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