Kane at Osha Underground has posted an insightful, deservedly hostile response to OSHA Administrator Ed Foulke’s testimony at Tuesday’s Senate hearing on combustible dust explosions. In response to Foulke’s insistence that “The fatalities and injuries at the Port Wentworth sugar refinery probably could have been prevented, had Imperial Sugar complied with existing OSHA standards on […]
Bloggers keep us up to date on whatâs happening in Congress: Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth reports that both houses have now passed legislation reducing the amount of lead and phthalates allowed in childrenâs products and increasing the regulatory strength of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Andrew Plemmons Pratt at Science Progress considers FDA regulation […]
Celeste was the first to draw attention to the Department of Labor’s proposed risk-assessment rule, whose title appeared suddenly on the Office of Management and Budget website without having been published first in DOL’s regulatory agenda, and she’s continued to track the news about it and explain how it threatens worker health. Yesterday, Congressman George Miller […]
In a commentary on this morningâs Marketplace, the Cato Instituteâs Will Wilkinson critiqued T. Boone Pickensâ new energy plan â and in doing so, painted a misleading picture of the governmentâs role our energy usage. Pickens wants wind energy to replace natural gas in electricity generation, and use the freed-up natural gas to fuel vehicles […]
Congressman George Miller (D-CA) along with 11 co-sponsors introduced a bill yesterday (H.R. 6660) to prohibit Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao from issuing her proposed rule mandating new requirements for health risk assessments prepared by MSHA and OSHA. The Congressman’s statement accompanying the bill makes plain his disdain for the Bush Administration’s 7 1/2 year assualt on […]
In the Wausau Daily Herald, Gannett Wisconsin Media reports that an explosion at the Packaging Corp of America in Bradley, Wisconsin killed three workers: Randy Hoegger, 55, and Steve Voermans, 52, both of Tomahawk, and Donald Snyder, 46, of Merrill. According to a company human resources manager, the men were performing maintenance on top of […]
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure The FDA is saying they still aren’t sure how over 1200 Salmonella stpaul cases resulted from food chain contamination but they are saying its from jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico. This from a press release July 25:
Thanks to Carol Leonnig at the Washington Post and her confidential sources, we can see the true measure of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s disrespect for U.S. workers, embodied in her proposed rule on risk assessement. I blogged first about this “secret rule” on July 8, with follow-ups (here and here), but the challenge for […]
The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports that a senior EPA official has told managers that they shouldn’t answer questions from reporters, congressional investigators, or the agency’s inspector general – instead, they should direct them to a press officer. (The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has more details.) Discouraging EPA employees from speaking with members of […]
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure As we noted two days ago in a post about how the produce industry is now interested in tracking regulations they previously opposed after being whacked with billions of dollars in losses because of a protracted Salmonella outbreak whose source was presumably produce but couldn’t be easily traced, the […]