Daily Roundup, Friday, July 30

• Protecting cleanup workers should always be the number one priority

Despite the enormity of the disaster, the media seem to have forgotten the Gulf Oil Spill. That’s a shame, because, on Tuesday, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported that 324 people, 241 of them who were involved in the oil spill cleanup itself or offshore work, have reported illnesses related to oil or dispersants used during the cleanup effort in the Gulf.

• Bill seeks greater scrutiny of oil dispersants

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., on Wednesday introduced the “Safe Dispersants Act,” legislation that would affect Nalco Company, manufacturer of Corexit dispersants used to break up oil in the Gulf of Mexico spill.

• Senate Democrats include spill provisions in broader energy bill

US Senate Democrats took a different approach than their counterparts in the House and included provisions responding to the Gulf of Mexico well blowout, rig explosion, and crude oil spill in a larger energy bill on July 27.

• Senators unveil mine safety bill

U.S. Sens. Jay Rockfeller and Carte Goodwin, both D-W.Va., Thursday introduced legislation aimed at making coal mines safer in the United States.

• Settling gender discrimination class actions

Eight- or nine-figure settlements of gender discrimination class action lawsuits regularly make news. It seems like discrimination this pervasive – essentially, discrimination as corporate policy – should be a relic of the Mad Men past. To the contrary, in countless companies and even entire industries, discrimination against women is business as usual.

• Fewer and smaller heat fines from Cal-OSHA as deaths rise

Officials suspect five California workers have died from heat related causes—such as heat stroke—since the beginning of the summer. This comes as regulators are issuing lower fines for employers that violate heat regulations.

• Health workers fear the dangers of secondhand chemo for cancer patients

Sue Crump braced as the chemo drugs dripped into her body. She knew treatment would be rough. She had seen its signature countless times in the ravaged bodies and hopeful faces of cancer patients in hospitals where she had spent 23 years mixing chemo as a pharmacist.

• OSHA opting for more enforcement in Wisconsin

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is directing more focus to job site enforcement as involvement wanes in a voluntary program meant to avoid injuries and infractions.

• Postal Service hit with worker safety fines

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to levy a $420,000 fine for alleged workplace safety violations at the White River Junction, Vt., facility.

• 1 dead, 3 sickened at Sewickley wastewater plant

One man was killed and three others were sickened by a mixture of pungent and toxic gases this afternoon while working in a deep, narrow shaft at the Sewickley sewage treatment plant.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Thursday, July 29

• Industry spots citation changes in mining bill

A national builders association is accusing OSHA of hiding citation penalty and construction enforcement changes in a federal bill for the mining industry.

• Austin City Council to examine rest break ordinance

The Austin City Council today will delve into regulating working conditions in the construction industry as it considers an apparently groundbreaking ordinance requiring employers to give their employees regular rest breaks.

• Board to vote on heat rule

California’s workplace-safety board is expected to decide in mid-August on a permanent version of its workplace rules for managing heat stress.

• OSHA raises new crane rules

Federal officials are using fatality statistics to back up the first changes to crane and derrick rules since they were created 40 years ago.

• No plea deal in farm worker death

Prosecutors said Wednesday they will not consider a plea deal in the case against the owner and two supervisors of dismantled Merced Farm Labor, the company that employed a 17-year-old pregnant farm worker who died of heat stroke in 2008.

• Exposed to nano? Exhale

As more workers get exposed on the job to tiny new nanomaterials with unknown medical risks, government watchdogs are looking at ways to keep tabs on their health. One solution may lie in the breath.

• OSHA fines Southern Electric of Tampa over worker’s death

Southern Electric of Tampa Inc. has been fined $6,400 for two OSHA violations that led to the death of a Lakeland, Fla., electrician last year.

• OSHA issues 34 citations against W.Va. company

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Marcum Transport for more than two dozen safety violations at its Verdunville, W. Va., operation.

• OSHA: 2 Illinois grain bin deaths were preventable

Federal labor officials say preliminary investigations show a grain bin accident in northwestern Illinois that left two people dead and a third hospitalized was “very preventable.”

• Investigation partially closes down zinc plant

Part of the Horsehead Zinc Plant near Monaca, Pa., will likely be shut down for several months while investigators try to find the cause of last week’s deadly explosion.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Wednesday, July 28

• Commercial Fishing Among the Deadliest Jobs, Federal Analysis Shows

Commercial fishing is one of the nation’s deadliest jobs, with an average of 58 fatalities a year, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis has found.

