Last week, the Senate confirmed Howard Shelanski to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), part of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the source of many lengthy delays of health and safety regulations. On Sunday, the New York Times published a scathing editorial about the backlog of draft rules at OIRA.
Cancer
Carcinogen use and release declines dramatically in Massachusetts: An important step in cancer prevention
Following passage of a Massachusetts law requiring companies to report on their use of toxic chemicals, environmental releases of potentially carcinogenic chemicals declined 93% between 1991 and 2010 while reported use declined 32% between 1990 and 2010.
Food Safety & Nutrition
Harsh working conditions in US poultry and meatpacking plants violate human rights, OAS Commission to review the claim
Civil rights groups filed a petition today with the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asserting that the U.S. government has failed to protect poultry and meatpacking workers from permanently disabling and life altering work-related injuries and other abuses.
Injury Control & Violence
News Flash: your safety program stinks if workers lose fingers in machines
After receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in OSHA penalties, and workers losing fingers in machines, you’d think this company would accept that its current safety program stinks.
A federal judge rebukes a coal company that sued a miner for filing a whistleblower discrimination complaint; EPA and OSHA have yet to announce formal enforcement activities for the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion; and LA bus drivers say pesticides used on buses are making them sick.
Environmental Health
Dow Chemical’s “exemplary” worker safety program, an utter failure for Brian Johns, 45, burn victim
Serious safety lapses at the Deer Park, TX Dow Chemical plant led to the death of Brian Johns. An OSHA “Star” status is only as good as what happens for workers on the front lines.
Environmental Health
Security cameras in taxicabs, not partitions, reduce homicide rates for cab drivers
The risk of homicide is higher for taxicab drivers than for most other occupations. A new study finds that surveillance cameras mounted inside the cabs substantially reduce the drivers’ risk of homicide.
As workers converged on Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting in a quest for higher pay and better working conditions, an in-depth article on Costco highlighted some stark differences between the two big-box stores.
A fire in a Chinese poultry plant with narrow halls and locked exits killed 120 workers; a NIOSH study finds high rates of carpal tunnel syndrome among poultry workers and fuels concerns that USDA’s proposed rule allowing line-speed increases will increase health risks to workers; and Congress takes steps toward addressing military sexual assault.
President Obama’s nominee for regulatory czar has an affinity for timeliness. It will be interesting to see how he deals with a backlog of rules “under review” and an office plagued by missed deadlines.