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Archive for December, 2010

Public Citizen welcomes the announcement that the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, will retire at the end of this month. Although his leadership of the company was disastrous in numerous ways — from environmental catastrophes to record fines to extreme hostility to unions — he will be remembered for presiding over the worst mine disaster in decades.

When investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s workplace safety team visited a dozen airports in 2003 and 2004, what they found was disturbing — at least to federal airport workers.

In downtown Manhattan Monday, theater owners and union leaders joined with local and federal agencies responsible for workplace safety to collectively assess their response to the events on May 1, 2010, when a would-be car bomber attempted to detonate a device nearby several Broadway productions. For many in the room, that day was a test of workplace safety.

A new OSHA Safety and Health Information Bulletin and companion Worker Alert recommend that employers use safety measures to prevent exposing workers to the potentially fatal health effects of butter flavorings and other flavoring substances containing diacetyl or its substitutes.

OSHA is applying its egregious citation enforcement policy as never before. For the fiscal year ending in September, the agency applied the policy in 20 of 164 cases deemed significant; i.e., where penalties exceeded $100,000. This number of significant and egregious cases is more than OSHA has issued during any similar period in the last decade.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two major challenges brought by corporate interests, including whether more than 1.5 million female employees of Wal-Mart can go forward with the largest discrimination class-action suit in the country’s history.

Claiming they were fired for refusing to disobey guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Association, three workers are suing three companies involved with the BP gulf oil cleanup.

Two days after an explosion ripped through a Massey Energy Co. coal mine, the company’s board decided to make a settlement offer of $3 million to each deceased miner’s family to help them financially and head off a wave of litigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The holidays are a joyous time, but to make sure they are also a safe time, take a few minutes to review some important safety information with your employees.

At least 20 major stories in the world of workplace safety and health might qualify as 2010′s top story of the year. Take a look at our list and then add a comment explaining why one of them, or perhaps some other story we’ve left out, was your top story of the year for 2010.

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The state transportation department late Friday awarded a $357 million highway contract in New Haven to O&G Industries after requiring the company, which was involved in a fatal power plant explosion earlier this year, to submit to an unusual safety review.

A December 1 oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast that has injured at least three workers illustrates the hazardous and often deadly work conditions that maritime workers face every day.

A doctor visit may be becoming a lot more dangerous — especially for medical personnel — and local nurses union officials say they want urgent changes made in light of two recent local killings.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Firefighters are dying on the job from preventable cardiovascular conditions. Cardiac failure is the number one killer of firefighters, accounting for close to half of the line-of-duty deaths in the past four years, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

Research scientist Doug Schoon is denouncing Oregon OSHA’s claim to measure “Formaldehyde” in water-based cosmetics such as lotion or creams and certain nail products or hair products, such as shampoos, conditioners and hair straightening products, when in fact they are measuring and reporting concentrations of a completely different substance called “Methylene Glycol.”

Gay bareback studio Treasure Island Media is appealing three citations issued by Cal/OSHA, stemming from an investigation into the company that found it violated workplace safety regulations by allowing performers to have unprotected sex.

Federal regulators cited two Texas companies for alleged health and safety violations, including a firm investigated as part of a new enforcement program targeting companies the government contends are indifferent to worker safety.

A Concord, N.H., woman claimed yesterday in a lawsuit that managers at Staples made her clean an overflowing toilet without protective gear and then fired her for complaining to federal regulators.

The 9th Circuit has ruled that a plaintiff’s claim under the whistleblower-protection provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act accrues when she learns of the actual injury.

Two workers at DuPont Co.’s sprawling plant in Belle were hospitalized Friday morning after an overnight chemical leak that exposed them to the toxic material monomethylamine.

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The President’s oil spill commission is meeting in Washington, D.C., and it’s looking like it will recommend that the United States create a new, independent agency to oversee worker safety on offshore drilling rigs and production platforms.

The self-regulated world of football helmets collided with the federal government Thursday, as the chairwoman of the Consumer Products Safety Commission told a Senate subcommittee that the agency would “monitor and accelerate” the development of stronger standards for headgear, particularly among children.

