November 15, 2013 Liz Borkowski, MPH

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposes a rule that would make large companies’ injury and illness reports publicly available; Johns Hopkins Medicine suspends its black lung program after its activities are highlighted in a Center for Public Integrity report on miners denied black lung benefits; and an explosion at a Ciudad Juarez candy factory kills four workers.

November 7, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 7Comment

Now that the Presidential election is over, it’s time for the Labor Department to kick into high gear expand workers’ rights and ensuring workers’ lives and health are protected. Here’s my wish list of tasks for the Labor Department to accomplish in the next 6 months:

July 24, 2012 Liz Borkowski, MPH

Members of Congress and the Mine Safety & Health Administration respond to an investigative series on the resurgence of black lung disease among miners; OSHA cracks down on railroad employers who retaliate against whistleblowing employees, and relies on education rather than an emergency standard to address heat stress; and gunmen in Pakistan attack the vehicle of a doctor involved in a polio vaccination campaign.

November 25, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Before too long the US Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies should be issuing their annual regulatory plans and semi-annual agendas. These documents serve as official public notice of agencies’ regulatory (and deregulatory) priorities. The Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order (EO) 12866 direct agency heads to release these documents in April (agenda) […]

February 23, 2011 The Pump Handle 3Comment

By Dick Clapp An ambitious paper was released in Boston last week, with subsequent media coverage in local, national and international outlets (see, for example the New York Times’ Green Blog and Reuters). The first author, Paul Epstein, was interviewed on the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise, which was anchored in the Boston Harbor as […]