• It’s Spill Bill Time

It was spill bill day in Washington, as both House and Senate Democrats rolled out a suite of measures in response to the Gulf disaster.

• BP Will Loom Over Work Safety Hearing

On Thursday, two legislative committees will convene to discuss “third-party liability issues involving workers’ compensation.” Even though the topic of this hearing was set long before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, BP puts the hearing in a new light that spurs a second look at our pro-defendant civil justice system and the impact immunity for BP-style disasters has on workers, communities, and the environment.

• BP: A Failure of Focus and Metrics

Now that BP seems to have capped the oil leak and replaced Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward, cleanup efforts will share the stage with investigations and recriminations about what led to the Apr. 20 explosion at the Deep Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Health bill for 9/11 responders to get House vote Wednesday

A bill guaranteeing healthcare for first responders to the World Trade Center site is scheduled for a House floor vote Wednesday, The Hill has learned.

• Better emergency response proposed for oil, gas wells

June Chappel said she feared for her life as a Marcellus Shale well flared burning gas and flames licked and melted the plastic liner of a massive wastewater pit 200 feet from her back door in September.

• Man dies in accident at plant nursery

A 56-year-old man suffocated Tuesday morning after his arm got caught in a machine at the plant nursery where he worked.

• Falling Pipes Killed Oil Field Worker

State worker safety officials say nearly 50 tons of falling pipe killed a man at a recently drilled oil well in Niobrara County, Wyo.

• OSHA Cites Aircraft Parts Manufacturer, Propose Fines

The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has alleged 41 serious violations of workplace safety and health standards at EDAC Technologies Corp., a Farmington, Conn., aircraft parts manufacturing plant.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Tuesday, July 27

• CBO: House mine safety bill would save hundreds of millions of dollars

A House proposal to bolster safety protections for miners will save the government hundreds of millions of dollars, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated this week.

• House Dems unveil oil spill plan ahead of Friday debate

House Democrats on Monday unveiled their strategy to respond to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a package headed for the floor late this week that would shore up offshore rig safety standards and block BP from obtaining new offshore drilling leases.

• Alan Grayson Fights for Research on Oil Disaster Worker Health

Last week the House passed the Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 2010, a bill that amends the post-Exxon Valdez legislation in order to fund research on oil spills.

• Sen. Franken Asks BP to Explain OSHA Violations

The Minnesota senator pressed the hearing’s only witness — Steve Flynn, the oil company’s vice president of health, safety, security and environment — to explain why BP had received 760 egregious willful citations.

• Environmental Group Finds BPA in 40% of Store Receipts

Amid debate over the use of the controversial chemical bisphenol A in food packaging, an environmental group has demonstrated how widely the chemical — known as BPA — also is found in paper receipts.

• EPA Weighs Risks of Natural Gas Mining Method Amid Complaints of Groundwater Contamination

As controversy over offshore oil drilling regulation rages, a separate environmental debate is taking shape over a method of natural gas extraction called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves blasting underground rock with a combination of water, sand and chemicals.

• Trooper down

For the average driver, there may be no more visible car on the road than a police cruiser.

• At meeting in Morris, OSHA urges Latino workers to report safety violations

Some 100 people attended the first Northern New Jersey Action Summit for Latino Immigrant Workers held today at the Morris County Library, where advocates stressed the need for workers to report unsafe workplace conditions to inspectors.

• OSHA Penalties Can Be Imposed on Per-Affected-Worker Basis

Penalties for violating OSHA training requirements now can be imposed on a per-affected-worker basis, Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) says.

• Subcontractor in deadly Pa. well blast had fines

The employer of two workers killed in an oil and gas well explosion last week had paid nearly $10,000 in federal workplace safety fines for two other well fires, including a 2007 explosion that burned an employee, records show.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Monday, July 26

• Labor Department Rejects 98% of Whistleblower Protection Requests

Following the Enron accounting scandal, Congress adopted the Sarbanes-Oxley (“Sarbox”) corporate reform law to reduce the risk of future corporate fiascoes by bolstering protections for whistleblowers. But in the eight years since the law was passed, the worker safety arm of the U.S. Department of Labor has rejected 98% of all claims by corporate workers seeking protection from reprisals.

