A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
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…
The entire 22-member Editorial Board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environment Health resigned this morning after a months-long struggle with the Journal’s new owners who have “have acted in a profoundly unethical fashion” and have moved the worker-oriented publication to a more corporate focus. The fate of the IJOEH is important to worker…
The Chemical Safety Board may be preparing to take a significant step backwards in its advocacy for worker participation in preventing chemical facility incidents, including catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In April, 2016 the CSB unanimously approved a 4-volume “Macondo Investigation Report” in response to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed 11…
It’s report card time and states are lining up to get their grades from the National Safety Council.The State of Safety: A State-by-State Report graded states in three categories: Road Safety, Home Safety and Workplace Safety. No state received an overall “A” grade, but several states received “Bs,” including the state in which I live (Maryland),…
The country is about to lose a major player in safety and health research, and it couldn’t come at a worse time. We have heard from multiple sources that Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, the premier private sector researcher establishment in occupational safety and health, will abruptly close its doors within the next few weeks. Reading…
Common procedure for a workplace fatality: Blame the worker. Then blame the guy who warned that the workplace was dangerous. And fire him. Problem resolved. Case closed. Move along. This seems to be the practice of Goodwill Industries in Sacramento that was fined over $106,000 after Abraham Nicholas Garza’s head was crushed in a trash compactor,…
Workers concerned about safety and health in the workplace are heading for some rough days ahead with the current administration and Confined Space will be there all the way, through thick and thin. We will undoubtedly have many harsh – but deserved — things to say about OSHA policy. But I never want it to…