OSHA | The Pump Handle

Environmental Health The Great Leap Backward – Do we really want to roll back regulations and look more like China?

February 22, 2011 Elizabeth Grossman 8Comment

By Elizabeth Grossman As I’ve watched the hearings House Republicans have been holding over the past couple of weeks on the economic impact of environmental and occupational health and safety regulations, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned about and seen of the working and environmental conditions in places that are now the hub of […]

Worker Health & Safety Wherever I look, whistleblower issues abound

January 3, 2011 The Pump Handle

Liz and Celeste are on vacation, so we’re re-posting some content from our old site. By Celeste Monforton, originally posted 3/11/10 I think the ghost of Tony Mazzocchi is haunting me. Every day for the last 10 days, I’ve been presented with narratives, videos, testimony and phone calls about the workers who are compelled or […]

OSHA Change at OSHA visible in news releases

August 27, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 8Comment

A classic tool used in public relations is a news release. Companies and other organizations craft these statements to announce new products, activities or accomplishments. Well-written news releases offer the what, where, when, who and why, and are often used “as-is” in trade publications and other print media. A collection of an organization’s news release […]

Environmental Health What Next: Assessing Deepwater Horizon damages and what we have yet to learn about the oil spill’s impacts

August 23, 2010 Elizabeth Grossman 5Comment

By Elizabeth Grossman On August 17th the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) held the first public discussion of plans for its Gulf Worker Study – also called the Gulf Long Term Follow-up Study – designed to assess short and long-term health effects associated with BP/Deepwater Horizon oil disaster clean-up work. “Since the spill,” […]

Injury Control & Violence Can OSHA ban a dangerous work practice?

August 19, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 6Comment

Earlier this month, Labor Secretary Solis proposed more than $16 million in penalties to 17 employers involved in the construction of the Kleen Energy Systems power plant in Middletown, Connecticut. The construction site was the scene of a massive explosion on the morning of February 7 in which Peter Chetulis, Ronald J Crabb, 42, Raymond […]

OSHA OSHA at Forty: New Strategies for Old Challenges

August 16, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 6Comment

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michaels has sent a letter to Occupational Safety and Health Administration staff laying out a vision for how OSHA can do a better job of protecting worker health and safety over the coming years. In “OSHA at Forty: New Challenges and New Directions,” Michaels gives […]

Worker Health & Safety Occupational Health News Roundup

August 6, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 4Comment

Back in February, an explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, Connecticut killed six workers and injured others. Workers had been finishing construction on the natural gas power plant, and natural gas under high pressure was being pumped through new fuel lines to remove debris. Much of this gas was vented into areas […]

OSHA OSHA Responds to Grain Bin Tragedies

August 4, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 21Comment

Last week, two workers were killed in an Illinois grain elevator. Alejandro Pacas, 19, and Wyatt Whitebread, 14, were engulfed by shelled corn in the Mount Carroll grain facility, which is owned by Haasbach, LLC. A third victim, Will Piper, 20, was trapped for approximately six hours before responders were able to remove him from […]

OSHA Diane Lillicrap on Crane Safety

July 29, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 1Comment

If you’ve got four minutes, go watch OSHA’s video of Diane Lillicrap speaking on crane safety. Diane’s son Steven Lillicrap, 21, was killed by a crane at a Missouri construction site in 2009. I wrote yesterday about the importance of OSHA’s new crane rule, but Diane conveys it in a much more powerful way.

OSHA OSHA Publishes Long-Awaited Crane Rule

July 28, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 5Comment

Earlier today, OSHA published its long-awaited final rule on cranes and derricks in construction. We’ve been following this rule’s slow progress for two years now, since a March 2008 crane collapse at a New York construction site killed six workers and a tourist. At the time, Celeste pointed out, “OSHA acknowledges that as many as […]