By David Michaels All of a sudden, America has become acutely aware of the terrible lung disease caused by workplace exposure to artificial butter flavor. Last week, the failure of OSHA to do anything in response to the outbreak of cases across the country was the subject of several powerful newspaper articles (including a front […]
By David Michaels Following up on a powerful indictment of OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl and other hazards published two days ago in the New York Times, todayâs edition of the newspaper has a scathing editorial on the demise of OSHA under the Bush Administration. The editorial writers particularly go after OSHA Assistant […]
Did you know that Wednesday was World Malaria Day? Farzaneh and Aman at Technology, Health & Development marked the occasion with posts about initiatives that are tackling the disease, while Merrill Goozner at GoozNews wonders why the World Banks seems to lack a sense of urgency on the issue. Regular ScienceBlogs readers probably noticed that […]
By David Michaels On April 26, 2002, exactly five years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the risk of a terrible and sometime fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in microwave popcorn workers. The report appeared in the CDC’s widely-disseminated Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Since then, dozens of workers […]
In a year-long investigation that involved more than 100 Freedom of Information Act requests to EPA, the Center for Public Integrity discovered that Superfund site cleanups are being started and completed more slowly than in the past; that the reimbursements the Superfund program is getting back from companies for cleanups has steadily declined; and that […]
OSHA’s failure to keep up with today’s workplace hazards is the subject of two Congressional hearings and one New York Times article this week (see our post on the topic, too). Senator Kennedy is set to introduce new legislation, called the Protect America’s Workers Act, tomorrow; earlier this week, Senator Patty Murray held a hearing and […]
By David Michaels On the front page of todayâs New York Times, reporter Stephen Labaton highlights a trend that weâve been writing about here at The Pump Handle for some time: Occupational Safety and Health Administration has delayed or halted work on important standards for worker protection and put more of its energies into voluntary […]
By Lee Friedman The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), based on OSHA logs, indicates that occupational injuries and illnesses in the U.S. have steadily declined by 35.8% between 1992-2003. However, major changes to the OSHA recordkeeping standard occurred in 1995 and 2001. A recent study we published illustrates that the steep decline in […]
By David Michaels As regular readers of this blog know, worker health advocates have been pushing for regulation of diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring chemical thatâs been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, a terrible, sometimes fatal lung disease. Today, in anticipation of two Congressional hearings and a major newspaper article due out tomorrow, OSHA has announced […]
When you go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and pay your fee to register your car, are you allowed to negotiate with the DMV as to how the agency will use your fee? Of course not. So why is the drug industry allowed to negotiate with the FDA about how the agency will use […]