While The Pump Handle is on holiday break, we are republishing some of our favorite posts from the past year. This one is from August 2016: Two decades ago, President Bill Clinton signed the “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act” (PRWORA) and heralded the end of “welfare as we know it.” The law lived up to that promise, but the outcomes for families who depend on it have been problematic.
Women's Health
Drop in preterm births followed Colorado’s rise in long-acting contraception use (rerun)
While The Pump Handle is on holiday break, we are republishing some of our favorite posts from the past year. This one is from February 2016: A study finds the odds of preterm birth were lower among Colorado women living in counties served by Title X clinics, which began offering free access to IUDs and contraceptive implants in 2009.
Dr. Steve Wing’s voice, courage and integrity touched the lives of many. I have yet to meet anyone so intertwined with both science and social movements. His legacy will continue through the ongoing struggles for justice and social change.
Both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump have suggested their respective administration’s would have more aggressive nuclear weapons policies. Knowing that, I wonder if it’s time to consider moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.
The most recent annual Federal OSHA evaluation report of Cal/OSHA highlights progress made in some areas, but continuing failure to meet several minimum federal benchmarks as well as requirements of California law. The underlying causes of these ongoing problems are chronic understaffing of field compliance officers and a lack of political will in the agency’s leadership.
Cal/OSHA
Cherry-picked workplace injury statistics hides the toll of injuries, illness and deaths in California
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.
Three railroad workers were killed on June 29 when two BNSF locomotives crashed head-on into each other. “Positive train control” could have prevented the collision, but regulatory deadlines were delayed by industry lobbying.
President Obama is entering the last year of his final term in office, so now we’re all supposed to be panicking over a dreaded phenomenon known as “midnight regulations.” Scared? Well, you shouldn’t be.
Public Health Practice
If we want to advance equity in public health practice, we must address race and power
To address health inequities more effectively, public health practitioners must not only address the determinants of health, but also the causes of inequities in the determinants including multiple forms of racism and the distribution of power.
Government
Fatal work injury that killed Gerald Thompson was preventable, MN-OSHA cites DSM Excavating
The fatal work-related injuries that killed Gerald Lyle Thompson could have been prevented had his employer followed worker safety regulations.