Some USDA meat and poultry inspectors work many hours of overtime. USDA insists it doesn’t affect their critical food safety responsibilities.
Injury Control & Violence
OSHA settlement with Wal-Mart calls for use of third-party safety auditors
Wal-Mart and OSHA reached an agreement to resolve a number of safety problems at 2,857 of the retailer’s stores. OSHA’s meager budget hardly allows it to do follow-up inspections at all of these sites. Wal-Mart will arrange for third-party monitors to assess their compliance with the settlement agreement.
Government
Safety equipment installed after the fact, too little, too late for Army veteran coal miner
Three months after a WV coal miner is killed on the job, the company decides to install safety equipment that could have saved his life.
Fair working standards for construction workers and financial profit for developers aren’t incompatible, according to a new report from Texas’ Workers Defense Project. In fact, consumers are actually willing to pay more to live in places built on principles of safety, economic justice and dignity.
Cancer
Pushing back against anti-regulatory forces, safety and environmental protections long overdue
The newly created Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action held today its first hearing. Witnesses described the toll on public health and safety when the regulatory process is paralyzed by powerful interests and required analyses with no proven benefits.
Pilgrim’s Pride is the world’s second largest poultry producer. The firm’s repeat violations of chemical process safety management should earn them OSHA’s severe violator label.
On July 15 and 16, about two dozen farmworkers paid an unprecedented visit to Capitol Hill to ask Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House to support increased protection from exposure to pesticides. Farmworkers have lobbied Congress before, but this is the first time such a visit focused entirely on pesticide exposure […]
Education
Sequestration claims another public health program: The Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance program
When I asked Teresa Schnorr why we should be worried about the loss of a little-known occupational health data gathering program, she quoted a popular saying in the field of surveillance: “What gets counted, gets done.”
The US Chemical Safety Board has been criticized for not doing more to press recipients of its recommendations to implement them. At a public meeting later this month, the Board will consider classifying OSHA’s response to several recommendations as “Open-Unacceptable.”
Injury Control & Violence
Third day on the job a deadly one for 22 year old worker, Texas company has OSHA history
It was only his third day on the job when Christopher Michael Cantu, 22, suffered a fatal work-related injury. The company has a history of violating workplace safety regulations, including ones that may have contributed to the young worker’s death.