Worker Health & Safety | The Pump Handle

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,” […]

Mining 33 Chilean Miners Alive After 17 Days

August 22, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 19Comment

An August 5th collapse at the San Jose gold and copper mine in Chile’s Atacama region trapped 33 miners hundreds of meters underground. Rescue teams had been drilling toward a refuge site, where it was hoped the miners had been able to take shelter – and earlier today, a probe sent down into the mine […]

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 […]

Environmental Health Occupational Health News Roundup

August 18, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH

Before BP’s name was linked in everyone’s mind to the Gulf oil disaster, the company was infamous for its unsafe Texas City refinery, where a March 2005 explosion killed 15 workers and injured 170. In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for $21 million, and BP paid the fine and entered into an agreement with OSHA […]

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 […]

Mining Two miners not yet located at Barrick gold mine in Nevada

August 13, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 4Comment

Updated (8/15/10 2:00 pm EST) below Mine rescue teams continue their search to rescue or recover two workers struck by a “large surge of pressure” as they were being lowered into a mine shaft at Barrick’s Meikle mine near Elko, Nevada. As the Associated Press reports, the incident occurred on Thursday, August 12 at 1:15 […]

Environmental Health “We are by no means through this disaster” – Gulf Coast fishing community searches for some certainty

August 12, 2010 Elizabeth Grossman 2Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman “After three long months of oil geysering continuously from the depths of the Gulf, a temporary cap has stemmed the flow and it appears that the well is on its way to being killed. But we are by no means through this disaster,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in his opening remarks […]

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 […]

Worker Health & Safety Cutting workers, demanding shortcuts: recipe for injury and death on the job

August 2, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 5Comment

“They were rushing because they had to get the equipment to another jobsite,” said the widow. “The boss tapped him to do the work because they were short-handed. He wasn’t trained to do it” said the grieving mother. “Yeah, I used equipment that I knew was unsafe. You’re shunned if you complain,” noted the disabled […]