Methylene Chloride: Parents, Groups Sue over EPA’s “Breach of Trust”
Families and public interest groups are suing EPA over the agency’s failure to completely ban Methylene Chloride
Category: Chemical Standards
EPA Methylene Chloride Double-Cross
As Confined Space readers know, the solvent Methylene Chloride has killed dozens of workers and consumers who used the material in enclosed spaces without realizing the extreme danger of the substance. MC is so hazardous that the Obama administration proposed to ban it. As might be expected, however, Trump’s EPA, under former administrator Scott Pruitt…
Oil Field Workers: “We’ve just got to find a way not to kill them.”
American workers drilling for oil have dirty, dangerous jobs that often kills them. In return, they’re covered by weaker OSHA standards than other American workers. Investigative Journalist Jim Morris tells the story of these workers.
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The High Price of Clean Rooms: Thousands of Marriott hotel workers are on strike in 23 hotels in Detroit, Boston, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Maui, and Oahu. Aside from wanted a greater share of the company’s enormous profits, the hotel workers, represented by UNITE-HERE, are also demanding that the company address conditions that… 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… Michaels to Musk: Manage safety at Tesla and production will fall into line: Former OSHA head Dr. David Michaels has penned an article in the Financial Times calling on the safety-challenged automaker Tesla and its owner Elon Musk to learn the lessons of the safest companies. Musk has been plagued by production and safety problems, but… The workplace safety movement lost two of its heroes over in March — one fairly well known (enough to get an article in the NY Times) and one not so well known except to the people he worked with and the workers he worked for. Samuel Epstein (1926-2018): Sam Epstein was warmly remembered by those… Methylene chloride kills. We wrote about 21-year old Kevin Hartley last June. He died last April 29 — Workers Memorial Day — while when he was overcome by methylene chloride while stripping a bath tub. Seventeen workers have died from over-exposure to methylene chloride between 2000 and 2015, and probably at least as many consumers.… OSHA may have strong principles about not issuing press releases that might embarrass companies that endanger or kill workers, but they’re gung-ho about press releases publicizing their cozy relationships with industry associations, especially where those relationships are actually helping those industry associations fight off regulatory activity in another state that would protect workers and consumers.… We read the painful stories in the Sunday papers so you don’t have to. Today a story about the corporate takeover of the Environmental Protection agency. It’s common for pundits to ridicule the Trump administration and Congress for pretty much zero major accomplishments over the past six months aside from a new Supreme Court justice.…Dispatches from the Front Lines of Workplace and Environmental Safety: Short Stuff
Century Foundation: EPA Foot-Dragging on Methylene Chloride Is Endangering Workers and Consumers
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Battle for Workplace Safety: Short Stuff
Rest in Power: Workplace Safety Heroes John Mehring and Samuel Epstein
Methylene Chloride Deaths: “All Preventable”
OSHA Alliance: Protecting Workers or Protecting the Chemical Industry?
EPA: “A Corporate Takeover of the Agency”