chemicals | The Pump Handle

Cancer Will farm workers be better protected? EPA proposes new pesticide protection standards but farm worker advocates see some steps backward

March 3, 2014 Elizabeth Grossman

“For us it’s personal,” said Jeannie Economos, Farmworker Association of Florida Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator. “It’s a daily issue for us. Every day with a weaker protection standard is another day a worker is exposed to pesticides,” she said. On February 20th the EPA proposed revisions to its Worker Protection Standard for agricultural pesticides. Farm worker advocates are welcoming the proposal – the first update since 1992 – but see both improvements and what some are calling “steps backward.”

Cancer Study: Replacing BPA in food products could save billions in health costs

January 31, 2014 Kim Krisberg 3Comment

In a first-of-its-kind study, a researcher has estimated that the health-related economic savings of removing bisphenol A from our food supply is a whopping $1.74 billion annually. And that’s a conservative estimate.

Environmental Health Can killing germs be hazardous to your health? Questions about “quats”

January 31, 2014 Elizabeth Grossman 2Comment

“Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products. Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water,” wrote the US Food and Drug Administration […]

Cancer Silica exposures in fracking : Over 60 percent of workers may be excessively exposed

November 21, 2013 Elizabeth Grossman

At least 1.7 million US workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica each year, this according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These exposures occur in a variety of industries, among them construction, sandblasting, mining, masonry, stone and quarry work, and in the rapidly expanding method of oil and gas extraction […]

Cancer The air we breathe: WHO says air pollution is carcinogenic and urges action – scientists contend industry is hindering progress

October 23, 2013 Elizabeth Grossman 3Comment

On October 17, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that it has classified air pollution as a human carcinogen. Although the composition of air pollution and exposure levels vary widely from place to place, IARC says its assessment is applicable worldwide and notes that exposures in rapidly industrializing countries […]

Environmental Health US Chemical Safety Board to hit hard on OSHA’s inaction on chemical hazards

July 16, 2013 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

The US Chemical Safety Board has been criticized for not doing more to press recipients of its recommendations to implement them. At a public meeting later this month, the Board will consider classifying OSHA’s response to several recommendations as “Open-Unacceptable.”

Environmental Health Trying to make the unacceptable acceptable: New books by Dan Fagin and Sarah Vogel illuminate our flawed history of controlling chemical hazards

April 8, 2013 Elizabeth Grossman

Two new books illustrate how and why the US system for regulating chemicals often fails to adequately protect human health.

Environmental Health A food safety inspector’s warning about chemicals and bacteria under USDA’s proposed poultry inspection “modernization”

February 19, 2013 The Pump Handle 3Comment

After nearly three decades as a USDA food safety inspector, Stan Painter tells me he now feels like “window dressing standing at the end of the line as product whizzes by.”

Environmental Health Report on chemical-asthma links a useful resource for workers at risk

September 21, 2012 The Pump Handle

It really is a chemical world, which is bad news for people with asthma. According to a recent report, at this very moment from where I write, I’m surrounded by objects and materials that contain chemicals that are known or suspected asthmagens — substances that can act as asthma triggers if inhaled.

Worker Health & Safety What Apple isn’t telling us: Working conditions in Apple’s “robust, flexible supply chain”

January 26, 2012 Elizabeth Grossman 3Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman The morning after President Obama’s State of the Union speech that featured plans for reinvigorating U.S. manufacturing, Marketplace Morning Report asked former Obama Administration economic advisor Jared Bernstein why a company like Apple doesn’t create more jobs in the U.S. “Well,” replied Bernstein, “because the infrastructure for consumer electronics – particularly the […]