Daily Roundup, Friday, January 14

• EPA should be applauded for revoking mountaintop mining permit

Three cheers to the EPA for revoking the permit for one of the nation’s largest mountaintop-removal coal mining projects. The federal agency yanked the permit for Arch Coal’s proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W. Va. — a site that’s been controversial since the first application was submitted more than a decade ago — citing unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities.

• MSHA proposes changes to examination requirements

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is proposing to revise its requirements for preshift, supplemental, on-shift, and weekly examinations. The proposed rule on Examinations of Work Areas in Underground Coal Mines for Violations of Mandatory Health or Safety Standards would require mine operators to take responsibility for conducting complete workplace examinations. They would also have oversight for correcting violations and quarterly reviews with mine examiners of all citations and orders issued in areas where these four categories of examinations are required.

• Tracking investigators’ findings about on-the-job fatalities

OSHA doesn’t have an effective on-line mechanism for the public to easily track the status of fatality cases. Since July 2009, OSHA has been posting a weekly summary on its website of worker fatalities and incidents in which three or more workers are hospitalized. It was a good start, but OSHA needs to link these initial reports with its investigation results.

• OSHA estimates recordkeeping rule’s cost at $136 million

How much time and money do employers spend completing the OSHA injury and illness log and providing data to OSHA and BLS? Quite a lot: 2,967,237 hours and $136,753,120 are the costs estimated by OSHA in its request for comments as it seeks to continue the information collection underlying this fundamental safety regulation.

• OSHA at 40: time for a makeover

The notion that Democrats and Republicans could come together and enact legislation that would protect American workers from on-the-job injury or death seems almost unthinkable today, but almost exactly 40 years ago, that is precisely what happened. But today, the regulatory system that is the legacy of that landmark legislation is broken.

• A liability case reaches the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case that could have serious implications for lawsuits involving businesses overseas. The story behind J. McIntyre Machinery v. Nicastro stretches back to 2001, when Robert Nicastro severed four fingers while using a shearing device that was manufactured by J. McIntyre, a small firm based in Derbyshire, England.

• In California, farmworkers take strawberry pesticide to court

During his final days in office, former California governor Arnold Swartzenegger bid the state’s farmworkers farewell by allowing the use of a strawberry pesticide deemed so toxic that it is used to create cancer in lab mice used for research.

• Traffic jams: trading dignity for protection in sex work debates

Sex workers are used to getting the wrong kind of attention: they’re branded with stigma, victimized by sexual violence, bullied by police and deprived of many labor protections. As we’ve reported previously, a continual debate surrounding sex trafficking is how to talk about sex work as work.

• Paid leave pays off in California

California seems to always be teetering on the brink of financial collapse or political implosion. But this week, the state got news that something about their government actually works. A simple measure to support workers, paid family leave, has not only proved to be a boon to working families but also has had no significant negative impact on jobs. The only problem, according to a new study published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and other organizations, is that paid leave isn’t used by more people.

• U.S. Steel facing $143,000 in fines for explosion that injured 20 workers

Workplace safety regulators are seeking $143,500 in fines against U.S. Steel Corp., charging the company with “willful” safety violations related to an explosion at a Pennsylvania coke plant that injured 20 workers.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, January 13

• Drilling permits in U.S. won’t be delayed as rules reviewed, Bromwich says

The overhaul of U.S. oil-drilling regulations, while “far from complete,” won’t slow the review of applications from producers seeking to resume exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, the industry’s regulator said.

• A predictable industry response to Issa’s anti-regulatory efforts

After House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Darrell Issa sent letters to corporations, trade groups, and conservative think tanks requesting input on which regulations they would like to see halted or eliminated, we warned that “The purported rationale for such an effort is to spur growth, but in fact this is the cutting edge of a movement to trade away public health, clean air and a stable economy to gin up corporate profits already at record highs.” As the responses to Rep. Issa’s letter come in, we’re sorry to say that we were right.

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce – who’s in charge over there?

In predictable style, the heavily conservative lobbying group called upon lawmakers to stop pursuing policies promoting development of “nascent” technologies like solar and wind, and instead deregulate the oil and gas industry, even going so far as to suggest that last year’s Gulf disaster was an anomaly and that further regulation was unnecessary. In fact, the conversation was so predictable that the words “regulate” and “tax,” if taken out of the vernacular, would seemingly render the U.S. Chamber’s representatives completely incapable of speech.