• Defense Contractor Accused of Poisoning Soldiers Struck Legal Immunity Deal with Pentagon

If more than 150 military veterans win their lawsuit against a Halliburton subsidiary claiming that the company knowingly exposed them to a cancer-causing chemical in Iraq, American taxpayers—rather than the defense contractor—may have to pay.

• BP Health Tests on Offshore Workers May Overstate Chemical Exposure

BP PLC’s monitoring of offshore oil-leak workers in the Gulf of Mexico may be overstating the potential chemical exposures facing those workers due to an emphasis on sampling the most vulnerable populations, according to the company and the Obama administration.

• Investigators dismiss Massey’s view that disaster ‘unavoidable’

Federal and state investigators on Thursday dismissed a Massey Energy assertion that the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster was caused by a freak flood of methane gas that the company could do nothing to control.

• On the Border and in the Fields, Dying from the Heat

On Wednesday July 14, California legislators were debating whether the state’s five-year-old heat safety regulations are strong enough to protect the 650,000 farm workers who harvest the bulk of the nation’s fruit and vegetables in temperatures that regularly climb over 100 degrees.

• Hearings to spotlight safety issues at gas wells

As multiple investigations continue into the fatal explosion and fire that killed two workers on a shallow oil and gas well in Indiana Township, Pa., last week, state and federal regulators are also considering new, stricter regulations for burgeoning Marcellus Shale deep gas drilling operations.

• Toledo Zoo visitor spotted elephant trainer in distress, called for help

Toledo Zoo patron Jennifer Kohler and her family walked up to an exhibit hoping to see 4,000-pound Louie the elephant go through some training exercises, she told The Blade Friday. What the Findlay woman ended up doing instead that July 1 afternoon was to call 911 for help after she saw an elephant trainer – Don RedFox – in distress.

• Missing man crushed to death in NY trash compactor

A maintenance man at a prominent western New York office building was crushed to death after falling into a trash compactor, but no one realized it for weeks as his family and authorities searched for him, police said Sunday.

• NH worker killed after going through paper roller

Firefighters say a worker at a New Hampshire paper company died after being pulled through a paper roller machine.

• Nashua, Hudson companies fined after explosion injures workers

Federal safety regulators fined two New Hampshire companies more than $257,000 after an explosion in January seriously injured two employees.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Friday, July 23

• Northwest repeatedly violated safety standards while aviation officials looked the other way, report says

Federal Aviation Administration officials failed to hold Northwest Airlines accountable for what may have been more than 1,000 safety violations committed over more than a decade, a government report says.

• Experts: Health hazards in Gulf warrant evacuations

When Louisiana residents ask marine toxicologist and community activist Riki Ott what she would do if she lived in the Gulf with children, she tells them she would leave immediately.

• U.S. Sen. Harkin: Confidential transocean report underscores worker fears in dangerous workplaces; need for strong whistleblower protections

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) issued the following statement today in response to news reports that a confidential report commissioned by Transocean showed workers were concerned about safety at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the weeks prior to the explosion.

• BP, oil industry marked by safety lapses, Murray says

BP Plc and U.S. oil companies have a pattern of safety violations, recording 26 deaths, 21 fires and 33 injuries in the past three months at refineries, Democratic Senator Patty Murray said yesterday.

• Association update: Miner Safety bill has big hole

Minnesota Associated Builders and Contractors chapter signed onto a letter July 20 expressing opposition to provisions in the Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 (H.R. 5663) in advance of a markup of the bill.

• For chronic care, your employer may be able to help

If you are one of the 133 million American grappling with a chronic illness like diabetes, asthma or heart disease, where do you turn for help managing your condition? Your employer may seem like an unlikely choice.

• When you need to report to OSHA

A farmer’s employee was in the field planting when he died, apparently of natural causes such as a heart attack or stroke while on the job. Does the farmer have to notify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)? It depends.

• Industry targets Wyoming worker safety

Many years ago when Mindy Hixon started working in the family trucking business in Carbon County, she realized safety wasn’t a top priority.

• Suicide problem continues as embattled general leaves Hill

Brig. Gen. John Cooper, who commanded the 309th Maintenance Wing at Hill Air Force Base during a turbulent period which included a rash of worker suicides, has accepted assignment as director of logistics, installations and mission support at the U.S. Air Force’s European headquarters in Germany.

