September 28, 2007 The Pump Handle

Before this week’s climate conference began, Climate Progress predicted, “The Bush Administration will use every opportunity to create the illusion of action without agreeing to meaningful, binding pollution reductions.” Today, that blog reports that Bush followed “the Frank Luntz playbook on how to seem like you care about the climate when you don’t,” while Bill […]

September 28, 2007 The Pump Handle

The Senate HELP Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 2 on “Current Mine Safety Disasters: Issues and Challenges.”  The witness list includes the same familiar faces from MSHA, NIOSH, the UMWA and National Mining Association, but the Committee has also invited two “newcomers” to these mine safety hearings.  One is former MSHA engineer Robert Ferriter (now with the Colorado […]

September 28, 2007 The Pump Handle 4Comment

While the House of Representatives was voting Wednesday to approve the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act (here), OSHA’s Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke had just mailed a letter rejecting a petition from a group of workers’ who’d asked for emergency protection from the respiratory hazards caused by butter-flavoring agents.  Mr. Foulke’s response is not only tardy—it took them 14 […]

September 27, 2007 The Pump Handle 1Comment

By Kristen Perosino  Is FDA on the road to recovery? Will public confidence in the agency be restored? In what is bound to be an interesting policy address (not to mention well-timed, as the recently passed FDA Amendments Act of 2007 awaits Bush’s signature), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) is scheduled to present her vision of […]

September 27, 2007 The Pump Handle 5Comment

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) explaining his opposition to H.R. 2693, the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act, which would require OSHA to protect workers from breathing toxic chemicals used in artificial butter flavor: “If there’s something wrong with popcorn, how did Orville Redenbacher live so long?”

September 27, 2007 The Pump Handle

The recent recalls of dangerous toys and defective cribs have received a great deal of press attention, but closer analysis reveals that consumer product recalls are generally ineffective at getting most defective products out of consumers’ homes.

September 26, 2007 The Pump Handle

By Liz Borkowski Yesterday, the White House and the OSHA Fairness Coalition (which includes members like the International Food Distributors Association, National Association of Manufacturers, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce) wrote to members of the House of Representatives to express their strong opposition to H.R. 2693, the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act. No one who’s […]

September 25, 2007 The Pump Handle 2Comment

By David Michaels Days before the House will vote on legislation to force OSHA to regulate diacetyl (the artificial butter flavor chemical that causes bronchiolitis obliterans), the agency has apparently decided that perhaps it is finally time to begin the rulemaking process for this substance. Yesterday, fourteen months after we petitioned OSHA for an emergency […]