• Teresa Chambers ‘stunned’ by reinstatement

A month from now, Teresa C. Chambers could be back on the job patrolling national park sites across the Washington region as chief of the U.S. Park Police, almost eight years after warning The Washington Post that staff shortages at the federal police agency could impact visitor safety.

• A victory for former Park Police chief might not be a victory for whistleblowers

A Federal Diary column in April carried the headline: “Will day of justice finally arrive for Park Police whistleblower?” Soon, the answer for Teresa C. Chambers, former chief of the U.S. Park Police, will probably be yes. But for today, the answer remains: not yet.

• Report blames poor maintenance in deadly fishing boat disaster

The sinking of the fishing boat Alaska Ranger, which took the lives of five of the 47 people aboard, was probably caused by an old and poorly maintained hull, according to a new Coast Guard report. The March, 2008, accident occurred off the coast of Alaska.

• OSHA must wash its hands of PELs

The multiple options that OSHA is considering to address their badly outdated rules for chemical hazards were described in my November 17 post. They include updating OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) which are erroneously considered to be safe levels for chemicals in workplace air. In reality, it’s wrong to call them “safe” levels.

• Fortune 500′s prohibit driving cell phone use, promote headsets

One out of five Fortune 500 companies in United States have already banned their employees from using cell phone while driving, according to a survey conducted by National Safety Council.

• U.S. Labor Department’s OSHA fines Bridgford Foods Processing $212,000 for endangering workers

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued the Bridgford Foods Processing Corp. facility in Chicago 10 safety citations for failing to implement and provide training for workers on lockout/tagout procedures, thereby exposing them to energized equipment. The meat processing plant is facing proposed penalties of $212,000.

• OSHA cites El Paso plastering company

Federal safety experts have issued five repeat citations to Best Plastering Contractors in El Paso for exposing workers to fall hazards. Proposed penalties total $99,000.

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, January 12

• Remedies that go too far

Marc Ambinder spoke to a bevy of former Secret Service agents and current physical-protection specialists who said that “members [of Congress] can take commonsense steps to reduce the likelihood of an incident, steps that only mildly compromise their access to the public, if at all.” But fairly few of the steps mentioned in the article actually seem like good ideas.

• Major trade association asks Issa to curb toxin, safety, financial reform regs

Late last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the country’s major trade associations and private corporations asking them which regulations they want to see weakened or eliminated. In response, the GOP-friendly National Association of Manufacturers has asked him to probe forthcoming regulations aimed at enhancing worker health, improving toxin standards, mitigating climate pollution and preventing another crisis on Wall Street.

• Court rules on debtors and doctors in training

Medical residents must pay Social Security taxes, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Residents often work 50 to 80 hours a week, the chief justice wrote. They can make $50,000, and they often receive health insurance and paid vacations. But they work under the supervision of more senior doctors who also instruct them, and they attend lectures and take exams.

• Would Supreme Court ruling back worker protections to come for medical residents?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday upholding the IRS’ determination that resident physicians are workers – not students – and thus should pay Social Security taxes further bolsters the case that residents should also have other protections afforded to workers. This includes a good night’s sleep.

• Physician groups bristle at proposed “sleep regulations”

Sleep deprivation can addle someone just as much as a bottle of whiskey and therefore justifies regulations to protect patients from yawning surgeons, asserts a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. For one thing, surgeons who have been awake for 22 of the past 24 hours could be required by law to disclose their condition to patients scheduled for elective surgery, who could then decide whether to turn to a fresher white coat or reschedule, write the authors.

• Paid sick leave and public health

According to new research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2010 44 million private-sector US employees, or 42% of the workforce, lacked access to paid sick time. This IWPR analysis distinguishes between employees who are eligible for paid sick time vs. those who can actually access it, because employers often don’t allow for the use of paid sick time by employees in their first months on the job.

• New emergency standards are recommended for Broadway

The New York City Fire Department should work closely with Broadway theater owners, producers, and employees to develop new preparedness and training standards for emergencies like the attempted car bombing last May in Times Square, according to a report of the New York State Assembly’s subcommittee on workplace safety, chaired by Queens Assemblyman Rory Lancman.

• Federal officials criticize state safety agency’s inaction in fatal fall

Federal safety officials are accusing Nevada’s workplace safety agency of failing to combat reluctance, evasion and falsehoods from two local employers when the state investigated the fatal fall of a 20-year-old part-time stagehand at the MGM Grand hotel in 2009 .

