Los Angeles jurors awarded $3.2 million in damages to six Nicaraguan workers who say they were left sterile after being exposed to the pesticide DBCP on Dole Foodsâ banana plantations. DBCP has been banned in most of the world; California banned it in 1977, after DBCP was found to cause sterility in men working at […]
At last week’s annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the organization adopted more than a dozen new policy resolutions which will guide its work into the future. Included among them was a call for “Congress to fundamentally restructure the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA)” so that more attention is paid to the […]
What does it take for MSHA’s Richard Stickler and the Solicitor of Labor to do their jobs? Front-page newspaper stories about MSHA’s failures? A letter from a grieving mother? A petition signed by other family-member victims of workplace fatalities? Apparently, it took all this and more for MSHA finally to decide that the November 8, 2005 coal truck accident at the Alliance Resources’ Metikki […]
Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., and the Department of Veterans Affairs reminds us of the purpose: Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military – in wartime or peacetime. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their […]
Tyler Kahle, 19, (photo) and Craig Bagley, 27 (photo) were killed four months ago at the NovaGold Resources’ Rock Creek mine near Nome, Alaska. MSHA is completing its investigation; so far, all the Kahle family has been told is that the lift basket was 90 feet off the ground and “it tipped over.” Sadly, what the Kahle family has learned, is that […]
The long awaited EPA study of chemicals emitted when microwave popcorn is popped has just been published. Its results are not surprising: popping microwave butter flavor popcorn releases a sizable number of chemicals into the air, although not necessarily in large amounts. These chemicals include diacetyl, the primary chemical implicated in the bronchiolitis obliterans (âpopcorn […]
At the APHA meeting yesterday, the APHAâs Occupational Health & Safety Section held its annual awards luncheon â and the list of honorees included names that are familiar to many Pump Handle readers.
The House Education & Labor Committee has approved a bill (the Supplementary MINER Act) that would speed up deadlines for several mine rescue requirements passed by Congress last year, and require more oversight by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Ken Ward Jr. has the details about the billâs provisions â and MSHA head Richard […]
Itâs impossible to attend all of the interesting-sounding sessions at the APHA annual meeting, so now pressed-for-time attendees can catch up on some of what theyâve missed through the APHA Annual Meeting Blog. Kim Krisberg, Bithiah Lafontant, Alyssa Bindman, and Patti Truant are reporting on sessions at the blog; so far, theyâve posted on communicating with […]
Yesterday, at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, I picked up a copy of Les Leopoldâs new biography The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi. Tony is the towering figure in the US occupational safety and health movement. Until his death in 2002, Tony did more […]