Daily Roundup, Monday, January 31

• Oil execs developing agency to supervise drilling safety

Big oil company executives are developing an industry-led, deep-water drilling safety body that could launch within weeks.

• Shifting procedures upset BP’s rig team

Just days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, the onshore BP PLC manager in charge of the drilling rig warned his supervisor that last-minute procedural changes were creating “chaos” on the rig.

• Massey disputes key MSHA findings on W.Va. blast

Massey Energy Co. on Friday rejected nearly every part of the federal government’s theory on what caused the deadly explosion at its Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia last spring, killing 29 men.

• Regulators, industry at odds on repetitive-motion injuries

The strained muscles that affect millions of American workers, from white-collar professionals who spend hours at their computers to poultry workers who process chickens, are proving to be painful as well to the Obama administration.

• Small business regulatory ‘burden’ is tough to quantify

When President Barack Obama announced a review of U.S. regulations, he said one important goal was to reduce “the burden regulations may place on small business.” But the basis for the widely repeated notion that small firms face undue regulatory obstacles appears flimsy, some researchers say.

• Medical marijuana employment rights bill introduced in California Legislature

State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation Thursday that would prevent California employers from discriminating against medical marijuana patients.

• Compassion alone is insufficient: mind the gap between intentions and outcomes

Well, this should spark some controversy: What do minimum wages, price controls, and restrictions on international trade in goods, labor, and capital have in common? They are often presented as ways to help poor people, but they all work to their detriment rather than their benefit.

• Video game helps veterans explore post-traumatic stress anonymously

The Defense Department this month unveiled the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, a project developed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord that lets users explore the causes and symptoms of combat trauma. It’s intended to help soldiers and their loved ones learn about post-traumatic stress in an anonymous setting.

• State shuts tortilla factory where worker died

The Brooklyn tortilla factory where a Guatemalan worker died on Monday after he fell into an industrial dough mixer has been shut down by the state because it has been without workers’ compensation insurance for nearly a year, state officials said Friday.

• Why taking lunch makes you a better employee

A survey by Right Management and LinkedIn reveals that workers are less likely than ever to take lunch breaks. But experts warn that this trend might be dangerous.

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Daily Roundup, Friday, January 28

• Challenger: 25 years later, a still painful wound

For many, no single word evokes as much pain. Challenger. A quarter-century later, images of the exploding space shuttle still signify all that can go wrong with technology and the sharpest minds.

• Mine operators ignore safety despite tougher inspections, officials say

Despite a high-profile, intensified inspections program, authorities say safety violations still abound in the nation’s mines. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said that during its December “impact” inspections, officials issued 288 citations at 17 mines. That was up from 250 citations at 22 mines in November.

• Deep problems for the owners of Spike’s new ‘Coal’ mine

You know that West Virginia coal mine that’s the star of Spike TV’s new reality series “Coal,” from the same guy who brings you Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch”? Federal inspectors have cited the Canadian coal company that they say owns the mine for 19 health and safety violations during the nearly three months the TV crew was filming there.

• Michaels: ‘OSHA is not working to kill jobs’

In a recent speech, OSHA administrator David Michaels acknowledged that his agency is under attack as part of the debate on the role of government.

• Pick for labor board opposed by business

Some of the same business groups President Barack Obama is courting with his regulatory review and support for a corporate-tax overhaul said Thursday they would fight his renomination of former union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

• ‘Silent raids’: ICE’s new tactic quietly wreaks havoc on immigrant workers

They may not burst into workplaces wielding guns and dogs, but the effects are no less devastating. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) is increasing immigration controls that have a serious impact on immigrants in the workplace using a different—and quieter—tactic.

• Porn actor’s health generates questions about job safety

When Derrick Burts, an adult film actor in California, tested positive for HIV in October, the state’s porn industry came to an abrupt halt. At first, it was just two studios—Vivid Entertainment and Wicked Pictures—that put the brakes on their productions. But before long, a total of five studios had shut down, each one hoping to curtail a potential HIV outbreak. Though the incident ended up yielding no new infections among active porn industry workers, it was nonetheless reminiscent of similar HIV scares within the industry (one of which, in 2004, resulted in the infection of three actors).

• Should employers have let employees out earlier?

Talk to Virginia State Police, and part of the reason this week devolved into absolute gridlock has to do with everybody hitting the road at one time. With the federal government getting out only two hours early, the roadways were already jammed with traffic as heavy snow started to fall around 4:00 p.m.

• OSHA: La., SC co.s settle whistleblower suit

The U.S. Department of Labor says companies in Louisiana and South Carolina are settling a lawsuit alleging they illegally fired a crane operator in Texas for making safety and health complaints.

