The families of the workers killed at the T2 Lab are now planning memorial services instead of holiday celebrations. “With Christmas next week, we’re not shopping for gifts–we’ve got to go look at caskets,” said a relative of Parrish Ashley, 36, one of the four men killed in the Wednesday explosion.  Mr. Ashley and his deceased co-worker, Karey Henry, […]
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has denied Californiaâs petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucksâagainst the advice of technical and legal staff, reports the Washington Postâs Juliet Eilperin. Governor Schwarzenegger says his state will sue over the decision, and EPA lawyers and staff predict California will win that suit (just as states have […]
The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi is one of the Pump Handleâs top book recommendations this year (hereâs an excerpt, to whet your appetite). On Monday January 7th, the bookâs author, Les Leopold of the Labor Institute, will be coming to Washington to read from it […]
Updated 12/20: See below Four workers were killed and at least 14 people were injured in a violent explosion at the T2 Labs in Jacksonville, Florida. The firm manufacturers Ecotane®, the gasoline additive “methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl” (i.e., MMT® or MCMT), which increases the octane rating of gasoline. The firm says that its Florida facility is state-of-the art, and uses a […]
The “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” (H.R. 6) has passed the House and Senate, and is making its way to President Bush for a signing ceremony today at DOE headquarters. Richard Simon of the Los Angeles Times reports that the measure is getting mixed reviews from interest groups. Opponents, like the Grocery Manufacturers Association, say […]
Nurses, construction workers, and cleaning industry employees have some new resources available to them: The American Nurses Association launched a âSafe Staffing Saves Livesâ website to help nurses become advocates for safe levels of staffing in hospital units (via Occupational Health & Safety) NIOSH has issued âSimple Solutions: Ergonomics for Construction Workers,â which includes tip […]
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivoreâs Dilemma, writes in the latest New York Times Magazine about two stories that âmay point to an imminent breakdown in the way weâre growing food today.â The first is the rise of community-acquired MRSA (thatâs Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a nasty antibiotic-resistant bacteria) and the growing body of evidence linking […]
Environmental Health
Erin Brockovich Revisited: New Evidence Linking Cancer with Chromium in Drinking Water
The journal Epidemiology has just published new evidence that drinking hexavalent chromium — also called chromium 6 — increases risk of stomach cancer. The study is important for public health purposes, since many drinking water sources are chromium contaminated (including the water in the community in the movie Erin Brockovich). This new study is also […]
Every few months like clockwork, news stories have been appearing to report a rise in incidence rates for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP).  The format goes something like this: Headline: Black lung on the rise! Lead: NIOSH reports sharp increase in black lung cases Body: How can this be? It’s so perplexing. You’d think they’re talking about a never-seen-before viral disease. Instead, it’s all about CWP, a disease that […]
Susan Wood (see her past Pump Handle posts here) has an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe: “A public health system defeated at the hands of ideology.” She focuses on the Bush administration’s “failure to staff important health-related positions with qualified individuals willing to provide science-based advice” — a problem that’s particularly glaring when it comes to […]