Workplace safety under the Obama administration – how far have we come? #workersafety #OSHA

• Solis: One is too many

Today is Workers Memorial Day. It’s a day to remember those who’ve been hurt or killed on the job. And it’s a day to recommit to making worksites safer across the nation. Every day in America, 12 people go to work and never come home. Every year in America, 3.3 million people suffer a workplace injury from which they may never recover. These are preventable tragedies that disable our workers, devastate our families, and damage our economy.

• Protecting workers: progress under Obama?

Yesterday was Workers Memorial Day, a day set aside by worker safety and health advocates to remember men and women who are killed on the job across this country. The Obama administration’s worker safety regulators and agencies are making a big deal about this day of commemoration, and tying it to the 40th anniversary of the creation of OSHA. But as I read the speeches, and studied the AFL-CIO report, something just jumping out at me … it was the list of terrible workplace disasters that our nation has suffered over the last two years. Those things didn’t happen when George W. Bush was president. They happened on President Obama’s watch. And they happened after Hilda Solis was confirmed as Labor Secretary.

• Giffords shooting spurs authorities to step up security for federal lawmakers

Since the Tucson shootings, U.S. Capitol Police have urged members of Congress to be more vigilant. Lawmakers’ aides now coordinate public activities in home districts with local law enforcement authorities. There are new protocols for reporting death threats, strange phone calls and suspicious Facebook postings.

• FAA orders air traffic control management shake-up after cases of controllers sleeping

The Federal Aviation Administration is shaking up the management of the nation’s air traffic control system following embarrassing incidents of controllers sleeping on the job and making errors. The FAA said Friday it has appointed new managers to oversee the operation of airport towers and regional radar centers that handle planes flying at high altitudes as well as approaches and departures. The previous managers are being reassigned.

• Sully to Congress: Be careful with FAA cuts

Retired captain Chesley Sullenberger warned in an interview published Thursday by the DailyBeast.com, that cuts to FAA funding may have an impact on safety and that the government should be forthcoming about potential consequences. According to Sullenberger, cuts could translate to reductions in staffing at regulatory agencies and represent a decision to accept something less than the highest standards. He said such cuts would lead to an increased risk that someone will come to harm who otherwise would not have. Sullenberger stated that the industry has made a promise to passengers that it will do the best it can, even when that is not easy, expedient, or inexpensive. He also raised concerns about pilot fatigue regulation.

• OSHA inspections of outpatient care centers start in four states

OSHA has started conducting inspections of outpatient care centers in four states — Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Florida — in an effort to reduce needlesticks and sharps hazards, according to a report from the ASC Association in its ASCA Government Affairs Update.

• ‘Dangerous jobs’: Report says La. workers more likely to die

Workers in Louisiana face a higher chance of dying during an accident on the job compared to workers in other states, but are also are less likely to endure minor injuries or catch an illness while in the workplace.

• Older workers take longer to recover from injuries

When older workers are injured on the job, they’re sidelined for longer periods of time than their younger co-workers, CDC researchers found.

• Lara Logan breaks silence on Cairo sexual assault

CBS correspondent Lara Logan says she believed she was going to die while she was being sexually assaulted and beaten in Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

• Campus Overload Live with Jenna Johnson: unpaid internships

There are so many college students willing to work as interns — and, often, willing to work for free. (There are even some students who pay for their internships.) The number of unpaid internships has steadily increased in recent years, prompting questions about the legality and ethics of unpaid internships. Last year the U.S. Labor Department released a list of six criteria that must be met for an unpaid internship to be legal and some states launched investigations into internship programs. Some university officials worry that cracking down on unpaid internships could mean fewer opportunities for students hungry for real world experience. But researcher Ross Perlin says colleges and universities have failed to “inform young people of their rights or protect them from the miserly calculus of employers.”

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This Workers Memorial Day, even child labor is still an issue #wmd11

• Workers Memorial Day

Each year on April 28, Workers Memorial Day, working people throughout the world remember those who were hurt or killed on the job and renew our struggle for safe workplaces. In town squares and union halls, at worksites and memorials, in community after community—we are gathering to remember our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives and to fight for safe workplaces and for good jobs for all workers. This year is especially noteworthy. It’s the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, where 146 workers were killed after being trapped behind locked doors with no way to escape. This year is also the 40th anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the right of workers to a safe job. Find a Workers Memorial Day event near you.

• Remembering Dan Middaugh on this Worker Memorial Day

“Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the living” was the rallying cry of community organizer Mother Jones (a.k.a. Mary Harris Jones, 1837-1930) to fire up workers as they demanded better working conditions and labor rights. The motto still resonates today, especially this week when workers, human rights, and public health advocates commemorate International Worker Memorial Day. Hazards magazine offers a list of events scheduled across the globe and the AFL-CIO provides a list of activities here in the U.S., as does the victims’ support group United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF).