• The man who said ‘no’ to coal companies: Activist details state of polarizing industry

West Virginia mining jobs, once predominantly union and well-paying, have become much fewer, much lower-paying and much more likely to be non-union. Non-union mines have notably worse safety records.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, January 27

• Oil spill panel leaders push Congress to take quick action

The co-chairs of the presidential panel that investigated last year’s devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill are urging lawmakers not to drag their feet in dealing with the hazards of offshore drilling.

• Mine safety, EPA bills introduced

Separate bills pertaining to mine safety and limiting the authority of the federal Environmental Protection Agency have been introduced in Congress by members of West Virginia’s delegation.

• Feds still unsure what set off deadly W.Va. blast

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board believes either metal shavings or dust were the source of an explosion that killed three men in a West Virginia factory, but the investigator in charge said Wednesday his team has yet to determine which form ignited or how.

• San Bruno blast probe reveals shoddy record-keeping, official says

The National Transportation Safety Board appears likely to come down hard on Pacific Gas & Electric in its final report on the pipeline explosion and fire in September that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno, Calif.

• Court ruling challenges residents’ identity as students

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling that medical residents are employees — not students — raises questions beyond whether they should be paying into Social Security and Medicare.

• Robins Air Logistics Center correcting OSHA citations

Leadership at Robins Air Force base says they’re working with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to correct dozens of safety violations the Air Logistics Center expects to be cited for. The citations range from insufficient injury-prevention and -reporting to overexposure to cancer-causing agents including lead, cadmium and chromium.

• OSHA not reviewing death of stagehand

State safety officials think they have significantly improved the way they hold employers accountable for on-the-job accidents, according to a Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration letter sent Tuesday to federal officials, who faulted a state investigation of a stagehand’s death. The 20-year-old part-time stagehand was killed in 2009 by a fall in a showroom at MGM Grand.

• Beaten Acadia worker: ‘Conditions will improve’

The Acadia Hospital employee whose beating last summer at the hands of an out-of-control patient helped trigger a federal investigation is hopeful that working conditions will get better at the 100-bed psychiatric hospital.

• Metro worker injured during Red Line track repair

A Metro worker was injured when a piece of track equipment bucked as it broke, snapping the worker’s ankle and slowing down trains.

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, January 26

• Watchdog: Admin ignored scientists’ spill report recommendations

A watchdog group is accusing the Obama administration of putting public relations ahead of scientific integrity in its communications about the Gulf oil spill.

• OSHA temporarily withdraws proposed column for MSDs

OSHA has announced that it has temporarily withdrawn from review by the Office of Management and Budget its proposal to restore a column for work-related musculoskeletal disorders on employer injury and illness logs. The agency has taken this action to seek greater input from small businesses on the impact of the proposal and will do so through outreach in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.

• Obama administration wrong to bow to industry on tracking musculoskeletal disorders

We are mystified by today’s announcement that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is suspending its proposed rule to restore a tracking mechanism for work-related musculoskeletal disorders on employer injury and illness logs.

• US House cuts budget to 2008 levels, rig inspections could take hit

The US House of Representatives Tuesday fulfilled a Republican pledge to cut federal spending by passing a bill that would to return the government’s budget to the fiscal 2008 level. The bill, which would roll back non-security discretionary spending to levels before the massive economic stimulus measure was enacted, could curtail efforts to improve oversight of offshore drilling operations, sought in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon accident, by denying the funding that the White House has sought for added inspectors.

• Reps. Maloney, Nadler, and King call for public session on Zadroga law

Today, Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Peter King (R-NY)– the House sponsors of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act– sent a letter to Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), requesting a public meeting in New York City to answer questions about how the new law will be implemented.

• Norfolk forming panel to review police recruit’s death

After saying in December they would wait for a state report to determine if there were any lessons to be learned in the death of a police recruit, city leaders now plan a full review. The recruit died Dec. 18 after a series of blows to his head earlier in the month during defensive training. The Police Department initially mentioned only a collision with another recruit as a possible cause of his injuries, but public records showed that Kohn had been punched in the head in drills by instructors before and after the collision.

• OSHA fines Drive Power $79,000

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Drive Power Inc. of Newnan, Ga., $79.350 for alleged multiple health and safety violations.

• Federal investigation finds safety violations at The Acadia Hospital

The report on a months-long federal investigation at The Acadia Hospital was released on Tuesday and cited the hospital for failing to provide a safe workplace for employees. The investigation by the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration also faulted the hospital for inadequately documenting work-related injuries and imposed a total fine of $11,700.

