regulation | The Pump Handle

Education Sequestration and OSHA: Impact so far seems minor, but advocates brace for an uncertain future

June 7, 2013 The Pump Handle 2Comment

Every week, the Austin-based Workers Defense Project welcomes standing room-only crowds to its Workers in Action meetings. And once a month, a local OSHA representative would join the meeting, giving some of Texas’ most vulnerable workers the chance to meet face-to-face with the agency. Unfortunately, due to the federal sequester, OSHA has had to indefinitely suspend its participation. It’s a significant loss.

Government Wage theft in South Florida: Nation’s first county with wage theft protections reports on progress and perils

May 14, 2013 The Pump Handle 1Comment

Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers wrapped up their latest legislative session. And nearly 500 miles south of Tallahassee in Miami-Dade County, workers’ rights advocates breathed yet another sigh of relief.

Addiction & Substance Abuse Study: Banning smoking in subsidized housing could save millions in health care costs

April 26, 2013 The Pump Handle 2Comment

Another day, another study that shows investing in public health interventions can make a serious dent in health care spending. A new study has found that banning smoking in all U.S. subsidized housing could yield cost savings of about $521 million every year.

Public Health Practice Worth reading: Lessons from Texas, H7N9, and putting pedestrians first

April 25, 2013 Liz Borkowski, MPH

A few recent pieces worth a look

Environmental Health New study lifts the lid on unhealthy kitchen conditions in migrant farmworker housing

February 22, 2013 The Pump Handle

For many migrant farmworkers, the health risks don’t stop at the end of the workday. After long, arduous hours in the field, many will return to a home that also poses dangers to their well-being. And quite ironically for a group of workers that harvests our nation’s food, one of those housing risks is poor cooking and eating facilities.

OSHA Worker safety rule stuck in White House black hole, disease risk persists

December 24, 2012 The Pump Handle

Many months have passed since the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a draft proposed regulation designed to protect workers who are exposed to respirable crystalline silica. (Re-post)

Food Safety & Nutrition What’s so big about the US government?

July 18, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 6Comment

As debt-ceiling negotiations continue and members of both parties express a desire for “leaner” government, James Kwak at The Atlantic offers an important reminder: Measuring the size of the US government by how much money it spends can be misleading. Social Security and Medicare, both of which are extremely popular, account for a huge chunk […]

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 […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Pork Producers Council Chair Highlights a Benefit of Regulation

February 9, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 5Comment

Last week, Mark Bittman published the New York Times column “A Food Manifesto for the Future,” in which he proposed ways to “make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring.” Among his suggestions was outlawing concentrated animal feeding operations, so it wasn’t surprising to see a […]

Regulation Safety Harnesses and the Benefits of Regulation

January 19, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 3Comment

In the new executive order, which Rena Steinzor wrote about yesterday, President Obama stated that agencies must “propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs.” This isn’t a revolutionary requirement; public-health agencies are already required to demonstrate cost-effectiveness of proposed regulations. For instance, when Occupational Safety and […]

Liz Borkowski, MPH	Celeste Monforton, DrPH,
Kim Krisberg	Garrett Brown