• OSHA issues warning to Ohio airport

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport is on the receiving end of an OSHA Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions. These are issued to federal workplaces (except the U.S. Postal Service) in lieu of the citations issued to private sector workplaces.

• OSHA investigating Leetsdale copper plant explosion

OSHA officials are investigating an explosion that injured three people at a copper plant in Leetsdale, Pa., early Tuesday morning.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, January 11

• Oil spill commission’s report highlights need for oversight, safety and citizen input in Gulf drilling

The chapter of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling’s report released last week regarding the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion confirm Public Citizen’s long held criticisms of the oil industry.

• Oil-spill panel seeks tougher rules, fines

The presidential oil-spill commission said Tuesday that the federal government should require tougher regulation, stiffer fines and a new industry-run safety organization, in its final report released as part of an effort to prevent a repeat of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

• Spill commission seeks independent federal safety agency within Interior

The big report from the presidential commission probing the BP oil spill suggests that Congress and the Obama administration should create an independent safety agency within the Interior Department that would be insulated from political meddling.

• Federal employees killed in Giffords shooting reflect alarming trend of violence

Of course, the lives of the others who were killed or wounded in the rampage are every bit as important as those of the federal employees. But because Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, apparently was the assassination target of Jared Loughner, the connection between government work and the shooting is clear.

• Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to Congress: Leave guns to law enforcement – and we need fewer guns

With at least two House members saying they intend to arm themselves at events in their districts in the wake of the Tucson tragedy, the man who may know more about Capitol Hill security than anyone else doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer – who oversees security for the Senate, and who previously served as chief of the Capitol Police – told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today that members of Congress should leave gun-carrying to law enforcement.

• GOP Rep. wants to enclose Congress in plexiglas

An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in “a transparent and substantial material” such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the public from being able to throw explosives or make other attacks on members on the House floor.

• Oil leak is latest mishap for Alaska’s troubled pipelines

Almost all oil production on Alaska’s North Slope remains shut down after workers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system discovered a leak over the weekend. BP, the pipeline company’s largest single owner, has called it a “significant event [1].”

• Injury and illness prevention strategy can’t ignore working conditions

Lena works in a turkey processing plant in Iowa. She’s up by 5:30 am, eats sensibly, is not overweight and has never smoked tobacco. Lena should be the picture of health, but her job makes her feel much older than her 32 years.

• Solis to establish charter of Maritime Advisory Committee for Safety and Health

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis will re-establish the charter of OSHA’s Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH). Established in 1995, the committee is composed of approximately 15 members who are industry professionals selected to represent the interests of the maritime community.

• 2 firms fined over fatal Indiana Twp. gas well blast

The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it plans to cite and fine two companies more than $200,000 for workplace safety violations related to an explosion at an Indiana Township gas well that killed two welders.

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Daily Roundup, Monday, January 10

• Congressional staffs weigh security concerns after Gabrielle Giffords shooting

The district offices of members of Congress are sometimes located in local federal buildings or courthouse complexes guarded by police officers. But most serve the public in places that are easy targets for a shooter: a strip mall, a storefront, an office building.

• Arizona Citizens Defense League wants firearms training for Members of Congress, staff

Charles Heller, one of the co-founders of the pro gun-rights Arizona Citizens Defense League, tells me that the group has put together model legislation that would require the state to help train members of Congress and their staff in the use of firearms.

• Fiery package in DC triggers memories of anthrax

Postal workers who returned to work Saturday said a package that ignited at a government mail facility conjured painful memories of the anthrax attacks that killed two of their colleagues in 2001. Mail processing resumed Saturday morning after a meeting with workers, the local postmaster and the workers’ union.

• Which senator secretly sabotaged the popular whistleblower protection bill?

After the lame duck session of Congress ended a few days before Christmas, watchdog groups were disappointed to learn that a bill expanding protections for government whistleblowers died in the Senate. The bill was a product of a 12-year lobbying effort [1] and had bipartisan support.

• How a red herring About WikiLeaks killed whistleblower protections

WikiLeaks killed our whistleblower protections bill—sort of. After an unbelievable roller coaster of fear and fallacies, votes on and off, and a flurry of activity, when the lights went out in the Capitol Building on December 22, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act was dead.

• Study finds exploitation of day laborers

Day laborers in New Jersey suffer “rampant exploitation and abuse” by their employers, said a new Seton Hall University report to be released on Monday on wage theft and workplace conditions in day-labor jobs.