Cal/OSHA continues to be a national leader in worker safety by implementing a new standard today to protect employees who work with diacetyl, a chemical commonly used to give food flavorings a buttery taste.

Most motorists understand the danger of texting and driving, but there’s always the “it can’t happen to me” factor. New technology puts the brakes on texting while driving.

Since the 1970 enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), workplace injuries are sharply down, but compliance remains spotty and easily-preventable deaths continue, according to a Workers Compensation Research Industry report.

The Fall River, Mass., DPW worker who slipped and fell from his trash truck and suffered a head injury Wednesday plans to be back at work Monday, officials said.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined The Home Depot Inc. $70,500 for what it called “serious and repeat violations” at a store in San Antonio, Texas.

Federal regulators have proposed fining a Nebraska biofuel company $60,000 for safety violations connected to the electrocution of a subcontracted worker at the company’s Burwell operation.

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With today’s announcement that a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico will be closed to drilling for the foreseeable future, the White House reverses a bad decision it made six months ago to open a huge, environmentally sensitive area – the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic seaboard – to offshore oil drilling and exploration. A mere three weeks later, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history occurred when BP’s oil rig exploded in the Gulf.

Massey Energy is shutting down a Kentucky mine that is targeted by federal regulators for the toughest enforcement action ever, the company confirms to NPR.

A safety enhanced disposal device could prevent more than 19,000 accidental needlesticks and other “sharps” injuries to healthcare workers, suggests a study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

Norweigian bosses have become obsessed with a new way of scrutinizing the bottom line. According to a new report by the Parat trade union, increasing numbers of employers are imposing “tyranical toilet rules” in an attempt to limit the number of workers attending to bodily functions on company time. One unnamed company requires women to wear read braclets while they are menstruating to excuse “extra” trips to the restroom.

The pornography company Treasure Island Media is promoting a couple that includes an HIV-negative and an HIV-positive partner having unprotected sex as “role models.” They are believed to be the first sero-discordant barebacking couple to be advertised as porn stars.

Whether it’s due to global warming or shorter memories, we continue to be astounded by the caliber of the heat and the length of our summers. In Florida, Arizona, Texas, and other Southern states, the concern is year round.

Michigan OSHA (MIOSHA) concluded a programmed inspection at Bharat Forge America, Inc., of Lansing, which revealed 42 alleged violations carrying proposed penalties totaling $137,750.

OSHA has cited Amtec Corp., a contractor at the U.S. Army’s Space & Missile Defense Command, Redstone Arsenal, in Huntsville. Violations were in connection with an explosion that killed two workers earlier this year. Total penalties proposed were $134,400.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the David H. Koch Theater, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, for alleged repeat and serious violations of workplace health and safety standards. The theater faces a total of $51,000 in proposed fines, chiefly for asbestos, fall and crushing hazards identified during an OSHA inspection prompted by worker complaints.

Three people are badly burned following a small explosion and fire at the Simmons Feed Mill in Fairland, Oklahoma.

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Section 103 of the food safety bill (S.510), will require food manufacturers to identify food safety hazards and fix them. The legislative text sounds similar to part of what OSHA chief David Michaels has been describing as an injury and illness prevention program (I2P2).

Yesterday, the Senate passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which imposes stricter food safety standards and grants the Food and Drug Administration greater authority to regulate tainted food. To ensure that workers can disclose food safety concerns without fear of reprisal, Congress included in the FMSA a robust whistleblower protection provision (Section 402) that protects workers engaged in the manufacture, processing, packing, transporting, distribution, reception, holding, or importation of food.

Republican leaders in the Maine House and Senate have delayed plans to eliminate the Labor Committee from the list of Joint Select Committees within the Maine Legislature.

In a continued crackdown on coal mines with histories of serious safety and health violations, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has issued notices that 13 mines will be placed in a special stepped-safety enforcement program unless mine owners begin immediate corrective actions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week assured an Oregon congressman that it shares his concern over Brazilian Blowout, a popular salon hair smoother, after laboratory tests showed it contained formaldehyde even when bottles were labeled “formaldehyde-free.”

A steel worker sued a subcontractor for burns and other injuries he suffered during a July explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.

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