Occupational Health & Safety
sb admin | May 14, 2007By David Michaels
OSHA has been taking a beating in the press recently and now they've started a small campaign to respond. It began with a blistering article (based in part on SKAPPâs work) by Steven Labaton in the New York Times, an article that was then reprinted in several newspapers around the country. Now, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Edwin G. Foulke Jr. is out there defending OSHAâs record issuing standards that protect worker health and safety.
Unfortunately, Mr. Foulke's arguments are reminiscent of the climate change deniers who oppose government…
sb admin | May 11, 2007By David Michaels
In the din of the recent press attention and Senate and House hearings on about OSHAâs failings, itâs easy to forget that OSHA has saved many lives, too. Some evidence on that score comes from a new paper three colleagues and I have just published in Chest (Welch LS, Haile E, Dement J, Michaels D. Change in prevalence of asbestos-related disease among sheet metal workers 1986 to 2004. Chest. 2007;131:863-9).
Before the newly formed OSHA issued its first asbestos standard in 1971, uncontrolled asbestos exposure occurred in numerous workplaces across the country. OSHA…
sb admin | May 9, 2007New reports on past disasters are in the news this week. Today, the Mine Safety and Health Administration released its report on the Sago Mine Disaster, which killed 12 mine workers; the report cites lightning for sparking the explosion that trapped the miners underground. A clinical study clearly linking World Trade Center dust to serious diseases - including sarcoidosis, a rare lung-scarring condition - was published in the medical journal Chest. And an internal report by BP about the deadly 2005 blast at its Texas City refinery recommends that four executives and managers be fired for…
sb admin | May 9, 2007By David Michaels
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has just released a study examining lung disease and exposure to flavor chemicals among workers at the Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Company factory in Commerce, California. One or possibly two cases of bronchiolitis obliterans had been known to public health authorities before the investigation. Of the thirty-four workers studied, three were found to have severe obstructive lung disease; NIOSH reports the expected prevalence of this condition in a group of relatively young workers is about one in a…
sb admin | May 8, 2007The Department of Labor recently published its semi-annual regulatory agenda with revised (again) target dates for OSHA and MSHA rules. The Department goes through this exercise twice a year, but it is a rare occasion when the "Timetable for Action" dates are actually met. After just a few moments comparing this agenda to the one published in December (71 Fed Reg 73539), one sees the same historical pattern of slipping target dates for much needed worker protections, including rules to prevent workers from developing cancer, silicosis, chronic beryllium disease, asbestosis among other…
sb admin | May 6, 2007By David Michaels
In the last few days, the national media has finally focused on the failure of OSHA to protect workers from devastating lung disease caused by exposure to artificial butter flavor. (The problem goes well beyond microwave popcorn factories, to the flavor industry and other snack food plants.) Articles in the Washington Post, the New York Times and The National Journal all compare OSHAâs inaction with the activities the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (or CalOSHA), which is moving toward a rule forcing employers to protect workers in the food industry…
sb admin | May 3, 2007During the April 24, 2007 House Workforce Protection Subcommittee hearing, â"Have OSHA Standards Kept up with Workplace Hazards?", the Bush administrationâs record in promulgating occupational safety and health standards was a hot topic. (âWith all of those [rules] that have been cast aside,â asked an indignant Congressman Hare (D-IL)â âwhatâs OSHA been doing?â)
         Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) stated: âTo date, the Bush administration has implemented 22 standards, with more than year left in the term,â and that therefore, âthe pace of regulatory rulemaking has not changedâ…
sb admin | May 2, 2007This edition of Occupational Health News Roundup is dedicated to Workersâ Memorial Day, which was observed around the world on April 28th.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: A ceremony commemorated the 100th anniversary of The Pittsburgh Survey (1907-1908), âthe pioneering work of Crystal Eastman and others which investigated the horrendous living conditions of Pittsburgh's working class as the 19th century began.â
Decatur, Illinois: Children held crosses bearing the names of workers who died on the job at a gathering to remember fallen workers.
Prince George, British Columbia: A new memorial to…
sb admin | April 30, 2007By David Michaels
All of a sudden, America has become acutely aware of the terrible lung disease caused by workplace exposure to artificial butter flavor. Last week, the failure of OSHA to do anything in response to the outbreak of cases across the country was the subject of several powerful newspaper articles (including a front page story and editorial in the New York Times) and hearings in the House and Senate. In addition, the obstructive lung disease cases in the flavor industry were discussed in an alarming article in CDCâs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The article reported that…
sb admin | April 27, 2007By David Michaels
Following up on a powerful indictment of OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl and other hazards published two days ago in the New York Times, todayâs edition of the newspaper has a scathing editorial on the demise of OSHA under the Bush Administration. The editorial writers particularly go after OSHA Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke, whom they refer to as âone of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues.â
The problem goes beyond the actions (or inactions) of one anti-regulatory zealot â OSHA has been beaten down and handcuffed for so long, even well-…
sb admin | April 26, 2007By David Michaels
On April 26, 2002, exactly five years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the risk of a terrible and sometime fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in microwave popcorn workers. The report appeared in the CDC's widely-disseminated Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Since then, dozens of workers at factories where artificial butter flavors are produced, mixed or applied have become sick, and at least three workers have died. Others are awaiting lung transplants.
