September 8, 2008 The Pump Handle 1Comment

Last month, David Michaels spoke to Google employees about his book Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, and Google has now posted the video on YouTube as part of their Authors@Google series. The Google employees asked astute questions (starting around the 31-minute mark), touching on freedom of speech issues; what industry […]

September 8, 2008 The Pump Handle 2Comment

“This happens. We live with that.” These are the words of ironworker Luis Guzman, who was working at the site of a new Manhattan skyscraper Tuesday when his fellow worker, Anthony Espito, 43, fell 40 stories (roughly 400 feet) to the ground. He was killed instantly. It appeared Mr. Espito was in fact wearing a […]

September 5, 2008 The Pump Handle

Given all the recent problems with contaminated food, it’s not surprising that food labeling is a hot topic these days: Revere at Effect Measure thinks it’s ridiculous that the USDA is denying a meatpacker permission to test all of its cattle for mad cow disease. Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients updates us on progress toward […]

September 5, 2008 The Pump Handle

On Labor Day, Matthew D. LaPlante reported in the Salt Lake Tribune: On a day purportedly dedicated to America’s laborers, much of the nation’s labor force remained out in force. According to Development Dimensions International, a human resource consulting firm, about 40 percent of Americans work on Labor Day. Some work because they want to. […]

September 4, 2008 The Pump Handle 4Comment

Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette has been following closely and reporting on the deadly blast on Aug 28 at the multinational Bayer CropScience’s plant in Institute, WV.  His first story (here) indicated that witnesses saw a red fireball at about 10:25 pm, and that thousands of residents were told to shelter in place, and his next story reported on […]

September 4, 2008 The Pump Handle

The Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) confirmed yesterday that it has referred evidence related to the Crandall Canyon disaster to a federal district attorney for a possible criminal investigation.  Murray Energy was assessed a $1.34 million civil penalty on July 24 for violations related to the massive ground failure which took […]

September 4, 2008 The Pump Handle 1Comment

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure McCain wants to go full speed ahead for nuclear power (that’s a maverick’s way of dealing with climate change?) and Obama seems to feel friendly to it, too, as long as the waste disposal issue can be solved, satisfactorily (which it doesn’t seem it can be, but that’s another […]

September 3, 2008 The Pump Handle 3Comment

On Friday, August 29, Carolyn Merritt, 61, the former chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (2002-2007) passed away after a valiant battle against metastic breast cancer.  Advocates for workers’ safety will remember Ms. Merritt as an outspoken expert who minced no words when she insisted that work-related injuries and fatalities are PREVENTABLE. Tammy Miser […]

September 2, 2008 The Pump Handle

Last month, Congress passed and the President signed major legislation strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Washington Post’s Annys Shin described it this way: The measure … represents the most significant expansion of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) since it was created in 1973. It also marks a fundamental shift in the federal […]