I've added a new link over on the left (no pun intended) for Deceit and Denial, a new webpage designed to rebut the attacks on David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz's fine work Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. I frequently reference this fascinating (depressing and infuriating) book that documents decades of corporate cover-ups of the health effects of lead and vinyl chloride on workers and the public.

In a desperate attempt to defend themselves against lawsuits by the victims of their poisons, the vinyl chloride industry is currently attacking and attempting to discredit Rosner and Markowitz (as well as their peer reviewers!).

According to the website, Deceit and Denial

was unusual in a number of respects, including the fact that a number of the chapters on the two primary cases were based on documents historians rarely if ever use in critical evaluations of corporate behavior. These documents were internal company correspondence, memos and minutes of meetings of both the lead and chemical industry trade associations and some of their member companies. The extensive cache of documents we gathered had become available during the previous number of years through legal proceedings in cases involving injured children, consumers and workers.

The book used documents gathered during the “Discovery” phase of various lawsuits against the lead and chemical industries, including the member companies of the Lead Industries Association (LIA) and the Manufacturing Chemists Association (MCA), (today renamed the American Chemistry Council), and its member companies.

***

Here we provide the reader with Scranton’s expert report [defending the vinyl chloride industry], our response, reviews of our book by the academic community, and a link to websites that provides historians with access to a selection of documents from the chemical industry papers. Because one of the key accusations is that we inadequately and inaccurately documented our statements in Deceit and Denial, we will be posting on this site the documents we used in our footnotes for the scholarly community to evaluate. In the meantime, we encourage the reader to visit two other sites where an extensive selection(10,000 pages) of these and other documents about the vinyl chloride story are available here and here.

Check it out. This is today's front line of the ongoing battle to force the chemical industry to take responsibility for the damage it has caused, and hopefully to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, buy and read the book. Don't let the extensive documentation turn you off. It reads like a novel, a tragic novel.

.

Turning government services over the private sector is always better, always more efficient, I mean, it's a no brainer:

Brian Tetrault was 44 when he was led into a dim county jail cell in upstate New York in 2001, charged with taking some skis and other items from his ex-wife's home. A former nuclear scientist who had struggled with Parkinson's disease, he began to die almost immediately, and state investigators would later discover why: The jail's medical director had cut off all but a few of the 32 pills he needed each day to quell his tremors.

Over the next 10 days, Mr. Tetrault slid into a stupor, soaked in his own sweat and urine. But he never saw the jail doctor again, and the nurses dismissed him as a faker. After his heart finally stopped, investigators said, correction officers at the Schenectady jail doctored records to make it appear he had been released before he died.

Two months later, Victoria Williams Smith, the mother of a teenage boy, was booked into another upstate jail, in Dutchess County, charged with smuggling drugs to her husband in prison. She, too, had only 10 days to live after she began complaining of chest pains. She phoned friends in desperation: The medical director would not prescribe anything more potent than Bengay or the arthritis medicine she had brought with her, investigators said. A nurse scorned her pleas to be hospitalized as a ploy to get drugs. When at last an ambulance was called, Ms. Smith was on the floor of her cell, shaking from a heart attack that would kill her within the hour. She was 35.

In these two harrowing deaths, state investigators concluded, the culprit was a for-profit corporation, Prison Health Services, that had moved aggressively into New York State in the last decade, winning jail contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars with an enticing sales pitch: Take the messy and expensive job of providing medical care from overmatched government officials, and give it to an experienced nationwide outfit that could recruit doctors, battle lawsuits and keep costs down.

I wrote earlier this month of the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the death of Denis Bogucki. The report had blamed Bogucki for her own death, stating that she had chosen to use the incorrect equipment to push back an airplane from a gate, causing the accident that pinned her against a plane. The union objected, saying she had been using the only equipment available, and that she shouldn't have been working alone. Virginia OSHA cited the company, Northwest Airlines, and Northwest instituted changes, including requiring two people for pushbacks.

Now, citing "new information," the NTSB is taking a second look at the Bogucki's death. The board said on its Web page that the "investigation is currently being reevaluated due to new information." Board officials declined to comment further.

The report states that she used a tow bar that was too short for the tug she was driving.

But the union contends that she was using the only equipment Northwest provided to do the job.

"You don't put out false facts on an accident," said Bob Bennek, safety and health director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Transport District 143, which includes Norfolk.

Jeanne Earley, Bogucki's mother, told The Virginian-Pilot the report portrayed her daughter "like she was some dumb thing who didn't know what she was doing."

Before she died, Northwest workers had complained that staffing cutbacks were jeopardizing safety. Staffing was not mentioned in the federal report.

Shortly after the accident, Northwest began requiring two people for pushbacks. The airline also replaced the open-cab tug used in the accident with a closed-cab one.

Still, the union contends, conditions at Northwest's Norfolk operation have not improved significantly. The station is still understaffed, officials said, and despite having a new tug, the tow bars are still the same length.

The union said that the airline has begun installing protective roll bars on all of its tugs nationwide.

"I'd say that's the single biggest thing that could have prevented her death," Bennek said.

Labels: Airport Ground Crew Hazards, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Brooklyn cabbie found dead

WINDSOR LOCKS, NY-- A Brooklyn cab driver missing since Tuesday has been found dead in Connecticut. Police saitrenchd Mureed Hussain, 34, was found fatally shot and left on the side of the road on Wednesday. Windsor Locks police announced his identity Sunday. The state medical examiner determined he died from a gunshot wound to the head.


Worker Dies At Port Of Charleston

Charleston, SC - A longshoreman operating a shipping container truck ran over and killed a stevedore supervisor at the State Ports Authority's Wando Terminal last night. Charleston County Deputy Coroner Judy Koelpin says 32-year-old William Hughes of Mount Pleasant man died from head trauma, said. Kenneth Riley is president of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422.


Man killed while dismantling tank

St. Paul,MN- A man in his mid-30s was killed Sunday when he was pinned under an abandoned steel storage tank that he and two other workers attempted to dismantle at a bakery supply company in Golden Valley, police said. The man, whose identity was not released Sunday, was dead when police arrived about 6:30 p.m. at Brechet & Richter, a bakery and food manufacturer, Golden Valley police said. The other two workers were not injured.


Pentagon Police Officer Dies from Injuries

Pentagon police officer James M. Feltis, III died at 12:40 p.m. today from complications resulting from injuries sustained in the line of duty. On Jan. 11, 2005 at approximately 8:27 a.m. a stolen vehicle that was attempting to elude a marked Alexandria police cruiser struck Feltis. The operator of the stolen vehicle turned onto the pentagon reservation and traveled the wrong way on South Rotary Rd., a one-way street, at a high rate of speed. Upon seeing the vehicle approach his location, Feltis attempted to initiate a traffic stop and was struck head on as the vehicle continued traveling at a high rate of speed the wrong way up the Route 27 on-ramp to the pentagon reservation. The 41 year-old officer, a 12-year veteran of the Pentagon Police Department, was flown to INOVA Fairfax Hospital where he was admitted in critical condition. He never regained consciousness.


Firefighter killed while battling blaze

LOS GATOS – A captain with the Santa Clara County Fire Department died early Sunday after being electrocuted by a power line at the scene of a house fire. Capt. Mark McCormack's on-duty death was the first in the department's 58-year history, according to a statement. As McCormack helped fight the blaze, he touched a live electrical wire. He was treated at the scene and pronounced dead a short time later at an area hospital.


Man Killed in Explosion at Thiokol Plant

Salt Lakecity, UT- A fire at a research building killed one lab technician and injured one other, an ATK Thiokol Propulsion official said Tuesday. Steve Watters of Brigham City died in the Monday fire, company spokeswoman Melodie DeGuilbert said. "At about 10:45 p.m., there was an explosion in the research lab where they were working,'' DeGuilbert said, adding that the cause of the blaze and explosion are under investigation.


Worker Electrocuted As Ladder Touches Power Line, Second Worker Hospitalized From Electric Shock

KENSINGTON, Md. -- One of two men whose ladder touched a power line Tuesday morning in Kensington has died. According to Montgomery County police, the 35-year-old victim was pronounced dead at a hospital. His 23-year-old colleague is in critical condition. Police said they believe the men were doing repair work at a garden apartment complex in the 3100 block of University Boulevard. They apparently were placing a ladder onto the side of the building when it touched the high-voltage line just after 9 a.m.


Woman Killed in Elevator Fall Was Immigrants' Guardian Angel

Washington DC - Officials with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry have begun investigating what happened Sunday, when Santa Lucia Mendieta, 44, a housekeeper at the Hilton Hotel in Springfield and a matriarch of sorts in the local Honduran community, fell four floors down a hotel elevator shaft. Details remained sketchy yesterday. According to Fairfax County police and David Melugin, the Hilton's general manager, Mendieta got stuck between floors in a service elevator about 11:30 a.m.


Children on farms face risks-Injury rate in Wis. hasn't declined much in recent years

Marshfield,WI- Child agricultural injuries have remained relatively constant despite advancing safety technology and public education efforts, prompting a continued emphasis on farm safety. A 9-year-old boy died during the weekend on his family's farm east of Medford. Ethan D. Erl of the town of Browning had jumped into a large feed bin because protein mix had become stuck inside, according to the Taylor County Sheriff's Department. The annual number of child agricultural injuries in the United States declined from 32,800 to 22,600 from 1998 to 2001. An injury was any condition resulting in at least four hours of restricted activity. But with fewer Wisconsin farms, the annual rate of injuries declined only from 1.7 per 100 to 1.4 per 100, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.


Men killed in work accidents from Litchfield, Golden Valley

MINNEAPOLIS - Two laborers who died in separate work accidents in Golden Valley over the weekend were from Litchfield and Apple Valley, authorities said Monday. John C. Lewis, 37, of Litchfield, died Sunday while his demolition crew was cleaning out an industrial building, police said. Lewis was using a cutting torch to dismantle a large steel storage tank when half of it fell on him. He died of head injuries. Nicacio Rivera, 32, of Apple Valley, fell to his death Saturday while working at an apartment building. Police said he fell three stories from a construction lift. He died from blunt force injuries.


Vapors sparked fatal explosion

Council Bluffs, IA- Vapors from an unknown source are believed to have ignited sparks from a grinder, causing an explosion that killed one man and injured three others in the Union Pacific Railcard Tuesday. Union Pacific employee Daniel J. Weinert, 46, of Omaha was killed in the explosion. The names of the three workers who were injured have not yet been released. John Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the names of the injured are being withheld pending notification of family members.


Doomed Jet's Final Approach Analyzed, Investigators Hope Cockpit Voice Recorder Will Offer Clues To Crash

DENVER, CO -- Federal authorities investigating the crash of a corporate jet near the Pueblo airport that killed all eight people aboard said the plane's approach appeared normal until less than a minute before the crash. That's when the Cessna Citation C-560 descended 1,364 feet in 30 seconds. The pilot did not radio the control tower to say what happened, according to Frank Hilldrup, the National Transportation Safety Board investigator in charge of the crash investigation.Neither Circuit City nor the Pueblo County coroner has released their names but families confirmed that the victims included pilot Bruce Walton, 53, of Richmond, Va.; co-pilot Jeffrey Wightman, 42, of Tappahannock, Va.; Kyle Jeffrey Harmon, 26, an assistant buyer with Circuit City from Virginia; Aaron Iskowitz, also of Virginia, and Vincent Choe, 32, of New Jersey, The Denver Post reported.


North Georgia Police Officer Dies After Traffic Accident

McDONOUGH, Ga. -- A Henry County police officer driving to assist other officers on a burglary call Wednesday died after his patrol car collided with a pickup truck near McDonough. Police Lt. Jason Bolton said officers reponding to alarm call at a business found an apparent burglary in progress about 5 a.m. He said the suspects attempted to run over the officers, shots were fired and a chase ensued before three suspects were arrested. Bolton says the officer who was killed in the accident was responding to the call for additional help. The patrol car collided with the truck on Georgia 20 just east of Interstate 75. The police cruiser overturned. Police are withholding the officer's name until relatives are notified.


Clifton bakery worker crushed by truck at loading dock

CLIFTON, NJ - A 23-year-old bakery employee was crushed to death Tuesday morning by a truck delivering croissants to a building at Van Houten and Mount Prospect avenues. Eyad Abdelatif, 23, of Clifton, who works for Gourmet Desserts Outlet, was directing a tractor-trailer into a loading dock at 10:36 a.m. Abdelatif was taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where he died.


Executive dies after falling from building roof

MANSFIELD, OH -- It didn't surprise Mark Fisher's friends when they learned he died Wednesday while trying to fix a problem at work. Handling problems always was his specialty. The 47-year-old Fisher, the chief financial officer of Edge Plastics, died after slipping and falling four floors from the roof of his 250 Wayne St. business Wednesday morning.


Lakeville man killed in fall at U

Lakeville, MN- An iron worker died in a fall at a job site at the University of Minnesota. The man died Thursday morning in what appeared to be an accident at Nicholson Hall, a classroom building undergoing renovation, university police Lt. Chuck Miner said. He was identified by the university as Robin Sutter, 52, of Lakeville. He worked for Amerect Inc. of Newport, a subcontractor for McGough Construction of St. Paul, which is overseeing the renovation.


Shooting death of mayor's aide ruled homicide in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD -- By all accounts, Stephen C. Pegram was the sort of man who could help heal this troubled city: a youth worker dedicated to easing gang violence who had just begun a high-profile job as a mayoral aide. Instead, Pegram's mysterious death from a gunshot wound is adding to Springfield's grief.


Accident victim mourned - Dump truck mishap killed 'loving father'

Nevada City, CA- The family of Phillip G. McCully remembered him Friday as a loving family man and country music devotee. McCully, 65, of Penn Valley, was identified as the man who was killed in an unusual dump truck accident Thursday near Lake Wildwood. Services for McCully are pending. "He was a loving father to many people and loving husband to his wife," said son Ira McCully of Sacramento. The Nevada County Sheriff's Office said an investigator from California Occupational Safety and Health Administration was sent to the scene after McCully looked under the raised bed of the truck and it collapsed on him, crushing his head.


Man is found dead at Webster construction site

Dansville, NY— A man delivering building supplies to a construction site in Webster was killed Thursday morning when the hydraulic tilt box of his delivery truck crushed him. Police and emergency crews were called to the site about 8:30 a.m. by a passer-by who found the man pinned between the frame of the truck and the box, according to Webster Police. The incident occurred at Eastwood Estates, a housing development off Monroe Wayne County Line Road. Webster Police spokesman Lt. Joseph Rieger said Robert J. Schmitz, 56, of Dansville, Livingston County, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was delivering lumber for Matthews and Fields Lumber Co. at the time of the accident, he said.


Two Killed In Week's Second Fatal Train Crash

INDEPENDENCE, La. -- For the second time in four days, the City of New Orleans passenger train -- headed for Jackson -- smashed into a truck at a railroad crossing in Tangipahoa Parish. The latest accident happened Thursday in Independence, La. Two workmen died when the train smashed into their electric utility truck. The train carried 80 passengers and fewer than 10 crewmembers. Emergency workers evacuated the passengers, who were loaded onto buses for the remainder of the trip. Thursday's wreck was less than 10 miles from Roseland, where a man and three girls died Sunday when the City of New Orleans hit their pickup truck. Both crossings had only crossbuck signs and no warning lights.


Suspect in Detroit-area plant shooting held without bond

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) -- A suburban Detroit paper plant worker charged with shooting the supervisor who had just fired him and a co-worker who was trying to translate for him appeared in court Sunday and was ordered held without bond. Authorities say Vanegas was fired Friday from his job as a contract worker at the International Paper Co. plant in Taylor. In response, he went to his vehicle and got a gun, then returned to the plant to confront his supervisor, Richard Grider, 44, of Wolverine Lake. Because Vanegas, a native of Honduras, spoke little English, co-worker Martha Winarto, 36, of Novi, attempted to translate the conversation between Vanegas and Grider, Sclabassi said.


A 12-year veteran Houston firefighter was killed fighting a house fire early this morning.

Six others were injured in the 6 a.m. fire at a vacant house on Brandon Street, near Texas 288 and Belfort, authorities said. Capt. Grady Burke, 39, died when the roof collapsed on him while inside the house in south Houston, said Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan.


Investigators Say Lift Operator Was Killed When Caught in Machinery

BRIAN HEAD, Utah-- A Brian Head Resort employee killed this weekend while operating a lift at the resort's Snow Tubing Park has been identified as 18-year-old Kathleen Downward. The woman was killed about 8 p.m. Saturday after becoming entangled in the lift machinery she was operating, investigators said Sunday.


Worker Dies From Fall Down Elevator Shaft

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Brevard County deputies said a worker fell more than 100 feet to his death down an elevator shaft in a cement silo. The victim -- whose name wasn't immediately released -- was found on top of an elevator car Saturday. He worked at the Rinker Materials Corp. plant. The silo is on the north side of Port Canaveral and stores cement powder for shipment from the company docks. Additional information was not immediately available.


Corrections cop kills co-worker

CALUMET CITY: Officer old investigators he thought his wife was being carjacked. Police said a Cook County Corrections Department officer killed a fellow corrections officer early Saturday morning when a prank went awry. Arlin McClendon, 36, of the 1600 block of Astor Street, was shot several times in the abdomen by a co-worker who may have mistaken McClendon for a carjacker, police said. The officer who fired the shots, whom police refused to identify Saturday, had not been charged late Saturday. "It appears this was a case of mistaken identity. The shooter believed his wife and small child were the victims of a carjacking," Police Chief Pat O'Meara said.


Calif. Storms Set Off Mudslides; 3 Dead

LOS ANGELES- Storms Pummel Southern California, Forcing Evacuations and Setting Off Mudslides; 3 Dead. Mudslides trapped people in their homes Monday and forced others to flee as Southern California was soaked by yet another of the powerful storms that have pounded the region this winter...At least three deaths were blamed on the weather and part of the area's commuter rail service was halted. In Los Angeles' Sun Valley area, a repair worker died late Sunday when he fell into a 30-foot-deep sinkhole created by the storm, said Fire Department spokesman Melissa Kelley.


Three Paramedics Die After Train Hits Ambulance

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Feb. 20) - A train slammed into an ambulance that apparently tried to get out of its path, but stopped at a rail crossing, killing all three paramedics on board. The patient in the vehicle survived, officials said. Paramedics Jeff Ferrand, 37, and John Rook, 23, died at the scene Saturday after the Union Pacific train hit the front end of the ambulance, spinning it around and ejecting the emergency workers. A third paramedic, Christopher Klingan, also 23, was taken to a hospital but later died, officials said. "Perhaps the driver saw the train coming and tried to get back, because a matter of two or three feet and there would not be an accident," Arkansas State Police Cpl. Darren Neal said. Neal said the driver apparently decided he couldn't make it across the county road crossing in rural Fulton, backed up and came only a few feet from getting out of the train's path. The ambulance was carrying a woman, Charlene Gayton, who had suffered a heart attack or a stroke. She was not hurt in the wreck, and remained in stable condition late Saturday.


Worker killed at transportation company's loading dock

GIBSONIA, Pa. - A truck driver died when he was pinned between a loading dock and a vehicle, officials said. Shawn Keast, 33, of West View, died around 11 p.m. Monday at the scene of the accident at PJAX Freight System in Richland Township, police said.


Store Clerk Shot, Killed During Robbery, Police Release Surveillance Tape

KENDALL, Fla. -- Police are searching for two people who shot and killed a convenience store clerk overnight during a robbery. Gurdeet Salujah, 42, was killed at about 11:30 p.m. Monday while working at the Marathon Gas Station on Southwest 124th Street in Kendall.


La Monte farmer dies in accident

La Monte- A La Monte man died Monday from injuries he received in a farming accident, said Pettis County Corner Skip Smith. The man was flown by Research Eagle helicopter to Research Medical Center in Kansas City, where he died at 6:10 p.m. His name was unavailable at press time. Mr. Smith said nobody else was around when the accident happened, and he is trying to sort out the details. He said he thinks a cow might have kicked the man in the head, due to the nature of the injuries and the animals found around him. Mr. Smith said the man could have fallen off his tractor, since it was still running when he was found.


Worker dies at Oakland plant

OAKLAND, CA — An employee of a West Oakland recycling plant died Tuesday afternoon when he was caught inside a piece of equipment, according to police. Douglas Espinoza, 32, was trapped inside a trash bailer, union leader Efren Alarcon said. Alarcon and the victim's brother, Rafael Roque, stood outside California Waste Solutions on Tuesday for hours after police had taken Espinoza's body away.


Trapped worker dies after rescue from tank

Houston, TX- A worker at a northeast Houston plant that recovers methane gas from landfill waste died Tuesday after he fell inside a storage container and his air mask came loose, officials said. The victim, whose identity was not released, was trapped about 3 p.m. while scrubbing a tank at the McCarty Road Landfill Gas Recovery Project in the 9600 block of Ley.


Rig investigation continues

Gillette, WI- An investigation is continuing into Monday's accident that killed a Gillette man at a soil testing rig southwest of town near Savageton officials said. Two Occupational Safety & Health Administration investigators were sent to Gillette after the accident that killed Joseph K. Laster, 26, a driller's helper for Tyvo LLC, of Gillette. "We do have people that are investigating," said Johnnie Hall, Wyoming OSHA compliance program supervisor. He could not comment on additional details of the investigation. Laster was pronounced dead at the scene after he became entangled in a driveline shaft at the site on Christensen Road about 6 miles west of Highway 50, officials said.


Truck driver killed in crash near Myrtle Point

MYRTLE POINT, Ore. -- A commercial driver from Keizer was killed early Friday morning after losing control of his truck and crashing into a bridge railing on Highway 42 near Myrtle Point, police said. The crash happened at 1:30 a.m., about three miles east of Myrtle Point at the Powers Junction. A Freightliner truck towing two trailers loaded with wood chips was traveling westbound on Highway 42 near milepost 23.5 when the trailers and cab rolled onto its side, according to Gregg Hastings with Oregon State Police. He said the vehicle slid across the eastbound lane into the highway guardrail and the cab slammed into the bridge railing. The driver, Terence Dale Little, 54, of Keizer, died at the scene.


Local businesswoman killed, Police arrest victim's brother after high-speed chase
Punta Garda, FL- Jan Deanna O'Rourke, a prominent business owner and Democratic Party organizer, was stabbed to death in her combination office and home in Punta Gorda Thursday -- and her own brother is being charged with the murder. Punta Gorda police detectives apprehended Chris J. Utermark, 44, after fleeing the home he shared with O'Rourke -- at 308 E. Virginia Ave. -- and leading police on a high-speed chase in heavy traffic along U.S. 41, according to police and witness reports. Officers found the 46-year-old woman murdered in a bedroom of their home.


N.Y. Cianbro worker killed on bridge

PITTSFIELD, NY -- A 53-year-old Cianbro Corp. employee died Thursday while building a bridge in Plainville, N.Y. The accident occurred at 10:15 a.m. as the man disassembled a temporary platform that had aided in the construction of the Plainville Road Bridge. The platform spanned the river and was being removed in sections. A second worker fell into the water, but was not injured.


Worker killed in Wise County rig accident

BOYD, Texas — The Wise County sheriff's department says a drilling site accident Thursday near Boyd left one worker dead. Authorities say Thomas Christopher Davis of Bowie was dead at the scene. Investigators say Davis and another employee apparently were working on the rig in the area of the draw works when Davis slipped and his foot was caught in a cable. Officials say Davis suffered severe injuries and died.


OSHA investigates man's forklift death

Iowa- The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death of a Colesburg man who died in an accident with a forklift he was operating at All American Homes. Steve W. Bailey, 32, was pronounced dead at the scene Monday. Employees of the local home-building facility referred questions about the incident to the plant's parent company, Coachmen Industries, headquartered in Elkhart, Ind. Declining to elaborate, a company official said that Bailey died of injuries sustained while operating a forklift at the plant.


