Occupational Health & Safety
sb admin | February 1, 2007Congressman George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee says the Secretary of Labor has some explaining to do. Miller asserts that essential provisions of the MINER Act,* signed into law in June 2006 under the watchful and tear-filled eyes of Sago families, have not been implemented promptly or evenly.Â
In his letter to Sec. Elaine Chao, the committee chairman referred to missed statutory deadlines and the real-life consequences for coal miners.
"By this time, all underground coal miners were to have available to them a specific numberâ¦of reliable self-…
sb admin | January 30, 2007Les Skramstad was a good, decent man. He died earlier this month at 70-years young, from damage inflicted years earlier by greedy and reckless employers.Â
Les was a miner and laborer at the infamous vermiculite mine at Zonolite Mountain in Libby, Montana. The owners and operators of the mine, including W.R. Grace, knew that the pit contained their product of interest, vermiculite, but also tremolite asbestos. They knew the deadly consequences for people exposed to asbestos fibers, yet they intentionally withheld this information from their employees, their customers and government…
sb admin | January 29, 2007When workplace disasters make headlines, worker health and safety advocates have an opportunity to push for better legislation and enforcement. Recent news stories follow up on the response to last yearâs mining disasters and the 2005 explosion at BPâs Texas City refinery. (As always, Jordan Barabâs Confined Space has comprehensive back stories to these disasters.) Plus, there's news about police officer deaths, prison labor, and a safety fine for Tyson's.
After the Mining DisastersLast year, 12 mine employers died following an explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia; two miners died in…
sb admin | January 29, 2007by Les Boden
Yesterdayâs Washington Post has a long story about Mercury Morris, star running back of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in modern NFL history. Morrisâ neck was broken in a 1973 game on national television, and he has had significant physical and emotional problems ever since. He also has been fighting, unsuccessfully, for work-related disability payments for twenty years.
Given his fame, it isnât surprising that Mercury Morrisâs struggle to obtain the benefits he deserves gets newspaper coverage. Most workers with job-related disabilities are quickly forgotten…
sb admin | January 26, 2007Some of you may recall Mike Caseyâs compelling exposé in the Kansas City Star (Wayback Machine version here) regarding OSHAâs outrageously low fines for safety violations-- even those directly responsible for serious injuries to or even deaths of unsuspecting workers. While OSHA is supposedly committed to levy fines âsufficient to serve as an effective deterrent to violationsââthe punishment rarely fits the crime. According to former OSHA assistant secretary Jerry Scannell, (1989-1992), the current fines are âalmost like chump change with some companies.â
Companies pay the finesâoften…
sb admin | January 26, 2007By David Michaels
Yesterdayâs post by Les Boden on workersâ compensation fraud by employers brings up an important question: How much fraud is there in the comp system and who is responsible?
Insurers and employers have worked diligently to convince the public that the workersâ compensation rolls are filled with malingerers, intent on ripping off the system. The evidence is always anecdotal, like surreptitiously filmed clips of the supposedly disabled workers doing the mambo. If injured workers get the message that they will be labeled as âmalingerersâ if they receive apply workers comp…
sb admin | January 25, 2007Massey Energy, a major US coal mine operator, is boasting that its safety program has won the âhighly covetedâ Golden Pyramid Award. Isnât it a bit peculiar that a mining company where three workers were killed in 2006 would be recognized for its workplace safety and health program? And, we wonder what kind of organization would give Massey this distinction?
You may recall that Masseyâs Aracoma Alma mine was the site of the January 19, 2006 mine fire where coal miners Don Bragg, 33, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 47, perished underground. Investigations by the State of West VirginiaÂ…
sb admin | January 25, 2007by Les Boden
Today, The New York Times reports on an important study that shows us the tip of the iceberg of employer workersâ compensation fraud.
The Fiscal Policy Institute compared payroll dollars reported to the New York State Workersâ Compensation Board with payroll reported to the unemployment insurance (UI) system. They found that employers report 20% lower payroll to workersâ comp than they do to UI. Workersâ comp premiums are based on reported payroll, so this underreporting is a way of cheating on these premiums.
This is only part of the story, because the Fiscal Policy Institute…
sb admin | January 25, 2007Yesterday, Jordan Barab mothballed his blog Confined Space, and workers and worker advocates lost a powerful online resource. The good news is that weâve gained a political resource, since Jordanâs departure from the blogosphere is due to his new staff position on the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor. Still, weâll all miss the combination of up-to-the-minute news, biting commentary, and ceaseless advocacy for worker health and safety that have characterized Confined Space since its inception in 2003. (See Revereâs post yesterday for more on how much Jordan has…
sb admin | January 24, 2007Cross-posted at Effect Measure by Revere
Tonight The Reveres are putting on their party clothes and headed for Jordan Barab's place, Confined Space. Truthfully, this party is also a wake, because Jordan is closing up shop tonight and has invited everyone over (that means you, too) to celebrate his last post. We'll be gathering in the Comment Thread. That's the bad news. Here's the good news.
