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News & Notes
Friday Briefing
May 18, 2012 |
Panel examines whether anthrax vaccine should be tested on children. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is expected to decide by the end of the year whether pediatric studies are warranted on the vaccine and other treatments being stockpiled in case of a bioterror attack. The reason for such research is that, “We can’t just assume that what we have for adults works for children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the panel Thursday. Still, testing medications in children requires extra safeguards. If a child won’t receive a direct medical benefit, federal regulations say studies are allowed only if risks are minimal and testing adults can’t provide the answers. The Associated Press
Louisiana watchdog group urges federal government to take over state air quality oversight. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that focuses on industrial emissions, says the state Department of Environmental Quality has done such a poor job of enforcing air quality laws that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should take over the role. A leader of the watchdog group said the Louisiana agency’s inspectors routinely arrive hours after an accident and don’t do extended monitoring of the air in areas directly downwind. “That’s why they can say there is no impact,” she said, adding that the agency’s philosophy is “based on a culture of protecting industry.” The agency disputed the claims. The Times-Picayune
Study finds that workplace safety inspections reduce injuries without hurting profits. Researchers came to those conclusions after looking at data on 409 California businesses randomly inspected by state regulators and 409 similar job sites that weren’t inspected. The researchers found that in high-hazard industries, inspections reduced injury claims 9.4 percent and cut workers’ compensation costs 26 percent in the four years after inspection. “We found that workplace inspections worked pretty much the way they are supposed to. They improved safety, and they did not cost firms enough that we could detect it,” said lead researcher Michael Toffel of Harvard Business School. HealthDay
Boston area manufacturer pays $600,000 in safety fines after explosion. Bostik Inc., a Middleton, Mass.,-based adhesives company, agreed to make the payment and improve its safety practices to settle 50 violations cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency investigated after a March, 2011 explosion at the plant that hurt four workers and rocked the surrounding community. The blast occurred when a valve was left open, releasing flammable acetone vapors. OSHA originally proposed $917,000 in fines. “This resolution speeds corrective action that might otherwise have been delayed through lengthy litigation,” said a Labor Department official. OSHA, The Salem News
Workplace safety regulators seek $212,000 in fines against Texas aluminum plant. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration charged Western Extrusions Corp.’s plant in Carrollton, Texas with 15 violations, including two willful violations, the agency’s most serious charges. “This company has a history of failing to implement effective safety measures … to prevent employees from coming in contact with moving machine parts during servicing and setup,” an OSHA official said in a news release. The company said the issues have been resolved and there have been no injuries. It has 15 business day to contest or otherwise respond to OSHA’s charges. OSHA, CBS
Recalls and warnings: shellfish from South Korea, imodium caplets, Circulon cookware sold at Costco, Ferrari 458 Italia and California models, Porter Athletic climbing ropes, First Fitness trampolines, Saffron Road lamb koftis
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein
Leave a CommentThursday Briefing
May 17, 2012 |
Researchers find equivalent brain injuries in athletes and combat veterans. Scientists have concluded that roadside bomb explosions hurt the brain in ways strikingly similar to the jolts suffered in football or boxing. The researchers also discovered the possible mechanism by which explosions damage brain tissue and trigger a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. ...
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Workers Memorial Day
By Hilda L. Solis on April 28, 2010
The story in the evening newscast is as blunt as it is brief: “local man killed during workplace fall,” or “worker crushed by machine.” The familiar images of “yet another tragic accident at work” call us urgently to action, but they then dissolve smoothly into the next news item.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, we focus on much more than the headlines. We remember those killed on the job, recognize the tremendous pain left behind by the loss of their lives, and we recommit ourselves to ensuring that future tragedies are prevented.
This may not be an annual observance familiar to most Americans, but with a series of dramatic workplace tragedies this month, it is an especially important day.
Just last week, a miner was killed on the job at the Pocahontas Mine in West Virginia, a subway worker was electrocuted in New York, and a driller was killed while working on a gas well drilling site in Sycamore, Penn. Add 29 miners killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the 11 presumed dead in the oil rig explosion south of Louisiana and the seven deaths in a refinery fire in Washington State — all in the month of April.
Each day 14 workers die in our country. That means more than 5,000 people are killed on the job each year. And more than 4.6 million are seriously injured. Thousands of families are impacted by the wounding or loss of a husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter. And most — if not all of these — are injuries and fatalities that could have been easily prevented.
Today the mission of the Department of Labor as a worker protection agency is more clear and needed than ever. With a renewed emphasis on protecting workers and businesses that play by the rules, our goal is simple: save lives. Our tools are enhanced enforcement, a forward-looking and progressive regulatory agenda, expanded outreach and a relentless commitment to enforce existing laws.
But even more must be done. In addition to stepping up our own game, we are committed to working with Congress to modernize and strengthen the very laws that protect worker safety in all of our nation’s workplaces.
Some argue that workplace health and safety inspections, enforcement and regulations are “inconvenient and intrusive.” My reply: No paycheck is worth a life, and no quest for profit should ever be allowed to circumvent our law. So wherever workers are in danger, the Department of Labor will act decisively.
More than 80 years ago, a feisty old woman named Mary Harris “Mother” Jones rallied and raised hell of behalf of miners killed in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Her motto: Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.
There is not a more fitting way to honor fallen workers than to end injustices in the workplace, fight for stronger job safety laws and protections for all workers.
Posted in Commentary, Workplace Safety and Health