Police: L.A. city worker shot boss over coming to work late

LOS ANGELES – The city maintenance worker accused of shooting to death two fellow employees with an assault rifle had been arguing with his supervisor after coming to work late, police said Friday. Ricardo Garris, 49, of Inglewood was one of two employees of the city Bureau of Street Services shot Thursday, said Officer April Harding of the Los Angeles Police Department. She said the other victim was a 54-year-old Sunland man whose identity will be released once his family has been notified. It's believed he was not involved in the dispute but was in the line of fire.


Douglas deputy killed in shootout

A Douglas County sheriff's deputy was killed Thursday night in a shootout at a Douglasville home that also left the homeowner dead. Deputy Blake Gammill was part of a team that had gone to the house on Ga. 5 near Amber Drive about 10:30 p.m. to arrest Jimmy Bilbo, a former county deputy who was free on bond awaiting trial on child molestation charges, authorities said.


Worker Dies In Trench Collapse

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A worker (48-year-old John Mefford) died Friday when a 15-foot trench collapsed on him, police said. It happened on a city sewer project behind Dearborn County Hospital.

The victim was working for an outside contractor, Lawrenceburg Fire Chief Randy Ebner said. His name was not released.

Co-workers dug frantically but couldn't reach the victim. Emergency crews are now working to recover his body.

More here.


Worker Dies In Fall From Cell Phone Tower When Antenna Breaks

WILSON, N.C. -- A worker died after he fell about 100 feet from a cell phone tower in Wilson County early Friday morning. Authorities said Paul Regan was working on a cell phone tower for Excel Tower Service of Wilson when he fell. Regan, 24, of the Roxboro area, was working with another man to make repairs on the tower when Regan hooked his cable belt to an antenna that snapped, causing him to fall. The standard procedure is for workers to attach their cables to the tower itself, not to antennas, officials said. Regan's co-worker saw the fall and called 911. The accident was at 5816 Lamm Road in Wilson County.


Construction worker falls to his death in Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A construction worker helping to build a movie theater fell 30 to 35 feet to his death while working on the building's highest steel beam, police said.

The 24-year-old man, who was not initially identified, was pronounced dead by paramedics, police spokeswoman Liza Thomas said.

Thomas said it was possible he might have slipped, but investigators had not determined Wednesday night exactly what happened.


Man dies of injuries from fuel tank explosion

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A mid-Missouri truck driver has died from injuries he sustained when a fuel storage tank exploded.

Arcie Sapp, 64, of Ashland, died Wednesday night at University Hospital, the Boone County coroner's office said.

The tank explosion occurred Jan. 7 at an MFA Oil Co. bulk storage facility in Marshall as crews were unloading fuel from a tanker truck into one of the aboveground storage tanks. The cause remains under investigation.

Sapp was burned over 90 percent of his body.


Planes collide in air ; Crop duster's pilot dies;

HOLLISTER, OK --An Air Force training jet and a crop-dusting plane collided in midair Tuesday in southwestern Oklahoma, killing the crop duster pilot, authorities said.

Two military pilots survived the crash at about 5,000 feet when they ejected and parachuted from the T-37 military training plane, authorities said. Two ranch hands who helped the survivors said the crop duster burst into a fireball after the crash and the jet spiraled down as the pilots parachuted.

Killed in the crash was Dierk Nash, 43, who owned a flying service in Wheatley, Ark. He had picked up a new plane at the Air Tractor factory in Olney, Texas, to fly it to a customer in South Dakota, said Kristin Edwards, vice president of sales for Air Tractor Inc. The crash occurred about an hour after Nash left the factory.


Two dead, no others injured in turnpike crash near Quakertown

QUAKERTOWN, Pa. -- Two truck drivers were killed in a fiery crash on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, state police said Tuesday.

The crash happened about 11 p.m. Monday in the northbound lanes in Lehigh County's Upper Milford Township, just over the Bucks County line from Quakertown.

Authorities said one truck was pulled over to the side of the road, but not completely off the highway, when the second truck struck it. One of the trucks began leaking diesel fuel, and a large fire broke out.

Both truck drivers were pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported.

Lehigh County Chief Deputy Coroner Paul Zondlo identified one of the victims as Lyle E. Durham, 67, of Fulton, N.Y. The coroner's office had not identified the second victim as of Tuesday morning.


MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING CLERK ON NORTH SIDE

A store clerk died after being stabbed last night during a robbery attempt on the North Side, Columbus police said.

Abraham Conteh, 21, died at Grant Medical Center at 8:33 p.m., said Sgt. Eric Pilya of the police homicide squad.

A suspect found with minor injuries in a nearby apartment complex is charged in the death, investigators said. Conteh was working at General Merchandise Clothing, 2557 Morse Rd., when a man tried to rob the store shortly after 7 p.m., Pilya said. Police officers found Conteh, who had been stabbed, inside.


Carbon monoxide poisoning killed horse trainer, cops say

Maywood, IL -- A horse trainer from Wisconsin was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning Wednesday in his trailer at Maywood Park racetrack, officials said.

Robert Nevel, 71, of Richland Center was pronounced dead at 11:40 a.m. Wednesday in Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
His death was ruled an accident.

Nevel drove to Maywood on Tuesday to watch his horse Big Spiel compete in a harness race, according to his longtime partner, Charm Klebesadel. When Nevel didn't return home as scheduled, his relatives called authorities. Nevel was found inside his trailer by a racetrack security guard Wednesday.

Relatives think a propane tank, used for heating, may have leaked or malfunctioned, Klebesadel said.


Truck driver killed in crash on turnpike

Toledo, OH -- A Pennsylvania truck driver was killed yesterday when his tractor-trailer rig crossed a median of the Ohio Turnpike near Toledo Express Airport and crashed, troopers at the Swanton post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said.

Daniel R. Parrish, 53, of Midland, Pa., was pronounced dead at the scene. There were no other injuries.

Troopers said Mr. Parrish was westbound on the turnpike at 3:55 p.m. yesterday carrying four coils of steel when he apparently lost control and crossed a grassy median and the eastbound lanes of the turnpike.

The rig continued a southward path, slammed through highway fencing, and came to rest among trees and brush. Troopers said the Lucas County coroner will determine the cause of death.


National experts to investigate prison guard's slaying in Chino

SACRAMENTO, CA -- The state Board of Corrections has unanimously decided to ask a national panel of experts to investigate the fatal stabbing of a prison guard earlier this month.

43-year-old Manuel Gonzalez Junior was killed on January 10th at the California Institution for Men in Chino. He was the first corrections officer to die in an inmate assault in nearly ten years.

The experts won't begin their work until the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office decides whether to file criminal charges.

Corrections officials have named Jon Blaylock, a 35-year-old inmate serving time for attempted murder, as the prime suspect in Gonzalez's death. But two other inmates believed to be from the same gang were in the area and were transferred to different prisons after the stabbing.


Dump truck driver dies after tire blows on I-275

TAMPA -- A dump truck accident on Interstate 275 Wednesday afternoon killed the truck's driver and backed up rush-hour traffic.

Alexis Monteagudo, 36, was driving south about 3:15 p.m. when his vehicle blew a tire south of Bearss Avenue, a Florida Highway Patrol official said. The accident forced him into the concrete median, crushing him inside the cabin and spewing sand into the southbound and northbound lanes. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Some of the sand caused minor front-end damage to a northbound car driven by Maria Mejia of Wesley Chapel. Neither Mejia, 31, nor her nine-month old baby, Silvana, were injured.


Train conductor struck, killed

CAMDEN, Ark. -- A Union Pacific conductor was struck and killed by a train, officials said.

The accident in Ouachita County occurred Monday morning when Floyd T. Evans Jr. of Redfield stepped from between two train cars and was hit by a train on an adjacent track, Chief Deputy Joe Strickland said.

Authorities said Evans was disconnecting the cars at the time of the accident and apparently did not hear or see the second train.


Man killed, fuel contaminates Sugar Creek

BENTONVILLE, Ark.-- A truck driver was killed and gasoline spilled into Sugar Creek when the truck he was driving left Arkansas 72 and entered a ravine a mile east of Bentonville.

Brent Lee Farrar of Barling, who would have turned 45 on Wednesday, was killed, state police said. His truck spilled gasoline into the creek and shut down the highway for most of the day Tuesday.

"It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed," said Jennifer Dubert, who saw the accident. "I think I saw him slide a little, and then he just flew off the road."

Bentonville Fire Department crews set up three containment dams on the nearby Sugar Creek to keep fuel from contaminating the Elk River. The trailer itself was not ruptured; the fuel leaked from a seal on the truck.


TRUCK DRIVER KILLED IN LEESBURG ACCIDENT

LEESBURG, FL -- A 41-year-old DeLand man died early Tuesday after the tractor-trailer he was driving overturned on County Road 33 near the intersection with U.S. Highway 27, authorities said.

Jerry A. Trent was hauling limerock from Sumterville at the time of the 5 a.m. accident, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

As the 1991 tractor-trailer neared the U.S. 27 intersection, it hit a curb and overturned on its left side, the FHP said. Trent was taken by ambulance to Leesburg Regional Medical Center, where he died about 7:30 a.m., according to the FHP.

Investigators said dense fog may have contributed to the accident. Trent was talking on a cell phone at the time of the accident, the FHP said.


Florence liquor store clerk shot to death in robbery

FLORENCE, Ala. -- A liquor store clerk was shot in the head and killed by a man whose image was captured by a surveillance camera before he fled with a sack of money and a bottle of liquor.

Deputy Police Chief Pete Williford identified the slain clerk as Scott Kirtley, who was in his mid-30s, of Happy Hollow in Lauderdale County.

Williford said Kirtley was shot in the head at close range shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday at Dandy's Number Two Package Store. A suspect has been questioned, but no charges were filed immediately. More here.


Wreck kills trucker on I-85;

Atlanta, GA -- A tow truck driver was killed Monday morning in a wreck on I-85 that blocked all the northbound lanes for three hours, police said.

The incident occurred about 7:45 a.m. on I-85 north between Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Indian Trail Road.

According to police, the tow truck driver, identified as Xavion Wilson, 43, of East Point, swerved to avoid a Honda Accord driven by Clayton Mattison, 20, of Decatur.

Wilson lost control of his truck when the Honda changed lanes into his path, said police spokesman Cpl. Dan Huggins. The tow truck then hit the median wall, bounced off and struck the Honda before overturning. Wilson died at the scene, Huggins said.


Gas station clerk slain during holdup attempt; Victim was working to support family back in Pakistan

El Cerrito, CA -- A gas station clerk who was working the graveyard shift to help support his family in Pakistan was shot and killed during a robbery attempt shortly after midnight Sunday in El Cerrito, police said.

The slaying of Khalid Mohmood, 40, of San Pablo was captured by the gas station's security camera, police said.

Mohmood, who was also known by the name of Sharma, was shot at least twice in the upper torso while he was behind the counter of the Super Stop Gas Station at 11687 San Pablo Ave. about 12:30 a.m., El Cerrito police Sgt. Shawn Maples said.

Mohmood, a two-year employee, worked the graveyard shift and sent the money he earned at the gas station to his family in Pakistan, Maples said. The victim also worked a second job elsewhere, authorities said.

The gas station had been robbed before and is a target because it is the only 24-hour gas station in the city, Maples said. Customers can enter the food mart in the middle of the night and interact directly with employees, he noted.

"We are very scared. We're nervous," said a gas station employee who declined to give his name.


Fuel-oil truck driver killed when Army vehicle crashes

A worker for a fuel-oil company died yesterday morning when an Army Reserve private lost control of the tractor-truck he was driving on Route 12 in Westmoreland, crossed the median and struck two vehicles, state police said.

Authorities closed Route 12 near the Keene line for hours after the accident. It took place less than a mile from where two drivers died on Dec. 27.

Sol Plante, 31, of Walpole died from injuries sustained during the collision, according to state police. He was driving a Webber Energy Fuels service truck south on the highway when it was struck by the Army reserve tractor-truck, state police said.

The Army truck was bobcating, meaning the driver was piloting the tractor portion of a normal 18-wheel rig without a trailer.


Man dies in first fishing incident of year; Authorities think death accidental

Folks who knew longtime shrimper Henry "Happy" Hendricks rarely saw him without a smile.

On Friday, Hendricks become the first commercial fisherman to die on the job this year. There were no such deaths reported to the U.S. Coast during 2003 and 2004, according to the Coast Guard station in Charleston. Hendricks died in what authorities think was a mechanical boating accident.

A shrimper for more than 20 years, Hendricks was working in Murrells Inlet when he was killed. The official cause of death, according to a preliminary autopsy performed Saturday afternoon by Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson, was multiple trauma and loss of blood.

His wife, Hendricks' love for 21 years, said it is thought that somehow he became caught in the cables, which pulled his body into the wench of his shrimping boat.


Postal delivery worker killed in collision is identified

LINCOLN, Ca -- A postal delivery worker killed in a two-vehicle collision Thursday has been identified as Beverly Joyce Wilson, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Wilson, 65, of Lincoln had slowed her 1978 Jeep in the course of delivering mail along Nicolaus Road, east of Dowd Road, shortly after 4 p.m. when her vehicle was rear-ended by a Nissan Altima, said CHP Officer Kelly Baraga.

The Jeep spun 180 degrees, overturned into a ditch and landed on its top, Baraga said. Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene, she said.


Railroad contractor dies after being struck by train

Amarillo, TX -- An Amarillo man died Wednesday night after a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train hit him.

Gene Blackburn Harrison, 42, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Scott Sutton, chief deputy for the Carson County Sheriff's Office.

Harrison managed Centergas Inc.'s Amarillo facility, said Mark Allsup, president of the company. Centergas supplies propane gas to BNSF.

About 7 p.m., Harrison was with another Centergas employee and a tow-truck driver just west of Farm-to-Market Road 2373 and U.S. Highway 60, where they were trying to free a truck that was hung up on the north side of the tracks, Sutton said.


Skokie cab driver killed by passengers, police say

Chicago police were questioning two men Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of a Skokie cab driver who was found dead Saturday on the South Side.

Karim Ally, 57, of the 8300 block of South Kimball Avenue in the north suburb died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to a spokeswoman with the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Ally's body was found in the 6300 block of South Calumet Avenue about 11:10 p.m. Saturday, said Carlos Herrera, a Chicago police spokesman.

Ally took two people to the address where his body was found, and once he arrived there, he was shot and robbed, Herrera said.

Labels: Weekly Toll, Workplace Violence

Blogging a bit slow this weekend as I try to finish up an article that's due next week.

Talk among yourselves. That's what the comment link is for:

Accidents continue to happen -- more and more frequently -- at US Steel.

Three workers have died at U.S. Steel mills since September, according to United Steelworkers Union officials: a crane operator at the Gary, Ind., Works in September; a management employee at Gary who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in December; and a union worker who was crushed by a slow-moving train this month at the Granite City (Ill.) Works.

Union workers at U.S, Steel's Clairton Works held a protest rally over safety in August after a 44-year-old union worker lost his legs in a train accident.

I've written a couple of times about safety problems in the steel industry and the root causes, also discussed in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article:

Favorable business conditions have spurred speculation that the pressure on workers to produce may be making mills less safe. A 2003 labor agreement with the USW that radically altered the makeup of the work force and their job responsibilities is also being blamed.

"I'm not sure you can put it all on [the labor agreement]. I think it plays a part in it," said Michael Mitchell, president of USW Local 1014 at U.S. Steel's Gary Works.

Mitchell believes pressure to produce, increased overtime because of work force reductions and lack of training are other possible causes.

"Until all those things are looked at ... [accidents] are going to continue to happen," he said. "We have a terrible safety record as far as accidents and fatalities."

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Union officials say what they are concerned about is the new labor agreement they signed with the company in May 2003.

The agreement, patterned after other contracts used to resurrect bankrupt steelmakers, rewrote the book on how dozens of mills jobs are performed and who must perform them. Simultaneously, many of the industry's most experienced workers were given incentives to retire in order to reduce labor costs.

Consequently, workers who remained are being asked to do new jobs, and seasoned workers are not around to help them.

"We need more training," said Steve Tunello, president of USW Local 1013 at U.S. Steel's Fairfield (Ala.) Works. "I imagine we're a lot like Clairton. We need more people."

U.S. Steel, however, seems to believe it's all the employees' fault and punishing them is the answer:

Mike Wright, the union's top health and safety officer, said U.S. Steel is more concerned about making safety a disciplinary problem than getting at the root cause of the accidents.

"U.S. Steel is stuck on this idea that their problems are based on employee misconduct," Wright said. "The way to get after safety problems is to comprehensively analyze the safety of every job in the plant"

Blame The Worker?

Like many employers, US Steel is buying into the classic "blame the worker" theory and relying on "behavioral safety" as the solution. Behavioral safety theories say that worker carelessness or misconduct is the cause of most accidents, and disciplining workers is the answer. But behavioral theories don't hold up to a closer look at the causes of most workplace accidents

Ultimately, of course, most accidents are caused by someone doing something "wrong." That's generally known as the "direct cause." And, of course, if that's where your analysis of the accident stops, the obvious answer is to find out who made the mistake and fire his ass. Problem solved. Right?

Wrong. If you really want to prevent future similar accidents, you need to go further and look for the root causes. The simplest way to do that is to keep asking "why?" Someone used the wrong equipment, or pressed the wrong button. Why? Were they told to do it by a supervisor who had a quota to fill? Did they feel rushed by the constant drive for more productivity? Were they not well trained for the job? Were they tired from too much overtime? Were the controls on the machine unnecessarily complicated or not logically located? Was there an unexpected confluence of unexpected problems caused somewhere else in the system that no one knew how to handle?

If you answer "yes" to any of those questions, you ask "why" again and keep asking why -- until you run out of clear answers and you've reached the root cause. Generally, the closer you get to finding the root cause, the more likely you are to finding solutions that will prevent similar accidents.

In other words, if an accident was caused by someone using the wrong equipment because they were being pressured to rush and the correct equipment would have have taken too long to locate and set up, then firing that worker isn't going to solve the problem because the next guy will be in exactly the same situation. Which is why Wright is insisting that every job be thoroughly analyzed.

US Steel's answer is to schedule mandatory safety meetings led by top executives for hourly and management workers that will feature a videotaped message from U.S. Steel President John P. Surma.

According to the USWA's Wright, "If the meetings indicate they're going to start [comprehensively analyzing the safety of every job], that's fine."

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Labels: Behavioral Safety, Blame the Worker

So you've got a bunch of well-known cancer-causing chemicals and a group of America's most beloved and needed workers -- nurses and other health care workers -- being exposed. Aside from a few alerts and fact sheets, not much has been done about it, even though there are indications that the fact sheet and alerts aren't working very well. Nurses are getting exposed and probaby getting cancer.

What would you do? Issue regulations preventing exposures? That might make sense. Or at least conduct a few good studies to see who is getting exposed to what and how much? Makes even more sense.

But welcome to Bushworld, where none of that makes sense and every extra penny is being dedicated to tax cuts for those who don't need them, and wars against bad people with weapons of mass destruction who don't have them, and destroying the social security system, which has been working quite well, thank you very much.

The chemicals are chemotherapy drugs -- drugs designed to fight cancer. But human and animal studies have shown they have the potential to cause cancer or reproductive problems such as miscarriage, low birth weight, infertility and birth defects when they are inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

Sounds serious? Nah!

Last March, the federal government issued an unusually detailed alert to the nation's 5.5 million health care workers: The powerful drugs used in chemotherapy can themselves cause cancer and pose a risk to nurses, pharmacists and others who handle them.

Four years in the making, the alert was issued by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Officials with the institute -- part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- and members of a hazardous-drug advisory panel saw the document as a long-overdue first step toward addressing what could be a serious workplace health problem.

A NIOSH Alert, issued last March, warned health care workers of risks from contact with chemo drugs. The drugs are usually administered to patients intravenously, right.

The next step was to be a study of actual exposures at three hospitals, operated by the universities of Maryland, North Carolina and Texas. The plan was to take blood and urine samples from about 50 pharmacists, nurses and pharmacy technicians at the hospitals and look for signs of drugs such as cyclophosphamide (usually administered intravenously to treat lymphoma, leukemia or breast cancer) and ifosfamide (also an IV drug, often used on lung, cervical and ovarian cancers).

But the study, formally proposed in July 2002, is on hold. Twice the CDC submitted the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Twice it was withdrawn, after the OMB raised questions. It has yet to be resubmitted.

OMB spokesman Chad Kolton would say only that the CDC withdrew the paperwork "to address ongoing technical concerns relating to the scope of the proposed study design." CDC spokesman Fred Blosser said, "Traditionally, we don't go into detail on pending discussions or reviews with OMB."

Study proponents, meanwhile, say that precious time is being lost

Unfortunately, this article appeared in the Washington Post's health section last week, instead of where it should have been -- at the top of the front page. It was written by Jim Morris, deputy editor for Congressional Quarterly. In a past life at the Houston Chronicle, Morris was the author of a hard-hitting series about the chemical industry's efforts to cover up evidence that one of its major products -- vinyl chloride -- caused cancer and other health problems.

It's not hard to be exposed to these drugs, according to the unions that represent health care workers:

"People have exposures every day," said Bill Borwegen, occupational health and safety director for the Washington-based Service Employees International Union, which represents about 875,000 health care workers. "If you're piercing an IV bag and get a drop [of a drug] on your finger, you could be over the safe level."

And a housekeeper who dumps the contents of a bedpan into a toilet might not realize that the waste is toxic. "Sometimes, 80 percent of the active ingredient [in a drug] goes right through the patient's system," said Borwegen, who also served on the NIOSH work group.

And it's not a newly discovered problem:

Beginning in the 1980s, researchers in the United States and Europe found that nurses, pharmacists, veterinarians, housekeepers and others took few precautions when preparing, administering or cleaning up the drugs. As a result, they were routinely exposed to toxic aerosols, powders and liquids.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first issued handling guidelines for hazardous drugs in 1986, calling for, among other things, the use of gloves, gowns and biological safety cabinets or respirators with high-efficiency filters. These were voluntary measures, however, not rules. OSHA still has no regulatory standards for cancer-fighting drugs and NIOSH says adherence to the guidelines is spotty.

Anything to be done about it? Maybe more fact sheets or possibly an alliance with a hospital association? Europeans seem to have solved the problem the old fashioned way -- regulations:

As a rule, European countries have moved more aggressively than the United States, requiring hospitals to monitor employees and keep even minuscule amounts of the drugs from being spilled or aerosolized.

"In Holland, we've seen a decline in contamination. Most workers don't have [drugs] in their urine anymore," Paul Sessink, a chemist in the Netherlands who runs a consulting firm called Exposure Control, said in a telephone interview.

Sessnink is shocked at the conditions that exist in American hospitals:

Over the past six years, chemist Sessink has analyzed "wipe samples" -- residue collected from counters, floors and other surfaces -- from about 30 U.S. hospitals. The results indicated that drug-handling at two-thirds of the hospitals was sloppy and employee exposures were "far higher than we have here [in Europe]," he said. He would not identify the hospitals.

Sessink said he finds it "rather amazing" that the U.S. government took so long to warn workers about the dangers. He wonders if pharmaceutical manufacturers and hospitals -- mindful of possible liability -- had something to do with the delay.

Yeah, I wonder too.

Meanwhile, health care workers continue to be exposed while the federal government continues to count beans.

The study can't begin soon enough for Borwegen, the union official.

"These products are produced under very pristine conditions by drug manufacturers, but once they leave the facility the controls aren't really in place," he said. "Most [health care] workers are clueless about how toxic these agents are."

And according to OSHA and OMB, ignorance is bliss -- until the big C comes calling.

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On February 20, 2003 Dr. George Liu treated workers who had been severely burned in the explosion and fire that ripped through the CTA Acoustics plant in Corbin that day.

"When the patients came, in they were smoking," Liu told a reporter. "The best thing people can do is pray for these people."

The Lexington Herald Leader was not pleased with the result of the Chemical Safety Board's investigation into the combustible dust explosion at CTA Acoustics that killed 7 workers.

Last week, federal investigators concluded that the explosion -- which killed seven workers and injured 37 others -- was avoidable. It was the result of company and supplier irresponsibility and a lack of effective government oversight.

