UCLA settles with state prosecutors over the death of lab technician Sheri Sangji; investigative reporters in the Bay Area find young children working in the fields; and Australian RAAF firefighters ask the government for compensation for diseases that may be linked to toxic exposures during training.
Massachusetts’ Temporary Workers’ Right to Know Act, just passed by the state’s legislature, aims to end the all-too-common exploitation of temporary workers.
After years of diligent and effective advocacy by former Marines and family members, the House voted on July 31, 2012 in favor of the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act (H.R. 1627). The bill’s first section is named after Janey Ensminger, who died of leukemia at age nine after exposure to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
Injury Control & Violence
Coal miner killed in West Virginia while memorial to Upper Big Branch unveiled
Coal miner Johnny Mack Bryant II, 35, was killed on Friday, July 27 in the “red zone” when he was struck and pinned by a continuous mining machine. Let’s see whether this work-related fatality gives the Labor Department a greater sense of urgency to finalize safety regulations to require proximity detection devices on certain types of mining equipment.
In the fall of 2011, a new Texas statute took effect against employers who engage in wage theft, putting in place real consequences for employers found guilty of stealing wages from workers. It was a big step forward in a state where wage theft has become as common as cowboy boots and pick-up trucks. It was especially good news for workers in El Paso, where wage theft has become so rampant that workers rights advocates have dubbed it an “epidemic.”
APHA Annual Meeting
Chinese factory-fire victim turned activist to be honored by world’s largest public health group
Yuying Chen transformed from a 15 year old girl who worked in a factory making toys for export, to a woman empowered by a workplace disaster, to an internationally recognized human rights leader. She will receive the American Public Health Association’s International Health & Safety Activist’s award at the group’s annual meeting to be held October 27-31, 2012 in San Francisco.
Members of Congress and the Mine Safety & Health Administration respond to an investigative series on the resurgence of black lung disease among miners; OSHA cracks down on railroad employers who retaliate against whistleblowing employees, and relies on education rather than an emergency standard to address heat stress; and gunmen in Pakistan attack the vehicle of a doctor involved in a polio vaccination campaign.
Worker Health & Safety
Silica hazards in fracking continued: Where did NIOSH find unsafe dust levels?
Revealing the location of the hydrofracking operations where the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found levels of respirable silica at 10-100 times above the recommended safety limits is important to the health of those who have worked at those sites or others like them.
Mining
House Republicans say the heck with black lung disease, have a coal miner postage stamp instead
While investigative reporters are exposing the plague of black lung disease in U.S. coal miners, the best Members of Congress are willing to do is ask for a postage stamp commemorating the American Coal Miner.
The Washington Post’s article “Meaningless millions” captures some of the heartbreak experienced when your loved one is killed on the job, but like most things, there’s more to the story.