. Mr. Withrow was killed immediately in the blast, and Mr. Oxley died after 43 days in a Pittsburgh burn center. When I first wrote about this disaster, in "911 operator: “I’m only allowed to tell you we have an emergency," I focused on reporting by the Charleston-Gazette's Ken Ward, who used excerpts from the 911 emergency call transcripts…
sb admin | February 24, 2009(Updated 3/2/09 below)
The U.S. economy is in the tank----the national unemployment rate for January was 7.6% and 46 States are facing serious budget shortfalls-----but these hard times are NO EXCUSE to roll-back worker safety protections.  Yet, that is exactly what some Kentucky lawmakers are proposing for workers employed at small underground coal mines.
Just two years ago, Kentucky adopted new rules requiring all underground coal mining operations to have at least two workers on-site (at least one underground) who are also trained as emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The…
sb admin | February 24, 2009On Sunday in Chinaâs Shanxi Province, an explosion rocked a coal mine where 436 people were working underground. Seventy-four of the workers died, and 114 were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. The New York Timesâ Edward Wong puts this terrible death toll in context:
The mining industry in China has a poor safety record. The government, which has been trying to improve safety standards by closing illegal mines, reported last month that about 3,200 people died in mining accidents last year, a 15 percent decrease from the previous year.
But the death rate still indicates that Chinaâs…
sb admin | February 17, 2009The Associated Press reports that Senators Byron Dorgan and Evan Bayh are still not satisfied with what the Department of Defenseâs response to illnesses among National Guard troops who were exposed to hexavalent chromium at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq. The Senators seek updates on efforts to communicate with potentially exposed National Guard troops from Oregon, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Indiana Guardsmen have already filed a federal lawsuit accusing KBR, the company contracted to rebuild the plant, of concealing the risks that the troops face.
Ten contractors who…
sb admin | February 16, 2009When the U.S. Senate reconvenes on Tuesday, February 24th, I've learned that they will move ahead with a vote on the nomination of Hilda Solis to serve as 25th Secretary of Labor.  This confirmation vote will take place 35 days following President Obama's inauguration.  If Mrs. Solis can secure the confirmation of our Asst. Secretaries for MSHA and OSHA in her first 35 days, I for one will be satisfied.
sb admin | February 12, 2009Linda Reinstein is a mother and grandmother.  Linda Reinstein is an asbestos-disease widow. Her husband Alan Reinstein, 67, died on May 22, 2006 from mesothelioma. Like her husband, Linda Reinstein is a fighter, an organizer, an activist.  Following Alan Reinstein's mesothelioma diagnosis in 2003, they founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) which is now entering its sixth year. The organization strives to serve as the "voice of the victims."
Next month, the ADAO will host its 5th annual Asbestos Awareness Day conference (March 27-29, Manhattan Beach,…
sb admin | February 10, 2009Cross-posted from CPR Blog, by Rena Steinzor
Weâve written a great deal about Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor who is expected to get the nod to be the âregulatory czarâ for the Obama Administration.  In a nutshell, our concern is that Sunstein will stifle the efforts of health, safety, and environmental protection agencies to struggle to their feet after eight long years of evisceration by the Bush Administrationâs regulatory czars, John Graham, and his protégé, Susan Dudley.
But, we got to thinking. Just because the 30-year tradition of regulatory czars is to kill regulations…
sb admin | February 9, 2009February 7th marked the one-year anniversary of the explosion of the Imperial Sugar plant that killed 14 workers in Port Wentworth, Georgia. (This post has links to our coverage of the tragedy.) In the Associated Press, Russ Bynum checks up on explosion survivor Jamie Butler, who still needs painkillers, steroid injections, and daily physical therapy as he recovers from being burnt all over his body. Butler lost his brother, John Calvin Butler Jr., in the blast, and says he knows the disaster could have been prevented.
In the Savannah Morning News, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairman and CEO…
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.…
sb admin | February 3, 2009The first piece of legislation President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for workers to fight pay discrimination. The Washington Postâs Richard Levy explains:
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will give workers alleging pay discrimination more time to take their cases to court. It effectively reverses a U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited Ledbetter's ability to sue after she discovered that Goodyear had been paying higher salaries to her male counterparts for nearly 20 years.
Ledbetter wonât benefit financially from the new law, but she…
sb admin | February 2, 2009I had high hopes that a new Secretary of Labor would hit the ground running on Jan. 20. I had visions of bright beams of light and positive energy radiating from the Department's Frances Perkins building, as an Obama crew under Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' leadership worked to restore DOL agencies' dedication to workers.  I was ready to start watching DOL's employees get back to their mission of ensuring that federal labor laws are enforced vigorously and enhanced appropriately to meet the conditions faced by workers today.Â
Instead, day after day, I read on the DOL website:
"A new…
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 26, 2009Back in July, a 300-foot crane collapsed at a Houston refinery and killed four workers: Marion âScooterâ Hubert Odom III, 41; John D. Henry, 33; Daniel âDJâ Lee Johnson, 30; and Rocky Dale Strength, 30. Now, federal regulators have reported that the craneâs operator, who was among those killed, had never been in the machineâs cab before that day and was not qualified to operate it. Dane Schiller writes in the Houston Chronicle:
âNot only was the crane operator inadequately trained, but the project superintendent did not ensure the crane did not reach hazardous conditions,â OSHA area director…
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…