That is unacceptable.

Kentucky's Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, which oversees the agency that polices workplace safety, must take the lead to assure this won't happen again.

The Kentucky Office of Occupational Safety and Health had inspected CTA several times but had never cited it for combustible dust while the state fire marshall's office had never inspected the plant.
State inspectors should be trained to assess the risk of combustible dust. Combustible dust should figure heavily in evaluations of general safety in plants. The state needs to educate employers about the dangers, make unannounced inspections and levy stiff fines on violators.

Our congressional delegation and U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao should also take this report as a mandate to push for federal standards on industrial dust. Neither the federal nor the state OSHA has a comprehensive standard on combustible dust in industrial facilities.

That is the case despite the fact that more than 150 serious industrial dust explosions have happened in the U.S. in the past 20 years, according to the lead investigator of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

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Labels: Chemical Safety Board

TB's not a problem anymore. Nope. Not at all. Don't need no stinkin' OSHA standard.

TB surge strains agency

TB is not the scourge that once killed and disabled millions of Americans. But it did kill 25 North Carolinians in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available.

***

Durham County had only 10 new TB cases in 2003. But that number jumped to 27 last year, resulting in a recent plea from Letourneau to the County Commissioners for two additional health department nurses trained to conduct the case hunting needed to prevent an epidemic.

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Tuberculosis probed at fourth hospital

Riverside County health officials are investigating exposure to tuberculosis at a fourth hospital, authorities said Wednesday.

Officials were already notifying people about possible tuberculosis exposure at three other hospitals in western Riverside County. Efforts are under way to determine how many more people need to be tested for possible exposure, said Barbara Cole, chief of the county's disease-control program.

A story in the New York Times exposes Bush's lies about medical malpractice "reform," one part of the administration's drive to weaken people's ability to sue companies (or physicians) for negligence and products (such as asbestos) that kill; or as Bush says, "costly and frivolous lawsuits."

The myth, according to the President and the business lobbyists is that the high costs of malpractice insurance "don't start in an examining room or an operating room," the president declared. "They start in a courtroom."

The truth, according to the Times is that there has not been a rise in medical malpractice awards causing malpractice insurance rates to skyrocket. Rising insurance rates are a product of poor investments by the insurance companies that they are trying to recoup by raising their rates.

Data compiled by both the federal government and by insurance organizations show costs for the insurance companies climbing steadily over the last decade at an average annual rate of about 3 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Over most of that period, premiums for doctors rose modestly and sometimes even dropped as the insurance companies battled for market share in a scramble to collect more money to invest in strong bond and stock markets. But when the markets turned sour and the reserves of insurers shriveled, companies began to double and triple the costs for doctors.

***

The recent jump in premiums shows little correlation to the rise in claims. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank of the Health and Human Services Department, the total paid out by insurance companies for claims against doctors and other medical professionals rose 3.1 percent annually, on average, between 1993 and 2003 and then declined last year.

So what works and what doesn't? In California, they tried limiting awards -- and controlling premium increases:

Many insurers regard the $250,000 limit in California as a model for Mr. Bush. They see it as largely responsible for California's shift from being one of the most expensive places for medical malpractice insurance to one of the least expensive. Consumer advocates, however, say the main reason costs for doctors have fallen in California has been a 1988 law that prohibits insurers from raising rates more than 15 percent a year without a public hearing.

And some researchers are skeptical that caps ultimately reduce costs for doctors. Mr. Weiss of Weiss Ratings and researchers at Dartmouth College, who separately studied data on premiums and payouts for medical mistakes in the 1990's and early 2000's, said they were unable to find a meaningful link between claims payments by insurers and the prices they charged doctors.

"We didn't see it," said Amitabh Chandra, an assistant professor of economics at Dartmouth. "Surprisingly, there appears to be a fairly weak relationship."

Related Articles

Run! The Sky Is Falling: Republican Tort "Reform" , January 11, 2005
Malpractice Misconduct, June 22, 2004
Medical Malpractice Solution: Kill the Lawyers (and their families), June 10, 2004
Texas Passes 'Polluters and Predators Protection Act', September 17, 2003

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Labels: Asbestos

Two safety advocates whose articles have been covered in Confined Space have won Polk Awards awards for extraordinary journalism. The 2004 Awards will be presented at a luncheon on April 21, 2005.

Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times won the national reporting category, his fourth Polk award, for his series on how railroad companies were able to sidestep regulations.

Justin Pritchard, the AP's news editor for Southern California, won the labor reporting prize for his investigation into the high rate of work-related deaths among Mexican workers in America.

These are the kind of articles (along with David Barstow's articles on Death in the Workplace and Andrew Schneider's asbestos coverage) that you should be showing to your local reporters when they don't quite know how to handle a workplace accident. These journalists know how to investigate the root causes of these incidents and show how politics affects peoples' chances of staying alive and healthy. But they can also show other journalists the fame and awards that can be won by following up on these stories that are otherwise relegated to a few paragraphs in the back pages.

All of Bogdanich's original articles can be found here.

Confined Space articles that cover Bogdanich's investigations are here:

Blood On (and near) The Tracks

Head of Federal Railroad Administration Resigns Under Pressure

Behavioral Safety Comes To The Railroads

Look Both Ways -- And Then Pray

As If That Wasn't Bad Enough...More on Rail Safety

Links to Pritchard's orginal articles can be found at the Polk Awards webpage (scroll down). Confined Space stories based on Pritchard's articles can be found here:

What is OSHA Doing About Immigrant Worker Safety?

Mexican Workers in the U.S.: Impaled, Shredded in Machinery, Buried Alive


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Labels: Immigrant Workers, Journalism, Railroad Hazards

The North Jersey Record is justifiably outraged at the injustice -- or indecency -- of the new $500,000 fines for radio and TV stations and individual entertainers if an uncovered breast is shown or a discouraging word heard.

Those penalties are way out of proportion to the "crimes" - uttering foul language or airing sexual content - especially in light of federal penalties that have been levied in other arenas.

Consider this.

Less than two weeks ago, a former Enron chief financial officer agreed to pay a $500,000 federal penalty after the SEC charged him with fraud for his role in Enron's bogus earnings reports - part of the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Last week, OSHA proposed that a Louisiana construction company be fined $65,000 for willful and serious safety violations, including "failing to protect employees from the hazards of a cave-in" following a trench collapse that killed one worker last year.

That's right. Serious safety violations in a deadly accident bring a $65,000 federal fine. But if Congress has its way, cursing on the air could cost $500,000.

Now that would be really offensive.

The editors clearly haven't been checking out OSHA's website (or Confined Space) or they would have seen even a worse atrocity: OSHA's recent $5,800 penalty handed down to K&M Construction not just for "failing to protect" workers, but for actually killing a worker.

So glad our Republican-controlled Congress is keeping its eyes on the prize.

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If there's one principle that seems to unite labor and management (at least rhetorically) it's the importance of encouraging employee participation in any matters dealing with workplace safety, health and security issues. All OSHA standards and the health and safety programs required by OSHA's voluntary protection program require worker participation. While debates often rage about the form such participation should take, how effective worker participation can be without a union, and how much influence employees should have in decision making, you would be hard-pressed to find any legitimate labor or management health & safety experts that would argue against the need for and usefulness of employee participation. Who knows better what happens on the plant floor than the workers who spend eight or ten hours a day there?

So you can imagine the disappointment of chemical industry unions in New Jersey when the state government moves forward on a post 9/11 chemical plant security management plan with the New Jersey Chemistry Council, but without any worker input.

A group of unions and environmental organizations held a press conference last week:

Demanding "security, not secrecy" environmental and labor groups Thursday asked acting Gov. Richard J. Codey to intervene in the drafting of rules designed to protect New Jersey industries using hazardous substances from accidents and attacks.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has teamed with the Chemical Council of New Jersey and other chemical industry trade groups to draft a plan to ensure Garden State chemical facilities remain secure, but Thursday others, including chemical industry workers, called for their own say in the process.

"We can't protect ourselves if we are not part of the plan," said Amy Goldsmith, executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

Union workers employed in the chemical field said they have not been consulted about the proposal. "Nobody understands the potential for hazards better than the worker," said John Shinn of the United Steelworkers District 4.

Rick Engler, director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council, explained that without worker participation, there was no way to verify what is being done for the public or emergency responders.

We have 400 facilities scattered across our state which can cause catastrophic risks to workers and communities or can pose serious environmental harm. We need to make sure the safety of these facilities is the best it can be, as well as the appropriate security precautions are taken.

An editorial in the Press of Atlantic City agrees:

We're pretty sure you don't need to be experts in chemical- plant safety to know this:

In our post-Sept 11, 2001, world, letting chemical plants regulate themselves, which has been the norm, can't be the wisest way to go.

And any plan for better regulation that has environmentalists and chemical workers complaining they have been left out of the process, which is what's happening right now in New Jersey, can't be a particularly wise move either.

New Jersey's Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force and the state Department of Environmental Protection are working on a chemical-plant security agreement that critics say relies too much on the industry's own guidelines. Though the agreement apparently does give the state the authority to require additional security measures, the New Jersey Work Environment Council and chemical-workers unions are demanding tougher rules -- and more input -- into the process.

Some state government officials seem to be seeing the error of their ways:

DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell said the environmental groups and unions have raised relevant points.

The agreement has not been put into effect, in part because the state is looking at how it can increase public participation and provide a more significant role to labor, Campbell said.

But the NJ Chemistry Council is having none of it:

Hal Bozarth, executive director of Chemistry Council of New Jersey, an industry trade group, said Engler and the others were using the guise of security to press an environmental agenda.

Bozarth defended chemical industry's record on security and said the activists were also trying to advance provisions of U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine's unsuccessful federal legislation to regulate security at chemical plants. Corzine, D-N.J., is now running for New Jersey governor.

Corzine has introduced a bill into Congress calling for enforceable regulations that would force the chemical industry to implement better security measures and, where possible, to install inherently safer technologies. The American Chemistry Council spent millions of dollars to kill the bill.

An editorial in today's New York Times condemned the Bush administration's "lack of political will and failure to carry out the most effective policies":

After Sept. 11, the Environmental Protection Agency identified 123 chemical plants that could, in a worst-case attack, endanger one million or more people. There is an urgent need for greater action to protect them. But the chemical industry, a major Bush-Cheney campaign contributor, has bitterly fought needed safeguards. In her recent book "It's My Party Too," the former administrator of the E.P.A., Christie Whitman, said that chemical industry lobbyists thwarted the reasonable safety rules that she and the Department of Homeland Security tried to impose.

Related Stories

NY Chem Company Decides Terrorism Threat Is Over, February 6, 2005
Department of Homeland Security: Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?, September 27, 2004
Weapons of Mass Destruction Found -- In Our Backyards, November 17, 2003
The War for Chemical Plant Safety, May 4, 2003

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

I wrote a parody Friday of Bush OSHA policy, partly based on the recent Wal-Mart settlement with the Labor Department that allowed a 15 day advance notice of all child labor inspections. The nightmare scenario was that the Bush administration might want to change the law to allow advance warnings for workplace safety inspections, which are currently prohited by the Occuational Safety and Health Act.

According to Hartford Courant columnist Dan Haar, my nightmares may be coming true:

When news came out a few days ago of the Bush administration's deal giving Wal-Mart advance warning before inspecting for labor law violations, I thought of a visit to The Courant by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

It was Aug. 8, 2002, a summer when Chao was floating all sorts of ideas about ways to make her department more friendly to business.

Sure, the sweet-talking Chao talked all about protecting workers. She framed her message in win-win terms, how the world could be safer for employees and companies alike if only we all worked together.

She actually suggested that companies should receive advance warning of safety and health inspections. After all, she reasoned, most employers mean well, so why shouldn't the government help them to help workers?

It was a line lost amid the day's business. The record will show that the law remains unchanged: Inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration must, with some clear exceptions, be a surprise.

Chao's advance-warning brainstorm appeared in none of her speeches before or after that date, at least among the many archived on her website. Several OSHA watchdogs and officials said during the last five days that they've never heard her utter it.

But she said it, and a colleague and I shared amazement. I shouldn't have let Chao's comments slip by. Now it's clear: She, her boss and her deputies have reshaped the enforcement culture of the U.S. Department of Labor in favor of employers.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

"Why would we want to change it?"

Assistant Secretary of Labor Victoria Lipnic, when asked whether the Department of Labor is considering modifying an agreement reached with Wal-Mart in January that requires DOL inspectors to provide 15-day advance notice of any child labor inspections.

Why change it? Take a look at some of the youth fatality investigation reports from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Like this one:

A 16-year-old male produce-market worker (the victim) died from crushing injuries after being caught in the vertical downstroke baling machine that he was operating. The victim, working alone in the basement of a small produce market, was crushing cardboard boxes when at some point in the compacting process he was caught by the machine's hydraulic ram. The victim was discovered by an exterminator spraying the basement, who notified the store manager to call police and emergency medical services (EMS).

Or this:

October 21, 2001, a 15-year-old male pizzeria worker was killed when he became entangled in a machine used to mix pizza dough. The victim had arrived in the United States from Guatemala one month before the incident and had been working at the family-owned pizza restaurant for two weeks. He was paid to do odd jobs at the restaurant, mostly sweeping and cleaning. On the night of the incident, he was cleaning the pizza dough mixer as the restaurant was closing for the evening. He was working alone in the kitchen as the remaining staff cleaned the adjoining dining room. He apparently lifted the cover of the mixer, uncovering the 32-inch-diameter mixing bowl, and started the machine. As he reached in to the bowl to clean it, he became entangled on a large mixing fork (beater) that rotated inside the mixing bowl. His co-workers heard him scream, but were unable to reach him in time.

Or this:

On July 2, 2001, a 17-year-old male warehouse laborer (the victim) was fatally injured when the sit-down-type forklift he was operating tipped over and crushed him. The victim apparently lost control of the forklift, which had a load on its forks and the mast fully extended, as he was making a right turn, causing the forklift to tip over 90 degrees onto its left side. The unrestrained victim was crushed under the extended boom/mast of the forklift.

Responding to pressure from congressional Democrats like George Miler (CA) and Ted Kennedy (MA) as well as labor unions, the Labor Department's Inspector General announced yesterday that it would conduct an investigation "to review the circumstances surrounding" an agreement between DOL and Wal-Mart that required Labor Department inspectors to warn Wal-Mart stores before inspecting them for child labor and other labor standards violations.

Wal-Mart thinks it's just about them. According to Wal-Mart spokesperson Gus Whitcomb,

What is truly unfortunate is that the attention focused on this agreement has now moved from being about compliance, which is where our attention is focused, to being a new forum for people who simply don't like us.

No Gus, "truly unfortunate" is the fact that over 200,000 teens are injured on the job each year in this country. Of those injured on the job, about 100,000 are injured seriously enough to require emergency room treatment. The controversy about this issue goes far beyond the big bad Congressmen and unions beating up on itty bitty Wal-Mart. It's about how serious this administration is going to be about enforcing violations of child labor laws, as well as general labor standards and workplace health and safety protections -- especially when those violators happen to also be their major corporate contributors.

Other Developments

Meanwhile, in Connecticut, where most of the violations took place, the Governor M. Jodi Rell ordered a state investigation of the Wal-Mart's Connecticut stores and "several state representatives called for increases in state fines for labor-law violations and for a budget increase to support the probe with more inspectors."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was pleased:

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who said that findings of "errors or improprieties of substantive magnitude would warrant overturning the agreement,"including any false statements or improper political intervention. Blumenthal filed his second Freedom of Information Act request Friday, this time for documents on all closed investigations of possible child labor law violations by Wal-Mart across the country. He said his request was a result of discussions with attorneys general in other states who have heard that previous investigations of Wal-Mart's compliance with child labor provisions had been closed before being fully aired.

Gary Pechie, who heads Connecticut's wage and workplace standards division, reported that the state would be reviewing that Wal-Mart violations and they would not be giving the stores advance notice.

Meanwhile, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the Child Labor Coalition called on Wal-Mart to stop illegal child labor in its stores by making underage workers wear distinctive badges that could readily identify them as being prohibited from hazardous assignments.


For more information on safe employment for young workers, check out these websites:

NIOSH Young Worker Safety and Health: Lot's of publications, fatality reports, fact sheets and other resources.

Young Worker Health and Safety: The website is a project of California's statewide Resource Network for Young Worker Health and Safety.

The Child Labor Coalition: Information for teen workers as well as advocacy information about U.S. and international child/youth labor.

Interstate Labor Standards Association (ILSA): Includes information on state agencies that administer and enforce child labor laws.


Related Stories

Wal-Mart -- DOL Deal: Clinton Did It Too? Not!, February 16, 2005
More Wal-Mart/DOL Shenanigans, February 15, 2005
Miller Calls For Investigation of Wal-Mart Deal February 15, 2005
Bush Labor Department Puts Wal-Mart in "Privileged Position" February 12, 2005
Wal-Mart: Following In The Proud Footsteps of the Tobacco, Beer and Petroleum Industries February 11, 2005
Wal-Mart Enters 19th Century: Locks Workers In Overnight January 18, 2004

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We're not quite a cult, us bloggers, but there is something a bit "different" about us:

Blogging is an undignified pastime for an adult, because to do it well requires a degree of obsession - and obsession is something adults are supposed to eliminate from their psyche. (I never did understand those people who collect Barbie dolls.) Frankly, it's a lot like being an addict: Everything becomes centered around feeding the beast.

I don't think non-bloggers can begin to grasp how much time and energy this sucks from the rest of your life. The laundry that doesn't get done, the book that doesn't get written, the phone calls that don't get made. It's not a hobby; it's a calling. (And, except for the most successful bloggers, a vow of poverty. If you only knew how close to the edge many well-known bloggers live!)

In order to function, most people get to indulge in a degree of healthy denial. They turn off the TV, they stop reading the news for a while. They allow themselves to
take a mental vacation from the horrors.

Bloggers do exactly the opposite. In a sense, our function echoes that of the exorcist: We invite the horrors in and then we spit them back out, trying to expell them from the body politic. It does something to you.

Some bloggers are sensible. They can limit themselves to a few posts per week, they manage to keep things in perspective. I'm not one of those people. That's why I post some oddball stuff, too. Sometimes I have to blow off some steam - and hey, I don't drink.

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Paul Brodeur, who many consider to be the "man who started it all" educating the American people with several books about the hazards of asbestos and the crimes of the manufacturers who hid the hazards, has an op-ed in the L.A. Times. Brodeur recalls the pioneering work of Dr. Irving Selikoff in the 1960's that showed the even relatively small amounts of asbestos could kill workers, but also that the deadly dust could be brought home on workers's clothes, contaminating their wives an children:

Is it any wonder that during the 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of diseased asbestos workers brought product liability lawsuits against the manufacturers of asbestos insulation, which had failed to warn them of the hazard of inhaling asbestos fibers given off by the products? Or that most of these plaintiffs received compensation when they were able to prove that asbestos manufacturers had not only known for decades that asbestos could cause fatal lung disease but also had withheld this knowledge from them?

Since then, several hundred thousand lawsuits have been brought by construction workers, factory workers, refinery workers, brake mechanics and other members of the labor force who have either developed asbestos disease or whose chest X-rays show evidence of lung changes caused by their exposure. Asbestos diseases include asbestosis — a scarring of the lungs — lung cancer and mesothelioma, an always-fatal tumor.

Today, however, President Bush would have you believe that the justice system is being misused and that the economy is being held back by "frivolous asbestos claims." He and the Republicans in Congress are trying to convince the American people that there is no asbestos public health crisis, merely an asbestos litigation crisis, by pointing out that about 70 companies have filed for bankruptcy protection because of asbestos lawsuits, and that about $70 billion has already been paid out in claims and related costs.

Over the last weeks and months we have seen the unprecidented indictment of W.R. Grace, a giant company accused of contaminating an entire town, covering up the information, contaminating other communities were their factories are located and installing a product they knew was dangerous in millions of homes in the U.S. and Canada. As those buildings are renovated and torn down, people will continue to inhale the fallout for decades to come.

At the same time, more information emerges about the asbestos contamination of lower Manhattan from the World Trade Center attack, while labor unions and victims' attorneys are fighting the Republicans, the asbestos companies and insurance industry to craft some kind of fair asbestos compensation legislation in Congress:

Suffice it to say that Bush's attempt to convince us that this public health crisis should be viewed as a litigation crisis is a cruel hoax. So is the $140-billion asbestos compensation fund with which the Republicans in Congress, industry and its insurers propose to satisfy all asbestos claims present and future, while depriving claimants of their constitutional right to a jury trial. The fact is, the $140 billion was not arrived at through consideration of how many people may develop asbestos disease, or how much compensation they may deserve, but by asking industry and its insurers how much they would be willing to pay to eliminate their liability. Because no one knows how many asbestos victims will bring claims, whether the trust fund has any chance of remaining solvent is questionable.

Instead of extending a helping hand to companies that behaved with gross negligence, we should remember the plight of hundreds of thousands of past victims of asbestos disease and consider the suffering and economic burden of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens who will develop asbestos disease in the years to come.

As for Congress, it should set about to devise a truly fair asbestos compensation act.

Related Articles

Libby Montana and Tort Deform: What's Wrong With This Picture?: February 15, 2005
They Were Killing Us, They Were Killing Our Wives and Children: February 12, 2005
W.R. Grace Goes To Jail: "Why not all the others?": February 10, 2005

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Labels: Asbestos

Washington D.C. -- In response to criticism of the low $5,800 penalty handed down to K&M Construction for killing a worker, John Duesler, last July in an unprotected 9 foot deep trench, Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor Jonathan Snare suggested today that the Bush administration may ask Congress to change the Occupational Safety and Health Act to enable OSHA to start paying employers who kill their workers instead of investigating accidents and levying fines.

In an exclusive interview this afternoon, Snare explained:

Let's just look at the bottom line for a minute. OSHA spent significantly more than $5,800 to investigate this tragic death, write a report, determine a penalty, get it approved by our attorneys -- and now the company is contesting the citation, which means we'll have to put more resources into arguing the case before an administrative law judge. We're losing money on this transaction.

So I'm suggesting we just give the company $1,000 if they promise to follow the law and distribute our new trench safety cards to their employees. If they want to use the money to contribute to the victim's burial expenses or his childrens' scholarship fund, even better. We'll sign the company up in the Voluntary Protection Program or start an Alliance or something.

When asked why OSHA didn't just raise their fines if they lose money on cases like this, Snare objected that a heavy penalty could force the company out of business. "They provide much needed jobs to this community and you're asking us to destroy peoples' livelihoods. I find it curious that liberal Democrats complain about high unemployment, but then promote policies that drive small businesses into bankruptcy."

John Graham, who heads the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said that his office wasn't finished evaluating the proposal, "But it certainly appears to meet our cost-benefit criteria."

Congressional Republicans expressed approval. "It's a win-win proposal," said one Congressman who did not want to be named. "We shouldn't be punishing companies when workers are killed in freak accidents. We should be providing assistance to improve working conditions and create more jobs. That's why this country elected George W. Bush for another four years."

Snare also suggested that the administration will ask Congress to change the law to allow OSHA to provide a 15 day notice to companies before OSHA inspects a worksite following a complaint.

"It would demonstrate a collaborative working environment, something that should strengthen compliance because we are working together to enhance safety," Snare said.

Providing advance notice to employers about OSHA inspections is currently a violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, punishable by fines and imprisonment. Snare called that provision "an anachronism left over from the bad old days when there was still an adversarial relationship between OSHA and employers."

(And an early April Fools to you too. Or.....?)

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Labels: Criminal Prosecution, Fatalities, Trench Hazards

So this is what I don't understand.

You have employers who, through criminal neglect (in a moral, not necessarily legal sense) kill a worker, or maybe seven workers, or knowingly endanger or kill hundreds of workers and maybe even their wives and their children, and then we get newspaper articles quoting people who defend these guys by claiming that they couldn't possibly have known what they were doing when clear, indisputable documentary evidence clearly shows that they did.