• UI contractor fined over safety violations in 2009

A company that employed a worker who died in an accident on the University of Iowa campus Monday was cited for safety violations in 2009 that regulators said put employees’ lives in danger during another project near UI, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, January 25

• Is a local agency the best way to go?

More than two years after an explosion that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released its findings. Federal agencies, particularly the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, that should provide such oversight lack the staff to adequately enforce their own regulations.

• Safety system dysfunctional before mine blast

Legally required water systems at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia were not functioning properly before the April 5 explosion that killed 29 mineworkers, according to multiple sources familiar with the disaster investigation. Some mine safety experts believe that these safety systems might have helped prevent the explosion if they had been working as designed.

• US Interior accepting nominations for offshore safety advisory group

The US Department of the Interior on Monday said it is accepting nominations for a 13-person committee that will advise the agency on offshore drilling technology, oil spill containment and cleanup, and other issues.

• Oversight group vows to pursue updates to football helmet standards

With officials from the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission lending an air of urgency, the board that oversees athletic equipment safety finished its annual meeting Saturday vowing to pursue several updates to football helmet standards.

• Workers’ Rights Center targets workplace health, safety hazards

Imagine if you fell off a ladder on the job and broke an elbow, and on the way to the clinic the boss tells you not to say you were hurt at work. He’ll pay the medical bills, he promises. But soon after your surgery, the boss fires you and sticks you with the medical bills. Hard to imagine? Well, it’s the kind of thing that happens among low-wage immigrant workers in Dane County, says a new report by the Workers’ Rights Center in Madison.

• Tesoro appeals $2.39M fine for refinery blast

Tesoro Corp. is appealing the $2.39 million fine issued by Washington state to an independent board, after the state Department of Labor and Industries affirmed the penalties and violations last month.

• Fines of $1.35 million sought in suffocations of 3 grain bin workers

Workplace regulators are seeking fines totaling $1.35 million from the operators of two grain elevators in Illinois where three employees suffocated in on-the-job accidents last summer. One of the two workers killed in July at Haasbach LLC’s elevator in Mount Carroll, Ill., was only 14 years old — four years below the minimum age for performing hazardous jobs under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

• OSHA fines NH paper company in worker death

A federal agency is fining a New Hampshire paper company for intentional safety violations in the death of a 34-year-old worker who was pulled through a paper rolling machine.

• Recycler says it was defrauded by ex-employees

Houston-based Greenstar, San Antonio’s recycling processor, claims in a civil lawsuit that it was defrauded by two employees in a scheme involving the disposal of recycling-waste materials.

• Worker dies after falling into dough mixer at Brooklyn Tortilla Factory

New York City police and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) are investigating the death of a young worker at a tortilla factory in Brooklyn who fell into a commercial mixer.

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Daily Roundup, Monday, January 24

• Supreme Court says fiancee of complaining worker protected from retaliation

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man who was fired after his fiancee filed a complaint against their mutual employer may sue for illegal retaliation.

• Question looms on WTC health act: Who is covered?

There is no doubt that Richard Volpe is sick, and no doubt that the former police detective spent 9/11 breathing in clouds of soot at the World Trade Center. Yet that is no guarantee that the ex-cop, or many others like him, will qualify for a substantial share of the $2.78 billion Congress has set to compensate people who fell ill after being exposed to ground zero toxins.

• Doctors think of suicide more, survey shows

Pressed by depression, burnout and anxiety over past medical mistakes, 1 of 16 surgeons said they considered suicide over a 12-month period.

• Arctic Alaska offshore, a 40-year recap

The state of offshore drilling in Alaska’s Arctic can be summed up in one word: uncertain.

• Will Michigan State University stop supporting Massey Energy’s corrupt coal business?

Responsibility is key if you’re one of the largest coal companies in America. Which is why Massey Energy does not deserve to be one of them.

• Join CDC’s heads up live chat on Twitter

CDC Heads Up hosts the first Live Chat on Twitter about concussion in sports with a panel of professional athletes and experts, Thursday, Jan. 27.

• Two reports look at beryllium contamination at Bannister complex

Part of the Bannister Federal Complex is contaminated by beryllium that was used to make parts for nuclear bombs, according to a report obtained by The Kansas City Star. But federal officials aren’t saying what that means.

• OSHA investigating hospital in wake of accident

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, commonly known as OSHA, is looking into what caused Wednesday’s accident at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove in which two workers were injured after a piece of equipment weighing at least 3,000 pounds came crashing down on them.

