By 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 […]
By 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 […]
By 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 […]
Two 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. 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?” […]
Tammy 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, […]
 Among the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech were five faculty members: James Bishop Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Kevin Granata Liviu Librescu G.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.
By 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 […]
The 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 […]
If you only read one article on the issue of occupational health and safety this week, make it Ray Ring’s “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields,” published last week in High Country News. “The core of the story can be classified as straightforward investigative coup,” editor John Mecklin explains in an accompanying piece . “In […]
By David Michaels The Bush Administration has gone all out to make sure states play no role in setting health and safety standards. This is not surprising, of course, since many states are far more committed to health and safety protection than the folks who currently run the federal government. Yesterday I talked about California’s […]