• Worker deaths decline due to recession, not new safety regulations

The number of workplace-related deaths and injuries decreased slightly in 2009 according to the nation’s largest labor union, but that’s not because of any significant changes in safety regulations. Instead, the loss of jobs due to the recession has simply kept many employees away from the most harmful workplaces.

• Workers must unite for better immigration policy

President Obama can direct ICE not to interfere in workplaces where workers have fought to improve conditions or are currently doing so. ICE should target employers that exploit workers, not employers trying to do the right thing. And the President can implement a humane and common-sense new prosecutorial discretion policy in keeping with ICE’s existing enforcement priorities.

• LePage sparks a child labor debate in Maine

Many long-dormant personnel issues have re-emerged in the states this year as Republican governors seek to change the rules for managing the public workforce. But nobody expected controversy over the personnel issue that has come to the surface in Maine: child labor. Governor Paul LePage is promoting legislation this year that would move toward deregulating non-adult employment. The Maine legislature is considering bills that would remove any limit on the number of hours children 16 or older can work on school days, raise their maximum hours each week to 24, up from 20, and allow them to work until 11 p.m., rather than 10 p.m.

• Fix the hazards; don’t blame the workers

Every day on his way to and from work at Clearwater, John Bergen III drove past a billboard in the company parking lot sporting a picture of a king cobra and the explanation that it represented the company’s behavior-based safety program – Changing Our Behavior Reduces Accidents – COBRA. Behavior-based workplace safety programs like COBRA are attempts by corporations to shirk responsibility to eliminate hazards by blaming workers instead. When workers die, behavior-based programs disrespect the deceased by blaming them for their own deaths.

• Timeline of OSHA’s 40-year history

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was established in 1971. Since then, OSHA and our state partners, coupled with the efforts of employers, safety and health professionals, unions and advocates, have had a dramatic effect on workplace safety. Fatality and injury rates have dropped markedly. Although accurate statistics were not kept at the time, it is estimated that in 1970 around 14,000 workers were killed on the job. That number fell to approximately 4,340 in 2009. This timeline highlights key milestones in occupational safety and health history since the creation of OSHA.

• Jon Stewart rips provision that would require Zadroga beneficiaries to be checked against terrorist watch list

A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned. The tens of thousands of cops, firefighters, construction workers and others who survived the worst terrorist assault in U.S. history and risked their lives in its wake will soon be informed that their names must be run through the FBI’s terrorism watch list, according to a letter obtained by HuffPost. As you might imagine, this wasn’t the sort of thing that Stewart would let slide.

• Locked-out uranium processing workers protest Honeywell’s use of scab workers at uranium enrichment plant in Illinois

Dozens of workers protested at Honeywell’s shareholder meeting on Monday, accusing the company of putting employees and the public in danger at its uranium enrichment plant in Metropolis, Illinois. Major U.S. defense contractor, Honeywell, pleaded guilty last month to illegally storing hazardous radioactive waste without a permit. The company kept highly radioactive mud in drums in the open air behind its facility near the Ohio River. Workers at the facility say they notified Honeywell of the problem on many occasions.

• Workplace deaths in Bethesda, hostage crisis in Silver Spring prompt workplace safety seminar

Two workplace deaths and a hostage crisis in Montgomery County in one year has prompted Bethesda businesses to host a seminar on workplace safety, to be held Tuesday.

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Tired on the job? So are lots of people. Find out their tricks to stay awake.

• Death on the Job: What the AFL-CIO won’t say about President Obama’s coal-mine safety record

Out today, in preparation for tomorrow’s annual Workers Memorial Day commemoration, is the annual AFL-CIO report, Death on the Job. As usual, this year’s report offers a variety of reform-minded suggestions for improved job protections — more inspectors, tougher laws and regulations, even something as simple as a better accounting of how many workers are hurt or killed on the job. But there’s also something missing from the report. At least it jumped out at me … and that’s any sort of discussion of the ways that the agency charged with protecting the health and safety of the nation’s miners could on its own do a better job.

• Staying sharp in wee hours, unlike some air traffic controllers

At least 15 million Americans work full time on irregular shifts in the late evenings or overnight, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The perk of more freedom during the daytime is one of the biggest draws, as is the serenity that often comes with the darker, slower hours. But there is also a cost, paid by the body in the form of stress and fatigue, the perils of which have been exposed anew in air traffic control towers across the nation.

