While the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act for the 21st Century was signed into law with considerable fanfare, the job of improving U.S. chemicals policy in is far from complete. During two EPA stakeholder meetings this month, we heard a familiar script fom the chemical industry.
A closer look at the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that injury and illness stats for California show the state has worse, not better, rates of worker injuries and illnesses than national levels or the performance of other major industrial states. The “but we have better stats” response from state officials cannot be used to justify the failure of the Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA to fill 38 vacant field compliance officer positions that have been fully funded since July 2015.
Farmworkers in south Texas continue to struggle 50 years after historic worker strike; Illinois governor signs Domestic Workers Bill of Rights; Samsung Electronics accused of withholding deadly chemical exposure information from workers; and OSHA fines a Tyson chicken plant after a worker loses a finger.
The coal industry made wild claims about its inability to comply with a proposed MSHA regulation to protect miners from developing black lung disease. Two years after the rules took affect, we see the magnitude of the industry’s exaggeration.
When I heard the news about the 10 year old who died at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, I couldn’t help but remember Nico Benavides. Benavides was fatally injured while working at Schlitterbahn’s park on San Padre Island, TX.
A new study in MMWR reports that 25.7% of US adults have been diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions. Three of the states with the highest prevalence of multiple chronic conditions haven’t accepted the Medicaid expansion, and one that expanded Medicaid may drop it.
Slate investigates a little-used Fair Labor Standards Act provision that could improve conditions for farmworkers; Syrian child refugees face exploitation in Turkey’s textile industry; OSHA cites a Wisconsin shipyard for exposing workers to high levels of lead; and researchers offer new insights into the effects of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law.
It sounds like malpractice to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking ever since learning how the injuries sustained by poultry workers are treated (and not treated) at the company nursing stations.
A gene that makes bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic colistin, mcr-1, has been found in 32 countries, and has been in the US since at least May 2015. Researchers in Belgium and Italy have additional alarming discoveries on related genes.