regulation
sb admin | July 18, 2007By David Michaels
Yesterday, we wrote about the efforts by Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS) to extend the prohibition on OSHA from fully enforcing its respiratory protection standard to protect health care workers and first responders from tuberculosis. Wicker successfully added this prohibition to legislation in the past, but the prohibition now in place ends in September, so he was trying again.
Weâve just learned that Rep. Wicker has backed down. In the face of well-organized opposition (unions and the public health community) armed with a very strong argument that the policy he was proposing was…
sb admin | July 17, 2007By David Michaels
How to not stop the spread of drug resistant tuberculosis? Give health care workers and first responders respirators that donât fit correctly.
It is hard to believe, but the House of Representatives will very soon (perhaps later today) be voting on an amendment to the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill that would prohibit OSHA from fully enforcing its respiratory protection standard to protect health care workers and first responders from tuberculosis. It would exempt tuberculosis exposures from the requirement for an annual fit test to make sure the respirator fits and…
sb admin | July 16, 2007By David Michaels
Gretchen Morgenson, the terrific New York Times reporter, has a disturbing piece that describes how the toothless Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has little ability to force hazardous consumer products of the shelves of toy stores.
The focus of her report is on super powerful miniature toy magnets. They are candy colored and easily eaten by small children. Morgensonâs article is a powerful case for new legislation that gives the CPSC some real power. It is also another piece of evidence documenting how law suits serve as the de facto regulatory system, since our…
sb admin | July 13, 2007...said Melissa Lee, widow of coal miner Jimmy Lee, 33 who died at a Harlan County, KY mine.  At least 17 other families are probably feeling the same way about the improperly constructed seals at the Sago and Darby coal mines where their loved ones perished.Â
The Mine Safety and Health Admininstration (MSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) on May 22, 2007 requiring stronger construction of permanent seals and more stringent maintenance and repair procedures (72 Fed Reg 28796.)  The agency determined that miners faced a "grave danger" of death and serious injury…
sb admin | July 11, 2007By Liz BorkowskiÂ
An article in the latest issue of OMB Watchâs Watcher newsletter reports on U.S. Chamber of Commerce efforts to get EPA to make changes to its chemical databases. The short story is that the Chamber asked the EPA to correct what it claimed was âinconsistent and erroneousâ information about chemicals in the agencyâs databases, and EPA rejected the claim, explaining that there were âvalid and specific reasonsâ why databases might contain differing information for the same chemicals. (See the article for the complete story.)
The important thing about this story is that the…
sb admin | July 10, 2007Dale Jones, 51 and Michael Wilt, 38 reported to work at the Caledonia Pit, a surface coal mine near Barton, Maryland at 5:30 am on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. In the 275 feet-deep pit, Jones operated the excavator while Wilt ran the dozer. By about 10:00 am that morning, something had gone terribly wrong. The massive highwall collapsed, burying the two coal miners under 93,000 tons of rock. John David Cook II, a co-worker and the shovel operator, dug night and day trying to reach Jones and Wilt. A state mining official who was on-site during the rescue-recovery operation said…
sb admin | July 6, 2007Cong. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) held a hearing on June 25 on the federal government's response to the hazardous air contaminants that polluted lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. The featured witness was former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who was in the hot seat for her claims that the air in NYC was safe to breathe. Much less attention was paid to former OSHA assistant secretary John Henshaw, who sat next to Whitman, but was left largely unscathed by the questioning. At least one Henshaw exchange deserves attention. The former OSHA chief insisted there are "safe…
sb admin | July 3, 2007By Liz Borkowski
Finally, hereâs some good news in the power struggle between the Bush administration and Congress: The House has voted to prohibit the White Houseâs Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from spending any money on an executive order that gives political appointees greater authority over federal regulatory agencies.
Bushâs executive order (which amended an order that was issued by Reagan and amended by Clinton) gives OIRA additional authority over activities of regulatory agencies; creates new requirements for the agencies, including an analysis of âmarket…
sb admin | June 26, 2007By Liz Borkowski
When EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson announced last week that the agency would lower the limit for ground-level ozone pollution, he acknowledged that the current standard of 0.08 parts per million was insufficiently protective of public health. This was an appropriate rationale for changing the limit, since the EPA is required to establish air quality standards exclusively on the basis of health consideration. The proposal of 0.07 â 0.075 ppm isnât as low as the 0.06 â 0.07 ppm that the agencyâs Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee recommended (PDF), but at least itâs…
sb admin | June 25, 2007Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)  will chair a hearing today (June 25) on the federal government's failure to protect workers' and residents' health from the toxic dust cloud created in NYC after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The premiere witness will be Christine Todd Whitman, who was EPA administrator at the time of the attacks and reported that the air was safe to breathe. Former OSHA Asst. Secretary John Henshaw will also testify, and hopefully will be questioned pointedly by subcommittee members on why the Administration decided to forego enforcing critically important worker protection…
sb admin | June 24, 2007Louisville-Courier Journal reporters Laura Unger and Ralph Dunlop offer us the voices and faces of miners who are suffering from coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Their special report, Black Lung: Dust Hasn't Settled on Deadly Disease, includes an on-line version which features five compelling videos featuring 40- and 50-year old coal miners who are now suffering with the disabling lung disease. Mr. Danny Hall, 56, for example, who is still severely impaired despite receiving a lung transplant says "if I had to do over, I wouldn't ever go into coal mining."