• NRC proposes changes to Part 26 fitness for duty regulations

The NRC published in the Federal Register today a call for public comments on a proposed amendment to its fitness-for-duty rule that would allow nuclear power plants to use a different method to determine when employees must be given time off from work. The current fitness-for-duty regulations (10 CFR Part 26) went into effect in March 2008. They established, among other requirements, limits on work hours to ensure worker fatigue did not affect plant safety and security. The regulations required licensees to manage cumulative fatigue primarily by providing workers with a minimum number of days off within certain time frames.

• Issue of tired doctors may be put to rest at cost to SF hospitals

New national regulations will reduce the number of consecutive hours they can work from 30 to just 16. The regulations, issued by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, also restructure the supervision residents receive. Although the regulations only affect first-year residents, they will not be cheap.

• Extra benefits for condoms in porn

Conservative and anti-porn groups can talk about shutting the whole system down, but if there is one lesson history has taught us about sex work, it’s that it will just go underground. Like many controversial and illegal things in this country, legalization and regulation is far more helpful than a complete ban.

• Trenching and excavation: Quick action prevents possible injury or death

One of the most persistent problems facing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is workers unprotected in trenching and excavation projects. All excavations are hazardous because they are inherently unstable. That’s why pre-job planning is vital to accident-free trenching; safety cannot be improvised as work progresses.

• In Ukraine, scars of Chernobyl disaster remain raw

A quarter-century later, no one knows what their heroism cost. It isn’t clear how many deaths and illnesses among liquidators can truly be linked to radiation exposure. Of the 20 men in Kotlyar’s fire brigade, four have died. One man had a brain tumor, another leukemia. Kotlyar is convinced at least that those two died because of radiation.

• A death in the lab

Undergraduate students working at Yale University’s Sterling Chemistry Laboratory made a shocking discovery. There in the lab’s machine shop was the dead body of 22-year-old undergraduate student Michele Dufault, who had apparently died of asphyxiation. Within days, federal health and safety officials had started to investigate. Details are scarce, but it is already clear that Dufault was not inexperienced with the equipment; she had taken a training course and had used the lathe safely many times before, according to fellow physics student Joe O’Rourke. She was, however, working late at night and probably alone (a speculation that Yale would not confirm) — circumstances that were not unusual at the machine shop, says O’Rourke.

• State Capitol’s stunning beauty came at a terrible cost

The stunning beauty of the Minnesota State Capitol came at a cost – at least five workers died building it. These men had been virtually forgotten, but will finally be publicly recognized for the first time during the Workers Memorial Day ceremony Thursday.

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Worker’s suit over NYC bedbugs is a no go – Workplace Health & Safety Digest

• NLRB issues complaint over Boeing’s move to S.C.

A complaint issued on April 20th by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Boeing Co. is a victory for all American workers—particularly aerospace workers in both Puget Sound and South Carolina, officials with the Machinists (IAM) said. NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon issued the complaint, which alleges that Boeing’s decision in 2009 to locate a Dreamliner 787 final assembly line in North Charleston, S.C., represented illegal retaliation against IAM members who work for the company.

• Courts beginning to accept obesity as disability claim

In one case, Lowe v. American Eurocopters, LLC, an employee filed a lawsuit alleging she had been discriminated against and subjected to a hostile work environment. Lowe claimed her weight, which her supervisor harassed her about, was a disability under the ADA. She also claimed that she was harassed because she was parking in the handicapped parking spot and complaining about her inability to walk to work from the regular employee parking lot.

• Judge tosses worker’s suit over bedbugs

A judge has dismissed a former TV news worker’s pioneering lawsuit over bedbug bites at her New York City office.

• Latex medical gloves should be banned, Public Citizen tells FDA

Surgical and patient examination gloves that have cornstarch powder on them or are made of natural rubber latex should be banned because of the serious threat they pose to patients and health care workers, Public Citizen said in a petition filed late Monday with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Further, safer alternatives, such as powder-free, non-latex gloves, are readily available.

• Smoking restrictions flouted in Atlantic City casinos

Enforcement of Atlantic City’s smoking restrictions for casinos is “virtually non-existent,” with overtaxed city inspectors issuing only one violation on a casino floor since the ban went into effect in 2007, a newspaper The Press of Atlantic City reports. Smoking in Atlantic City’s 11 casinos is allowed only in enclosed smoking lounges that are not staffed by employees and occupy no more than 25 percent of the gaming area. A recent study by scientists at Stanford and Tufts universities found that air pollution levels from secondhand smoke in some casinos are so high that less than two hours of exposure could put nonsmoking casino patrons and workers at acute risk of heart disease.