Earlier this week the Chemical Safety Board reported on the dust explosion in Corbin, Kentucky that killed seven employees. They cited documentary evidence that CTA Acoustics knew that the dust covering the place was explosive.

So on one hand, the newspaper quotes this guy:

"They knew what was going on," said Larry Stillings of London, a former inspector at CTA. "We had fires occasionally and stuff, but we were never aware it would blow like that."

This was an understandable response, given the evidence.

But then there's this person:

But others said they didn't blame CTA. Deborah Sizemore, 37, a mold technician, said she doesn't think the company was aware the dust was combustible.

"I don't think that CTA would've intentionally let it go if they thought it was going to cause an accident," Sizemore said.

(Note that the paper prefaces here statement with the statement "doesn't thing the campany was aware..." when the actual quote is has a conditional -- she doesnt' think the company would have intentionally let it go..." One statement talks about facts, the other is more of a value judgement.

And where did they come up with this guy in Libby, Montana who says his Daddy knew his lungs were turning to concrete, but hey, it was a good job?

Plenty of people in Libby, even those who have lost loved ones to the frightening effects of asbestos, say they agree with Grace's adamant contention that it is getting a bum rap. They are especially angry about the indictments of two managers at the mine. "I know them both, and they're honorable men," said Ed Baker, 62, who owns Ed's Threads, a local clothing store, and served for 22 years on Libby's City Council.

"This is a terrible thing that's being done to them," he said. "They're scapegoats."

Baker's father was one of hundreds of people here with great-paying Grace jobs. A mine foreman, he died of asbestosis in 1983 at the age of 71, his lungs "turned to solid concrete," Baker said. It was agonizing. But he does not blame Grace: In fact, he donated one of his father's lungs to the company for study. Baker and other staunch Grace defenders said it had spent enormous amounts of money on cleanup and healthcare, acting responsibly once it became clear how deadly asbestos was.

"No one knew it was this bad for you until later," Baker insisted, referring to the golden-flecked vermiculite laced into the mountain, a seemingly magic mineral that made for spectacularly effective insulation and was put in millions of home attics and tens of thousands of office buildings.

And then another paper quotes him again:

"To come out and say that these guys are basically responsible for crimes that hid things, that hurt the people of Libby, is baloney," said Ed Baker, a former city councilman whose father died from asbestos-related disease in 1983 after working at the mine for 30 years.

"He'd go back to work for them today if he was alive. My dad knew in the '60s that his lungs were turning to concrete. Like he always told me, he took his chances and he could have quit at anytime. But they were good jobs."

His dad wasn't the only one who knew in the '60s that workers' lungs were turning to concrete.

Maybe this is some tribute to American individualism and family values to put a guy on a pedestal who says, screw my health, screw my future, I'm willing to sacrifice it all for a decent job so I can feed my family, and make my kids' lives better than mine was, and I feel nothing but gratitude for the people who allowed me to have this job, even if it's going to kill me.

But you can't seriously tell me this guy's Daddy would have said "fine" if W.R. Grace had sat him down and said "Sure, you can have a job here, but we just want you to know that we will expose you to a deadly cancer-causing dust and (in order to increase our profits and reduce our liability) we will do nothing to protect you from it and not only will you die prematurely from a long, lingering, painful death, but we're also going to expose your wife and your children and cause them to suffer premature, long, lingering and painful deaths. And who knows, if we can get away with it long enough, maybe we'll even expose your grandchildren. So just sign here. Congratulations. You start tomorrow."

OK, I can understand perhaps not wanting your neighbor to go to jail just because he failed to train or provide safety equipment to a couple of Mexicans who suffocated in a pool of pig shit. I mean he's a nice guy, and maybe he just didn't know about the hazard, or maybe he knew, but hey, we all have to take some risks, and he really loves his children, he goes to church, and you really don't want to throw him into prison with drug addicts and murderers and mother rapists and father stabbers and father rapists. Truly, the last thing he would ever want to do is cause the death of one of their workers.

David Barstow's 2003 New York Times series on death in the workplace tells the story of California prosecutor Roy Hubert Jr., whose mission was to go after employers whose workers are killed in their workplaces -- in this case an employer of two immigrant workers who passed out in a confined space and drowned in a pool of manure.

"These are not evil people," [Hubert] said. "They are not people who hurt for the sake of hurting. They are not bad people. This is good ol' Pat, good ol' volunteer fireman Pat. He feels terrible. He's devastated. I get a lot of that. Well, good. So are the widow and the mother and the father and sister and brother. Just imagine the incredible despair and anguish as you're drowning in manure."

And ultimately, that's what it's all about -- the father and sister and brother and children of those workers who would still be alive today if someone had not tried to take a shortcut to save a few minutes or lie to save a buck (or millions of bucks).

It's not unusual in this country for "nice people" to receive justifiable punishment -- people driving a little bit drunk who kill an entire family or people who absent-mindedly leave the pool gate open, or nice family men who go to jail for stock manipulation and accounting fraud, or nice celbreties who go to jail for lying to government officials. The purpose is not only to punish people for stealing or for breaking laws that were designed to prevent serious harm to people (or property), but also to deter others from doing the same thing.

Yet workplaces seem like different worlds. Not only do workers give up many of their civil rights and control over their health and safety when they walk through the doors, but too many in this country still see the workplace as some kind of "no-fault zone" for employers, where crimes are forgiven, negligence overlooked, and deaths, injuries and illnesses are just freak events or something no one could have predicted or prevented. Certainly nothing that you'd want to send anyone to jail for. I mean they're just trying to run a business, and if you put them in jail or fine them too much, they'll have to lay people off. (Funny how Republicans and business ideologues are only concerned about layoffs when they're the result of government penalties and regulations.)

Oh, and we should all feel grateful just to have a job.

Curious.

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Labels: Criminal Prosecution

When I was at AFSCME, one of the jobs highest on my list of public employee "jobs-I'd-never-want-to-have" was child protective services worker. These are the people whose job it is to investigate some of the most pathetic, sickening cases of child abuse you'd never want to think about, and often have to take children away from parents who were abusive, mentally ill, or just plain unable to cope with the lives they had been dealt.

Needless to say, parents weren't always appreciative of the efforts of these workers, and it was all-too-common for child protective service workers to be threatened or attacked. Sometimes even their families were threatened. But back in the 1980's and early 1990's it was generally extremely difficult to convince their management that they needed to travel in pairs, and sometimes to be accompanied by an armed law enforcement official.

The issuance of OSHA's Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care Social Service Workers issued in 1997 established workplace violence as a legitimate hazard that employers had a responsibility to prevent, and provided specific examples of how to prevent such assaults.

That history apparently paid off yesterday in Washington State:

A machete-wielding father was fatally shot yesterday after he attacked a veteran Child Protective Services (CPS) worker in the worst-known case of on-the-job violence at the state child-welfare agency.

The CPS worker, accompanied by a co-worker and a Ferry County sheriff's deputy, was investigating a complaint that three children were living in a home near Curlew without running water or electricity when she was attacked by the children's father, State Patrol trooper Jim Hays said.

Bryan S. Russell, 35, pummeled one of the social workers with a machete and a 2-by-4 as she lay on the ground before the sheriff's deputy shot and killed him, Hays said.

The worker, whose name was not released, suffered cuts, a broken arm and wrist and a possible skull fracture. She was admitted to Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane for a CAT scan.

"It appears it (the shooting) saved this worker's life," Hays said.

The attack chilled social workers across the state. State policy prohibits the 2,000-person child-welfare staff from carrying pepper spray or guns but encourages workers to bring along a co-worker or call police when their work puts them in potential jeopardy. The agency does require workers to bring an officer along if they're going to take a child into state custody, and it's common in rural Washington to have an officer on hand during a CPS investigation.

The assaults and the threats of not uncommon.

Current and former CPS staff say the attack is the most serious in memory, although investigators say death threats are routine and less-serious assaults happen sporadically.

A survey of several hundred Montana child-welfare workers, published in 1994 in the journal Child Welfare, found that one in 10 had been hit on the job in the preceding year, and a third of the workers had faced death threats. A quarter of the surveyed workers feared their own families could face job-related violence.

Wilson, the retired CPS administrator, said his own survey of staff in southwest Washington found many suffered insomnia, anxiety and stress-related stomach pain. "Well over half had been threatened - their lives or their family," he said.

And the damage is not just physical. Social service and child protective service workers suffer the typical symptoms of severe stress, suffering insomnia, anxiety and stress-related stomach pain.

Unfortunately, despite the frequency of assaults and threats, budget cuts threaten to undermine worker safety:

At most of CPS's state offices, staff members work behind locked doors, and some have security guards. But Seattle's King West office on lower Queen Anne recently lost its security guards in a budget cut, worrying some staff, said John Birnel, a union shop steward and social worker.

"It gives people in child-protection, where the situations are a lot more dicey, a pause for concern," he said.

Related Stories

Doctor Killed by Mental Patient 11/25/2003

Who really killed Dr. Erlinda Ursua? December 2, 2003

Labels: Social Workers, Workplace Violence

In the matter of the Department of Labor's special pre-notification deal with Wal-Mart, DOL's chief defense has been a version of “Clinton did it too, so get off of our case."

Assistant Labor Secretary Victoria Lipnic has defended the deal in the February 12 New York Times by arguing that "We usually call employers before we go to investigate...[There is] nothing uncommon or unprecedented about that." Lipnic later told the Wall St. Journal that the Department of Labor had similar agreements with Sears-Roebuck, Inc.

Then yesterday, DOL’s head lawyer, Solicitor of Labor, Howard Radzely, told CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight: "

This is a typical agreement where we do give companies a period in which they can immediately correct the violation to get children out of harm's way. And then we follow that up with a thorough investigation, during which anything we find can be enforced and the company can be fined."

Sounds convincing, except, oops, it appears they were lying, according to an investigation by Congressman George Miller's (D-CA) office.

Seems that the deal that DOL reached with Sears in 1999 (during the Clinton administration) was not exactly identical to the deal reached last month with Wal-Mart.

In 1999, DOL reached an agreement with a select number of Sears and Foot Locker stores that had been cited for previous child labor violations (or where workers under 18 were employed)where the companies agreed to conduct a number of self-audits at certain facilities and report the results to DOL. When DOL received a complaint from one of those specific stores, but the audit had not yet been finished, DOL would notify the store of the complaint – for the express purpose of allowing the store to finish its self-audit. It was not a blanket pre-notification agreement with all Sears outlets, as opposed to the Wal-Mart agreement that applies to all stores and where there is no self-audit agreement.

In addition,

The Wal-Mart agreement gives the company a 10-day abatement period to bring the store into compliance following a DOL finding of a violation. There is no abatement period in the Sears and Foot Locker agreements. Those companies were expected to fix the problem immediately or face penalties. There is no rationale for providing an abatement period to Wal-Mart or anyone, particularly when children's safety is at issue.

Oh, and one other point. The agreement between DOL and Wal-Mart allows Wal-Mart to approve any DOL statements. No such agreement existed between Foot Locker or Sears and DOL.

Also, check out Lou Dobbs'interview with George Miller talking about what Wal-Mart is doing to workers' rights over at Laborblog where Nathan Newman also makes the following observation:

One less discussed aspect of the secret deal with Wal-Mart is that workers are actually able to collect double damages if they had a chance to take Wal-Mart to court for violating minimum wage and other Fair Labor Standards Act violations, but since Wal-Mart gets to "fix" the problem, workers are unlikely to receive the damage payments they're owed. It's a bit like if, when the police catch a bank robber, the full punishment was just giving the money back with no other penalty.

Stay tuned. Undoubtedly more to come.


Related Stories

More Wal-Mart/DOL Shenanigans, February 15, 2005

Miller Calls For Investigation of Wal-Mart Deal February 15, 2005

Bush Labor Department Puts Wal-Mart in "Privileged Position" February 12, 2005

Wal-Mart: Following In The Proud Footsteps of the Tobacco, Beer and Petroleum Industries February 11, 2005

Wal-Mart Enters 19th Century: Locks Workers In Overnight January 18, 2004

Nathan Newman continues to dog the Wal-Mart/Department of Labor sweetheart deal where DOL has promised to warn Wal-Mart before conducting any child labor inspections.

Now Nathan reports that DOL issued a press release about the deal, then retracted it, and re-issued it minus any mention of a kid getting injured operating a chain saw.

Seems that have a deal where Wal-Mart gets to pre-approve DOL press releases.

Jeez, why don't they just move DOL to Bentonville, Arkansas?

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Related Stories

Miller Calls For Investigation of Wal-Mart Deal February 15, 2005

Bush Labor Department Puts Wal-Mart in "Privileged Position" February 12, 2005

Wal-Mart: Following In The Proud Footsteps of the Tobacco, Beer and Petroleum Industries February 11, 2005

Wal-Mart Enters 19th Century: Locks Workers In Overnight January 18, 2004

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has safety information pocket card, Safety in Excavations or Trenches, to "help workers and employers understand safe trenching practices and the federal requirements for construction excavation safety. The cards are printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other."

I certainly have nothing against OSHA putting out these cards. They're nice, they're clear and they have pictures. More knowledge about deadly workplace hazards can't be a bad thing. But I do have some questions about this endeavor.

1. Is lack of knowledge among construction companies really the root of the problem here? Maybe sometimes, but we've seen numerous cases where workers have been killed in an unprotected trench while unused trench boxes sit, unused, a few feet away. And we've seen plenty of cases where, even after killing a worker (or more than one worker), construction companies continue to put workers into unsafe trenches.
   
   
2. Are these cards intended for employers and supervisors or for workers, or both?
If they're meant primarily for supervisors and company owners, then I go back to my first question.

If they're meant for workers, what are they supposed to do with them once they've read and understood them? Show them to their supervisors, hoping they'll say "Oh my God, thanks for showing this to me, I'll fix it right away?" Or are they really meant to tell workers "If you see an unprotected trench, and your boss won't make it safe, don't go down into it. It could kill you!"


3. If they're telling workers to refuse imminently dangerous work, how are they communicating that?
Generally, workers -- especially unorganized workers -- don't have the power to refuse dangerous jobs -- and still hope to remain employed for long. While court interpretations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act do give workers the right to refuse imminently dangerous work, the new trenching cards say nothing about that right -- or any rights for that matter, even the right to call OSHA for an inspection.

If you're an undocumented immigrant worker, you're not likely to stand up for your right to call OSHA, much less refuse to work -- even if you know what your rights are. And even if you know about the right to refuse, and exercise it, the odds of getting your job back in any reasonable period of time are slim to none.

Acting OSHA head Jonathan Snare says that the purpose of the cards is "to provide these workers the tools they need to stay safe on the job."

Not really. The purpose of the cards is to provide workers with knowledge they need to determine whether a trench is safe or not; the tools they need to stay safe are the knowledge of their rights and the ability to exercise those rights.

Scott Schneider, Director of Safety and Health for the Laborers union points out that union sites are generally safer -- because members are better trained, and better able to speak up if they see unsafe conditions. Of all the trenching fatalities in 2003, only six percent were union members.

Since, nationwide, about 20 percent of construction work is union, you'd expect union fatalities to be near 20 percent. This figure shows that union jobs are safer. It indicates that supervisors and workers on union sites are better trained. It also suggests that the union offers the kind of protection that workers need to speak up about safety issues on the worksite.

Schneider is on OSHA's Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) which came out with the following recommendations:
1. Improve training in evacuation hazard and awareness assessment for OSHA Inspectors and Compliance Assistance Specialists
   
   
2. Target tougher enforcement, designed to reach small employers and those that have previous trench safety citations
   
   
3. Improve training and share training resources
   
   
4. Increase the frequency and quality of all training for contractors, aiming at field management and supervisory personnel, jobsite competent persons and skilled and unskilled workers
   
   
5. Get help from other key stakeholders such as municipalities, police, fire and rescue, permit examiners, One Call Centers, owners and construction users, insurance companies, safety and risk management organizations, trade journals and learning facilities
   
   
6. Start a public health-style campaign to improve upon current marketing, public relations and outreach efforts to improve excavation safety while also counteracting misperceptions among Hispanic workers that OSHA is part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

The cards are a start, but OSHA has a long way to go.

Labels: Trench Hazards

By Joel Shufro
December 2004

Most occupational safety and health activists know how canaries were used in coal mines.

Back in the days before gas detectors, coal miners would take a caged canary down into the mine for protection from carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas. Canaries are much more sensitive to CO than humans, so the canary would die and fall to the bottom of its cage if a low concentration of CO was present, giving the miners a warning that they should get out and increase ventilation before returning. Today, we would say that the canary-equipped miners were practicing good hazard identification, one of the basic skills needed to work safely.

Currently we are faced with a deplorable example of how dangerous it is to ignore a fallen canary. Soon after Teflon-coated cookware was introduced more than five decades ago, bird owners discovered that the fumes from a scorched Teflon-coated pan were deadly to their pets. Today, most books about taking care of birds warn that they should not be kept in a kitchen if Teflon cookware is in use.

Because Teflon's manufacturer, DuPont, insisted that Teflon, even scorched Teflon, was non-toxic to humans, the death of some unfortunate birds were largely ignored, until recently, when it has become apparent that one ingredient of Teflon causes cancer in rats, and is associated with prostate, testicular, and pancreatic cancer in exposed DuPont workers. Most disturbingly, recent studies have shown 90 percent of people in the United States have some of that ingredient (which is not known to occur naturally) in their blood. Perhaps if the deaths of the birds had been fully investigated, the ingredient's toxicity would have been discovered in time to prevent it from becoming ubiquitous.

The use of birds as toxic sentinels carries an important lesson. It is far better to identify an occupational or environmental hazard and take corrective action than it is to use humans in place of canaries. Potentially toxic environments and chemicals ought to be considered hazardous until proved safe, and not vice versa.

Thousands of New York City workers are now caught up in another inexcusable hazard-identification fiasco. Almost as soon as the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11, it was clear that the dust that filled the air of Lower Manhattan and lay in drifts on the ground was at the very least highly irritating to the eyes, throat and lungs. Of course, it wasn't possible to provide all the rescue workers with respiratory protection on 9/11, but there was time to provide it within several days or a week, and to make sure that it was worn. But those who should have identified the hazard did not do so, with the result that more than 6,000 workers have serious respiratory problems. Since no one knows exactly what and how much toxic material they were exposed to, their prognosis is unknown. As Steve Levin, the director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program put it recently, "From a public health perspective, we failed horribly."

The need to identify hazards and take appropriate action is a major feature of another potential threat to public health and safety. According to a 2003 report by the federal Government Accountability Office, there are some 700 chemical facilities in the United States that could, in the event of a worst-case chemical release, hurt or kill more than 100,000 people. Many of those plants could be made much safer by substituting non-toxic or less-toxic chemicals for toxic ones, and by reducing the quantity of toxic chemicals stored on site. Now, more than

18 months after the GAO report came out, nothing has been done to reduce the hazard.

Hazard identification doesn't work by itself. When the miners' canary fell, the miners had to respond by going where the air was good. When Teflon fumes killed birds, the clear indication of an unknown hazard was ignored for decades, and now Dupont's workers and the public are suffering the consequences.

Workers and unions at facilities that process hazardous materials need to work with members of the neighboring communities to ensure that all government regulations concerning the storage and use of hazardous materials are scrupulously followed. All concerned should also familiarize themselves with federal, state and local community right-to-know regulations and ensure that all relevant information about potential hazards is properly disseminated.

For anyone who works or lives in the vicinity of one of the chemical plants spotlighted by the GAO, the publication of the report was the equivalent of the canary falling off its perch. The hazard has been identified, but that is only the first step in making workers and the public as safe as possible.

-----
Joel Shufro is the executive Director of NYCOSH, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. This essay was written as the cover letter to the NYCOSH Clipping File and reprinted in the APHA's Occupational Health and Safety Section Newsletter. The Clipping File is mailed to NYCOSH members four times a year. For information about becoming a member of NYCOSH, click here.

Labels: 9/11 World Trade Center Workers

"When my mother died," she recalls, "my granddaughter was old enough to take note. After all, everyone in this town knows the danger. She said, 'Grandma, am I going to die of that, too?' I couldn't honestly say no."

The Laborers web page has a nice profile of Gayla Benefield, Former LIUNA Dispatcher, who fought for years to get someone to pay attention to what W.R. Grace was doing to the people of Libby, Montana

As usual, Molly Ivins cuts to the quick of the irony behind the W.R. Grace asbestos indictments occurring almost simultaneously with the Senate's passage of "tort deform."

02.15.05 - AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes the ironic timing of events in our public life is so striking as to cause one to wonder if the Great Scriptwriter in the Sky isn't trying to make a point. Thus, the word that the U.S. Senate voted for tort deform last week came just a few days after the news that seven executives of W.R. Grace and Co. were indicted on criminal charges for knowingly exposing their workers and the public to asbestos ore.

Hundreds of miners, their family members and townsfolk in Libby, Mont., have died, and at least 1,200 more are sick from breathing the air polluted by the mine. Since the ore was shipped all over the country and was used as insulation in millions of homes, the total health effects are incalculable. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer deserves credit for bringing Grace to public attention with a series back in 1999.

The executives and the company were indicted on 10 counts of conspiracy, knowing endangerment, obstruction of justice and wire fraud.

W.R. Grace & Co. "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing," said a spokesman.

***

Against this timely reminder of what the tort system is designed to deter or punish, the Senate voted for the "Class Action Fairness Act" (love those cute names they keep giving rotten bills) 72 to 26. There is no "flood of frivolous lawsuits" -- in fact, tort claims are declining and only 2 percent of injured people ever sue for compensation to begin with.

Public Citizen did a study showing that corporations themselves file four times as many lawsuits as do individuals, and they are penalized much more often by judges for pursuing frivolous litigation. "Corporations think America is too litigious only when they are on the receiving end of a lawsuit," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "But when they feel aggrieved, businesses are far more likely to take their beef to court than are consumers."

The administration came up with a weird fix for this nonexistent problem (so reminiscent of nonexistent WMDs, the "crisis" in Social Security and other non-problems): It severely limited the right of individuals to file class-action suits against corporations by moving such cases from state courts to federal courts.

***

This abominable bill was also much-sought by Republicans for nasty political reasons, which makes their rhetoric about justice all the more nauseating. It's a big win for the insurance industry and for big business, both heavy donors to Republicans. It also strips potential cases from trial lawyers, a group notoriously given to supporting the Democrats. How clever of Karl Rove.

Frankly, I think both the trial lawyers and big business can take care of themselves -- it's the rest of us I worry about.

***

Related Articles

Run! The Sky Is Falling: Republican Tort "Reform" January 11, 2005

Malpractice Misconduct, June 22, 2004

Texas Passes 'Polluters and Predators Protection Act', September 17, 2003

Labels: Asbestos

Congressman George Miller (D-CA) has called for an investigation by the Department of Labor's Inspector General into a deal struck between Wal-Mart and DOL, looking into why the settlement was kept secret for five weeks and why the department agreed to give Wal-Mart 15 days' notice before conducting wage-and-hour investigations in many cases.

Miller said he feared

that such an arrangement could allow the giant employer to cover up evidence of a violation and would discourage aggrieved employees who might fear retribution from the company. Miller also sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao today asking for more information about the arrangement.

“I am very concerned about this secret arrangement between Wal-Mart and the Bush Administration,” said Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “This is a company that has been accused of a lengthy list of labor violations. Wal-Mart does not have the credibility to serve as an impartial investigator of accusations of labor violations against itself. I intend to find out how this arrangement was reached and, if appropriate, I will consider asking Congress to rescind the agreement if it cannot be justified.

“Once again, it looks like the Bush Administration is doing a favor for a powerful friend and contributor at the expense of workers who do their jobs and still cannot get fair treatment in the workplace.”

The violations involved workers under age 18 operating dangerous machinery, including cardboard balers and chain saws. In the agreement, Wal-Mart denied any wrongdoing, although the company agreed to pay the fine. Wal-Mart donated $2.1 million to candidates and campaigns in last year's election, 80% of which went to Republicans.