• OSHA to roll out five new rules; ergonomics not one of them

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will roll out five new rules this year designed to protect workers on the job – but a rule to curb ergonomic injuries will not be one of them. As a matter of fact, the form OSHA has employers fill out to report job health and safety ailments won’t even have a separate column for ergonomic ills – also called musculoskeletal disorders – until Jan. 2012, OSHA staffers predict.

• A workers’ comp scandal

In a lawsuit, the state alleged that Compensation Risk Managers executives enticed new business to maximize their management fees even at the expense of the trusts they were hired to safeguard, and maintained shadowy corporate structures that went unnoticed by the state workers’ compensation board charged with regulating a booming industry.

• Military notebook: Robins receives OSHA re-evaluation promise

Work to clean up areas containing hazardous materials in two buildings at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center is being evaluated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The areas contained unacceptable levels of lead and chromium and are used as repair and maintenance areas for various aircraft.

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Daily Roundup, Friday, January 7

• Failure in the Gulf

The document released Wednesday by the presidential commission investigating last spring’s oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is a riveting and chilling indictment of “systemic failures” throughout the oil business and of the federal agencies that allowed themselves to be captured by the people they were supposed to regulate. The chapter of the report released early is, by itself, a powerful summons to the Obama administration to press rapidly forward with stronger regulations, and to the industry as a whole to behave far more responsibly than it has.

• In over their heads

No government regulatory structure alone can guarantee safety in an industry that must constantly adapt new technology to natural variations in drilling sites and unexpected natural phenomena. Oversight must improve, as the Obama administration has made clear, but also every company involved in oil drilling – not just BP – must individually and in concert with others evaluate industry standards and safety research programs.

• Obama plan aims to ease Mexican trucking ban

The Obama administration offered a proposal on Thursday to allow long-haul Mexican trucks to move cargo in the United States. Under the plan, Mexican long-haul trucking operators could seek permits to operate in the United States so long as they agree to safety, insurance and other monitoring requirements.

• Fire department receives $124,000 from federal grant

The Birmingham Fire Department will receive $124,687 this year to purchase 25 new self-contained breathing apparatuses after being approved for a portion of the 2010 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG).

• ‘Spider-Man’ actor leaves rehab after fall

A Broadway actor who fell more than 20 feet during an aerial stunt in the musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” has been released from a rehabilitation center in New York, a show spokesman said. He said Tuesday that he is looking forward to returning to the show and is not concerned about his own safety.

• Hundreds flee ammonia leak

A major ammonia leak Wednesday forced the evacuation of about 800 people living near a Hoke County turkey processing plant run by House of Raeford, a company with a history of chemical safety violations.

• Arrest in killing of hospital worker

The unusual slaying at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda was high-profile, coming on New Year’s Day at the well-known facility. The victim, Roosevelt Brockington, was stabbed more than 70 times in a basement boiler room.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, January 6

• Axed from panel name, labor on high alert

The GOP’s decision to drop “labor” from the name of a House committee is being interpreted by some union officials as the curtain-raiser to their efforts to pressure the Obama administration on workplace laws and regulations.

• U.S., British reports identify dangers in deepwater oil drilling

The Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 oil rig workers and resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history, was a preventable catastrophe that occurred due to the missteps of the various companies involved, according to a presidential commission’s investigation.

• Do the new NLRB rules really help workers organize?

A series of rules have been proposed recently by the National Labor Relations Board that improve the rights of workers on the job. The rule changes by the NLRB have been hailed by organized labor as great triumphs that will promote the right to organize. But some question whether the regulations go far enough.

• Will the new assaults on public employee unions undermine all workers?

Years of demonizing public employee unions as part of a right-wing assault against the labor movement now seems about to pay off. That’s due in part to state budgets that have been driven near bankruptcy largely by the Wall Street-led crash, and the political cover provided by otherwise liberal Democrats such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is seeking a reasonable-sounding one-year pay freeze that adds a bipartisan patina to the growing union-bashing.

• OSHA web chat puts focus on Injury and Illness Prevention Program

In a Jan. 5 Web chat to discuss the 2010 fall semi-annual regulatory agenda, OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels and staff asserted that the potential Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) is the agency’s highest regulatory priority with “the greatest impact in terms of preventing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities.”