• Worker who died in Atwater Village industrial accident was trying to aid colleagues

One worker died Friday morning after trying to help two unconscious colleagues overcome by ethanol fumes as they cleaned blood plasma from a container at an Atwater Village pharmaceutical company.

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Daily Roundup, Friday, January 21

• Trumka: White House review of government regulations a ‘distraction’

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the White House’s planned government-wide review of regulations could end up being a “distraction” for agencies already dealing with scarce resources. “To the extent that analysis draws them away from enforcing the regulations and protecting the health and safety of workers, we think it’s a distraction,” Trumka said. “We think we would have rather not seen it.”

• Baffled by opposition to finding and fixing workplace safety hazards

The construction trade association Associated Building Contractors (ABC) was one of 150 business groups that received a letter from Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) in December, asking for their ideas about federal regulations “that have negatively impacted job growth.” ABC responded with a list heavy on opposition to labor protections, such as requirements for prevailing wage and labor-management agreements on federal construction projects.

• Oregon Senate Republicans say state agencies put too much regulation, paperwork on business

Oregon Senate Republicans want a two-year suspension of all state agency rulemaking because they say excessive government regulation is keeping businesses from creating jobs. The moratorium would include environmental rules and regulations governing business practices. For example, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division is considering rules that would increase penalties for employers cited for serious violations.

• Longstanding flaws led to deadly blast at pesticides plant, probers say

Federal authorities say that a fatal 2008 accident at a Bayer CropScience chemical plant in West Virginia could have been prevented by stricter safety auditing, and have recommended a series of steps to avert future disasters. The explosion killed two workers and injured another eight when a 4,000-gallon tank known as a residue treater exploded and, leaving a trail of flames behind it, slammed into a pesticide manufacturing unit.

• Plea deal pending in pregnant farmworker’s death

Two company officials charged in the death of a pregnant teenager who collapsed of heat stroke after working in a sweltering California vineyard have agreed to a plea deal that will likely spare them a trial appearance and a lengthy jail sentence.

• Miami lead manufacturer hit with OSHA fines

Lead Enterprises, a Miami-based recycling and lead manufacturing company, was hit with 32 safety and health violations, and faces more than $300,000 in fines for knowingly neglecting to protect employees from lead exposure, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

• Driver killed when truck overturns at gas drilling site

A truck driver was killed Wednesday afternoon at a natural gas drilling site when his vehicle overturned, authorities said Thursday. According to Fort Worth police, the truck driver was backing an 18-wheeler hauling water into the pad site when the ground around it gave way, causing the vehicle to overturn.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, January 20

• Interior unveils two agencies to oversee drilling

The Obama administration continued to shake up the agency that oversees oil and natural gas drilling, announcing a plan Wednesday to create separate offices to promote energy development and enforce safety.

• Feds illustrate likely cause of Upper Big Branch mine blast

Investigators from the Mine Safety and Health Administration today briefed reporters on what they believe caused the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 in West Virginia last April.

Their working theory about the blast confirmed much of what we’ve already reported in our stories this morning and last Friday.

• Army sees suicide decline overall, increase among Guard and Reserve soldiers

Suicides among soldiers serving on active duty decreased modestly in 2010 for the first time in six years, even as the Army National Guard and Reserve saw a major increase in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.

• Scalia says due process clause does not prohibit sex discrimination

For those who may have missed it, Justice Antonin Scalia recently expressed his view that neither women nor gays are protected against discrimination under the 14th amendment of the Constitution. The statement was made in an interview this month published in the California Lawyer.

• Park Police chief’s saga is both triumph, warning about honesty in government

The first great irony in the Teresa Chambers case is that the former and almost certainly future chief of the U.S. Park Police has become one of America’s most successful whistleblowers without ever having intended to blow the whistle in the first place. The second is that although Chambers’s recent victory in a seven-year legal saga is a triumph for truth in government, the battle also highlighted how hard it is to protect officials who dare to speak openly and plainly to the public.

• Vision-zapping lasers increasingly beamed at pilots

Pilots are increasingly encountering a high-tech hazard: potentially blinding laser beams. The number of incidents nationally in which people pointed lasers at planes and helicopters soared 86 percent last year, from 1,527 in 2009 to 2,836 in 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday.

• Safety harnesses and the benefits of regulation

In the new executive order, which Rena Steinzor wrote about yesterday, President Obama stated that agencies must “propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs.” This isn’t a revolutionary requirement; public-health agencies are already required to demonstrate cost-effectiveness of proposed regulations.

