OSHA gave DuPont a 50 percent discount on a repeat violation that contributed to the death in November 2014 of four workers at the company’s LaPorte, TX plant. Instead of a $70,000 penalty, the company got off cheap with an even cheaper $35,000 one.
A draft bill to reform the 40 year old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) received bi-partisan unanimous support on May 14 by a House subcommittee. Health and environmental groups say lawmakers are moving in the right direction toward a bill the groups may be able to support.
Injury Control & Violence
Not an “accident”: Selvin Lopez-Castillo, 43, suffers fatal work-related injury in Franklin Township, NJ
This week’s snapshot of just one work-related fatality in the US. This one occurred on May 4, 2015 in Franklin Township, NJ
A powerful storm last week in eastern Texas illustrate why a new OSHA injury reporting requirement can stimulate prevention.
Public health researchers, agency officials and scholars describe the Toxic Substances Control Act as a defective, outdated law. They often use EPA’s failed effort to ban asbestos as a poster child for the broken law. A TSCA “reform” bill currently has traction in the Senate, but it’s left behind the poster child.
Community organizations in Massachusetts, Knoxville, Houston and elsewhere issued reports this week to commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day. All of the reports featured the names, faces and stories of victims of work-related fatalities.
A Massachusetts company that manufactures industrial floatation devices for the off-shore oil/gas industry exposed its workers to toxic dust. Nine cases of work-related asthma among its employees were reported to the state health department.
Cancer
Labor group outlines significant flaws in chemical reform bill, joins growing list of opponents
The AFL-CIO joins a growing list of organizations which have raised serious concerns—or outright oppose—the Vitter/Udall bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Injury Control & Violence
Not an “accident”: Ronald Lee MacKnight, 39, suffers fatal work-related injury in Farr West, UT
This week’s snapshot of just one work-related fatality in the US. This one occurred on April 13, in Weber County, UT.
More than two decades have passed since OSHA promised to issue a rule to protect construction workers from confined space hazards. What did OSHA do during that time to fulfill that promise?