At the federal level, worker safety and health policies swung from high points to low points over the last 12 months. Those highs and lows–from new OSHA protections issued by the Obama administration to proposed rollbacks of funding and regulations by the Trump administration. Many of the highs and lows are described in the sixth edition of The Year in U.S. Occupational Health and Safety.
Day laborers who rebuilt neighborhoods following Superstorm Sandy shared their expertise to ensure that future disaster clean-up activities are done safely. Will the lessons they provide be learned in Houston?
Environmental Health
Popeyes, KFC’s supplier has sanitation problem, Senator takes notice of unsafe conditions
Case Farms poultry has a sanitation problem. Workers don’t have access to the bathroom when they need to use it.
Three lawsuits by different public health and environmental groups are challenging EPA’s new regulations on prioritizing and evaluating toxic chemicals. The regulations stem from amendments made by Congress last year to the 40 year old Toxic Substances Control Act. The groups argue that EPA is ignoring congressional intent.
The Pump Handle mourns the death of Lizzie Grossman. She was a contributor to The Pump Handle for more than six years. Lizzie’s first dozen blog posts featured her reporting about the Deepwater Horizon clean-up.
His “tooth fairy” research with school teachers led to decades of instrumental research on the relationship between lead exposure and intellectual impairment, school performance, and behavior disorders.
Business lobbyists in California claim proposed worker safety rules for heat illness prevention are on too fast a track. They might think differently if they set up their desk in a warehouse or laundry without air conditioning.
Remarks about safety for cyclists at the Tour de France have a familiar ring to those about workplace safety.
I explain five reasons why I’m not shocked by the epidemic of black lung cases among U.S. miners.
Like Capt. Louis Renault in the film Casablanca, I could declare “I’m shocked, shocked to learn about the epidemic of black lung disease in the U.S.”