• NIOSH: Nano-titanium dioxide “a potential occupational carcinogen”

In a set of recommendations that could have far-reaching implications, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has concluded that airborne super-small particles of titanium dioxide “should be considered a potential occupational carcinogen.” The new document, called a “current intelligence bulletin,” outlines the agency’s suggestions for exposure levels that will help workers avoid long-term problems.

• The nannies’ Norma Rae

It’s the most intimate class divide in human civilization, or at least in such relatively civilized places as Manhattan and Park Slope, Brooklyn. On the one side, there is the professional couple bringing in six figures a year; on the other, the nanny or maid without whom the couple wouldn’t be able to practice their professions. Conditions of employment are as variable as the individual employers are — from respectful and considerate all the way to criminally abusive. On average, a domestic worker is likely to get less than $15 an hour, no benefits and none of the credit or glory.

• Landscaper accused of weed whacker assault

A work dispute between two landscapers turned into a odd attack when one hit the other in the head with a running weed whacker, police said.

• 911 call reveals clues in fatal tower incident

The satellite tower by Tyra Garcia’s home near Dallas used to be a point of pride. But that’s changed since April 13, when Garcia’s son, Paul Aliff III, died after a 340-foot fall from the radio tower he was helping build near Colburn.

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How to beat the heat at work, and how to prepare for avalanche while skiing

• Hilda Solis: Campaign to beat the heat at work

Water. Rest. Shade. These are three little words that make a big difference for those who work outdoors during the hot summer months. There were nearly three dozen heat-related workplace deaths across the country last year, and thousands more suffer heat-related illnesses every year. Heat can be a real danger for workers in jobs ranging from agriculture and landscaping to construction, road repair, airport baggage handling, even car sales. And the percentage of Latino worker fatalities due to outdoor heat exposure was greater than that for white, non-Latino workers.

• Take action at signs of heat-related illness

For some jobs, it’s not just the heat—it’s also the humidity. Both conditions can cause heat stress, which can range from annoying to life-threatening. The risk of heat-related illness isn’t confined to a particular job or season. It can occur in those who toil outdoors on warm days, such as farm laborers or construction workers. But it also can happen anytime to people working indoors in hot or muggy environments, such as kitchens, laundries, bakeries and factories.

• Requirements murky for helmets, avalanche safety gear

Wyoming’s Jackson Hole ski area in 2009 negotiated with the state’s division of OSHA over a citation connected to the falling death of a patroller in March of that year who was not wearing a helmet. OSHA too cited Wolf Creek for a helmet violation when patrol director Scott Kay was killed in an avalanche after throwing explosives without a helmet. Jackson Hole began requiring helmets on some employees the following season, as did major resort operators Vail Resorts, Intrawest and Aspen Skiing.

• Colorado ski resorts increase safety efforts as OSHA ramps up scrutiny

Ski resorts across Colorado are looking hard at employee safety as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ramps up scrutiny of the ski industry. A 2009 federal Government Accountability Office report urged OSHA to require more diligent documentation of injury rates at “high hazard” businesses such as ski areas as part of the administration’s annual survey of 80,000 employers. Those surveys identify spikes in injuries and can trigger OSHA inspections.

• Michaels: OSHA’s challenge is how to make 40-year-old law work in today’s economy

In remarks to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Dr. David Michaels said that while the agency can cite several drops in worker injuries and fatalities, “our challenge, every day, is how to make this 40-year-old law work effectively in today’s economy.”

• Formaldehyde in popular keratin hair products concern state regulators, watch dogs

State regulators are concerned about excessive levels of formaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen, discovered after testing products and air in salons during the application process. These products commonly contain keratin — a natural protein found in the hair, skin, and nails -– plus chemical additives such as formaldehyde.

• Union fights scheme to give guns to firefighters, hoses to cops

The Michigan Professional Firefighters Union is pushing back against a harebrained scheme that would give guns to firefighters and hoses to cops. Several towns in Michigan are debating whether to combine policing and firefighting into one job, Public Security Officer (PSO). The union is running ads in a bid to convince the public that combining two very different jobs won’t save lives or money.

• New OSHA maritime injury prevention sheet emphasizes rigging hazards

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration recently released a new guidesheet with information and advice for shipyard employers whose workforce includes all-important riggers.

• Top 10 tips for treating back pain

About 80% of American adults will miss work at some point because of it. And most of the time, it’s neither permanent nor serious: 95% of backaches go away within six weeks, with no specific treatment. Following are 10 essential things to know about dealing with a bad back.

