National COSH’s “Dirty Dozen” report profiles 12 employers with horrific safety and labor practices. Of all the fine content in the report two short lines will be sticking with me this Worker Memorial Day.
Food Safety & Nutrition
Demonstration at Perdue chicken plant, Tyson Foods says its sustainability goals will integrate worker safety
Worker advocates and consumers continue to pressure poultry companies to improve conditions for their employees. Perdue accepted petitions from 100,000 consumers while Tyson Foods made promises to increase wages and reduce injuries.
Immigrant workers who get injured at work now fearful about accessing workers’ comp; women ironworkers win six months of paid maternity leave; many home health workers still going without health insurance coverage; and a health care union declares itself a sanctuary for immigrants.
OSHA’s list of bad actors has two new members. An update of the agency’s “severe violators” program shows two companies were added since President Trump took office.
Federal contractors receive billions in public funds despite wage violations; Alabama’s auto industry putting workers’ lives in danger; OSHA delays life-saving silica standard; and Maryland and Nevada legislators approve paid sick leave measures.
It was a breath of fresh air speaking to a senior OSHA official who knows they have a job to do and they are doing it.
Injury Control & Violence
First study of Oregon’s seafood processing workers finds high rate of injury
As a PhD student, Laura Syron was helping her advisor with workplace safety research focused on the Pacific Northwest commercial fishing industry. The project got her thinking about worker safety throughout the seafood supply chain, from the boat to the processing plant. So she decided to do a study of her own.
Instead of calling worker fatalities “accidents,” could the press communicate how such incidents could be averted? A new paper published in the Journal of Agromedicine got me thinking about the topic.
Before Patrick Morrison worked for the International Association of Fire Fighters, he was a firefighter himself. He’s experienced the horrifying and profoundly saddening events that first responders see every day. And like many other firefighters, he turned to alcohol to deal with the accumulating mental trauma.
Environmental Health
Midnight 28 years ago: Exxon Valdez ran aground, 11 million gallons crude oil released
28 years ago today, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground off the coast of Alaska and released 11 million gallons of crude oil.