• OSHA backs Meriden man in Metro-North complaint

A Meriden man who works for Metro-North Commuter Railroad in New Haven has been awarded $75,000, plus attorneys’ fees, because managers suspended him for 30 days for complaining to the federal government about retaliation after an on-the-job injury.

• OSHA proposes to fine MillerCoors $63,500 for ammonia leak

The U.S. Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed to fine MillerCoors $63,500 for an ammonia leak last July that sent two workers to the hospital.

• U.S. Labor Department’s OSHA fines Newark, NJ, construction company $58,000 for not protecting workers against falls

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations to Newark-based Discovery Construction Corp. for not protecting its workers against fall hazards at its Monroe, N.J., worksite. Proposed penalties total $58,080.

• Moorpark construction accident investigated

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has launched an investigation into Tuesday’s construction accident in Moorpark in which a worker suffered first- and second-degree burns when a backhoe struck an underground power line, knocking out electricity to about 3,300 Southern California Edison customers.

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, January 5

• GOP asks businesses which rules to rewrite

Companies spend millions of dollars each year complaining to Congress about burdensome laws and regulations, pressing their concerns in public campaigns and in private meetings. They rarely wait for invitations.

• Advocates Fault Congress for Failing to Pass Mine Legislation

The advocacy group Public Citizen says lawmakers “left workers in the dust” by failing to pass mine safety legislation. The House of Representatives voted not to pass the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act.

• Mine agency faulted for probe’s slow pace

Mine-safety officials are coming under increasing fire for failing to provide status reports on their investigation into the accident last April that killed 29 coal miners at a Massey Energy Co. mine, and for letting months pass without any update to family members.

• U.S. Extracts Settlement From Massey With Unprecedented Mine Safety Suit

The Labor Department’s unprecedented use of its toughest mine safety enforcement tool against Massey Energy has paid off as the company agreed Wednesday to a court-supervised settlement of alleged safety violations at a coal mine in Kentucky.

• Spike TV Digs Down Deep for New Original Series, ‘Coal’

Spike TV and reality powerhouse producer Thom Beers take viewers down into the depths of the earth for an unprecedented look at one of the world’s most dangerous and compelling jobs, coal mining. Spike TV will premiere the 10 episode, one-hour series starting Wednesday, March 30.

• Effects of Combat Stress Last Longer Than “Mild” Brain Injuries, Study Finds

Combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder is more likely to have long-lasting effects on soldiers than concussions or “mild traumatic” brain injuries, according to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

• Governor Signs Revisions to ‘Serious Violation’ Criteria; Serious Citations Are Now Tougher to Challenge

We could argue over the definition of “serious violation” of workplace safety and health regulations in the state of California all day. In fact, employers, Cal/OSHA, and the California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board (OSHAB) have quarreled for so long over the proper definition of this term that federal OSHA and the California Legislature have both taken notice.

• OSHA clears Minnesota Power work site in electrocution death

What caused the electrocution death of a Minnesota Power employee at a Schroeder worksite in September remains a mystery, even after a state investigation wrapped up last week. The nearly five-month probe by the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration found no hazards at the site that could have caused the death of Kyle Damberg, a longtime company employee whose body was found in a building under construction.

• South Sioux City Company Faces OSHA Fines Following Deaths

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued six violations against a South Sioux City, Nebraska plumbing company in the deaths of two men. Workers Robert Thompson and Chad Elgert, both of Sioux City, were overcome by fumes last July while trying to unclog a sewer in North Sioux City, South Dakota.

• Rockville car wash employees still coping with death, injuries

Employees of a Rockville car wash still are trying to cope with the death of a co-worker and injuries to two others one week after a crash involving a sport utility vehicle. An employee of the car wash was driving a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee out of the washing bays of Flagship Carwash Center toward the drying area when it accelerated, striking two employees. The two were dragged beneath the vehicle before it stopped at a utility pole.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, Jan. 4

• IG report: Metro tracks used as toilet, safety problems rampant

Metro train operators were using side tracks as bathrooms because they lacked time for breaks, according to an inspector general’s report. Transit agency employees had to clean out vending equipment infested with dead rodents “without the benefit of face masks or protective gloves in public areas in order not to alarm patrons,” the report also found.

• Longtime tug of war on mine safety

When Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis appeared before a gathering of coal mine owners in the fall, she signaled a sharp change in the relationship between the mining industry and the federal agency charged with protecting workers.