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Improved emergency communications for oil rig workers – Workplace Health & Safety Digest

• Debate on protecting oil rig workers takes a new turn — but likely to last a long time

One year after the rig blast that spewed nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, offshore drilling regulators are moving forward with risk-management standards that had languished for more than 15 years before the disaster, and the oil industry is launching a deepwater safety center. But even as the Obama administration prepares to release a second worker safety rule this summer, some experts warn that without regulatory vigilance, the new strategies could hand oil companies too much power to police their own day-to-day operations.

• Improved emergency communications rules for drilling rigs discussed in Wyo.

State worker safety officials are seeking tougher rules to make certain that emergency workers can be reached whenever there’s an accident at a drilling rig in Wyoming. Right now, state rules only require drillers to have phone numbers listed for local hospitals or emergency services. But J.D. Danni, a program manager for worker safety in Wyoming, says drillers sometimes don’t have cell phone coverage.

• Okla. governor signs road worker safety bill

Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law legislation designed to improve the on-the-job safety of Oklahoma highway workers. The measure by Rep. Mike Sanders of Kingfisher reinstates the authority of state Department of Transportation employees and other road workers to use red-and-blue emergency lights on their vehicles when they are working on state highways. Lawmakers limited that right last year while trying to restrict towing services from using the lights.

• Workers compensation targeted by business, insurance groups across country

Joined by other police officers, firefighters and paramedics, Fournier testified against a Maine bill that would diminish the role of psychiatric and emotional damage in determining a worker’s right to compensation after an injury. The hotly debated measure, sponsored by state Rep. Kerri Prescott (R), has drawn support from the Maine Chamber of Commerce and insurance interests and opposition from labor groups.

• CDC’s NIOSH corrects statement about asbestos, a known human carcinogen

Earlier this month, in my post “CDC’s NIOSH says WHAT about asbestos???” I reported on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) new treatise on asbestos, and my dismay with the agency’s characterization of the mineral as a “potential occupational carcinogen.” NIOSH’s information has been updated to read “NIOSH has determined that exposure to asbestos fibers causes cancer and asbestosis in humans and recommends that exposures be reduced to the lowest feasible concentration.”

• Too many teens still injured at work: what parents can do

While teen workplace injuries in Massachusetts have declined somewhat over the past decade, they still remain a major problem, contends a new report released Thursday by the Mass. Department of Public Health.

• Lawsuit filed over Fort Myers natural gas line explosion

Peoples Gas System filed a federal lawsuit today against Posen Construction, alleging it was negligent and violated a Florida safety law by excavating in an unmarked area and causing an explosion.

• Cal-OSHA investigating winemaker death atop wine tank

An assistant winemaker died Wednesday at a winery in east Napa when he somehow fell inside a wine tank, authorities said Thursday. Gustavo Javier Muro, 43, of Napa, was found on an adjustable lid six feet inside the tank at Ancien Wines.

• Outland faces $378K fine over worker injury

Outland Renewable Services says that it “respectfully disagrees” with the Department of Labor’s findings, which indicate that the company ignored safety rules that led to a worker being severely burned. Canby-based Outland Renewable Services has received six citations for safety violations after a technician at a wind farm was severely burned in October, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said on Tuesday.

• Detained reporter Clare Gillis says she is alive and well

Sixteen days after she was detained by the Libyan government, journalist Clare Morgana Gillis made her first direct contact with outsiders in two weeks today, telling her parents in a 15-minute phone call that she is in good health and being held in a women’s civilian jail in Tripoli.

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Giffords’ staff on treating brain injuries, OSHA stands tough against funding cuts & more

• OSHA marks 40th anniversary with tough stance against funding cuts

The federal agency that oversees worker health and safety is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month by preparing for a showdown with lawmakers focused on slashing the deficit and cutting red tape.

• Giffords’ office urges Obama admin to close the treatment gap for brain injuries

In the months since Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., sustained a gunshot wound to the head, her difficult path to recovery has been helped by a comprehensive brain injury treatment paid for by the government under federal worker’s compensation. In January, we called Rep. Giffords’ office to ask whether she’d ever taken a position on expanding such coverage to troops with brain injuries. We never received an answer. But in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this month, Giffords’ office has taken a stance. Pia Carusone, her chief of staff, asked the Obama administration to remedy the inequities in access to quality brain injury rehabilitation.

• Secret Service to offer armored buses for 2012 campaign and beyond

The Secret Service is introducing a pair of armored buses President Obama and other high-profile government officials will use on the presidential campaign and other bus tours. The buses are multipurpose vehicles, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said Thursday, and won’t just be used by Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other presidential candidates on the 2012 campaign trail. He said any government dignitary going on a bus tour or heading to a remote area will use the buses.