• Preliminary study supports LEED productivity benefits

A new peer-reviewed study from Michigan State University researchers lends rare quantitative support to the idea that green building can lead to greater worker health and productivity. The study has several limitations, however, and the researchers characterized its results as “preliminary.”

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, January 19

• Mining deaths rise to 71 last year, more than double 2009′s record low

On-the-job deaths in the mining industry, after hitting a record low of 34 in 2009, shot back up to 71 last year.

• Mine disaster investigators suspect sparks from broken tool Caused Blast

Federal investigators searching for the cause of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 miners last year believe they now know what touched off the blast: a badly broken cutting tool gave off sparks that, in turn, ignited methane gas.

• Workplace noise-reduction proposal withdrawn by U.S.

The Obama administration withdrew a proposal that may have triggered new workplace noise-reduction requirements after business groups said the plan would be too expensive and hurt job creation.

• Interior official declines to offer specific timeline for Gulf drilling

The Interior Department’s top drilling official declined to give details on when the department will begin issuing new deepwater drilling permits for the Gulf of Mexico.

• Labor Department whiffs on whistleblower reform

A long-awaited internal review of the troubled U.S. Labor Department whistleblower protection program essentially endorses the status quo despite a series of scathing reports by government and outside analysts, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). According to PEER, which released a copy today, the internal review does not even consider major changes urged by Congress and others, most prominently that the whistleblower program become autonomous rather than remain a collateral function buried inside the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

• FDA whistleblower allegations shouldn’t be swept under the carpet

If Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius truly wants to make the FDA a “world-class” regulatory agency as she once pledged, she must take seriously the charges of misconduct and mismanagement within the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). According to the whistleblowers, speaking out had its consequences: retaliation by CDRH managers.

• Federal officials investigate Nevada’s handling of hotel’s asbestos violations

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is examining whether Nevada regulators went too easy on the Flamingo Las Vegas, a mega hotel in the gambling mecca, after serious asbestos violations were discovered there.

• COSH names top 10 workplace tragedies for 2010

The year 2010 was a bad one for workers: An explosion on a an off-shore drilling rig killed 11 workers and triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history; a catastrophic mine disaster killed 29 coal miners; and an oil refinery explosion caused multiple fatalities – and those were just the incidents you heard about.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, January 18

• Obama: Toward a 21st-century regulatory system

From child labor laws to the Clean Air Act to our most recent strictures against hidden fees and penalties by credit card companies, we have, from time to time, embraced common sense rules of the road that strengthen our country without unduly interfering with the pursuit of progress and the growth of our economy. Sometimes, those rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs.

• Obama’s new approach to regulation is misguided; we need stronger controls over Big Business

President Barack Obama’s opinion editorial today adopts business and right-wing think-tank talking points about the harms of regulation and urges “balance” in achieving the right amount of regulation – not so little that we fail to protect the public, and not so much as to harm the economy.

• OSHA chief speaks on Obama regs, oil spill, resident work hours, and more at Public Citizen

OSHA chief David Michaels graced Public Citizen with his presence and insight today as the kick-off to Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Speaker Series. From the BP oil spill cleanup to medical resident work hours, from heat standards for construction workers to noise standards for restaurant employees, Michaels pretty much covered it all. He even weighed in on President Obama’s executive order to take another look at regulations. Check out our live tweeting.

• Nevada’s OSHA operations won’t go federal

Gov. Brian Sandoval will not try to turn operations of Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the federal government, state and federal sources said Friday. For several weeks, there have been persistent reports that the governor would shift some of the agency’s operations to the federal OSHA to save money.

• Bills propose tougher safety rules for handling chemo in the workplace

Washington legislators plan to introduce two bills this session to strengthen worker-safety protections for health-care workers who handle chemotherapy drugs and to provide better tracking of cancers that develop from occupational exposures.

• NLRB challenges state amendments weakening worker rights

Reacting to state efforts to undermine workers’ right to organize unions, the National Labor Relations Board has threatened to sue four states if they did not acknowledge their recent state constitutional amendments violated the U.S. Constitution.

• Does the National Labor Relations Board even matter?

The ineffectiveness of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has always been a big complaint of organized labor. Many in unions have claimed that the long delays in hearing cases of illegal union busting—sometimes up to two years after an organizing drive is over – makes enforcement of existing labor laws a joke. With President Obama’s appointment of Lafe Solomon as the new NLRB General Counsel this month, people in labor are hoping that perhaps the federal body will finally enforcing the law.

• You are no one. You are without papers.

You are a worker and you are an immigrant and suddenly you feel unwanted, hunted, frozen out. If your job is dangerous, you don’t tell anyone. It can only hurt you.

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