December 30, 2016 The Pump Handle

While The Pump Handle is on holiday break, we are republishing some of our favorite posts from the past year. This one is from May 2016: Last summer, 25-year-old Roendy Granillo died of heat stroke while he installed flooring in a house in Melissa, Texas, just north of Dallas. His tragic and entirely preventable death marked a turning point in advocacy efforts to pass a rest break ordinance for local construction workers.

July 30, 2014 Kim Krisberg

McDonald’s ruling could be a major turning point for the fast food worker movement; federal commission clarifies rules for pregnant workers; miners with black lung may have been wrongly denied benefits; and a new OSHA whistleblower partnership is launched to support commercial carrier workers.

September 24, 2013 Liz Borkowski, MPH

Agrochemical bans have passed or are under consideration in some countries where young, previously healthy agricultural workers are developing chronic kidney disease at alarming rates; a study of cleanup workers who worked on Gulf of Mexico beaches and marshes following the 2010 BP oil spill finds “significantly altered blood profiles” associated with higher risk of some cancers; and OSHA cites a waste company and its temp labor provider following a workers’ death from heat stress.

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.