• Another loss for working people

House bill 709, “Protect and Put NC Back to Work,” is a shining example of the latest in that dark art where the bill title says one thing and the text of the bill does the opposite. A more accurate title would be “House Bill 709, An Act Pushed by Insurance Companies to Reduce Payments to Workers Permanently Disabled on the Job and to Tilt a Delicately Balanced Legal System Against the Interests of Every Injured Worker.”

• Protect, don’t prosecute: amnesty for Long Island sex workers

Many of you may have heard the the awful details of a case on Long Island in which the remains of a total of ten people who were killed while apparently doing sex work were discovered on a beach in Long Island. Four identified bodies were women, but they haven’t disclosed the sex of the remaining six bodies. My colleague Audacia Ray has launched a campaign requesting amnesty for all prostitution related offenses. Amnesty needs to be promised for all sex workers for people to be able to come forward with information about this case.

• One year after the Deepwater Horizon: Will the next cleanup be better?

When the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 of the 126 workers on board and critically injuring three, the ruptured Macondo well – located nearly a mile beneath the sea surface about 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana – unleashed what has been called the largest accidental release of oil in history. The clean-up response launched has also been unprecedented in scope – and hasn’t yet concluded. At the height of the response, just before the well was capped, the response effort involved more than 45,000 people.

• Frustration and hope as oil drilling regulator remakes itself

It should come as no surprise that oil and gas industry executives have plenty of criticism for the new agency, now that the federal government has tried to tighten controls over offshore drilling in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill in the gulf last April. After all, the bureau has been slow to grant permission to the industry to get back to work in the Gulf of Mexico. But many of the criticisms and suggestions made by the industry are similar or identical to those of environmentalists, who rarely agree with the drillers on anything.

• Workplace bullying and your employees: what can you do?

A just-released CareerBuilder survey among 5,671 U.S. workers reveals that more than one in four (27 percent) workers have felt bullied in the workplace, with the majority neither confronting nor reporting the bully. The most common bully? The boss.

• Free Foley

Four journalists taken prisoner by Libyan forces Tuesday, April 5th: James Foley (USA), Clare Gillis (USA), Manu Brabo (Spain), and Anton Hammerl (South Africa). Reports from the Libyan government state that they are in custody, but have not yet provided a release date. As freelance war correspondents, they do not have the benefit of a large and powerful news corporation to galvanize diplomatic pressure to secure their timely and safe release.

• OSHA investigates death at Walmart

The Occupational Health and Safety Bureau of New Mexico has launched an investigation looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of a Walmart worker who was found hanging upside down from a forklift.

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A year after BP disaster, only 4 regulators added, drilling no safer – Workplace Health & Safety Digest

• Markey: One year after the BP oil spill, drilling is no safer

A year ago, the American public, government regulators, and Gulf of Mexico families had been lulled into a false sense of security over the safety of offshore drilling and the ability of the oil industry to respond in the event of a severe spill. On the first anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, even after countless hearings in Congress, and an investigation by the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, legislation to improve the safety of deepwater drilling has not been put on President Obama’s desk.

• Drilling regulator struggles to add inspectors

Offshore regulators have added only four additional safety inspectors to monitor oil-field operations in the year since the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and raised concerns about federal oversight in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixty inspectors are now responsible for more than 3,500 drilling rigs and pumping platforms in the Gulf, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

• Fossil fuels: a legacy of disaster

On the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the Massey coal mine explosion in West Virginia, we are reminded how dangerous our dependence on fossil fuels can be. A large cost of our reliance on these energy sources is the death or injury of workers in these industries. Transitioning to cleaner energy technologies such as solar and wind is safer for workers as well as better for public health, economic competitiveness, and the environment. We can take steps to make fossil fuel industries less dangerous while we transition to cleaner energy.

• Workers Memorial Day honors those killed on job, including BP rig workers

A year ago today–as workers were being pushed to finish drilling faster than some thought was safe, according to news reports–the BP Deepwater/Horizon drilling platform, 72 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. Eleven workers were killed, the rest were rescued. On April 28, as they call for tougher job safety laws as part of the 22nd annual Workers Memorial Day, workers across the country will honor those killed on the BP Deepwater/Horizon rig and the thousands more killed on the job each year.

• Mine operators owe $55 million in delinquent mine safety penalties

While Congress looks for sources of funding, they may want to just ask mining companies to pay their overdue bills. A one-day snapshot by Mine Safety and Health News found operators owing $55 million in delinquent penalties. The Civil Penalties Special Report reveals coal companies owe the government $36 million in delinquent penalties and metal/nonmetal operators owe $11.9 million. The remaining amount was owed by contractors and a few miners or agents for operators.

• In California, a labor fight over hotel bedsheets

Nenita Ibe cleans 16 rooms a day at the Santa Clara hotel where she’s worked for 10 years, adding up to 25 mattresses per day, each of which needs to be lifted up on each side so that the 69-year-old Filipino immigrant can set the bedsheet properly. Luxury hotel mattresses can weigh more than 150 pounds these days. So last week Ibe headed to Sacramento to testify in favor of a bill that would force the state’s hotels to ditch their traditional flat bedsheets in favor of the fitted elastic sheets most of us use in our homes. The bill would also require hotels to supply housekeepers with long-handled tools so that they would no longer have to clean bathrooms on their hands and knees.

• Cleveland air traffic controller, manager suspended

A Cleveland air traffic controller and a manager were suspended by the Federal Aviation Administration this week after a movie soundtrack was heard playing over a radio frequency by the pilot of a military aircraft, the FAA said Monday night.

• OSHA slaps $193,200 fine on I-75 bridge contractor for safety violations

An eastern Ohio contractor has been cited for serious worker safety violations at an I-75 bridge project in Lucas County last fall and been told to pay a fine of $193,200. APBN Inc., of Campbell, Ohio, was cited for 13 violations of fall protection and water safety procedures for workers sandblasting and painting I-75 bridge more than 40 feet above the over the Maumee River, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday.

• Owners of Flatbush Gardens complex fined 51K for workers’ exposure to raw sewage, asbestos

The feds have slapped an accused East Flatbush slumlord with fines for exposing maintenance workers to pools of raw sewage, asbestos and other dangerous conditions.

• Tim Hetherington, producer of ‘Restrepo,’ killed in Libya

Amid heavy fighting in Misurata, Libya, Tim Hetherington, producer of the Oscar-nominated film “Restrepo,” was killed by mortar fire Wednesday. Over the last few weeks, Hondros had been filing stunning imagery of the conflict in Libya. Getty photographer Chris Hondros, Michael Brown of the Corvis agency and Guy Martin of the Panos Photo Agency were injured in the same incident. Hondros was listed in grave condition.

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Should air traffic controllers be allowed to sleep during their breaks? – Workplace Health & Safety Digest

• BP oil spill: It could happen again

On Wednesday, 365 days will have passed since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and triggered the worst environmental disaster our country has ever seen. The most disheartening aspect of the whole thing? It could happen again tomorrow.

• Interior plans ‘major’ new offshore-drilling safety rules

A top Interior Department official said Tuesday that another set of major offshore-drilling safety rules are in the works. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said the rulemaking process would begin “in the very near future.” Bromwich said Tuesday that in addition to the upcoming rulemaking on drilling safety, there will be modifications to the workplace safety regulations — including requiring third-party audits of companies’ so-called Safety and Environmental Management Systems.

• US seeks assessment of oil industry safety, spill readiness

The U.S. official in charge of regulating offshore drilling Monday asked a new advisory panel for an assessment of the oil industry as his agency considers new regulations. “What we need is a thorough assessment of the existing procedures and technologies for drilling and workplace safety, source containment and spill clean-up,” Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, told the federal Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee Monday.

• Gulf spill cleanup workers’ illness lingers

Workers who were involved in the cleanup of the gulf following the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig have been reporting mysterious symptoms that doctors are struggling to treat. Louisiana has since reported 415 cases of health problems directly linked to the spill, with symptoms that include sore throats, irritated eyes, respiratory tract infections, headaches and nausea. But the worker health problems have been a controversial issue, with much debate over how the health of the workers should be measured and how many of their problems are linked to the spill.

• As the government cracks down on napping air traffic controllers, a former controller (and former napper) talks back

It started last month, when a controller at the Reagan National Airport in D.C. fell asleep while on duty, forcing two pilots to land jetliners unassisted. That incident alerted the public to the disturbing fact that controllers have been napping on the job, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to add a second controller to the midnight shift at some facilities, and leading to last week’s resignation of the Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of the air traffic control system. As it turns out, controller fatigue is nothing new.

• Should air traffic controllers be allowed to sleep during their breaks?

During his story today on Morning Edition about the half-dozen incidents in recent weeks when air traffic controllers were reportedly asleep on the job as passenger jets came in for late-night landings at major airports, NPR’s Brian Naylor reported that “the governments of some countries, including Japan and Germany … allow controllers to sleep during their breaks.”

