Yesterday’s edition of OSHA’s “Quick Takes” e-news memo featured an item entitled “BLS Reports Workplace Injury and Illness Overall Rate Lowest on Record.” Peter Infante, former Director of the Office of Standards Review for OSHA’s Health Standards Program, was not so quick to cheer at this, though. He fired off a response to OSHA, and gave us permission […]
Three young widows of Harlan County are taking a stand against incumbent Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher (R). An op-ed by Claudia Cole, Stella Morris, and Melissa Lee appeared in the Lexington Herald Leader, with harsh words about the Governor’s record on mine safety and rights for victims’ families. “Gov. Ernie Fletcher has disrespected our families and has not […]
Mondayâs edition of the On Point radio show (a production of WBUR in Boston) focused on the issue of the chemicals that surround us, and the movement for âgreen chemistry.â The first guest was Pete Myers, who produces the indispensable Environmental Health News and co-authored the book Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, […]
Firefighters have been doing amazing work in California, where destructive wildfires are now largely under control. In the San Deigo Union-Tribune, Tony Manolatos describes daring rescue work by helicopter pilot Mike Wagstaff, while the LA Timesâ Janet Wilson relates rookie firefighter Jason Carlâs harrowing experience of being trapped by a wall of flame. CBS reports […]
The OSHA Fairness Coalition weighed in with some fightin’ words yesterday, expressing “unequivocal opposition” to a mine safety bill scheduled for mark-up in the House Education and Labor Committee. This is the same group that opposed the “Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act” when it successfully moved through Congress in September. At that time, we wondered what the Messenger Courier […]
After Consumer Product Safety Commission acting chair Nancy Nord opposed Senate legislation designed to strengthen the agency, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for Nord’s resignation. The Washington Post’s Annys Shin has the story:
Working a weekend shift has been particularly dangerous for West Virginia coal miners this year. All seven coal-mining related fatalities in the State have occurred on weekend shifts. The latest victim was Mr. Charles Jason Keeney, 34, who died on Sunday while working underground at the Long Branch Energy’s Mine No. 23 in Boone County, WV. The […]
We’ve been following the crescendo of stories illustrating the severe limitations of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (here, here, and here): CPSC lacks the resources to test products adequately, it canât levy hefty enough fines to deter corporate wrongdoing, and it can announce a recall only through a news release that it negotiates with the […]
The US Dept of Justice (DOJ) announced last week an agreement with British Petroleum (BP) on three outstanding criminal cases, with monetary penalities totaling more than $370 million. Included among the settlement were violations of the Clean Air Act associated with the March 2005 explosion at the firm’s Texas City refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured 170 others.  BP agreed […]
On both sides of the Atlantic, new research into lead and crime is attracting attention. The New York Times and The Independent both reported on a new study by Amherst College economist Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, who found a correlation between blood lead levels and violent crime rates. Jascha Hoffman explains in the New York Times: