A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Check out my commentary on The Century Foundation’s website on EPA’s foot-dragging on banning the use of methylene chloride as a stripper — and the needless deaths it’s causing. Another gift to the American people by Scott Pruitt. To see for myself how appropriate the labels were, I headed down to my neighborhood hardware store…
The House of Representatives Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee has reported out a bill cutting overall OSHA funding from $552.78 million in FY 2018 to $545.25 million for FY 2019, a 1.4% reduction. It’s not yet clear where the cuts come from, although the $10.5 million Susan Harwood Worker Training grants have once again been eliminated from funding…
Words Words Words I’m so sick of words I get words all day through First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do? — Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, under fire for weakening worker protections, has consistently emphasized the importance of strong enforcement of the laws…
OSHA issued a new policy document last week for its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), weakening measures taken in the last administration that were intended to restore the program’s integrity which had been threatened by uncontrolled growth during the Bush administration. VPP is a program, created under the Reagan administration, that recognizes sites that have “implemented effective safety…
In some fairly good news for workers who want to live a full life, but work in foundries or manufacture brick, concrete blocks, stone counter tops, OSHA announced last week that it would begin enforcement of the silica standard for General Industry and Maritime workers on June 23. For the first 30 days, however, no citations…
Another week, and another list of preventable deaths. Two double fatalities this week: Two workers killed in a power plant explosion and two others who fell to their deaths down an elevator shaft. Man dies from electrocution injuries WOONSOCKET, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island man has died from electrocution injuries sustained while painting. WPRI-TV…
This list is unfinished. The full list is here:
Nineteen years is a short life, but that’s all that Kyle Hancock of Glen Burnie, Maryland will get. Hancock died, buried alive earlier this week in a 15-foot unshored trench. Rescuers worked almost 12 hours through a long, rainy night trying to recover his body. The trench that killed Hancock was between 15 and 20…
The Inspector General (IG) issued a somewhat bizarre report yesterday on “management challenges” at the Chemical Safety Board. The IG is required by the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 “to report what we consider the most serious management and performance challenges facing the CSB.” As the report accurately states, “Historically, the CSB has been plagued…
Man dies in pressroom accident at Pennsylvania newspaper ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A contractor (Ruben Ocasio-Fernandez, 32)became trapped underneath a piece of machinery that was being removed from the pressroom of a Pennsylvania newspaper, suffering fatal injuries.The Lehigh County coroner says the man became trapped at The Morning Call in Allentown on Tuesday afternoon. Crews have…