In a letter to DOL Secretary Elaine Chao, Miller wrote:

It is astonishing that the Department of Labor, on the heals of finding that Wal-Mart was engaged in serious violations of child labor laws -- even as Wal-Mart refused to publicly admit -- should reward the company with a sweetheart regulatory deal that allows Wal-Mart's top officials a preview of complaints before they are investigated. Keeping the "compliance agreement" a secret until a newspaper broke the story, long after the agreement had been implemented is a breach of trust with Wal-Mart employees and the nation's workers -- the very people your department is charged with protecting.

Meanwhile, the Wall St. Journal (subscription required) provides more background about the difference between the way this administration treats labor code violators, and the way past administrations have operated:

In the recent case of alleged child labor violations, the Labor Department says that giving an employer prior notice of an investigation isn't unusual. "Generally, if we get a complaint, we contact an employer and tell them we are coming to do an investigation," said Victoria Lipnic, assistant secretary of labor for employment standards. "This expedites the process. Instead of contacting them, scheduling an appointment to see if there is a problem, we're saying 'there's a problem, fix it.' "

Ms. Lipnic said the Labor Department signed a similar agreement in 1999 with Sears, Roebuck Inc., now a unit of Kmart Corp., related to child labor violations that gave the retailer 10 days prior notice.

John Frasier, [who retired in 2001 as deputy administrator of the department's wage-and-hour division], however, says his department, as a matter of convenience, might notify an employer that an investigation was going to be conducted. "But this settlement says the department has an obligation to do so," he says. "We wouldn't tell a company that there has been an allegation of a violation, because once you've done that you've compromised the privacy of the complainant."

As we enter the second Bush term, we're likely to see more and more of these sweetheart deals to reward the big backers of the Republican party. Democrats like Miller, who are willing to go after this type of behaviour need your support. Call your Congressional representatives and ask them to support Miller's investigation.

A PDF copy of Miller’s request for an Inspector General investigation can be found here.

A PDF copy of Miller’s report on Wal-Mart’s labor practices can be found here.


Related Stories:

Bush Labor Department Puts Wal-Mart in "Privileged Position"

Wal-Mart: Following In The Proud Footsteps of the Tobacco, Beer and Petroleum Industries

Wal-Mart Enters 19th Century: Locks Workers In Overnight

More at LaborBlog here and here.

.

We've been reading a lot recently about W.R. Grace's failure to inform its employees and the community of the hazards they faced from exposure to asbestos -- and the resulting deaths of hundreds -- and illness that may stretch into the thousands.

Now we hear about a similar story of a company that had been warned of the hazards of the equipment it was using, but ignored the hazards and failed to inform its employees or the joing safety committee of the warnings.

You may recall the collapse last year of a giant crane that killed four ironworkers -- Mike Phillips, 42; Mike Moreau, 30; Robert Lipinski, Jr., 44, and Arden Clark II, 47 -- in Toledo last February. OSHA handed down four "willful" citations and a $280,000 fine against the construction company -- Frucon -- for not anchoring the crane adeqately.

Now a Toledo Blade investigation has revealed that the Italian manufacturer of the crane had warned Fru-Con four times that the crane was inadquately anchored:

• The crane's designers, Paolo de Nicola SpA, sent four messages to Fru-Con in mid-2003 complaining the contractor wasn't safely anchoring the cranes during the first major test - including the memo that warned of a collapse.
  
  
• Fru-Con said it corrected the problems after the test. But the construction firm later reduced the number of anchoring bolts it used on the cranes, bridge workers told investigators, against manufacturer specifications.
  
  
• Fru-Con complained about crane design flaws, such as an inability to "accommodate" bridge curves. Yet Fru-Con did not share its concerns, or the concerns of Paolo de Nicola, with a special labor-management-government committee set up to ensure worker safety. The crane collapsed while setting up over a future bridge curve.
  
  
• Government watchdog agencies never inspected the safety of the cranes, which had not been used previously in northwest Ohio. One former official of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the agency's local office lacked the expertise.

Why would Fru-Con ignore the warnings? Possibly because the state of Ohio was offering the company millions of dollars of incentives to finish the job early.

Michael S. Poles, a construction accident consultant based in West Hollywood, Calif., said contractors, in general, have a duty to either ensure safety concerns with equipment are addressed - or stop using the equipment.

But, he said, many contractors, facing tight deadlines and costly late penalties, will risk worker safety instead of halting a project over questionable equipment.

"Unequivocally, safety has got to come first," Mr. Poles said. "Unfortunately, it most often does take a back seat to fiscal considerations," he said.

Ironically, Fru-Con had a safety "partnership" with the state,OSHA and the union -- everyone vowing to work together to keep the project safe and to share all safety information. Despite the agreement, Fru-Con never informed the committee of the warnings by Paolo de Nicola of the potentially inadequate anchoring.

[Ironworker Joe]Kolling said he and his co-workers would have liked to have been told about all the concerns, including PdN's memos warning of anchoring problems during the test-launch.

"We might have said, 'We're not going to do it.' We might have walked off," he added.

As it was, ironworkers didn't understand the complex physics behind the cranes and had to trust the project engineers, he said.

Fru-Con says there was not safety problem to take to the committee.

On the first anniversary of the collapse, February 16, the Ohio Department of Transportation will will observe a moment of silence at the site in remembrance of the four workers killed, and the four workers injured. According to the press release, "ODOT, Fru-Con, and the Unions all believe that the accidents anniversary needs to be appropriately recognized."

But you wouldn't know anything tragic had ever happened by reading the Fru-Con website which boasts of its safety "culture", its "zero-incident policy" and its "award-winning safety program":

Safety is not just a statistic or policy at Fru-Con--it's our culture. A zero-incident policy permeates the entire organization. It's rooted in a longstanding tradition of ensuring our people make it home safely every night.

Our industry-leading safety results stem from our award-winning safety program and are proof positive of our commitment to safety. Recognized twice consecutively as the safest large contractor in the nation by the Business Roundtable, we pride ourselves on making certain each employee has a safe work environment.

In addition to numerous safety awards from our clients and peers, Fru-Con maintains an internal safety awards and incentive program. This helps us drive home the message that safety comes first.

These efforts provide our clients with unsurpassed safety standards and lower insurance rates. The bottom line is better, safer, more cost-effective projects.

Guess they haven't had time to update it for the past year. Still, it all seems a bit creepy.

More here.

"Get this self-serving crap off of this listserve!"

That's what someone wrote me last time I humbly asked for your vote.

My response: Deal with it. That's why God made delete buttons.


Thanks to the enthusiastic supporters of workplace safety rights, Confined Space has made it to the Koufax Award finals, as one of the eight final nominees for "Best Expert Blog." (Koufax as in best lefty blogger.)

Although I'm sure to be trounced, given the stiff opposition, I can honestly say that I'm proud to be part of this crowd of nominees. And prouder still to have an endorsement from a fellow blogger, Suzie, over at Suburban Guerrilla:

Koufax nominations are up for Best Expert Blog. As before, I recommend Confined Space. Jordan does an amazing job, documenting the deliberate undermining of workplace protections under the Bush regime.

There are many expert blogs, most of them having to do with law, economics or science. Those are all important, but I can't think of anything that has more impact on the average person's life than workplace safety.

Check him out. If you agree, please give him your vote.

Check them all out, and then click here, scroll to the bottom and WRITE IN CONFINED SPACE.

Aside from the honor, these nominations actually get more people to read Confined Space who never knew anything about workplace safety issues.

Oh, and by the way, Suburban Guerrilla (the blog I start my day with -- she makes you laugh before you feel like bashing your head against the wall) has been nominated for Best Blog and Best Post.

Hint. Hint.

Check her out (her blog, that is). You know what to do.

Other 2004 Koufax Award categories include:

Non-Professional/Sponsored Blog

Professional/Sponsored Blog

Best Group Blog

Most Humorous Blog

Best Series

Best Writing

Best New Blog

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition

Most Humorous Post

Best Series

Best Post

Best Commenter

UPDATE: Seem to have been nominated for Best Single Issue Blog as well. Choices, choices. Oh, what the hell, vote for me for both.

Well, maybe not so happy.

Before you go out and buy roses:

Olga Tutillo is secretary general of Rosas del Ecuador, a flower workers union in Ecuador. She has worked at flower plantations for 22 years. She is 38 years old and has five children.

Tutillo explains how hard the work is for Ecuador's roughly 100,000 flower workers, about 70 percent of whom are women -- the faces behind Cupid. The International Labor Organization estimates about 20 percent of the workforce consists of children.

The workers generally earn the national minimum wage, $145 per month. They work especially long hours in advance of Valentine's Day and other flower-giving holidays in the United States. They experience major occupational risks. Back pain is common among those who must stand or lean all day. Repetitive motion injuries are common. Rose pickers are frequently cut by thorns.

"There are also problems caused by pesticide fumigation," she explains. "Fumigation happens every day, either to prevent the plants from getting different diseases or to deal with it when they do get those diseases. Some of these chemicals are highly toxic."

Flower workers who try to organize to improve their working conditions face severe repression.

"It is extremely difficult to unionize in Ecuador," says Tutillo. "The companies are organized among themselves and they have a list on the Internet of the people who have tried to unionize or have unionized. If someone tries to create a union, the company threatens to fire them and says they won't be able to find another job. These are the famous blacklists."

Thanks to firings, blacklisting and other tactics -- like increasing use of contract workers instead of full-fledged employees -- the unionization rate in Ecuador is depressingly low. Among 300 flower companies in Ecuador, reports Tutillo, "only four have unions -- the other attempts to unionize have been repressed."

In Europe, they're doing something about it:

In Europe, a flower certification program has taken hold that tells consumers whether flowers were grown on farms or plantations that respect minimal environmental and labor conditions. According to the International Labor Organization, a substantial portion of flowers grown in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe receive certification under the Flower Label Program. The flower certification program is no panacea, but it does help modestly improve environmental and working conditions, and it gives workers more space to organize.

The program has had much less impact in South America, in considerable part because the Flower Label Program hasn't taken hold in the United States, where most Colombian and Ecuadorian flowers are shipped.

More information on ILRF here.

UAL Employee Killed In DIA Accident-High-Pressure Cylinder Strikes Mechanic

DENVER -- A United Airlines mechanic was killed instantly Sunday afternoon when a large high-pressure cylinder hit him while he was working on it at Denver International Airport. Denver police said Edward Peters was working in a hanger at the time of the accident. The cylinder works as a fire extinguisher on an aircraft, and is under high pressure. The pressure in the canister was apparently too high and Peters was trying to release some of the pressure, according to police. A United Airlines spokesman would not confirm what cylinder was used for. The container shot off at a high rate of speed, striking and killing Peters on impact. The accident was reported at about 1:30 p.m. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the accident. Peters was a resident of Jefferson County.


Autopsy Set For Worker Found Dead In Parking Lot

Lancaster, PA- An autopsy is set for Monday for the Hanover Foods worker found in a parking lot Friday morning. Police in southwestern York County said the death of the worker is suspicious. The man was found in a truck parking lot near the intersection of Route 116 and Deagan Drive in Heidelberg Township. Police said he's a black man in his 40s and appears to be from out of state.


Stable owner found dead; employee taken into custody

HOUSTON, TX — A teenager is in custody, accused of killing the owner of a northwest Harris County horse stable Sunday morning. Investigators say that teenager works at the stable and that he has confessed to the crime.


Manager: Fatal trampling an accident

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The manager of a circus where an elephant trampled its trainer to death while being loaded into a truck said he believed the man's death was an accident. "We don't believe from the behavior of the animals it was a premeditated, aggressive killing," Larry Solheim, general manager of the Tarzan Zerbini Circus, said today. The trainer, Pierre Spenle, 40, of Texas, died Monday after he was taken to a Fort Wayne hospital with critical chest injuries.


Longtime dock worker killed at LA port - second death in less than a week

LOS ANGELES - A longtime dock worker died and another was seriously injured in separate incidents at the Port of Los Angeles - the second fatality in less than a week. Matt Petrasich, 63, of Rancho Palos Verdes, was found dead Monday morning atop a cargo container on the Panamanian-flagged Ever Deluxe ship. His body was spotted by a crane operator, said Bill Orton of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.


Accounting Employee Dies in Santa Ana Fire

Los Angeles, CA- Big Bear Lake man is found after the blaze damages a building occupied by the firm. A bookkeeper was killed when fire swept through a Santa Ana accounting firm early Tuesday. The body of Joel Charles Jones, 65, of Big Bear Lake was discovered by firefighters in the rear of the building occupied by E.K. Williams Bookkeeping and Tax Service in the 1000 block of West 17th St., authorities said. Asphyxiation was the apparent cause of death, an Orange County coroner's spokesman said.


Bypass worker dies in construction accident

Jackson, CA- A man working on the Highway 49 bypass died Thursday morning after he fell 50 feet from a portion of a bridge being constructed over Amador Creek between Drytown and Amador City. Investigations by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the safety officer of the company contracted to build the bridge, are pending on the death of Robert Dale Foulks, 52, of Placerville.


Construction worker found dead on roof

VAIL - A 49-year-old construction worker was found dead Monday on the roof of the Vail Mountain Lodge, police said. Salvador Alvarez, who was working on the roof of the hotel, appeared to have died of a medical problem, Vail police Sgt. Mike Knox said.


Construction worker crushed to death

Valparaiso, IN- More than two tons of granite fell on a worker at a construction site in Valparaiso, killing him. Twenty-four-year-old Damon Daniels of Michigan City was pronounced dead at the site Tuesday afternoon by emergency workers. Police say the likely cause of death was suffocation from the weight of the five, 1,0000-pound granite slabs.


A truck horn wailed all day from inside collapsed building

Boston- A horn wailed all day from inside the collapsed building at the Fore River shipyard last Wednesday. The roof of the collapsed building had crushed a truck. A worker was inside. His body was leaning on the horn. It was impossible for emergency workers to get near him. The roof on one side of the building collapsed, trapping 18 men inside. Two of them were killed, and four were badly injured.


Man killed in machine after week at work

Fargo,ND- Federal safety officials are investigating a West Fargo business after one of its workers died in his machine. Geoffrey C. Schaaf, 30, of Fargo became entangled in a large lathe Tuesday afternoon at Federal Machine, 1007 2nd Ave. W., West Fargo Detective Greg Warren said.


Man, 26, dies at construction site- Korean student visiting U.S. hit by rebar while helping relative

OAKLAND, CA — A man was killed Monday when some of the rebar he was helping unload at an East Oakland construction site hit him in the face before falling on him, authorities said. Jae C. Lee, 26, apparently did not work for the construction company doing the work in the 1700 block of International Boulevard but was helping a relative who did, authorities said.


Slain station employee remembered as a peaceful gentleman

BRAINTREE -- He was an excellent cook, a gentleman in an age when manners are rare, and a smiling presence brighter than the neon yellow of the Shell station in Braintree Square where he worked. He was Loay Abdel Maksoud, 31, a native of Egypt, known to folks here as Louie. He was slain while covering a shift for a co-worker at a Mutual Gas station in Brockton Tuesday night, a brutal attack that has left friends and fellow employees hurt and angry.


Construction Worker Dies on Job

Belvidere, Illinois- A local construction worker dies while working on a project in Belvidere Thursday. Gary Helfvogt, 25, of Caledonia, was working at 1111 McKinley Ave. when he fell about 35 feet from a catwalk to the ground. Helfvogt was taken to OSF St. Anthony Medical Center with severe head injuries and pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m.


Highway Worker Killed in Crash

Tippecanoe County - An Indiana highway worker is dead following an accident that shut down part of I-65 near Lafayette in Tippecanoe County Thursday morning. Roger Zell, 35, of Lafayette had gotten out of a truck to clean up trash on the Wabash River Bridge when he was struck. Investigators say a van rear-ended a car that was trying to avoid the state truck. The car spun out of control and pinned Zell against the bridge. He died at a Lafayette hospital.


Man killed in Seekonk accident is identified

SEEKONK, RI -- A 75-year-old man who died after being struck in the head with a metal beam at a construction site on Tuesday has been identified by police as John M. Pimental. According to police, a crane operator was clearing scrap metal from the property when a beam either fell or struck Pimental, causing massive head injuries. He was transported to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.


Man Talks With Police About Taxi Driver's Murder-Cabbie Also Victim Of Previous Assault

CHICAGO -- Police have new information in the death of a cab driver who was murderd when a passenger apparently drove over the man with his own taxi, NBC5's Rob Elgas reported. A man went to Area Three Police Headquarters with his attorney Friday evening to discuss the case, sources said. The man has not been charged, but he is cooperating with police, sources told NBC5. Police Chief Vito Scotti said Pimental's last known address was 82 Barberry Drive in Seekonk. The cabbie was identified as Haroon Paryani, 61, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner's Office spokesman. Paryani died of multiple injuries after being struck by the taxi. His death was ruled a homicide, a medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.


U.S. Steel worker is killed when train crushes him against wall

A 46-year-old U.S. Steel employee was killed Thursday at the company's Granite City plant when a slow-moving cargo train crushed him against the wall of a loading dock. David M. Prengel, of the 3000 block of Erin Drive in Granite City, was pronounced dead by an investigator for the Madison County coroner's office at 11 p.m.


County employee killed in I-25 pickup crash

Chris Vigil, 30, of Santa Fe was killed Friday afternoon when the Santa Fe County-owned pickup he was driving was struck head-on by another pickup registered to San Felipe Pueblo.


Worker Killed In Allegheny Ludlum Accident

BRACKENRIDGE, Pa. -- A steel plant worker was killed in an early morning accident at the Allegheny Ludlum plant in Brackenridge. The Allegheny County Coroner's Office identified the man as John Novick, 50, of Lower Burrell. Authorities said Novick somehow became pinned between two rail cars at the plant. The accident occurred just before 4 a.m. Saturday. Novick was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. The coroner's office ruled Novick's death an accident


Orlando Officer Dies In Crash

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando Police Officer Dante M. Perales, 29, died Saturday in a traffic accident while on his way home from work. The accident occurred on Interstate 4 at Kirkman Road. Police said it appeared to have been a single-car crash. Police said Perales' vehicle slid sideways into the guardrail, impacting the driver's side. He was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.


Details Emerge in Shocking Midtown Shootings

New York, NY- 39-year-old Inessa Ivanov was shot and killed by her ex-husband. Here at the Chanel building where the salon is located, coworkers and customers were stunned today, with the salon closing early. Veronica Kehoe, hair salon customer: "People upstairs are just finding out about it. It's unbelievable."


Police seeking two gunmen in killing of barber at shop

Miami, FL- A hardworking, church-going barber was the victim of a puzzling killing at a Little Haiti barbershop. Police are looking for the killers. Franklin Fleurjuste worked hard as a barber to provide for his family in South Florida and in Haiti. And when he wasn't grooming beards or styling hair, the 49-year-old Baptist could be found at church, playing clarinet. ''All the victims inside were cooperating, but suddenly they stopped their actions,'' said Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss. ``As they were leaving, they shot the person closest to the door. He wasn't even looking at them.''


Sanitation worker killed in N.J. crash

Long Island, NY- A veteran city sanitation worker was killed Monday night when his garbage truck rear-ended a tractor-trailer carrying steel beams on the New Jersey Turnpike, officials said Tuesday. Rodney Page, 37, of Flushing, had more than 90 hours of overtime since the recent major snowstorm, sources said, but it was unclear whether that was a factor in his death.


Worker dies in fall off GWB

A construction worker fell 75 feet to his death after losing his footing on the George Washington Bridge last night, officials said. The victim was working on scaffolding inside a tower on the bridge's Manhattan side when he tumbled. He landed on a concrete platform far below the lower roadway about 8:30 p.m. The unidentified worker went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.


Shipyard crew in mourning-Investigation into Whidbey death could take months

FREELAND - Federal and state investigators are working with Nichols Bros. Boat Builders to pinpoint the cause of a fatal accident at the company's Whidbey Island shipyard. Employee William L. Dayton, 24, of Coupeville was killed Monday and two others were injured as they apparently attempted to lift a Fire Scout drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle that looks like a small helicopter.


French Camp chief shot, killed after chase; teen charged with capital murder

Kosciusko,MS- French Camp Mayor Glen Barlow was joking around with Police Chief Anthony Lucas at a basketball game Friday night. A couple of hours later, Lucas was shot to death while assisting the Ackerman Police Department on a pursuit.


Suspect caught in killing of Lake County deputy near Ocala forest

PAISLEY, Fla. - A felon accused of killing a sheriff's deputy and wounding two others was captured Wednesday after a daylong manhunt using helicopters, armored vehicles and airboats in the swamps and hills of the Ocala National Forest, officers said. Wheeler allegedly ambushed three Lake County deputies outside his home at about 9 a.m. as they responded to a domestic battery call. Deputy Wayne Koester died after being transferred to a hospital, sheriff's Capt. Nick Pallitto said. Deputies Tom McKane and Bill Crotty were treated for non-life threatening injuries a hospital in nearby Eustis.


Man shot to death in Riviera Beach

FL- A man gunned down outside his office in Riviera Beach Wednesday night has been identified as 55-year-old Sammie Osborn of West Palm Beach, police said. Osborn, an employee at the Two Wheels transportation company, stepped out about 9:30 p.m. to take paperwork and other office materials to a vehicle outside the business, which is located at 6911 Garden Road. About 20 minutes later, another employee found him shot dead outside and called Riviera Beach police, said Rose Anne Brown, a police department spokeswoman.


Naturita deaths likely a murder-suicide

NATURITA, CO — An eyewitness confirmed the Tuesday afternoon suicide of a longtime Naturita resident, a 35-year-old male suspected by homicide investigators of fatally shooting a heavy-equipment operator before taking his own life, Montrose County Undersheriff Dick Deines said.


Work accident kills ex-Sparta resident

Newton, NJ- A former Sparta resident died Monday night after he fell from a platform while working on a construction project on the George Washington Bridge, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokeswoman Tiffany Townsend said Wednesday. Troy TenEyck, 44, fell 50 feet from a platform on the New York side of the bridge, where landed on a cement floor. He died at the scene around 8:30 p.m., Townsend said.


Columbia Officer Dies From Wounds Suffered In Shooting

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A month after she was shot during a traffic stop by a gunman who later took his own life, a three-year veteran of the Columbia Police Department died Thursday of injuries that left her in a drug-induced coma. Officer Molly Thomas Bowden, 26, had been hospitalized since the Jan. 10 shooting, when she was hit three times in the neck and shoulder. She had been in a drug-induced coma to fight an infection.


Plant worker crushed

TRAVERSE CITY -- A 52-year-old Acme man died Thursday in an industrial accident at Eagle Picher automotive parts plant when a machine suddenly activated and crushed him, police say. Authorities were investigating how the machine began operating prior to the man's death at 1 p.m. The plant is on Cass Hartman Court in an industrial complex, Grand Traverse County sheriff's officials said.


Two ManTech employees on crashed Afghan plane

Washington,DC- Defense contractor ManTech International says two of its employees were aboard the Afghanistan Kam Air jet that crashed Feb. 3. The ManTech employees onboard the flight were Ryan Hogan, 24, from St. Joseph, Mo., a ManTech employee since February 2004, and Erik Wellumson, 42, of Chesapeake, Va., a ManTech employee since December.


Sheriff's employee hit, killed by van

Seattle, WA- Meanwhile, 34-year-old is charged with hit-and-run on Capitol Hill. The crowds bustling in and out of the King County Courthouse were absent for a time yesterday morning, kept away by police investigating an accident that killed a King County sheriff's employee. "It's tough," Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said. "She was very well liked, just a real nice person." The death of Amelia Gonzales, 46, of Arlington comes just two days after a suspected drunken driver ran down musician Bonni Suval on Capitol Hill, leaving her with several broken bones and a skull fracture.


Employee's death from meningitis spurs precautions at Snowmass hotel

Snowmass Village, CO - Workers at the Silvertree Hotel were being offered vaccinations and antibiotic treatments after a server there died last week of meningococcal meningitis. Dustin Foote, 22, showed signs of the infectious brain disease the week before and died Tuesday while being taken to a hospital, Pitkin County Coroner Steve Ayers said. It was not immediately clear how Foote caught the disease.