• Pa. zinc refinery still closed after fatal blast

Officials at a zinc plant said Friday that the refinery portion of the western Pennsylvania operation remained closed while company and federal investigators tried to determine the cause of an explosion that killed two workers.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Thursday, July 22

• Getting compensation shouldn’t be so hard for federal workers hurt on the job

Working for the federal government should not be hazardous to employees’ health. But when it is, Uncle Sam should not be as stingy as he was made out to be during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

• Panel debates an overhaul of OSHA workplace rules

A House panel on Wednesday approved sweeping legislation to protect the nation’s miners — a direct response to April’s deadly explosion at a West Virginia coal mine. But Wednesday’s partisan debate in the House Education and Labor Committee centered largely on broader workplace safety reforms that have nothing to do with mines.

• Pelosi: House acts in wake of BP disaster

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday the U.S. House passage of two bills in response to the BP oil spill will help future cleanups and prevent such disasters.

• Senators rap BP official for record of OSHA violations

A top safety official at BP PLC today defended the company’s industry-leading string of federal safety violations before a group of skeptical senators, vowing to make progress on worker protection despite the oil giant’s ongoing dispute with the Obama administration over fines at its Texas City refinery.

• Worker groups to protest Massey CEO Thursday

Workers groups plan to protest Don Blankenship, the fiery CEO for Virginia-based Massey Energy, who will address the National Press Club on mining policy Thursday.

• Safety concerns in Gulf oil rig worker survey: paper

Workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico expressed concern about safety practices in a confidential survey conducted a month before the oil rig exploded, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

• President Obama endorses Paycheck Fairness Act

Yesterday, President Obama released a statement endorsing the Paycheck Fairness Act and calling on the Senate to pass the legislation.

• Worker rescued after being buried

A construction worker was rescued Tuesday after being buried alive by a chunk of clay that broke off during a sewer repair project in Warren, Mich.

• Pa. lifts some sanctions on Cabot, citing repairs

Pennsylvania relaxed some sanctions against a natural gas company blamed for contaminating well water at 14 homes in Dimock — only hours before a new spill at a gas well being drilled by the same company.

• Disneyland’s Alice in Wonderland ride closed to install safety equipment

One of Disneyland’s oldest attractions, the Alice in Wonderland ride, has been closed since last week while workers install safety barriers recommended by California work-safety inspectors.

http://www.todaysworkplace.org/2010/07/21/president-obama-endorses-paycheck-fairness-act/

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Wednesday, July 21

• House panel approves tough mine safety bill

A House panel has approved sweeping mine and workplace safety reforms prompted by the deadly explosion in April that killed 29 miners in West Virginia.

• Rep. Miller takes on Interior Department over new offshore work-safety rules

The Obama administration is drafting new offshore worker-safety rules using input from the oil industry but not its own workplace safety experts, a senior Interior Department official told House lawmakers Wednesday.

• Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Big Business has published a new regulatory “hit list,” the same old song but with a new beat – kill public protections or corporations won’t create new jobs.

• Deepwater Horizon Plagued by Maintenance Problems Before Explosion

When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and leading to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, it had a backlog of thousands of hours of overdue maintenance, a lawyer for BP said at a federal hearing Monday.

• Connecticut Enacts Employment Protections for Victims of Family Violence

Connecticut recently enacted legislation, Public Act No. 10-144, that creates additional employment protections for victims of family violence and an allowance of leave time for employees dealing with issues relating to family violence.

• OSHA Announces Effort to Bring Regulations Up to Date

OSHA has issued a proposed rule to revise and remove requirements that are outdated, duplicative, or inconsistent.

• Georgia manufacturer cited for 43 safety and health violations

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations to Legion Industries in Waynesboro, Ga., for 39 alleged serious and four alleged other-than-serious workplace safety and health violations. Proposed penalties total $75,000.

• Matthews Manufacturing faces OSHA citations, $260,200 fine

Federal regulators have cited Matthews Manufacturing Inc. in St. Louis for 91 workplace safety violations and proposed a $260,200 fine.

• Construction worker killed in San Carlos

The Lee County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that a concrete worker died this morning after falling onto an auger during the construction of a pool.

• OSHA fines Home Depot $112,000 in N.Y.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Home Depot $112,000 for allegedly failing to correct previously cited safety hazards at the retail chain’s West Nyack, N.Y., store.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Tuesday, July 20

• Obama orders federal workplace safety improvements

President Obama on Monday laid the groundwork for a four-year effort to improve federal workplace safety standards, ordering agencies to reduce the number of workers who fall ill or injured on the job.