• Coal miners get a virtual taste of life working underground

Add miners to the growing list of U.S. workers using virtual reality to get better at their jobs. Computer simulation programs, long used in aviation, the military and medicine, are training coal miners at the United Mine Workers of America’s Greene County training center.

• A timeline of mine safety accidents, regulation

A series of coal mining disasters over the past 100 years has slowly pushed Congress to enact safety legislation, but the industry has fought change at every step.

• 2010: Labor wins some, loses some

Many in the labor movement say the big election losses suffered by workers in November 2010 should have surprised no one. They say the first indicator of the November defeat was the January Supreme Court decision that threw out almost all existing curbs on corporate election spending.

• Strained states turning to laws to curb labor unions

Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

• OSHA at forty

Every day, an average of 14 American workers die in work-related accidents, many of which are preventable. In addition, every year 3.3 million American workers are injured or sickened by their work conditions. As shocking as this is, these figures represent a dramatic improvement when compared to the situation before the federal Occupational Safety and Health act (OSH) was passed 40 years ago this week.

• Senator calls for helmet safety investigation

A United States senator is formally requesting that the Federal Trade Commission investigate what he called “misleading safety claims and deceptive practices” among helmet manufacturers and refurbishers.

• ‘Brazilian’ hair-straightening solutions with formaldehyde spur inquiry, warnings

In a state where the weather report includes a “frizz factor,” the popularity of salon-straightened hair among Palm Beach County women cannot be understated. But what used to be an issue between a client and her stylist has become the subject of a Food and Drug Administration inquiry, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration warning and a product ban in Canada, not to mention a lawsuit brought by California’s attorney general.

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Daily Roundup, Monday, January 3

• What’s on NLRB’s radar for 2011?

Labor expert Jay Krupin predicts that the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) next moves will be to seek membership in bargaining units for temporary workers and reduced standards for supervisors, so that more of them can be unionized. The Board has also been active on other fronts. Its acting general counsel, who serves as chief prosecutor, wants regional officials to crack down harder on employers accused of unfair labor practices.

• 9-11 health bill the only worker safety measure passed in lame duck session

Everyone’s patting either themselves or Jon Stewart on the back for the passage of a 9-11 health care and victim’s compensation fund late in the lame duck session. And looking at the particulars, the bill is worth supporting. But if we owe it to those workers that they be compensated for being exposed to a hazardous work environment, I’m curious why that doesn’t extend to every other workplace in the country.

• Inspector General slams air safety inspections

Amid one of the busiest U.S. travel periods of the year, a new report suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration may be asleep at the controls. The report from the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation slams the FAA for insufficient safety oversight of airlines operating in American skies, saying that the slowness of its inspection system has allowed hundreds of planes to fly without receiving the proper maintenance checks.

• Wherever I look, whistleblower issues abound

I think the ghost of Tony Mazzocchi is haunting me. Every day for the last 10 days, I’ve been presented with narratives, videos, testimony and phone calls about the workers who are compelled or forced to become whistleblowers.

• Federal breast-feeding policy detailed

Federal workers who need to breast-feed on the job should be given a reasonable amount of time, must be provided access to a clean, private room and might not be paid while doing so, according to new government personnel rules.

• Are you safe at work?

Many people spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else and feel very safe and secure in their offices and work environment. One incident of violence or crime in the workplace can change all of that.

• Companies spread blame for Kleen Energy blast

The owners of the Middletown power plant where an explosion killed six people last year say a Texas engineering company’s faulty pipeline design led to the disaster, records from a federal lawsuit show. It is among the claims made in documents submitted in response to the suit, filed in August by a New Jersey man injured in the February explosion.

• ‘Spider-Man’ actor was fortunate to survive, father says

The injuries suffered by Christopher Tierney in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” could have been far worse if he had not tucked his body and rolled sideways midair as he fell more than 20 feet at Monday’s performance, doctors have told his family.

• 2 USPS centers fined for safety violations

Two U.S. Postal Service centers were fined $318,000 for safety violations, a U.S. agency responsible for issuing and enforcing workplace safety standards said. Processing and distribution centers in Shrewsbury, Mass., and Duluth Ga., were fined for repeat violations of safety rules involving electrical circuits and equipment, the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said.

• Man found slain at Suburban Hospital identified as worker there

The man found slain Saturday at Suburban Hospital was identified Sunday as a 40-year-old lead building engineer in the hospital’s plant operations department.

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