Cancer Lung cancer risk of diesel-exposed workers reconfirmed, kudos to MSHA for addressing hazard 10 years ago
March 5, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 6Comment

The Center for Public integrity’s Jim Morris was the first to report that two long awaited cancer mortality studies of US workers exposed to diesel exhaust finds significantly elevated levels of lung cancer. Researchers with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) proposed the studies two decades […]

Read More
Environmental Health White House message: new regulations and election year don’t mix
January 27, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

The Republicans’ mantra about the burden of regulations seems to have cast a spell on the Obama Administration’s attitude about promoting new regulatory initiatives. My observations about this were reinforced this week when I read the Administration’s statement accompanying its Fall 2011 regulatory plan. The message is clear: new regulations and an election year don’t […]

Read More
Cancer Scientists urge White House to intervene in stalled worker safety rule
January 25, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

A group of 300 scientists, physicians and public health experts are urging President Obama to direct his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete its review of a proposed Labor Department health standard on the carcinogen crystallline silica. OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been reviewing the proposed rule for nearly […]

Read More
Cancer Cost of work-related injury and disease higher than cost for heart disease, cancer
January 20, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 1Comment

Money talks, as the saying goes, and a recently published paper on the annual cost of work-related injuries and illnesses should get policymakers to listen up. The number is staggering: $250 Billion, and it’s a figure on par with health conditions like cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes that attract much more attention and research […]

Read More
Injury Control & Violence Ignoring geologist’s recommendation had deadly consequences at Lucky Friday mine
December 19, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 2Comment

Last week’s violent rock burst at the Hecla Mining’s Lucky Friday mine was just one of several catastrophic events this year at the deep underground silver mine in Mullan, Idaho. Another rockburst occurred a month earlier, and just one day before another incident in which 26 year old Brandon Gray was engulfed in muck as […]

Read More
Mining Congressional Appropriators ignore what Upper Big Branch miners showed us about black lung disease
December 16, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

[Updated 1/4/12 below] The Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. pointed me yesterday to the latest attack on working people. House and Senate negotiators have apparently come to an agreement on an FY 2012 spending bill (165-page PDF) which includes funding for the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Tacked onto the bill are […]

Read More
Injury Control & Violence 20 miners escape violent rockburst at Idaho silver mine, April and November incidents killed two workers
December 15, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Just before 8:00 pm local time, a powerful burst of rock exploded in an area where at least 20 miners were working in the Lucky Friday mine. All the miners escaped to safety but several remain hospitalized. This silver mine in the Coeur d’Alene region has been the site of numerous serious incidents this year, […]

Read More
Mining $10.8 million penalty by Labor Dept for 29 dead at Upper Big Branch mine
December 6, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) released today the findings of its 20 month-long investigation into the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion. The April 5, 2010 disaster killed 29 workers, seriously injured another worker, and left hundreds of grieving family members and friends. MSHA identified 12 violations of safety […]

Read More
Cancer MSHA should scrap any plan to wait for OSHA action on respirable crystalline silica
November 25, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Before too long the US Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies should be issuing their annual regulatory plans and semi-annual agendas. These documents serve as official public notice of agencies’ regulatory (and deregulatory) priorities. The Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order (EO) 12866 direct agency heads to release these documents in April (agenda) […]

Read More