by Ken Ward, Jr., cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog During a public hearing last night in Georgia, the federal Chemical Safety Board tried to answer critics who complained the board had backed off its strong recommendation that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) write new rules to protect workers nationwide […]
WTOC in Savannah, GA is reporting that Georgia’s Senators, Republicans Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, are calling on OSHA to issue a regulation to protect workers from the dangers related to combustible dust. WTOC says that the Senators were brief today by officials of the Chemical Safety Board on the causes of the Feb. 7, 2008, explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery that […]
by Ken Ward, Jr., cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is scheduled to release the findings of its investigation into the terrible explosion that killed 14 workers at a Georgia sugar refinery in February 2008. Itâs another big test for the CSB, which has been under fire recently. […]
We long been hearing moans and groans from many in the business community about how OSHA rules stiffle the economy, or worse, from employers who insist that following OSHA rules will cost them jobs.  The sad truth is the exact opposite: failing to meet basic health and safety standards can shutter the doors of your business.  Just look at what was […]
Members of Congress George Miller (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Corrine Brown (D-FL)  sent a letter to acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab urging the agency to expand its process safety management standard (PSM) to address reactive chemicals. Reactives are highly unstable that can violently generate heat, energy and/or toxic gases when they come into contact with air, water or other […]
Today, Andrew Schneider at Cold Truth tells us that way back in April, acting Surgeon General Steven Galson issued a long-awaited statement about the dangers of asbestos, a statement urged for years by asbestos-disease victims, their families and public health advocates.  Galson’s action was so stealth (intentionally, perhaps?) that the individuals who had been calling for it were never even notified–Not the Senators who marshalled […]
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its report and recommendations yesterday on the December 19, 2007 explosion at the T2 laboratory in Jacksonville, Florida. The violent explosion took the lives of four individuals: Charles Budds Bolchoz, 48, Karey Renard Henry, 35, Parish Lamar Ashley36, and Robert Scott Gallagher, 49. The CSB compared to blast to one […]
 Earlier this month, the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center (ACLC) sent a petition to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) urging the agency to revise its regulations on respirable coal mine dust to better protect mine workers from pneumoconiosis and other disabling respiratory ailments.  The ACLC’s motto is “Working for Justice in the Appalachian Coalfields.” […]
A Washington Post editorial entitled “Down and Out” (9/8/09) alerted me to a new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) on working conditions experienced by low-wage workers in the U.S. The 72-page report “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers:  Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s cities,” describes the results of a survey conducted in 2008 […]
In a two-page notice in today’s Federal Register, the Department of Labor’s acting assistant secretary for policy has officially withdrawn the so-called “secret rule” on occupational health risk assessment. It was exactly this time last summer that the G.W. Bush Administration’s Labor Department proposed new requirements for OSHA’s and MSHA’s preparation of occupational health risk assessments.  The […]