• New Safety Training Finally Begins for Offshore Cleanup Workers

Oil cleanup workers on offshore vessels will begin receiving longer and more thorough safety training today, fulfilling a pledge by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to improve training after it acknowledged, as we reported, that the previous course was inadequate.

• With Focus on BP Workers, Will Country Finally Pay Attention to 130 Million Others?

It’s easy to organize around BP’s workers, and to demand the government do everything possible with everyone watching this disaster unfold. But there’s only about 30,000 people working to clean up BP’s oil disaster. Meanwhile, OSHA is responsible for protecting the health and safety of about 130,000,000 other workers, each and every day.

• Dodd-Frank Bill Provides Robust Whistleblower Protections

Recognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill (H.R. 4173) numerous provisions designed to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation.

• Formaldehyde Faces Tighter Restrictions

A bill has been signed by President Obama that will limit the use of formaldehyde, a chemical found in wood products that can cause respiratory problems and has been linked to cancer.

• New worker safety laws are necessary

Since 1983, more than 2,500 coal miners have been killed on the job in the United States. That is partly because mining coal is an inherently dangerous job, but many of those deaths can also be blamed on an industry notorious for breaking the rules and a federal agency notorious for allowing it.

• The right steps to prevent workplace violence

All organizations, regardless of number of employees, are vulnerable to workplace violence, which can occur in any type of economy.

• OSHA fines DuPont $43,000 for W.Va. plant leaks

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a West Virginia DuPont plant for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals. Monday’s citations and $43,000 fine followed OSHA’s investigation into a series of leaks at DuPont’s Belle plant in January.

• OSHA: DuPont not reporting Belle injuries

The press release yesterday from the U.S. Department of Labor made the “other-than-serious” violations at DuPont Co.’s Belle, W.Va., chemical plant sound like no big deal … nothing to worry about: The company was also cited for five other-than-serious violations due to improper recordkeeping.

• OSHA Tries to Cement Fall Hazard Charges Against Tuckpointing Firm

OSHA has cited Clint Horn, doing business in St. Louis as Sturgis Tuckpointing, with alleged safety violations for repeatedly exposing workers to fall hazards while working on scaffolding structures. Proposed penalties total $221,600.

Read Full Post »

Daily Roundup, Monday, July 19

• Possible link to heat exposure investigated in 5 California worker deaths

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issues warnings for Californians to beware of sizzling heat, Cal-OSHA is already investigating five worker deaths since June as possibly related to heat exposure.

• Senate sits on mine safety bill as GOP waits for W.Va. investigation results

Democrats hoping to bolster the nation’s mine safety rules this year are showing dramatically different degrees of urgency.

• Louisiana has always welcomed offshore oil industry, despite dangers

Offshore oil and gas has always been a dangerous and dirty business, but Louisiana has always welcomed it like no other state.

• OSHA regulations on natural gas procedures established

The House of Representatives’ Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommitee on Friday voted to establish OSHA regulations on natural gas plant procedures as a direct result of the deadly plant explosion in Middletown, Conn., in February.

• Hooray for Albany? Legislature Acts to Boost Working People and the Economy

In the end-of-session frenzy, New York state legislators are also taking far more positive action: raising workplace standards for some of the state’s most exploited workers, many of whom (no surprise) live and work in New York City.

• OSHA Makes Pact with Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Industry

OSHA has joined the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA) and the Pennsylvania/OSHA Consultation Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania to promote workplace safety and health for oilfield workers.

• Workzone: Reports mixed on efficacy of workplace safety committees

Close to 9,000 Pennsylvania companies have state-certified workplace safety committees that aim to promote safer work environments. The committees can also help their employers earn a 5 percent discount on workers’ compensation insurance premiums. But whether safety committees actually keep businesses safer is tough to track, according to a study by think tank Rand Corp.

• Several Metals Named as Possible Cancer Causes in New Report

A new study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer cites 20 possible cancer sources several of which include metals.

• Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA): Who Is David Michaels?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for protecting the safety and health of American workers, has been headed since December 9, 2009, by a public health expert, Dr. David Michaels, PhD, who has devoted his career to issues of public and occupational health.

• OSHA probing fatal accident at incinerator

A Carthage, Mo., man died after he was injured in an accident at the explosives waste incinerator at the former Atlas explosives property on County Road 180 west of Carthage.

Read Full Post »