The reporters begin the series…
sb admin | June 22, 2007Declan Butler, Reporter updates us on the situation of the six health workers facing death in Libya. The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian medic were sentenced to death on the charge of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV, despite scientific evidence that the infections resulted from hygiene lapses and contamination of medical material. Butler reports that Libyaâs Supreme Court will rule on the health workersâ appeal on July 11th and that the EU is working towards a settlement with the Libyan childrenâs families. He credits campaigns by scientists and others (in which Butler…
sb admin | June 21, 2007With a bipartisan voice vote yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill that would force OSHA to regulate workers' exposure to diacetyl. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and chief sponsor of the legislation, commented:
Whatâs troubling is that if OSHA had taken action in a timely manner, we would not need to pass a bill to require OSHA to do something that it should have done a long time ago. ...While OSHA has ignored the warnings of NIOSH and others concerning this devastating disease, workers have become sick and…
sb admin | June 18, 2007Federal Judge Robert C. Chambers, US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, ruled in favor of environmental groups in their claim against coal mine operators and practices related to mountaintop removal mining.* This form of surface mining involves blasting off the top of mountains, scooping out the coal, and dumping the unwanted rock and soil into the valley. This waste material often chokes off streams and causes other damage to the communities and the environment in the down-below valleys. The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Coal River Mountain Watch, and…
sb admin | June 15, 2007MSHA issued a news release yesterday announcing that eight mine operators have been put on notice for potential enforcement under the "pattern of violation" provisions of the Mine Act.  MSHA's release does not list the names of the mining operations, but the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward is reporting that two of the mines are metal/non-metal operations and six are coal mines, including three in West Virginia.
In his written statement, MSHA' Assistant Secretary Richard Stickler said:
"The purpose of these letters is to put mine operators on notice about the repercussions they face if…
sb admin | June 13, 2007By David Michaels
The simple, powerful statement on the website of FEMA, The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, summarizing the trade association's position:
The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States supports H.R.2693, legislation to assure workplace safety in flavor manufacturing.
Thank you FEMA. Read their press release here.
David Michaels heads the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) and is Professor and Associate Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, the George Washington…
sb admin | June 13, 2007By David Michaels
Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of the many workplace hazards that OSHA has failed to address, including silica, beryllium, and, of course, diacetyl â the artificial butter-flavoring chemical thatâs associated with severe lung disease in workers at flavoring, food, and microwave popcorn plants. (Click here for our past posts on the subject.)
Today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue a standard protecting workers exposed to diacetyl. We fully support the bill, but the fact that it is needed at all highlights…
sb admin | June 12, 2007The Houston Chronicle is reporting that over the next two years, OSHA will be sending 300 federal inspectors to petroleum refineries to evaluate operators processes for handling hazardous chemicals. This announcement comes after the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued its comprehensive investigation report of the BP Texas City refinery explosion which took the lives of 15 people and injured 180 other individuals. An earlier story by the Chronicle noted OSHA officials' displeasure with the CSB's criticism.
In the CSB's report of the BP Texas City explosion, the investigators noted:
âOSHA…
revere | June 10, 2007Maybe you didn't hear about the poison gas attacks on American communities this year. No? Well in January two towns in Kentucky were attacked, a day apart. OK, there weren't exactly not exactly attacked. That part isn't true. But assume for a moment that each of the following two incidents was the result of terrorists:
Irvine, Kentucky, January 15, 2007: Four railway training cars were sent careening twenty miles down a track before colliding with unoccupied engines in a town of 3000 people. On impact, a flammable solvent, butyl acetate, ignited and then exploded. People living in twenty…
sb admin | June 8, 2007Richard Stickler, the Asst. Secretary for MSHA, announced a new educational campaign to increase awareness about black lung disease. This latest initiative comes in response to surveillance data showing newly diagnosed cases of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) among miners working in Lee County and Wise County, Virginia.  Stickler's "Control the Dust/Prevent Black Lung" campaign, which includes a personal letter sent to each and every underground coal mine operator in the country, is heavy on hand-holding with mine operators.  My question:
Mr. Stickler, where's the…