In March 2006, a coalition of industry trade groups, led by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), filed suit in federal court challenging OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard. This rule, issued by OSHA in 1983, (48 Federal Register 53280) provides fundamental right-to-know protections to most U.S. workers.  Among other things, the HazCom rule requires employers to give workers access […]
By David Michaels OSHA has been taking a beating in the press recently and now they’ve started a small campaign to respond. It began with a blistering article (based in part on SKAPPâs work) by Steven Labaton in the New York Times, an article that was then reprinted in several newspapers around the country. Now, […]
By David Michaels In the din of the recent press attention and Senate and House hearings on about OSHAâs failings, itâs easy to forget that OSHA has saved many lives, too. Some evidence on that score comes from a new paper three colleagues and I have just published in Chest (Welch LS, Haile E, Dement […]
Several bloggers have been following the story of Julie MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary who oversaw the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceâs endangered species program and resigned in disgrace last week, after it was revealed that sheâd been giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents. GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life, James Hrynyshyn at Island of Doubt, and […]
Regulation
Even the National Research Council Couldnât Kill It: Dudley Resurrects OMBâs Risk Assessment Bulletin
By David Michaels Matt Madia at Reg Watch has tipped us off to an article about the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs head Susan Dudley (in the subscription-only BNA), in she which gives us a preview of what we can expect from this part of the executive branch during the remainder of the Bush […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Look and Ye Shall Find: New Study of Lung Disease in Flavoring Workers
By David Michaels The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has just released a study examining lung disease and exposure to flavor chemicals among workers at the Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Company factory in Commerce, California. One or possibly two cases of bronchiolitis obliterans had been known to public health authorities before the […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Eight Months Later, Will FDA Finally Consider Diacetyl’s Safety?
By David Michaels Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee that funds the FDA has called on Food and Drug Administration to ban diacetyl until more research is completed. As we’ve written (here and here, for example), diacetyl is the artificial butter flavor chemical that has been crippling workers […]
The Department of Labor recently published its semi-annual regulatory agenda with revised (again) target dates for OSHA and MSHA rules. The Department goes through this exercise twice a year, but it is a rare occasion when the “Timetable for Action” dates are actually met. After just a few moments comparing this agenda to the one published […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Preventing Flavor Workers’ Lung Disease: A Tale of Two Regulatory Systems
By David Michaels In the last few days, the national media has finally focused on the failure of OSHA to protect workers from devastating lung disease caused by exposure to artificial butter flavor. (The problem goes well beyond microwave popcorn factories, to the flavor industry and other snack food plants.) Articles in the Washington Post, […]
During the April 24, 2007 House Workforce Protection Subcommittee hearing, â”Have OSHA Standards Kept up with Workplace Hazards?”, the Bush administrationâs record in promulgating occupational safety and health standards was a hot topic. (âWith all of those [rules] that have been cast aside,â asked an indignant Congressman Hare (D-IL)â âwhatâs OSHA been doing?â)       […]