By coincidence, today CDC has issued a new report in MMWR about…
sb admin | April 25, 2007OSHA's failure to keep up with today's workplace hazards is the subject of two Congressional hearings and one New York Times article this week (see our post on the topic, too). Senator Kennedy is set to introduce new legislation, called the Protect America's Workers Act, tomorrow; earlier this week, Senator Patty Murray held a hearing and introduced a bill on domestic violence in the workplace.
Also on the subject of workplace hazards and Capitol Hill, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization has posted a short video featuring John Thayer, supervisor of the crew of workers who were…
sb admin | April 25, 2007By David Michaels
On the front page of todayâs New York Times, reporter Stephen Labaton highlights a trend that weâve been writing about here at The Pump Handle for some time: Occupational Safety and Health Administration has delayed or halted work on important standards for worker protection and put more of its energies into voluntary programs that let employers decide how far theyâre willing to go to protect workersâ health and lives.
Labatonâs article focuses on OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring that numerous scientific studies have linked to…
sb admin | April 24, 2007By Lee Friedman
The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), based on OSHA logs, indicates that occupational injuries and illnesses in the U.S. have steadily declined by 35.8% between 1992-2003. However, major changes to the OSHA recordkeeping standard occurred in 1995 and 2001. A recent study we published illustrates that the steep decline in reported occupational injuries and illnesses during the past 10 years in the U.S. workforce is an artifact resulting from changes to the recordkeeping rules and regulations
rather than an improvement in workplace safety.
In February…
sb admin | April 24, 2007By David Michaels
As regular readers of this blog know, worker health advocates have been pushing for regulation of diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring chemical thatâs been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, a terrible, sometimes fatal lung disease.
Today, in anticipation of two Congressional hearings and a major newspaper article due out tomorrow, OSHA has announced that it will take its first steps to protect diacetyl-exposed workers. Unfortunately, OSHA has announced it will ignore thousands of workplaces where workers are being exposed with no protection, and will focus only on…
sb admin | April 23, 2007Two congressional committees, one in the House the other in the Senate will hold oversight hearings this week on OSHA. The timing is quite fitting: Saturday, April 28 is Worker Memorial Day.Â
On Tuesday, April 24, the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Education and Labor Committee's hearing "Have OSHA Standards Kept Up with Workplace Hazards?" will feature testimony from OSHA Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke. On Thursday, April 26, the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety will conduct a hearing entitled "Is OSHA Working for Working People?"
Witnesses…
sb admin | April 23, 2007Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 117 workplace deaths, including the following:
Vernon Christensen, a 72-year-old resident of Stayton, Oregon, was crushed by a reversing logging truck while working as a flagger on a logging road.
Lina Shearer, a 43-year-old resident of Clay City, Kentucky, was killed when a piece of machinery broke in the manufacturing plant where she worked and struck her in the neck.
Lt. Corey Dahlem, a 45-year-old police officer from Gainesville, Florida, died after…
sb admin | April 18, 2007Â Among the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech were five faculty members:
James BishopJocelyne Couture-NowakKevin GranataLiviu LibrescuG.V. Loganathan
Librescu was a 76 year-old Holocaust survivor who blocked his classroom doorway from the gunman while his students leapt to freedom.
The Roanoke Times has profiles of all the victims here.
LA Times: Amvac Chemical Corp. has settled a lawsuit alleging that its pesticide DBCP caused agricultural workers in Nicaragua to become sterile; the company will pay $300,000 to 13 former banana plantation workers.
Standard-Examiner: It is estimated…
sb admin | April 15, 2007By David Michaels
Weâve been wondering why the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration still hasnât issued new rules reducing worker exposure to silica, beryllium, diacetyl and other well-documented but under-regulated hazards. Now we understand. OSHA is hard at work, using its limited resources to weaken existing standards.
OSHA has just issued a proposed rule modifying the rules that are supposed to protect workers engaged in the manufacture, storage, sale, transportation, handling, and use of explosives. This modification was done at request of the munitions industry, which…
sb admin | April 13, 2007The owners-operators of the Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1, Ralph Napier, Connie G. Napier, and John D. North, were assessed a $336,000 penalty by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for violations related to the May 20, 2006 explosion and death of five coal miners. Press reports indicate that MSHA officials met for four hours yesterday with family members of the deceased miners, along with Paul Ledford, the only survivor from the crew, to discuss their investigation, findings and the citations issued to the mine operator.Â
The Louisville Courier-Journalâs Ralph Dunlop…