A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Criminal Conviction Upheld: DNRB, a Missouri warehouse construction contractor (doing business as Fastrack Erectors) was confirmed to be criminally liable for the fatal fall of an employee, according to the Eighth Circuit, affirming a previous guilty verdict. 22 year-old Eric Roach died July 25, 2014, after falling 30 feet from a building under construction. Roach…
Pork Processing Workers — From Bad to Worse: US meat workers are already three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker, and pork and beef workers nearly seven times more likely to suffer repetitive strain injuries. Add to that amputations, fractured fingers, second-degree burns and head trauma and you have a work population that…
Death by Trench: Equipment World has just completed a special report on trench hazards and the dozens of preventable deaths that happen ever year. Most chilling is the piece on survivors who tell of the terror they felt being buried under tons of soil. And there are heros, like Jay Herzmark in Washington who worked with…
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…
More Tesla: I wrote earlier this week about the health and safety issues, and under-reporting of injuries and illnesses at Tesla’s Fremont, California plant. A couple of follow-up article have appeared: First, CalOSHA has opened an investigation following the Reveal article. And CalOSHA is investigating another incident involving a subcontractor who was hospitalized after a piece…
Kentucky Limits Black Lung Claims Reviews: We have recently noted that black lung is back with a vengeance after almost being eradicated in the late 1990s. Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they’ve identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported. Well, the state of Kentucky is…
More Freedom and More Catastrophic Fertilizer Explosions: After a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion at West Fertilizer exploded in 2013 killed 15 people, injured 130 more and destroyed much of the town of West, OSHA discovered that the facility was not covered by OSHA’s Process Safety Management and had therefore not been inspected since the mid-1980s.…
Black Lung is Back: After almost being eradicated in the late 1990, black lung is back, with a vengeance. Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they’ve identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, according to an NPR story. “When I first implemented this clinic back in 1990, you…
The moral of this week’s stories is that if you find yourself eating pork chops at your fancy seaside hotel in a hurricane ravaged part of Florida, you need to re-evaluate your life. Trumpworld to Government Scientists: No Science for You! This falls into “The Onion or Real News” category. Imagine my alarm when I…
Nominee Ping Pong: As 2017 expired, so did Scott Mugno’s nomination for Assistant Secretary to head OSHA, along the nominations of the DOL’s Deputy Secretary, BLS Commissioner and Wage and Hour Administrator. But don’t panic. According to Tyrone Richardson at Bloomberg Law, they have already been renominated and sent back to the Senate. Whether they…