Jordan is closing the blog because he has a new job on Capitol Hill (for the non-Americans, that's where our legislative branch is located), working for the Committee on Education and Labor in the US…
sb admin | January 24, 2007By David Michaels
NIOSH scientist Patricia Sullivan has just published a very important study that reminds us (as if any reminder were needed) that there really is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
The study looked at the causes of death among workers involved in mining, milling and processing asbestos-containing vermiculite in WR Graceâs plant in Libby, Montana. Dr. Sullivan found increased risk of lung cancer among workers whose lifetime asbestos exposure was only slightly higher than they would receive working a lifetime at the current OSHA standard.
A little background: Vermiculite is…
sb admin | January 21, 2007Mining companies opposed to a health standard to protect underground miners from diesel particulate matter (DPM) finally had their day in court. The morning proceeding featured remarks about tail-wagging dogs and coal-mine canaries, presented before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Industry attorneys urged the Court to vacate the exposure limits and other provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Administrationâs (MSHA) 2001 DPM rule. From my vantage point sitting on the public gallery benches, Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsberg, Senior Judge Harry T.…
sb admin | January 19, 2007There have been a number of thoughtful and challenging comments on the future of safety and health posted in the past week. I want to acknowledge some of these and also to suggest more discussion about the principles that might help choose which potential actions to increase worker protection should get priority attention.
Donald Coit Smith raised legitimate concern about insurance funds being used to fund inspections rather when injured workers receive inadequate benefits to cover their lost wages after injuries. However, I cannot agree with his suggestion that penalty dollars be used to…
sb admin | January 17, 2007By David Michaels
Later today, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will hold a public meeting to consider issuing an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers exposed to the chemical diacetyl. This chemical, a primary component of artificial butter flavor, has been implicated as a cause of bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Yesterday, on behalf of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), I sent the Standards Board new evidence: an unpublished Dutch study reporting three cases of the rare lung…
sb admin | January 15, 2007By David Michaels
The outbreak of severe lung disease caused by exposure to diacetyl, the chemical that makes food taste like artificial butter flavor, is growing. According to the California Department of Health Services, there are now eight known cases of severe obstructive lung disease among workers exposed to diacetyl, with three more reported cases under investigation.
How many cases are occurring in other states? No one knows, because California is the only state in the country that is actively collecting information. Whatâs striking about the California cases is that none of the…
sb admin | January 12, 2007Thanks to those of you who have responded so far to the draft paper, âGetting Home Safe and Sound? OSHA at Thirty Five,â which was posted here several days ago. Many people have agreed with the need for this dialogue and indicated the intent to contribute to it. Comments so far have supported the need for a generic safety and health program rule; raised cautions about whatâs said in a public forum; urged stricter penalties when employers negligently violate OSHA rules; expressed the need to de-politicize OSHA; endorsed the idea of third party inspections and proposed examining the SEC…
sb admin | January 9, 2007By Michael Silverstein
Thirty-five years after the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the promise of worker protection remains substantially unfulfilled. Over the past several months, I have been traveling across the country and talking with people experienced in worker health and safety to gather ideas about what we can do to protect workers better. The more I hear, the more I am certain that we canât achieve this by simply trying harder to do more of the same.
The draft paper âGetting Home Safe and Sound? OSHA at Thirty-Fiveâ summarizes what Iâve learned and suggests three…
sb admin | January 3, 2007by Dick ClappÂ
The latest issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine contains a commentary from Ken Mundt, a consultant with ENVIRON International Corporation, on âCancer incidence among semiconductor and electronic storage device workers,â an IBM-funded study by Bender et al appearing in the same issue. Mundt says that âthe study offers some reassurance that at this stage of follow-up no noteworthy increases in cancer risk are seen among employees in the semiconductor production and storage device sectorsâ (though he notes that additional follow-up should be considered). I believe he…
sb admin | December 22, 2006By David Michaels
In July, two unions, backed by a group of scientists, petitioned both federal OSHA and California OSHA to issue rules to protect workers from diacetyl, the chemical implicated in dozens of cases of lung disease in the food industry (See our earlier post âArtificial Butter Flavor is (Still) Killing Workersâ).
Federal OSHA continues to do nothing. Earlier this month, a group of us met with several high level OSHA officials, who told us that the agency was still considering our petition. In other words, no action planned.
California, however, is moving forward.
The…
sb admin | December 20, 2006Thousands of hotel workers in Boston are awaiting the results of contract negotiations between Unite Here! Local 26 and the cityâs major hotel operators. Although their current contract expired on November 30, both sides agreed to extend it until February 1, 2007 while they continue to meet at the bargaining table.  Unite Here! Local 26 represents about 6,000 housekeepers, waitstaff, bellmen and other hotel workers in Boston, who are seeking a five-year contract with a wage increase, and larger contributions from their employers on healthcare and retirement plans. Besides these bread…