Man crushed by forklift, dies in accident on the job

Middletown, NY- A 26-year-old employee at American Candle Co. on Old Kings Highway died after a forklift fell on him while he was working Thursday night. Menachem N. Brandwein of Monsey had been operating the forklift when it became stuck in a muddy patch of ground near a loading dock, according to police. Brandwein had stepped out of the forklift and was working to dislodge it when it tipped, police said. Brandwein was pronounced dead at the scene.


Pilot of Tupelo hospital helicopter dead in crash; je/fax/rh

RIPLEY, Miss.-- The body of a pilot was recovered Thursday at the wreckage of his medical helicopter in a wooded area of south Tippah County, authorities say.

The pilot has not been identified pending notification of relatives. The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating. The air medical services helicopter was operated for North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. It normally has a pilot and two crew members. NMMC president/CEO John Heer said Thursday in a statement that the air ambulance had been dispatched to an one-vehicle accident on a Tippah County about 8:22 p.m. Wednesday.


Slaying of North Las Vegas store owner saddens merchants

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Taher Jakami fled Afghanistan as a child and lived in Southern California before opening a smoke shop here about six months ago.

On Sunday, the 31-year-old father, whose wife is pregnant with their third child, was shot and killed after confronting gunman who police said had just robbed his store.

"It's senseless. Just senseless," Ethel Burks, a clerk at a neighboring flower shop, said Monday. "He had made friends from one end of this shopping center to the next. He had no enemies in here. Everybody knew T.J."


Police make timeline of slayings; Customer sought for questioning

Milford, DE -- When he heard about the brutal slaying of two clothing store employees, Milford High School track coach and English teacher Czar Bloom said he was stunned to learn one of the victims was a former student and track star.
"You see those types of stories and you don't think of the people involved," Bloom said. "The next day I found out it was Jessica, and it made it all the worse."

Four days after the slayings, investigators are continuing their search for the person or persons who fatally shot Jessica M. Watson, 22, and Matthew J. Macerato, 18, during a robbery at the Milltown area business. Investigators said a substantial amount of cash also was taken.


Trucker killed in fiery crash on I-95; Semi, flatbed loaded with shingles collide, blocking interstate

BRUNSWICK, SC -- A South Carolina truck driver died in a fiery pre-dawn crash Thursday on Interstate 95 near the Glynn-Camden County line.

Donald Seigler, 56, of Aiken was killed when the 18-wheel container truck loaded with tomatoes collided with the rear of a flatbed truck hauling roofing shingles and burst into flames, according to Georgia State Patrol troopers.
Seigler died instantly, apparently from blunt force trauma to the head and chest, Glynn County Coroner Jimmy Durden said.


Taxi driver, passenger killed in crash

A drunken driver crashed his car into a taxi early Saturday, killing the driver and his passenger in the city's Lakeview neighborhood, Chicago police said.

The collision occurred in the 2900 block of North Ashland Avenue about 5:45 a.m. when Igors Kazakovs, 21, of the 6300 block of South Lockwood Avenue, Chicago, driving an Audi sedan, ran a red light and struck the side of the taxi, police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor said.

Passenger Brian Schultz, 28, of an unknown address, and cabdriver Frank Frempong, 61, of the 8100 block of South Dobson Avenue, Chicago, were killed.


Pottawattamie County worker found dead in culvert

MACEDONIA, Iowa -- A Pottawattamie County employee (Edward Batten)was found dead at the bottom of a culvert after a passing motorist discovered a road grader in the middle of the road with nobody around it.

Sheriff Jeff Danker said the identity of the 48-year-old man was not immediately released pending notification of relatives.

The man's body was found face down at the bottom of a 10-foot deep culvert on Thursday, Danker said.


Cow on Pike causes fatal collision

CHARLTON, MA -- A truck driver was killed last night when a westbound tractor-trailer swerved to avoid a cow on a travel lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike and crashed through the median guardrail, hitting an eastbound tractor trailer head on.

The accident occurred at 8:45 p.m. east of the Sturbridge exit on the turnpike in Charlton.

All eastbound lanes and one of the three westbound lanes of the turnpike were closed because of the accident, according to state Trooper Danielle Pires. The eastbound lanes were expected to be closed for several hours, perhaps until 2 a.m.



2 boys plead not guilty in death of security guard in Rockaways

New York -- Two 13-year-old boys accused of starting a Christmas Day fire that led to the death of a security guard in a Rockaways apartment building pleaded not guilty Thursday to felony murder charges, the city's law department said.

The boys, whose names have been withheld because they are minors, entered their pleas before Judge Edwina Richardson-Thomas in Queens Family Court, city lawyer Lori Iskowitz said in a statement released by her department.

The boys set fire to holiday decorations and a cart of garbage on the fifth floor of the building, police said. The guard, Raymond James, 32, died after he apparently got into the elevator with the burning cart in an attempt to get rid of it.

Labels: taxi drivers, Weekly Toll

Health & safety and environmental and consumer regulations are bad. They hurt business, and the economy and workers and...

Oh, nevermind.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger took office, he vowed to whack away at a tangle of California regulations he blamed for choking the frail state economy.

In one of his first acts as governor, Schwarzenegger put an immediate six-month freeze on hundreds of pending rules and directed his staff to get rid of anything that was putting a crimp on business.

Consumer groups braced for the worst. They expected the Republican governor to take aim at hard-fought protections for everything from the environment to consumers.

Instead, during his first year in office, Schwarzenegger embraced the kinds of rules he railed against during the campaign.

After perusing scores of regulations, Schwarzenegger's administration gave the green light to higher fees on businesses and new fire-safety regulations for mattresses. It OK'd pioneering water-conservation standards for washing machines opposed by manufacturers and noise-reduction rules that drew the ire of off-road enthusiasts. It cleared the way for higher fees on farmers and endorsed tougher safety rules for construction workers.

Wonder why?

"More often than not, the regulatory process comes out with something people can begrudgingly live with," said Gene Erbin, a Sacramento attorney who represented the mattress industry and worked to ensure the industry could work with the rules. "The process worked as designed in this case."

Robert Fellmeth, head of the Center for Public Interest Law, said the entire process underscores the notion that the much-maligned regulatory process, while not perfect, is not the devil incarnate portrayed by its critics.

Like Erbin, Fellmeth said business groups usually have advocates on the regulatory boards who are able to work out a happy compromise, despite public perceptions.

"Most rules, believe it or not, are supported by industry because industry is in control of most of these agencies," he said.

True to form, the Bush administration is making sure that its corporate friends are not too inconvenienced on those rare occasions when they are found to be breaking federal laws, especially if it only involves child labor issues.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges that it violated child labor laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire. As part of the agreement, revealed yesterday after it was secretly signed in January, the Labor Department agreed "to give Wal-Mart 15 days' notice before the Labor Department investigates any other 'wage and hour' accusations, like failure to pay minimum wage or overtime."

The violations involved workers under age 18 operating dangerous machinery, including cardboard balers and chain saws. In the agreement, Wal-Mart denied any wrongdoing, although the company agreed to pay the fine.

The agreement left Congressman George Miller (D-CA) rather angry:

"I don't know if the Department of Labor threw in the towel or whether Wal-Mart put enough political pressure on them that they ended up with a sweetheart deal," Miller said, adding that he will ask the department's inspector general this week to review the agreement.

"I don't know if there's anything in Wal-Mart's background with regards to allegations of violations of labor laws that would make any suggestion Wal-Mart has earned the right for this kind of treatment," Miller said.

A veteran DOL inspector was also rather perplexed.

"With child labor cases involving the use of hazardous machinery, why give 15 days' notice before we can do an investigation?" asked a district office supervisor who has worked in the wage and hour division for nearly 20 years.

"What's the rationale?"

Good question. Something to do with loyalty, perhaps.

Labor Department officials claim there's nothing unusal about this arrangement, but officials from previous administrations think it stinks.

Victoria Lipnic, assistant labor secretary for employment standards, called the settlement typical, saying that giving Wal-Mart notice before conducting investigations would encourage the company to correct the problems sooner.

***

Several department officials suggested that the provision for 15 days' notice might give Wal-Mart an opportunity to hide violations.

John R. Fraser, the government's top wage official under the first President Bush and President Bill Clinton, said the advance-notice provision was unusually expansive.

"Giving the company 15 days' notice of any investigation is very unusual," Mr. Fraser said. "The language appears to go beyond child labor allegations and cover all wage and hour allegations. It appears to put Wal-Mart in a privileged position that to my knowledge no other employer has."

Ms. Lipnic countered,"We usually call employers before we go to investigate," and said there was "nothing uncommon or unprecedented about that."

No, well, maybe not in this administration.

Several federal employees voiced concern about a Jan. 10 e-mail message sent by the director of the Little Rock, Ark., office for the Labor Department's wage and hour division after the settlement was reached, that said, "Wage & Hour will not open an investigation of Wal-Mart without first notifying Wal-Mart's main office and allowing them an opportunity to look at the alleged violations and, if valid, correct the problem."

The Occupational Safety and Health Act prohibits inspectors from warning employers about planned inspections, but no such provisions exist in many other labor laws.

A Wal-Mart spokesman claimed that "our focus is to be 100 percent compliant with all applicable laws."

Yeah, right:

Wal-Mart has faced previous child labor charges. In March 2000, Maine fined the company $205,650 for violations of child labor laws in every one of the 20 stores in the state. In January 2004, a weeklong internal audit of 128 stores found 1,371 instances in which minors apparently worked too late at night, worked during school hours or worked too many hours in a day. Company officials said the audit was faulty and had incorrectly found that some youths had worked on school days when, in fact, those days were holidays.

Oh, and then there's the little matter of locking their workers in the stores all night and not paying them for the time they were imprisoned.

Is this an example of those Republican values we hear so much about?

UPDATE: Nathan Newman has a copy of the copy of the sweetheart deal negotiated by Wal-Mart with the DOL as sent out in email to district DOL offices, as well as some further insights into this deal.

LIBBY, Mont. - Les Skramstad said he often dreamed about a long row of wooden gallows on the pinkish-tan dirt of the abandoned vermiculite mine on Zonolite Mountain just outside this tiny town near the Canadian border.

"On those gallows I'd see swinging the bodies of all the company bosses who knew they were killing us, who knew they were killing our wives and children, who knew they were killing this town and other towns where their poisoned ore was handled. They knew it and they hid it," Skramstad said. "I hope I live long enough to see them swing."

So begins the latest article by St. Louis Post Dispatch Reporter Andrew Schneider about the federal indictments of W.R. Grace for their decades-long coverup of the dangers of asbestos to the thousands of workers and residents of Libby, Montana. (Previous Confined Space posts here and here.)

The indictments were largely a result of the campaigns of Skramstad, who suffers from asbestosis and Gayla Benefield, a miner's daughter whose parents died of asbestos-related disease and who is suffering from asbestosis herself. Both battled for years to be taken seriously about the hazardous mineral they knew was killing their town.

But the opposition was tough.

The town's leaders, real estate agents, developers and business owners discredited Benefield and Skramsted's warnings as "crazy," and tried to silence them before tourists fled elsewhere. The medical community insisted the deaths and widespread breathing problems were not unusual and were caused by emphysema. The fact that many victims never smoked wasn't addressed.

State officials and the small Montana office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored Benefield's plea for help. The state's Department of Environmental Quality said it was "unsubstantiated nonsense."

Even though Grace was quietly settling dozens of personal injury suits with miners and their families, they would get only scant notice in the local papers.

It wasn't until two days after Schneiders articles in the Seattle Post Intelligencer appeared telling describing the tragedy of Libby that the EPA finally began their investigation, uncovering the incriminating documents that led to last weeks indictments.

The documents, they said, showed that Grace knew how dangerous the asbestos-tainted vermiculite ore was and how the corporation worked to conceal it. They documented a substantial risk to workers not only at Libby's mine and the town itself but also at hundreds of plants around the country that processed Grace's ore into consumer products.

They also showed that almost every official in the company knew how hazardous the material was, from then-company president J. Peter Grace to the health and safety, marketing and legal departments.

RESOURCES:

The federal indictments of W.R. Grace can be downloaded here.

The original Seattle Post Intelligencer articles by Andrew Schneider that broke the story can be found here.

Other articles by Schneider in the St. Louis Post Dispatch describing the hazardous conditions near Grace factories and in attics of millions of homes across the nation can be found here.

Labels: Asbestos, Criminal Prosecution

The chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday defended the retailer's decision to close a Canadian store after its employees voted to form a union, saying demands from negotiators would have forced an already unprofitable store to hire 30 more people and abide by inefficient work rules.

"You can't take a store that is a struggling store anyway and add a bunch of people and a bunch of work rules that cause you to even be in worse shape," H. Lee Scott Jr. said.

In his first interview since Wal-Mart announced it would close the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, Scott said Wal-Mart saw no upside to the higher labor costs and refused to cede ground to the union for the sake of being "altruistic."

"It doesn't work that way," he said.

The Quebec store would have been the first Wal-Mart store to unionize. The giant company has vigorously fought unionizing attempts. After workers in the fresh meat section of a Texas Wal-Mart voted to unionize in 2000, Wal-Mart eliminated meatcutter jobs companywide, and started selling pre-wrapped meat.

Scott announced that Wal-Mart has begun "a campaign to tell community and elected leders about its operations and policies." And where are they looking for examples of how to run the P.R. campaign?

Scott, who has worked at Wal-Mart since 1979 and became chief executive of the 3,000-store chain in 2000, said he has studied how major companies in the tobacco, beer and petroleum industries have weathered intense criticism.

Great. They're trying to improve their image, so they've chosen the lung cancer, alcoholism and Bhopal industries as their role models?

Oy

***
More information here about an AFL-CIO petition campaign.

Washington DC busdrivers are fed up with being attacked while driving their buses and they're not going to take any more. In response to demands from the D.C. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, to improve safety aboard Washington DC Metro buses, Metro has assigned transit police to ride along on some routes and is using canine units to sweep bus facilities.

Local 689 held a rally yesterday in front of Metro headquarters to bring public attention to the rising number of assaults against Metro employees.

The number of assaults on buses rose to 125 last year from 114 in 2003. There were 66 assaults on bus drivers last year compared with 46 in 2003, according to Transit Police statistics.

***

Rick Henzley, 52, a driver with 25 years on the job, said he was stabbed four times when he was jumped by three youths in 1980. He said being a bus driver now is worse than it was then.

On Tuesday evening, Hanson rode buses on the A and W lines through Southeast Washington, where drivers are having the most difficulty with assaults and vandalism, and witnessed an incident up close.

"The bus behind me got pelted with rocks," she said. "I'm disappointed in some citizens in this community who don't appreciate the services that these bus drivers provide."

Last year, 152 bus windows were shattered, 50 more than in 2003 and about 100 more than in 2002, according to police.

The union is demanding demanding secure garages, video cameras on every bus, more education for young people about the hazards of throwing rocks at drivers.

Only 100 of Metros 1400 buses are currently equipped with cameras. Metro has ordered 250 additional buses that are equipped with surveillance systems.

For now, Metro is relying on officers to step up patrols and increase their visibility, Hanson said.

Officers normally guarding the subways are taking the buses from station to station, an easy way to increase visibility, she said. "If something happens on the rail, they can jump off the bus and pop into the rail."

In the future, bus rides will be part of the training for police recruits, [Metro Transit Police Chief Polly]Hanson said.

The union promised to continue the protests every month until Metro addresses all of their concerns.

Reflections on the Indictment of W.R. Grace Executives

That was a question asked by Boston University Professor of Environmental Health David Ozonoff when he heard about the indictments of W.R. Grace executives for knowingly exposing thousands of workers and residents to asbestos. Ozonoff was referring to a number of bankrupt asbestos manufacturers whose products and working conditions contributed to a still unfolding disaster projected to kill as many as 500,000 workers.

Ozonoff said medical literature showed by 1930 that asbestos caused the disabling lung disease asbestosis; by 1949 that it caused lung cancer; and by 1960 that it caused mesothelioma, a rare and deadlier cancer. Asbestos makers knew even more, he said, but have been let "off the hook" by declaring bankruptcy.

The Columbia Journalism Review notes that journalist Andrew Schneider who broke the story in the major media in 1999 got to "write the story every reporter hopes to write"

Andrew Schneider's first story about the trail of asbestos-related deaths and disease in Libby, Montana appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in November, 1999. The vast deposits of vermiculite mined in the small Montana town were shot through with tremolite, an invasive form of asbestos that burrows deep into the lungs when inhaled. As Schneider wrote:

First, it killed some miners. Then it killed wives and children, slipping into their homes on the dusty clothing of hard-working men. Now the mine is closed, but in Libby, the killing goes on.

The W.R. Grace Co. knew, from the time it bought the Zonolite vermiculite mine in 1963, why the people in Libby were dying.

But for the 30 years it owned the mine, the company did not stop it. Neither did the governments. Not the town of Libby, not Lincoln County. Not the state of Montana, not federal mining, health and environmental agencies, not anyone else charged with protecting the public health.

For the last five years, Schneider, now at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has pursued the asbestos story, which has taken him from Libby to the hulking ruins of the World Trade Center. (When the twin towers were constructed, vermiculite from Libby, known as Zonolite, was used as fireproofing. Many health experts and rescue personnel believe that asbestos levels at the World Trade Center site were dangerously high, despite initial assurances from the EPA that the area was safe.)

I often praise those reporters like Schneider and David Barstow who bring to the otherwise ignorant public the tragic stories of workers who are killed or sickened on the job by employers who don't care.

And I waste no words criticizing those reporters who don't take the time to look beneath the surface of press releases and shall statements of sorrow to find the real -- and generally preventable -- causes of workplace injury, illness and death.

So it's nice to see some recognition for those who deserve it:

Every reporter knows there is a long and not always certain road between the high-profile announcement of an indictment and an eventual conviction. But this is a story that assuredly would never have moved forward without years of dogged, shoe-leather reporting by Schneider, who previously has been awarded two Pulitzers. It's worth reading through the Post-Intelligencer's excellent original series on Libby -- if only to be reminded why lots of us got into this line of work in the first place.

Although Schneider told the world about the contamination of Libby, Montana, W.R. Grace's coverup of asbestos hazards had been known well before. A 1998 article by Brown university professor David Egilman in the journal Accountablity in Research described how Grace purchased the mine in 1963 and immediately learned of the asbestos-related health problems. Grace nevertheless covered up the problem and fought the inclusion of tremolite asbestos (the type found in the mine) in OSHA's 1976 asbestos standard, despite the fact that Grace had funded (but never published) a study showing that the tremolite asbestos caused cancer.

Egilman has dedicated much of his career to forcing corporations to inform workers and the public about the information they possess concerning the hazards of their products. As he wrote about W.R. Grace

These actions were intentional, and were motivated by Grace's conscious decision to prioritize corporate profit over human health.

***

The economic interests of corporations should not take priority over the health needs of workers and the public. In the case of W.R. Grace & Co. , this unethical practice has led to the exposure of thousands of workers and building occupants to hazardous asbestos, and ultimately resulted in lung disease, cancers and death.

The only mistake that Egilman made in 1998 was to underestimate the scope of the problem created by Grace; it went far beyond thousands of workers and building occupants. Schneider, who moved from Seattle to the St. Louis Dispatch, wrote later of the contamination of neighborhoods in the vicinity of other Grace vermiculite plants, and in 2002 Schneider reported that millions of homes in the United States contained "Zonolite" insulation, made from the asbestos-laden vermiculite mined in Libby.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would immediately remove asbestos-contaminated insulation from hundreds of homes in Libby, Mont.

But it won't even warn homeowners in the rest of the country that their houses could contain the same dangerous substance.

Post-Dispatch reporter Andrew Schneider reports that the insulation, called Zonolite, is in an estimated 1.2 million homes in Missouri and Illinois, as well as millions more around the country.

Left alone, Zonolite isn't much of a hazard. But if it is disturbed -- and it could be disturbed by something as innocuous as adding a light fixture -- it can release dangerous asbestos fibers at levels that are dozens of times beyond what's considered safe.

***

In September [2001], EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said her agency would do a better job protecting the public because of the hard-won knowledge about asbestos toxicity it gained there. "We want everyone who comes in contact with vermiculite -- from homeowners to handymen -- to have the information needed to protect themselves and their families," Ms. Whitman said.

Those sentiments have apparently been trumped by a more practical concern. The cost of removing Zonolite insulation from every American home could reach $10 billion. Even so, the cost of warning homeowners would be considerably less.

Two years have passed since doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service asked the government to warn homeowners and contractors about the risks of Zonolite. Still nothing has been done.

If the insulation is hazardous in Libby, it's equally hazardous in St. Louis. It's time for Ms. Whitman to make good on her promise and to warn the public.

Of course, while some try to look the other way, others choose to believe that it's corporate America that is being abused, despite what the facts say. Revere at Effect Measure (who has a better memory than I do) recalls an article last year in The Nation by asbestos sleuth Paul Brodeur about a certain physician/politician/Senate Majority Leader who is hopefully eating his words:

EDUCATING SENATOR FRIST

President George Bush has declared that tort reform will be a major part of his forthcoming political campaign. In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill First has said that he will make it a "personal priority" in the present session of Congress to deal with what he calls "the current asbestos litigation crisis." first intends to do this by persuading his colleagues to enact Senator Orrin Hatch's Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act, known as the FAIR Act to its advocates, and as the Frist/Hatch asbestos bailout bill to its detractors.

In a recent speech before the senate, Senator Frist described the Johns-Manville Corporation and W. R. Grace & Company as "reputable companies" that had been driven into bankruptcy because of asbestos litigation.

And that, my children, is why we need to pass "tort reform" and get rid of those "frivolous asbestos claims."

Labels: Asbestos, Criminal Prosecution

Look what the House of Representatives passed today: REAL ID Act of 2005. Designed to keep terrorists from getting drivers licenses, the act has a few other interesting features. Like Section 102:

SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

(c) Waiver-

(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.

(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--

(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or

(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.

What does all that mean? Supposed intended to expedite construction of the three mile wall on the US-Mexican border near San Diego (to keep out terrorists), this section allows the Secretary of Homeland security to waive any law (environmental, workplace safety, etc.) if he determines it's necessary for national security -- for any construction along any part of the US border.

Aside from the fact that border areas contain border areas an enormous amount of protected federal lands, including national parks, wildlife refuges, forests and wilderness areas, we're also talking about workplace safety regulations.

Takes too long to get a trenchbox for a 12 foot deep trench? Too bad! We're fightin' a war here.

Hearing protection? "I can't hear you."

Oh, and don't bother trying to sue anyone -- even if you get hurt. Section 102 waives judicial review as well. (Most judges appointed prior to 2001 are known terrorist sympathizers.)

Hell, maybe they should just build the whole thing out of asbestos.

Luckily, it still has to be passed by the Senate which has been known on occasion to have some respect for the rule of law.

And we're only three weeks into this administration.....

I have a long piece about the attack on public employee unions over at LaborBlog. Check it out, along with the other good pieces over there.

George Bush's Frivolous Asbestos Claims?

In yet another case of deadly corporate coverups, the W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives and department heads were indicted yesterday in federal court in Missoula, Montana.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency,

W.R. Grace and its executives, as far back as the 1970’s, attempted to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company’s Libby, Montana plant. The grand jury charged the defendants with conspiring to conceal information about the hazardous nature of the company’s asbestos contaminated vermiculite products, obstructing the government’s clean-up efforts, and wire fraud. To date, according to the indictment, approximately 1,200 residents of Libby have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality.

***

The indictment alleges that the defendants, beginning in the late 1970's, obtained knowledge of the toxic nature of tremolite asbestos in its vermiculite through internal epidemiological, medical and toxicological studies, as well as through product testing. The indictment further alleges that, despite legal requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act to turn over to EPA the information they possessed, W.R. Grace and its officials failed to do so on numerous occasions. In addition to concealing information from EPA, the indictment alleges that W.R. Grace and its officials also obstructed the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) when it attempted to study the health conditions at the Libby mine in the 1980's.

