For four days last month, the staff working on OSHA’s cranes and derricks rule listened to testimony and exchanged information with witnesses during the agency’s public hearing on the proposed safety standard.  The hearing concluded on March 20, yet another step in the now five-year process by OSHA to update its crane standards. The standards on the books date back to 1971.  Troubling […]
University of California Berkeley’s Health Research for Action is calling on OSHA to revise its occupational health standard on lead, which is now 30 years old. In a report entitled “Indecent Exposure: Lead Puts Workers and Families at Risk,” the authors describe the adverse health effects of lead in workers with blood-lead levels of 5-10 ug/dL—a fraction of […]
With an announcement today in the Federal Register, Labor Secretary Solis’ OSHA is moving in a new direction to address occupational exposure to diacetyl. The butter-flavoring agent is associated with respiratory harm, including bronchiolitis obliterans. Just six days ago, Ronald Kuiper, 69, a former American Pop Corn Co succumbed to the disease. OSHA announced it is withdrawing the advanced notice […]
On March 17, OSHA will begin the public hearing phase of its rulemaking to improve workplace safety standards for cranes and derricks used in construction.  More than 30 individuals or organizations have notified OSHA of their intent to give testimony at the hearing, including several who also participated in the year-long negotiated rulemaking (NegReg) process used in 2003-2004 to […]
Cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog  by Ken Ward, Jr. Bayer CropScience hasnât said yet if it will challenge $143,000 in fines issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 13 serious and 2 repeat violations related to the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two Institute plant workers. But […]
Updated below (3/17/09) OMB Director Peter Orszag announced in a Federal Register notice last week that his office is interested in hearing your views on the federal regulatory process. The Request for Comments on new Executive Order on Federal Regulatory Review comes 4-weeks after President Obama’s January 30 memorandum to department and agency heads (previous post here) announcing his plan […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision this week on legal challenges to OSHA’s 2006 rule to protect workers from exposure to hexavalent chromium. In the simpliest terms, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and the Steelworkers argued that OSHA’s rule was not protective enough, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) argued that they […]
Linda Reinstein is a mother and grandmother.  Linda Reinstein is an asbestos-disease widow. Her husband Alan Reinstein, 67, died on May 22, 2006 from mesothelioma. Like her husband, Linda Reinstein is a fighter, an organizer, an activist.  Following Alan Reinstein’s mesothelioma diagnosis in 2003, they founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) which is now entering its sixth […]
Cross-posted from CPR Blog, by Rena Steinzor Weâve written a great deal about Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor who is expected to get the nod to be the âregulatory czarâ for the Obama Administration.  In a nutshell, our concern is that Sunstein will stifle the efforts of health, safety, and environmental protection agencies to […]
It doesnât seem to have made the news yet, but President Obama has just taken a very important step for the health of our water, air, and workplaces. An executive order published in todayâs Federal Register revokes EO 13422, by which President Bush gave the White House the power to interfere with regulatory agenciesâ activities. […]