• Pardon me, but I expect much more of Notre Dame

Monday, Notre Dame released the results of an internal investigation. It’s difficult at this point for ND to come out looking good in this matter regardless of what it does, says or finds. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration already fined the school $77,500 for ignoring industry standards that could have prevented the tragedy. Notre Dame’s findings seem in conflict with IOSHA’s.

• Search continues for Idaho silver mine worker, one mile deep underground

Deep in the Bitterroot Mountains of the Idaho panhandle, mine rescue teams are working around the clock to locate Larry “Pete” Marek, 53. Marek and his brother were working in Hecla Mining’s Lucky Friday silver mine on Friday afternoon (4/15) when the roof collapsed. His brother escaped, but Larry Marek did not.

• OSHA fines Pearl Leather $104K

A manufacturer in Johnstown faces $104,000 in fines stemming from an accident in fall 2010, federal officials said. OSHA inspectors visited after a worker got his hand caught in an embossing press. OSHA ruled the press had inadequate guards to protect workers, and the agency cited a range of other violations as well.

• Pay loader strikes paper plant worker

A Central Falls man who was run over by a pay loader was in serious condition Tuesday in the intensive care unit of Rhode Island Hospital. Maj. Arthur Martins of the Pawtucket Police Department said the driver of the 12-ton vehicle didn’t see Cruz, who was sorting paper and cardboard. Records show United Paper Stock has had violations and fines in the past. An employee was decapitated in a paper bailing machine in 2003.

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Do unpaid internships violate labor law, Notre Dame releases report on student’s death, and more

• Push to drill puts Houston services in high demand

Nearly a year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a sharper focus on offshore safety is boosting demand for specialized equipment and services centered in Houston, even as the nation’s chief hub for the offshore industry continues to wrestle with a drilling slowdown. Eager to get back to work, oil companies are spending millions to satisfy tougher safety and environmental regulations in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Ray LaHood touts new rest rules for air controllers

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that the government won’t pay air traffic controllers to nap but stressed that federal officials “take very seriously” their responsibility to ensure safety in the skies and on airport runways. Under new rules the FAA will put in place this week, the mandatory number of hours off between shifts increases from eight hours to nine. Workers are now banned from working an unscheduled midnight shift after a day off.

• OSHA notifies control tower of workplace safety violations

OSHA has issued Notices of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Lakefront Airport Air Traffic Control Tower in New Orleans for exposing workers to possible fire hazards.

• Napa State authorized to fill 25 open positions

The Department of Mental Health was authorized this week to fill 25 positions, a spokeswoman for the state agency that runs Napa State Hospital said. The announcement was made after California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley visited Napa State Hospital on Thursday to discuss safety and security at the state psychiatric hospital, which was fined more than $100,000 last week for a series of worker safety violations related to the strangulation death last October of psychiatric technician Donna Gross.

• Hepatitis in ambulatory care: the need for new strategies and solutions

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report a steady decline in Hepatitis B (HBV). The decline is attributed to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation of bloodborne pathogen exposure risks and increased childhood vaccinations. While today’s rates are the lowest ever reported, it is important to remember that HBV has not been eradicated.

• The cost of construction

I have come on as a producer of a project I feel very strongly about and I know this community will as well. It is about worker safety and the unnecessary deaths that occur every day across America and what we can do to change it. I have teamed up with Cavelight Films to finish Cost of Construction. The film uncovers the national scandal surrounding a series of controversial deaths that happened on the most expensive commercial construction project in United States history — all happening on the Las Vegas Strip, called CityCenter.

• Unpaid interns, complicit colleges

On college campuses, the annual race for summer internships, many of them unpaid, is well under way. But instead of steering students toward the best opportunities and encouraging them to value their work, many institutions of higher learning are complicit in helping companies skirt a nebulous area of labor law.

• Notre Dame releases report on student’s death

Notre Dame University administrators on Monday released the results of its internal investigation into the death of a student videographer. Schools officials said Monday that “no one acted in disregard for safety” leading up to Sullivan’s death, and the school “reacted on the best information available at the time.”

• North Bergen recycling company in hot water, again

A North Bergen company that has seen its share of fines in the past few years, given by North Bergen Township’s fire code officials and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has been hit with a half million dollar fine by a federal judge in New York. On Monday, April 11, Eagle Recycling, owned by Lieze Associates, a solid waste management facility, pleaded guilty in a Utica, N.Y. federal court for allegedly conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act and to defraud the United States.

• OSHA cites Castle Rock Lowe’s for 13 violations.

Lowe’s Home Centers has been cited for 13 alleged safety violations at its Castle Rock store following an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is proposing $82,700 in penalties for violations that include inaccuracies in records on worker injuries and illnesses, electrical safety issues involving access to equipment, and damage to wire insulation.

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