The indictment further alleges that, despite their knowledge gained from internal studies, W.R. Grace and its officials distributed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite and permitted it to be distributed throughout the Libby community. This occurred in numerous ways, including, allowing workers to leave the mine site covered in asbestos dust, allowing residents to take waste vermiculite for use in their gardens and distributing vermiculite "tailings" to the Libby schools for use as foundations for running tracks and an outdoor ice skating rink. After W.R. Grace closed the Libby mine in 1990, it sold asbestos contaminated properties to local buyers without disclosing the nature or extent of the contamination. One of the contaminated properties was used as a residence and commercial nursery.

St. Louis Post Dispatch investigative reporter Andrew Schneider broke the original story in 1999. In an interview yesterday on National Public Radio Schneider recalled that over 1000 people in Libby -- workers, spouses and children -- show signs of asbestos disease and the EPA has found that more than 250 already died so far.

According to Schneider, thousands of documents belonging to Grace revealed that the mills released over 5,000 lbs of asbestos fibers into the air over Libby every day the plant operated. Although the mine closed in 1993, asbestos-tainted vermiculte remains in the houses, gardens and driveways of Libby.

The worst part is that the documents also show that Grace knew when they took over the mine in 1960 that the vermiculite ore was tainted with asbestos and that asbestos exposure was deadly. Grace concealed this knowledge from the town and from the workers in Grace's 200 plants across the country. The biggest problem, however -- which EPA hasn't even begun to deal with -- is that asbestos-tainted vermiculite insulation remains in the attics of 35 million homes around the country.

The documents are chilling:

Those documents show years of extensive communication between Grace's top managers and health, marketing and legal directors and mine officials in Libby about concealing the danger from asbestos in the vermiculite ore and in the finished consumer products. They discussed methods to keep federal investigators from studying the health of the miners, the potential harm to Grace sales if asbestos warnings were placed on the products made from the vermiculite and the effort to mask the hazard of working with the contaminated ore.

Grace didn't even enter bankruptcy honestly:

Grace, which produces construction chemicals, building material and packaging, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001 because of the "sharply increasing number of asbestos claims," Paul Norris, Grace's chairman and CEO, said at the time.

In May 2002, the Justice Department intervened in Grace's bankruptcy, the first time it had entered this type of case. The federal charges alleged that before Grace filed for Chapter 11, it concealed money in new companies it bought. Justice Department lawyers said Grace's action was the "fraudulent transfer" of money to another of its companies to protect itself from civil suits.

"Grace allegedly removed billions of dollars of assets against which parties who were injured or damaged by Grace's asbestos-containing material had claims," the Justice Department told the court.

Unlike OSHA citations, violations of EPA's laws carry stiff penalties:

In addition to the company and [Alan] Stringer [manager of the now-closed mine], those named in the indictment are Henry Eschenbach, former health official for a Grace subsidiary; Jack Wolter, a former executive for Grace's construction products division; William McCaig, former general manager of the Libby mine; Robert Bettacchi, a senior vice president of Grace; O. Mario Favorito, chief legal counsel for Grace; and Robert Walsh, former Grace vice president.

The company could face a fine of up to $280 million, twice the amount of after-tax profits the government alleges W.R. Grace realized from the Libby mine, according to the Justice Department

Stringer could be sentenced to as many as 70 years in prison, while Wolter and Bettacchi face maximum prison terms of 55 years. The other defendants could get 5 years in prison.

This isn't the first time that W.R. Grace poisoned a community. In a case made famous in the book, A Civil Action, Grace paid $8 million to eight Woburn, Massachusetts families to settle their civil suits after children died of leukemia from drinking well water contaminated by a WR Grace factory.

The sad case of Libby, Montana marks only the latest low-point for corporate deception in this country. After the previous asbestos scandals and huge lawsuits (or frivolous cases, according to our President), after the tragic cover-ups by the lead and vinyl chloride industries (See Markowitz and Rosner's Deceit and Denial for the lead and Vinyl Chloride stories), one can only wonder what other hazards American companies have hidden -- and continue to hide -- from workers and communities.

And despite these crimes, the President of the United States and corporate America continue their attack on the regulatory agencies that are supposed to protect workers and communities, while at the same time mounting a campaign to weaken citizens' right to sue corporate criminals like Grace.

One hopes that corporate America will finally learn a lesson from these indictments, although nothing can make up for the human damage that Grace has caused:

Les Skramstad, a Libby resident and former mine worker who was diagnosed with asbestosis nine years ago, said he was pleased criminal charges had finally been filed.

"This wasn't something that happened to us. This was something that was done to us," said Skramstad, who attended Monday's news conference.

Skramstad, 68, said he worked in the mine for 2 1/2 years and believes he not only contracted asbestosis there, but brought home asbestos fibers that also sickened his wife and two children.

All of them now have asbestosis, Skramstad said.

"They should have to pay," Skramstad said of the defendants. "They will never have to pay like we did, because it won't cost them their lives."

Labels: Asbestos

President Bush's Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposal, issued today, calls for the complete elimination of OSHA's worker training program. The program, known as the Susan Harwood Worker Training Grants, was created under the administration of Assistant Secretary for Labor Eula Bingham during the Carter administration to provide hands-on training to workers about their rights and the hazards they face. Although the Reagan administration cut the grants back significantly, no administration has ever attempted to completely eliminate the program, until now.

In a rather misleading statement, Acting Assistant Secretary Jonathan Snare said:

OSHA's FY 2006 budget also calls for the reduction of $10.2 million by eliminating the agency's Susan Harwood training grants program. Snare explained that OSHA has a variety of outreach, compliance assistance and training programs. Many of OSHA's Alliances address training components, while the agency's web-based training materials continues to expand. The agency also offers training through the OSHA Training Institute, 19 Education Centers and train-the-trainer Outreach Training Program that reaches more than 360,000 workers annually. "The availability and success of these programs and capabilities within a constrained budget environment," he said, "will ensure that training and outreach to thousands of workers and employers is not compromised by the elimination of the training grants program."

So the worker training program that currently provides thousands of dollars to unions and other public interest groups to train workers will be replaced by programs run by rather pathetic industry alliances and various classes run by OSHA and universities around the country?

The worker training grant program grew to over $11 million per year during the Clinton administration, after being cut to the bone during the Reagan and first Bush administrations. The current Bush administration has tried every year to cut the program back to $4 million, and replace direct training with websites and CDs, but the Congress has restored full funding every year -- largely thanks to Republican Senator Arlen Specter who chairs the Senate Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations Sub-committee.

Meanwhile, while programs that provide outreach to workers are zeroed out, a total of $127 million is being proposed for programs to provide compliance assistance to employers. The Voluntary Protection Program, one of OSHA's various voluntary programs, will increase by over 25%, even though the Government Accountability Office recommended that OSHA not exand these programs until it had determined whether or not they were effective.

The total OSHA budget proposal is $467 million compared with $464,224 last year. While the budget shows a small dollar increase in the budgets of OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH, adjusting for inflation, the Bush budget proposal means a real dollar cut of $6.7 million for OSHA, $4.9 million for MSHA and a $5.1 million cut for NIOSH. Taking into account all three budget, according to an AFL-CIO analysis, the Bush Administration proposes to spend less than $8 per worker to protect American workers from job injuries, illnesses and death. Since the beginning of the Bush administration, 162 full-time positions have been cut from OSHA's staff, mostly from employees working on standards and federal enforcement programs

Taking inflation into account, this year’s proposed budget freezes OSHA’s and MSHA’s enforcement programs. The standards budget is seeing an increase, but that will go toward reviewing existing standards. According to the AFL-CIO:

The proposed budget requests $17 million in funding for safety and health standards, compared to $16.1 million appropriated in FY 2005. Instead of developing new protections, the Bush Administration has set as its priority the review of existing rules. According to the Administration’s latest Regulatory Agenda issued in December 2004, no new significant final standards are planned, making this the first Administration in OSHA’s history to issue no major safety and health standards during its tenure. Instead, the Administration overturned OSHA’s ergonomics standard, killed pending final rules on indoor air quality and tuberculosis and withdrew or delayed dozens of other important safety and health rules.

Meanwhile, there is no mention in the budget of program to address immigrant or Hispanic worker injuries and deaths, or to address ergonomic hazards. Since the Bush administration repealed the ergonomics standard in 2001, federal OSHA has issued only three voluntary guidelines – for nursing homes, retail groceries and poultry processing plants - and issued only 15 general duty citations for ergonomic hazards.

Bush's FY 2006 budget proposes $280 million in funding for MSHA compared to $279.2 appropriated in FY 2005, but the budget cuts MSHA’s program for standards development (from $2.3 million in FY 2005 to $2.0 million in FY 2006) and cuts in program evaluation and program administration. Since the Bush Administration took office in 2001, they have reduced MSHA staff by 170 positions.

The NIOSH budget would be $286 million compared with $285.4 million last year.

Oh, and one more thing. In the interests of a balanced budget, the administration may not have been able to find enough money for worker training or more safety & health inspecters, but

The 2006 budget also includes $7 million to fight fraud and corruption in labor unions. Money would be used to beef up audits, help hire 48 new auditors, and investigate and combat embezzlement of union funds.

Labels: AFL-CIO

In August of 2003, the Times Herald Record in New York's Hudson Valley published the following article as part of a series on "Time Bombs, Dangerous Chemicals"

Warwick – It's a quiet August night in downtown Warwick. The sleeping village lies under a dome of hot air, stirred only by a light breeze.

At 3 a.m., a man walks casually along the railroad tracks behind the Jones Chemical plant. The plant is tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood along the banks of Wawayanda Creek, about a half-mile from the center of this village of 6,400 souls.

He approaches the plant, which is home to as much as 1.3 million pounds of potentially deadly chlorine and other toxic chemicals. No barrier – not even a simple fence – stands between the man and a dozen or more rail cars in back of the plant, or between him and the back doors of the plant's warehouse. No one challenges him.

The man is carrying a backpack, which he slips off and places carefully on the side of a railroad car loaded with 180,000 pounds of chlorine.

He pulls a string.

The explosion blows a hole through the car's multiple skins. Chlorine pours out at 18,000 pounds per minute, creating a rapidly-expanding cloud of deadly gas. The cloud spreads, quickly drifting to nearby neighborhoods. There's little time to warn residents and even less time to evacuate them.

In 10 minutes, the heart of Warwick is covered under a cloud of poison. And the cloud continues to grow. Ultimately, the breeze-borne gas spreads up to 25 miles from the plant, putting more than one million people at risk of death or serious injury.

The scenario is imaginary, but Jones Chemical, the chlorine and the potential hazard are real. So was the vulnerability of the plant:

In response to questions raised by a May 2 [2003] fire at Warwick's Jones Chemical plant – a fire that didn't involve any chemicals – company officials insisted the plant was safe and secure.

But on July 8, a Times Herald-Record reporter and photographer were able to walk within a stone's throw of several railroad cars used to store chemicals clearly marked as containing chlorine and sodium hydroxide.

The pair took notes and photographs in plain sight for more than 15 minutes – noting the lack of a perimeter fence and several wide-open warehouse doors – before being challenged by two workers who happened to spot the duo by sheer luck.

In response to the article, Jones Chemical hired outside security guards to patrol the gate 24 hours a day.

But last week, the Warwick police noticed that there was no longer a security officer manning the gate. After asking Jones what was going on, the company briefed the city.

There are no longer security guards posted at the entrance gate of the Jones Chemical plant, considered a potential terrorist target because it manufactures and packages chlorine and sulfur dioxide.

Citing financial constraints, company officials said they were slashing security patrols at the main gate. Instead, the company will have a Jones Chemical employee monitoring the plant and its grounds from within the compound, according to Mike Sweeton, Warwick town supervisor, who said company officials briefed him last week.

Company officials told Sweeton they would be locking the gate as an added precaution. The company also has several security cameras and fencing throughout the plant and its yard.

Dan L. Casney, vice president of security for Jones, said it would be irresponsible and a violation of company guidelines to disclose security details. However, Casney said in an e-mail, "I can assure you that security of the facility is a priority."

Whether removing guards at the gate weakens security at the plant is open to debate, Sweeton said. Company officials told the town it doesn't.

Still, Sweeton said yesterday, "I informed Jones that I thought this measure was a little short-sighted."

Perhaps just a little. Of course, one might also wonder whether it might be a good idea to figure out an alternative to storing 180,000 pounds of chlorine on the site.

Luckily, the town has just been awarded a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which will be used to purchase

cameras showing the plant's perimeter, which can be monitored 24 hours a day from the Warwick police station, adding lights to illuminate the perimeter, and buying all-terrain vehicles that would allow town emergency officials to get through the plant's grounds quickly.

As we have reported previously, (here, here and here) there are no federal regulations requiring chemical plants to provide security against terrorist attacks.

Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) introduced legislation (S. 157) shortly after 9/11, which was passed unanimously by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee committee. Corzine's bill would have required chemical plants to do a hazard assessment and consider the introduction of inherently safer technologies. The bill was later killed by Senate Republicans at the urging (and $4.3 million of lobbying) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), in addition to $4.3 million spent on lobbying. The Administration prefers chemical companies to comply with the voluntary guidelines issued by the ACC. Of course, Jones Chemical isn't a member of ACC.

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

OSHA has fined Moeves Plumbing $150,000 for trench safety violations.

So what's so special about that?

Moeves, you may recall, was the company highlighted in David Barstow's December 2003 New York Times series on OSHA's failure to file criminal charges against companies who willfully kill workers -- sometimes repeatedly.

Barstow tells the story of story of a young man, Patrick Walters, who was killed in an uprotected 10-foot deep trench in 2002, only a couple of weeks after OSHA had cited the same company -- Moeves Plumbing -- for sending workers into unprotected 15-foot deep trench. Barstow wrote of how OSHA refused to issue a willful citation despite proof that the hazards were well known to the company, and how the agency refused to refer this case to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation.



Moeves had already killed a worker, Clint Daley, in a trench in 1989 after three warnings (and small citations) from OSHA prior to that. Following Daley's death, company owner, Linda Moeves, had impressed OSHA with her promise to change, take safety courses and purchase proper equipment.

Now, despite nation-wide attention to the company's fatal negligence, Moeves still has not learned its lesson.

OSHA issued citations for three alleged willful violations and one serious violation of workplace health and safety standards involving trenching and excavation operations. During the inspection, OSHA found that employees working in a trench approximately nine feet deep, were exposed to cave-in hazards due to inadequate or missing safety equipment, the improper piling of excavated material which was too close to the open trench where it could have rolled or fallen back into the excavation, and inadequate safe means of entering or exiting the trench. A serious citation was issued alleging that trench shields available for use were damaged.

Moeves Plumbing has been the subject of 13 previous inspections, including five that resulted in citations for violations of OSHA's trenching standards. Two of the 13 inspections came as a result of employee fatalities due to trench cave-ins.

Happily, this inspection and citation came before Moeves killed yet another worker. But how long before another worker -- who really needs the work and hopes his luck will hold out -- dies due to the criminal negligence of this company? Why should they be allowed to continue in business? What shouldn't their business license be revoked? Why aren't the good citizens of Cincinnati descending upon Moeves with burning torches and pitchforks? Why aren't Ohio's Senators -- Mike DeWine (R) and George Voinovich (R) introducing legislation to raise penalties for companies that repeatedly violate OSHA standards?

Finally, what's the difference between Moeves Plumbing and a serial killer?

The Washington Post had an interesting -- and rather frightening article yesterday about the growing influence of the Chamber of Commerce.

Believe it or not, I really don't have anything inherently against the idea of business associations. When I was "between jobs" in my mid-twenties, I got temporary work at a place whose motto was "Let Us Be Your Man In Washington." That made sense to me. Important things happened in Washington and people or businesses outside of Washington find it difficult to keep track. So it makes sense for them to belong to associations or labor unions or other organizations that help people "outside the beltway" keep track of what's going on in Washington that may affect their business, and to try to educate legislators and bureaucrats about the interests of their constituents who may not have the time or money to schedule frequent visits with their legislators or meetings with regulatory agencies.

That's the theory.

The reality, however, is much different -- qualitatively and quantitatively.

The chamber is at the forefront of a quiet revolution in business lobbying. Corporate groups now raise big money to advance broad issues, largely to help the Republican president enact his fiscal agenda. That's a long step away from what trade associations traditionally did: concentrate on narrow concerns while shunning partisan spats.

***

The chamber eagerly deploys every weapon in the lobbying arsenal and can be counted on by the president to get things done. It has demonstrated its success repeatedly in the past four years on issues as disparate as loosening ergonomics standards and creating health-savings accounts.

Its lobbyists blanket Capitol Hill. Its Web sites and telemarketers stir up voters back home. It donates generously to political campaigns coffers, and it bankrolls multimillion-dollar ad campaigns for the politicians and policies it supports.

Few organizations can muster that much firepower, except perhaps the most prominent groups the chamber will go head-to-head against this year -- the trial lawyers' lobby on legal reform issues and AARP on Social Security private accounts.

***

Today, the chamber is solidly in the black, its $150 million annual budget triple what it was when Donohue took over. It also is staunchly Republican in most of its legislative positions and played a pivotal role in cutting the tax on dividends and approving free-trade pacts, among many other Bush priorities. Whenever the president or his people called, the chamber assembled coalitions of like-minded groups and contacted its 3 million member firms to step up political pressure and donate lobbying-related funds.

This year, it will lead the effort to pass the president's first significant initiative -- a bill to limit class-action lawsuits against big corporations.

Think it's always been that way? Check out this anecdote about how Chamber President Tom Donohue expanded the influence of the Chamber:

When he became the group's president in 1997, the chamber took in only about $600,000 from its largest corporate members. Last year, collections for that category, called the President's Advisory Group, totaled $90 million.

Not only do they have more money, but they're far more Republican than they used to be. A 2003 Washington Montly article by Nicholas Confessore describes the purpose of meetings organized by right-wing Republican Senator Rick Santorum (PA):

The chief purpose of these gatherings is to discuss jobs--specifically, the top one or two positions at the biggest and most important industry trade associations and corporate offices centered around Washington's K Street, a canyon of nondescript office buildings a few blocks north of the White House that is to influence-peddling what Wall Street is to finance. In the past, those people were about as likely to be Democrats as Republicans, a practice that ensured K Street firms would have clout no matter which party was in power. But beginning with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, and accelerating in 2001, when George W. Bush became president, the GOP has made a determined effort to undermine the bipartisan complexion of K Street. And Santorum's Tuesday meetings are a crucial part of that effort. Every week, the lobbyists present pass around a list of the jobs available and discuss whom to support. Santorum's responsibility is to make sure each one is filled by a loyal Republican--a senator's chief of staff, for instance, or a top White House aide, or another lobbyist whose reliability has been demonstrated. After Santorum settles on a candidate, the lobbyists present make sure it is known whom the Republican leadership favors. "The underlying theme was [to] place Republicans in key positions on K Street. Everybody taking part was a Republican and understood that that was the purpose of what we were doing," says Rod Chandler, a retired congressman and lobbyist who has participated in the Santorum meetings. "It's been a very successful effort."

The problem with the Chamber -- and other similar associations like the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) -- is not just their unbridled wealth and influence, it's the fact that they're fundamentally dishonest and ultimately betray the intentions of their members.

Take one of my favorite subjects, ergonomics. During the ergonomics battles of the late 1990's, when I worked at OSHA, it was not unusual for us to talk to the health and safety directors of companies who would tell us that although they had a few problems with the proposed (or final) ergonomics standard, it basically didn't require anything significant they weren't doing already. In fact, many had gone far beyond what OSHA had proposed and were saving gobs of money. But then we'd get a fax from their CEO complaining that their was no science behind ergonomics and that the OSHA standard was going to drive them out of business. As a matter of fact, we typically got hundreds of the exact same fax -- copied from the example that NAM or NFIB or the Chamber sent to their members warning them that the sky was falling.

During the hearings, we got disappointingly little candid testimony from individual business, most of them preferring to depend on the far more ideologically focused testimony of the associations they belonged to. This was disappointing -- and ultimately self destructive -- because we were really trying to understand what worked, what didn't work and how to word the regulation so that companies that were doing a good job would be in compliance with relatively little effort beyond what they would have been doing anyway.

When the standard came out, the business association made sure that all of their members knew that OSHA had issued a 600 page regulation. And how was anyone -- especially any small businessman -- supposed to even read it all, much less comply with it? In fact, why even bother trying to read or understand it when you're paying dues to an association that will read and analyze it for you?

So, of course, few people even tried to read it. If they had, they would have realized that it was actually only 8 pages long and written in plain English. CEO's might even have asked their health and safety people what they thought about it, rather than relying on the lies from the associations.

Lies? Like that OSHA would prohibit the lifting of anything weighing over 15 pounds (no such thing), like they were one-size-fits-all regulations (when actually they said, once you find you have a problem, you figure out what to do about it) that it would take "thousands of hours to understanding and complying with government-prescribed rules, and that "State workers' compensation programs and the OSHA general duty clause already address workplace injuries, including ergonomic injuries."

And how were their members to know that they were being sold a bunch of lies for their hard-earned dues that should have gone toward creating jobs for women and minorities.

But that was then. What about now? Now that we've discussed their lies, let's talk about greed.

I've written recently about Republican attempts to push "tort reform" through Congress -- basically taking away peoples' right to sue for significant damages when a company's defective drug or product kills or injures -- while they also weaken regulatory enforcement at the same time.

Last Thursday, the Senate took the first step in passing a tort-reform bill when "Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation that would shift most class-action lawsuits from state courts to federal courts." The idea is that federal courts are more reluctant to take class action suits -- such as those for people sickened or killed by asbestos -- than state courts. You can read the details here (and while you're at it, can anyone out there explain to me why Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (NY), Diane Feinstein (CA) and Herb Kohl (WI) are supporting this piece of rubbish?)

But I digress. Back to the Chamber's greed. Aside from the fact that the bill, in the words of Senator Pat Leahy (D-NH)"would make it harder for American citizens to protect themselves against violations of state civil rights, consumer, health and environmental protection laws," there's one other "small" flaw.

One major problem, according to critics of the legislation, is that the measure creates a Catch-22 situation in which, once a case is removed from a state court, a federal court might not be able to hear it. The Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that a court cannot approve, or certify, a class action of nationwide proportions when there are "material" differences in state laws. Since then, some state courts have continued to certify such cases when the differences in the state laws are relatively inconsequential, although federal courts have not.

Thus the fear among the critics is that if the legislation were adopted without changes, a significant group of cases could not be brought in either federal or state courts.

OK, that's a problem, but not an insurmountable one. To prevent this bill from eliminating, rather than just restricting class action suits, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced an amendment that would fix the problem by permitting federal courts to entertain such claims by giving federal judges the discretion to select a state law to apply. Makes so much sense that even Republican Senate Judiciary chair Arlen Specter (PA) supports it.

But not the Chamber and their buddy Senate Majority Leader Bill First (TN). Why be satisfied with a simple victory when they can take the whole cake? Why be satisfied with limiting class action suits, when you can get rid of them altogether? Why be satisfied with a piece of cake, when you can take the whole thing?

After the hearing, Stanton Anderson, a lawyer for the Chamber of Commerce, said the Bingaman amendment would "gut the bill."

And Dr. Frist said later that he hoped the Senate would pass the bill without amendments.

"If we can succeed in passing a clean bill through the Senate, it is my expectation that the House will act quickly and we can send a bill to the president," Dr. Frist said.

So what we're left with, instead of associations that represent the interests of its members in Washington and providing them with accurate and useful information, are a bunch of anti-union, anti-government ideological lobbying firms that increasingly provide the Republican party's funding and political muscle while also dictating much of the party's policy -- especially when it comes to labor and environmental issues. Are policy presriptions that are based on lies, distortions, greed and ideology really what their members signed up for? How many of their members realize today that the ergonomics standard was only 8 pages long and probably could have saved them a significant amount of money? How many of them realize that the current battle against "frivolous lawsuits" isn't really going to help the bottom lines of any but the worst among them (along with the real goal: weakening the funding base of the Democratic party?)

