Environmental Health | 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 […]

Environmental Health National Contingency Plan Left Gulf Inadequately Prepared for Health Effects of Deepwater Horizon Disaster

February 16, 2011 The Pump Handle

By Elizabeth Grossman Since release of its Final Report to the President on January 11th, the National Oil Spill Commission has released five additional papers (called “working papers”) reviewing aspects of the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil disaster – three on February 3rd and two on February 8th. On February 11th, National Oil Spill Commissioners Don Boesch […]

Environmental Health Behind the kitchen door: low wages, few benefits for many U.S. restaurant workers

February 14, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 7Comment

Annual sales revenue in the nation’s restaurant industry tops $515 billion, but few of the 10.3 million workers in the industry earn a living wage. Those are the findings released today of comprehensive surveys of working conditions for 1,700 restaurant workers employed in Washington DC, Miami and Los Angeles. To date, more than 4,300 workers […]

Environmental Health Making the case for precautionary action to improve worker health and safety

February 1, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP) is known for challenging the status quo. Its scientists and policy analysts refuse to accept we have to live in a world where parents are worried about toxic toys, or companies feel forced to choose between earning profits and protecting the environment. Leave it to LCSP researchers to […]

Environmental Health The Deepwater Horizon Disaster’s Deep Roots

January 31, 2011 Elizabeth Grossman 4Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman The 398-page National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling final Report to the President on the Deepwater Horizon: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, released January 11, offers a scathing critique of the offshore oil-drilling industry’s approach to safety and of the U.S. […]

Environmental Health A disaster waiting to happen: The Chemical Safety Board Investigation Report on 2008 Bayer CropScience fatal pesticide chemical explosion

January 21, 2011 Elizabeth Grossman 8Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman On August 28, 2008 at 10:53 p.m., a massive explosion and fire, caused by a runaway chemical reaction, ripped through the Bayer CropScience pesticide plant in Institute, West Virginia. It killed two workers and injured eight employees, two contractors, and six fire-fighters, all of whom were treated for possible toxic chemical exposure. […]

Environmental Health A burger, two tacos and fries: Jumbo Deal provides 93% of daily saturated fat

January 18, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 8Comment

Have you seen the new TV commercial for Jack-in-the-Box set in a busy police precinct? A confident, all-business police detective barks into the phone: “Tell the Mayor to shove it.” He slams down the phone, walks purposely across the room and asks outloud: “Hey rookie, did you get lunch?” A guy in a black police […]

Environmental Health President Obama moves to the right on regulation; appeasing business has real life costs

January 18, 2011 The Pump Handle 8Comment

by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPR Blog Sixteen months ago, President Obama stood in the well of Congress and issued a ringing call for a progressive vision of government. Working to persuade Members of Congress to adopt health care reform, he said that “large-heartedness…is part of the American character.” Our ability to stand in other […]

Environmental Health Worth Reading: Highways, Ending Poverty, and the Dangers of Sitting

January 13, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH

A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: Travis Saunders at the Scientific American Guest Blog: Can sitting too much kill you? Tanya Snyder in Streetsblog Capitol Hill: Actually, Highway Builders, Roads Don’t Pay for Themselves Tina Rosenberg for the New York Times’ Opinionator: To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor Ilan Greenberg in Guernica: […]

Cancer OSHA must wash its hands of PELs

January 13, 2011 The Pump Handle 5Comment

by Eileen Senn, MS The multiple options that OSHA is considering to address their badly outdated rules for chemical hazards were described in my November 17 post. They include updating OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) which are erroneously considered to be safe levels for chemicals in workplace air. In reality, it’s wrong to call them […]