A long-awaited proposal to protect 2 million workers from occupational silica exposure was announced today by OSHA.
Highway work zones can be deadly for road construction and maintenance workers. Safety and road construction experts made a series of recommendations in 2001 to agencies on ways to make these projects safer for workers. Have they help to prevent fatalities?
Injury Control & Violence
Really? Industry group launches campaign against worker centers, low-wage workers
In their efforts to protect the most vulnerable workers from illegal workplace practices and conditions, worker centers have now attracted the million-dollar ire of formidable anti-union forces. And while advocates say it’s a sign of worker centers’ success, it’s still a worrisome trend that’s made it all the way to the halls of Congress.
Injury Control & Violence
OSHA settlement with Wal-Mart calls for use of third-party safety auditors
Wal-Mart and OSHA reached an agreement to resolve a number of safety problems at 2,857 of the retailer’s stores. OSHA’s meager budget hardly allows it to do follow-up inspections at all of these sites. Wal-Mart will arrange for third-party monitors to assess their compliance with the settlement agreement.
Cancer
Pushing back against anti-regulatory forces, safety and environmental protections long overdue
The newly created Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action held today its first hearing. Witnesses described the toll on public health and safety when the regulatory process is paralyzed by powerful interests and required analyses with no proven benefits.
Pilgrim’s Pride is the world’s second largest poultry producer. The firm’s repeat violations of chemical process safety management should earn them OSHA’s severe violator label.
Education
Sequestration claims another public health program: The Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance program
When I asked Teresa Schnorr why we should be worried about the loss of a little-known occupational health data gathering program, she quoted a popular saying in the field of surveillance: “What gets counted, gets done.”
The US Chemical Safety Board has been criticized for not doing more to press recipients of its recommendations to implement them. At a public meeting later this month, the Board will consider classifying OSHA’s response to several recommendations as “Open-Unacceptable.”
Injury Control & Violence
Third day on the job a deadly one for 22 year old worker, Texas company has OSHA history
It was only his third day on the job when Christopher Michael Cantu, 22, suffered a fatal work-related injury. The company has a history of violating workplace safety regulations, including ones that may have contributed to the young worker’s death.
After a temp worker was killed in August 2012 at Bacardi’s bottling facility in Jacksonville, Florida, OSHA proposed willful violations and a $192,000 penalty. Did the rum producer own up and pay the penalty?