Update: More on this issue from Tapped.

Labels: Ergonomics

What is most alarming at the slaughterhouse is not what happens to the animals - they have already met their fate. It is what happens to the humans who work there.

The New York Times editorial writers have apparently been reading reports of the Human Rights Watch and the Government Accountability Office about the hazardous conditions under which meatpacking employees work. Following on the pattern set by the excellent workplace safety investigations or NY Times reporter David Barstow, the Times shows an all-too-rare sensitivity to the conditions facing too many American workers:

A large slaughterhouse is the truly industrial end of industrial farming. It is a factory for disassembly. Its high line speeds place enormous pressure on the workers hired to take apart the carcasses coming down the line. And because the basic job of the line is cutting flesh - hard, manual labor - the dangers are very high for meat workers, whose flesh is every bit as vulnerable as that of the pork or beef or chicken passing by.

The problem of worker safety is compounded by the fact that meatpackers, driven by the brutal economics of the industry, always try to hire the cheapest labor they can find. That increasingly means immigrants whose language difficulties compound the risks of the job. The result, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, is "extraordinarily high rates of injury" in conditions that systematically violate human rights.

In fact, the report finds, some major players in the American meat industry prey upon a large population of immigrant workers who are either ignorant of their fundamental rights or are undocumented aliens who are afraid of calling attention to themselves. As a result, those workers often receive little or no compensation for injuries, and any attempt to organize is met with hostility.

The industry has little incentive to improve conditions on its own, except a decent regard for human rights. The only reasonable prospect of improvement depends on the enforcement of federal and state law. Unfortunately, those laws at present are too weak and too riddled with loopholes to provide the regulations needed to increase worker safety and improve workers' rights. A systematic regulatory look at the meat industry, with an eye to toughening standards, is desperately needed.

In recent years, Americans have had the habit of thinking of wide-scale workplace abuses as foreign affairs - the kind of thing that turns up in Southeast Asia, for instance. And, in a sense, the abuses found in American slaughterhouses are international matters, because so many of the workers are actually citizens of other countries. But in this case, the abuses are taking place right at home, and as part of our food chain. In a carb-conscious era, the meat processing industry should be a place of opportunity for workers who put all that protein on your plate. Right now, that is hardly the case.

One would hope that responsible members of Congress and the Bush administration -- who are allegedly so concerned with "the sanctity of life -- would reach the same conclusions from these reports.

Tomorrow we'll see what the Administration proposes to do with OSHA's budget. I'm not optimistic. After all, we may think unkindly of those who would exploit -- and even cause the death of vulnerable workers, but the President call them "my base."

David M. Prengel 46-year-old U.S. Steel employee was killed last Thursday "at the company's Granite City, Illinois plant when a slow-moving cargo train crushed him against the wall of a loading dock."

Prengel was aboard a cargo train headed for a loading area when he disembarked to activate signals alerting other workers of the train's approach, police said. The train struck him as he crossed the track and dragged him about 70 feet against a concrete wall, a witness told union investigators. A gap of only inches separated the train from the wall, authorities said.

Prengel was at least the third fourth steelworker to be killed on the job in as many weeks. Longtime Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. employee Kenneth Cesaro was killed January 17 at the company's North Plant, Ohio facility after being hit by a train in the rail yard.

And I wrote last week about the death of Velma Burnette, 47, of Lorain, Ohio, a steelworker at Republic Engineered Products Inc., who was killed January 26 after being trapped by a load of steel.

[UPDATE: Allegheny Ludlum Steel employee John Novick, 50, was killed early Saturday morning was pinned between two rail cars]

Following Burnette's death, I wrote about some of the possible causes of the recent rash of steel deaths:

Observers cite a number of factors. The steel companies and the United Steelworkers have signed new contracts recently giving the companies more flexibility to move workers around to different jobs where they may have less experience. Meanwhile, many experienced workers took advantage of early retirement offers at the same time the demand for steel has been increasing.

"With the turnover in the steel industry, there are a lot of people doing jobs they have never done before," says Mike Wright, director of safety and health for the steelworkers union.

Those less-experienced workers arrived just as steel demand picked up, prompting steelmakers to ramp up production quickly. U.S. steel production rose 7% in 2004 to 104 million tons, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Economists say higher production means more hours worked and more chances for accidents and fatalities.

Although Prengel was an experienced switchman, other accidents at the facility seem to fit this pattern frighteningly well:

The accident was the second in eight days at the plant and came amid workers' concerns over safety issues. Employees represented by United Steelworkers of America locals 1899 and 68 have been picketing company offices in Granite City on and off since November, citing concerns over workplace training, safety and seniority.

On Jan. 26, an employee was badly injured when a 20-ton truck that moves steel coils backed over the motor scooter he was driving. The man suffered skull fractures and five fractures of the pelvis, among other injuries, according to Local 1899 President Russ Saltsgaver. The worker was driving the scooter in a restricted area at the request of a supervisor, while the operator of the coil truck was inexperienced with the vehicle and is actually a crane operator, Saltsgaver said.

"There's a lot of cross-training and people being asked to do several different jobs," he said.

John Armstrong, a spokesman for U.S. Steel, said on Friday that both drivers in the accident Jan. 26 had been trained to operate their respective machines.

Saltsgaver said union employees are concerned about workplace safety issues arising out of a new contract negotiated when U.S. Steel purchased the plant from National Steel in 2003. That contract, he said, requires workers to perform duties with inadequate training.

"We need the company to start making sure that people are afforded safe work procedures and that they're properly trained and not asked to do stuff they're not familiar with," he said. Under the new contract, some employees are "now expected to do six or seven jobs instead of one," he added.

A union health and safety rep at the facility tells me that :

It is accurate that there is great concern with safety in Basic Steel today with the new contracts that went into place in 2003. The new work rules have combined 24 job classifications down to 5 which gives the companies a great amount of flexibility in job assignments. For example crane operators are now in a job classification or "Box" with 14 other jobs or functions where before they were in a line of promotion by themselves.

Although this fatality was not connected to the new work rules the other accident with the scooter and 20 ton coil truck was a direct result of the new rules and flexibility. ...This is why for the last 10 weeks we have been holding informational picketing in front of US Steel's Granite City Plant's offices with our expressing our concern about safety and job training. This is the 6th death in Basic Steel since the new contracts have been signed I fear these will not be the last.

The industry needs to recognize what the Union already knows that there is serious problems with combining so many jobs in this kind of hazardous industry. Going forward slowly is better than proceeding with reckless speed. The results so far has been disastrous.

Industry has long complained that unions are too inflexible about work assignments. But showing flexibility, as the Steelworkers have done seems to be a life-threatening proposition for many employees.

So what needs to be done to address this structural change in the industry? The union safety rep at the facility tells me that the union is demanding much more in-depth training. Instead, the companies are going forward with breakneck speed to reduce the man hours per net tons of steel produced -- with fatal results.

The Steelworkers' webpage states that:

The union's ultimate objective must be to give workers increased control over their own working conditions and the hazards they face every day. The right-to-know about workplace hazards is meaningless without the power-to-act in defense of health and safety and to refuse unsafe work without fear of repercussions from management.

The industry and OSHA, on the other hand, don't seem to want the union involved, if an industry alliance between OSHA and the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Steel Manufacturers Association and the Specialty Steel Industry of North America formed last summer is any evidence. As USWA president Leo Gerard said:

"OSHA and the industry both need help," Gerard said, "but they're not going to find it from each other. The trade associations have opposed every OSHA standard that applies to the steel industry. So far as we know, they have no full-time professional safety staff. And OSHA's only recent activity in the industry was to propose a weakening of the Coke Oven Standard."

"Meanwhile, many steel companies have made deep cuts in their own safety and health staff," Gerard said. "At this point, most large steel plants have more full-time union safety representatives than management safety personnel. And the union has a bigger headquarters safety and health staff than most or all steel companies."

Compassionate conservatism is back. You gotta love this guy:

To make our economy stronger and more competitive, America must reward, not punish, the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs. Small business is the path of advancement, especially for women and minorities, so we must free small businesses from needless regulation and protect honest job creators from junk lawsuits. Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims.

Especially this small business:

The Halliburton Company settled legal claims with about 120 families of asbestos victims in the Pacific Northwest this week, agreeing to pay out $30 million and to create a fund for future victims of the deadly fiber.

The local settlement was part of a $4.3 billion national settlement involving about 250,000 plaintiffs who had sued the company in connection with exposure to asbestos products distributed by Halliburton subsidiaries.

OK, so he's just concerned about women and minorities -- who have never needed no stinkin' regulations or laws to protect their rights.

The only good thing about Bush's SOTU (that's State of the Union, for all of you who want to be cool) is that it has educated bloggers who really hadn't talked about workplace safety and health issues before.

Like Corrente and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

And the never disappointing Revere at Effect Measure gets justifiably emotional:

No one knows how many asbestos claims are truly "frivolous" (as opposed to all the genuinely important business cases that make up 90% of the civil litigation in this country). But the last time (1979) anyone tried to estimate the percent of actual lost wages and household services recovered by asbestos victims (not including cost of medical care or pain and suffering) who died and sued for an asbestos-related claim, it was about 80%. So of the special set of claimants who died of their disease they weren't even getting compensated for their out of pocket non-medical expenses. Forget pain and suffering (which Bush seems happy to do).

Since then, a minimum of 43,000 more people have died of asbestos-related disease. Those are just the ones that have asbestosis or mesothelioma on their death certificates. The estimate of how many have really died from asbestos exposure at the hands of employers and/or manufacturers who knew of the hazards and didn't tell them, is around 230,000 since 1979. If you ever have seen someone who is a "pulmonary cripple" from asbestos exposure, who can't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom they are so short of breath, or who dies an extremely painful death from mesothelioma, you will never couple the word "frivolous" with asbestos.

If I sound pissed off, I am. Very.

Amen

Labels: Asbestos

When I was at AFSCME, workplace violence was one of the major issues we dealt with in the health and safety program and one of our major areas of focus was preventing assaults against correctional officers. We even tried to get OSHA to do something about assaults in prisons. Some thought that was kind of dumb; of course correctional officers were vulnerable to assaults -- that was their job after all.

But in addition to running the health and safety program, I was also staff liaison to our correctional affiliates. The dual reponsibilities landed me in quite a few investigations and negotiations over hazardous conditions in prisons. And lo and behold, it turned out that there were a number of ways to make prisons more safe for officers, as well as prisoners. And, unfortunately, there were a number of way to make these institutions much more dangerous than they needed to be. -- sometimes much more dangerous.

Los Angeles County's largest jail is so outdated, understaffed and riddled with security flaws that it jeopardizes the lives of guards and inmates, the county's expert on the jail system concluded in a confidential report recommending that the facility be closed.

Special counsel Merrick Bobb sharply criticized Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles for failing to prevent dangerous inmates from being housed with lower-risk inmates and said the cellblocks' design ensured that any response to an inmate takeover would be extraordinarily bloody.

The 6,338-bed jail, the largest in the country, "is nightmarish to manage" and suffers from "lax supervision and a long-standing jail culture that has shortchanged accountability for inmate safety and security," Bobb said.The Board of Supervisors ordered the report, obtained by The Times, after inmates killed five fellow inmates in county jails between October 2003 and April 2004.

Four of the slayings occurred at Men's Central, one of six jails — housing 18,495 inmates total — that the county operates.

One of the main problems is staffing. The facility has "one of the worst staff-to-inmate ratios in the country. The jail has one staff member for about every 10 inmates, while the national average is one for every 4.3 inmates." The report recommended that the staff ratio be increased to one guard for every four, or at most five, inmates. The facility also houses highly dangerous inmates with lower risk inmates.

But the problems are more basic, which is why the report recommends shutting the place down and building smaller facilities:

Many of the jail's problems stem from its design. Built in two phases during the 1960s and '70s, cells are arranged in long corridors and can only be watched if deputies walk the corridors to peer inside each cell.

More modern jails, like Twin Towers across the street, are built with cells around a control booth that allows deputies to monitor each cell from the booth.

An enormous concrete building, Men's Central is a labyrinth of corridors, rows of cells and metal gates — a maze that only veteran inmates and deputies can easily negotiate. Garbage bags and sheets hang from cell doors, obstructing the view. Shouts, curses and clanging doors echo through the facility, which is penetrated here and there by a few shafts of sunlight.

The jail houses many defendants — including the county's most violent inmates — awaiting resolution of their cases. Currently, 596 are charged with murder or attempted murder.

"This is a one-of-a-kind jail in terms of size and the number of people moving back and forward from court," said Michael Gennaco, head of the county Office of Independent Review, which also monitors the Sheriff's Department for the Board of Supervisors. "It is phenomenal there hasn't been another murder there."

Prisons are one of the many public employee workplaces where you couldn't pay me enough money to work. Yet our society demands that publlic employees do the job -- and they don't exactly make the big bucks to do it.
The County Board of Supervisors say there's no money to demolish the facility and build a new one.

After all, they're just prisoners -- and just "guards."

Labels: Public Employees, Workplace Violence

Our fearless leader told America last night that "our economy is held back by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims."

Frivolous asbestos claims? Gosh. Who knew? Glad he's doing something about it. I mean, it's not really such a big deal anymore, is it?

According to study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:

Deaths from asbestos exposure have surged in the United States and are set to keep rising in the next decade as more workers succumb to the lung disease caused by the industrial mineral, federal health experts warned on Thursday.

The number of Americans who died of asbestosis, which is caused by inhalation of asbestos particles, jumped to 1,493 in 2000 from 77 in 1968, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I find that hard to believe. Are you sure?

"Ten thousand Americans die each year -- a rate approaching 30 deaths per day -- from diseases caused by asbestos," according to a report issued today by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund." The report finds that over 100,000 people will die of asbestos-related disease over the next decade.

And can you believe all those people taking advantage of those poor companies?

"You know what I want? I want my husband back," Cheryl Blevins said. "I just want us to grow old and enjoy our grandkids. I want him back the way he was before he got sick. But I don't see that happening."

Meanwhile, away from the court rooms and the halls of Congress, a school maintenance worker in Texas is paying the ultimate price of the industry's criminal negligence:

The telltale white patches covered his left lung.

As Randall Blevins was recovering from surgery, doctors told his wife that the patches indicated exposure to significant amounts of asbestos. Presumably, they said, the right lung was the same.

Well, at least no one else is getting exposed any more, right?

Witnesses testified that Alex Salvagno's company, AAR Contractor of Latham, profited by forcing its workers to clean up asbestos as quickly as possible, by using illegal methods that jeopardized the health of employees and, in many cases, left deadly fibers behind. Their shoddy work went undetected because Salvagno secretly co-owned a firm, Analytical Laboratories of Albany, which was supposed to be testing the job sites.The prosecution argued successfully that AAR's practices had jeopardized the health of workers who were ordered to rip out the insulating material from ceilings, boiler rooms and around pipes without first wetting it, as law required.

That sent clouds of the dangerous material floating into the air. In addition, workers testified they were discouraged from wearing respiratory equipment by Raul Salvagno, who supervised AAR's work crews.

Dr. Stephen Levin, an associate professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, testified in October that an estimated 100 employees who worked for more than four years for AAR will almost certainly get sick and die.

Maybe Laura should have sat next to someone dying of mesothelioma.

Frivolous asbestos claims?

What a jerk.

Labels: Asbestos

I tried to watch it. Really. But as soon as he entered the room, I lapsed into semi-consciousness. I awoke at one point to some booing (Rude bastards those Dems) and then every few minutes. This is what I heard. I think. Yes,this was the exact text. Although I'm not sure if I got it all in the right order:

My fellow Americans

We've been placed in office by the votes of the people we serve.

As Franklin Roosevelt once reminded Americans, 'Each age is a dream that is dying or one that is coming to birth.'

To make our economy stronger and more competitive, America must reward, not punish, the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs.

And we live in the country where the biggest dreams are born.

So we must free small businesses from needless regulation and protect honest job creators from junk lawsuits.

Justice is distorted and our economy is held back by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims.

The abolition of slavery was only a dream. Our generation has dreams of its own.

We've been placed in office by the votes of the people we serve.

(APPLAUSE)

Nearly four years ago, I submitted a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, alternative sources, a modernized electricity grid and more production here at home, including safe, clean nuclear energy.

My Clear Skies legislation will cut power-plant pollution and improve the health of our citizens.

The system, however, on its current path, is headed toward bankruptcy.

We've been placed in office by the votes of the people we serve.

(APPLAUSE)

I recognize that 2018 and 2042 may seem a long way off. But those dates aren't so distant, as any parent will tell you. If you have a 5-year-old, you're already concerned about how you'll pay for college tuition 13 years down the road.

Taking on gang life will be one part of a broader outreach to at- risk youth, which involves parents and pastors, coaches and community leaders, in programs ranging from literacy to sports.

Tonight I propose a three-year initiative to help organizations keep young people out of gangs and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence.

My budget substantially reduces or eliminates more than 150 government programs that are not getting results or duplicate current efforts or do not fulfill essential priorities.

And I am proud that the leader of this nationwide effort will be our first lady, Laura Bush.

(AUDIENCE BOOS)

For the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

Medical research can help us reach that goal, by developing treatments and cures that save lives and help people overcome disabilities.

(APPLAUSE)

Our second great responsibility to our children and grandchildren is to honor and to pass along the values that sustain a free society.

We should all be able to agree on some clear standards. I will work with Congress to ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation or grown for body parts and that human life is never bought or sold as a commodity.

(APPLAUSE)

Some of our service men and women have survived terrible injuries, and this grateful country will do everything we can to help them recover.

And so we must join together to strengthen and save Social Security.

Because a society is measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable, we must strive to build a culture of life.

One name we honor is Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood of Pflugerville, Texas, who was killed during the assault on Fallujah.

We have given them training and equipment.

The principle here is clear: Taxpayer dollars must be spent wisely or not at all.

We've been placed in office by the votes of the people we serve.

Thank you. And may God bless America.

(AUDIENCE BOOS)

Or something like that...

Labels: Asbestos

It's not nice and it's not fair, but the fact is that here at the beginning of the 21st century, public employees are still second class citizens in the United States of America. They don't have the right to bargain collectively that all private sector workers have, unless the state grants them those rights. About half the states do not give public employee full collective bargaining rights, and two states that just elected Rebublican governors -- Missouri and Indiana -- just took away public employees' collective bargaining rights.

But public employees' second class status is more than just a matter of dignity and bargaining rights -- it's also a matter of life and death. Because in over half the states in this country, public employees don't even have the right to a safe workplace. Even though they do work as dangerous as private sector employees they aren't covered by federally approved OSHA programs in 26 states. Those "backwards" Southern and red states, you say? Partially true, but also some good, "liberal" blue states as well -- like Illinois, Pennsylvania and...."ultra-liberal" Massachusetts, for example.

The death last week of Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA the "T") signal engineer Obioma Nna, 46, who was hit by a train, once again raises the issue of public employee safety in Massachusetts. MassCOSH Executive Director Marcy Goldstein-Gelb is making sure that Nna did not die in vain.

The Boston Globe published her letter yesterday:

T workers deserve equal protection

February 1, 2005

THERE PROBABLY isn't a person who takes the T or commuter rail to work who hasn't grumbled about delays these last few days. But the tragic death of the T worker on the Orange Line on Jan. 27 makes us stop and think about those who work to keep the system going. Many of these individuals work in dangerous jobs.

In Massachusetts, these and other public sector employees currently don't have the safety protections offered to workers in the private sector under the national Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). In many cases, these safety protections can be the difference between life and death.

We owe these workers our thanks for getting us home at night. But more than that we owe them the same protections given to those of us who work in the private sector.

MARCY GOLDSTEIN-GELB
Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health

There's a rumor that Massachusetts unions and sympathetic legislators are mounting a campaign to get OSHA coverage for Massachusetts public employees. If it's true, let's wish them luck -- and give them the support that they need.

Labels: Public Employees

Check out the Weekly Toll that Tammy Miser assembles for Confined Space every couple of weeks. Every list includes numbers of fatalities that resulted from workplace violence, most of them retail workers. (And I'm sure we're missing quite a few.) Well, instead of just saying "too bad," the state of New Mexico is doing something about it.

The New Mexico state Environmental Improvement Board, which issues occupational safety and health standards, has issued a regulation that requires convenience stores open between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. either to have two workers on duty, or one clerk and a security guard, or to install bulletproof glass or other safety features to limit access to store employees. The Board held a number of statewide town-hall style hearings last Fall to discuss the regulation.

Certain parts of the regulation went into effect last Spring: requirements for safety cameras, panic alarms and adequate lighting, and making sure that clerks have a clear line of sight outside the stores. They also require either time-lock safes or some sort of money-drop and limit cash in the register to $50. Employees must also receive crime prevention and safety training by the employer or a "knowledgable representative" in a language that is understood by the employee.

Sgt. James Schoeffel, public information officer for the Clovis Police Department and former detective for five years, thinks the new regulations will probably deter some robberies.

"I think that it may make some people think twice, but there’s nothing that is a 100-percent sure thing," he said.

Having two employees during the late shift could also aid in solving robberies, Schoeffel said.

"Two sets of eyes are also helpful for the potential of catching the subject. If we get two descriptions, we have more information to work with," he said.

Workplace violence is a familiar subject of Confined Space. Workplace assaults were the third leading cause of death in the workplace in 2003 and had been the second leading cause throughout most of the 1990's. It is the leading cause of death among immigrant workers in this country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that workplace violence --including assaults and suicides-- accounted for 16% of all work-related fatal occupational injuries in 2003. Homicides have consistently been one of thethe top three causes of workplace fatalities. The number of workplace homicides was higher in 2003 -- the first increase since 2000 -- although the 631 workplace homicides recorded in 2003 represented a 42 percent decline from the high of 1,080 workplace homicides recorded in 1994.

Contrary to the myth that nothing can be done to prevent workplace violence, OSHA has issued guidelines to prevent workplace violence against health care and social service workers as well as late night retail workers. The OSHA website also has an extensive list of workplace violence resources.

The state of Washington enforces that "Late Night Retail Workers Crime Protection Act" which requires annual crime prevention training, drop-safes or limited access safes, and outside lighting.

Although federal OSHA had cited some nursing homes and other facilities for workplace violence hazards in the 1990's, the agency has not cited in this area in a number of years. The American Public Health Association recently called on federal OSHA to "promulgate an enforceable standard on occupational violence prevention."

Labels: Weekly Toll, Workplace Violence

The Washington Post's regulatory columnist, Cindy Skrzycki, writes today about the discovery that at least three OSHA inspectors may have tested positive for blood abnormalities that indicate they could be susceptible to chronic beryllium disease, as well as the saga of OSHA whistleblower Adam Finkel who single-handedly forced the agency to conduct the testing. Nothing too new since I wrote about the case earlier this month except that Skrzycki did score an interview with acting OSHA Director Jonathan Snare, who shockingly disclosed to Skrzycki that

it would be premature to comment on whether anyone tested positive because the agency has not completed the testing of 301 inspectors.

Skrzycki also discusses OSHA's half-hearted effort to revise the beryllium standard:

Instead of lowering the beryllium standard, OSHA has issued periodic hazard information bulletins saying the standard may not be adequate.

Public Citizen and a labor union petitioned the agency in 2001, asking that the federal standard be lowered to 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air and that surveillance of workers be required. In late 2002, OSHA issued a "request for information," which is a preliminary step to rulemaking.

Snare said last week that the agency does not yet have a proposal but is querying the small-business community on the likely effects of changing the standard.

Well, isn't that comforting, especially since, as Skrzycki reports:

The beryllium industry and some of its users maintain that working with the substance is safe when proper precautions are taken. Brush Wellman Inc., a large producer, has supported extensive research on the effects of beryllium and does not think there is a definitive link to cancer or that it should be listed as a carcinogen.

It also thinks that inspectors don't need a special testing program and that the test being used is inappropriate for screening. "Brush Wellman has had employees diagnosed with sub-clinical chronic beryllium disease who run marathons and climb mountains," the company said in an e-mail.

Does that mean if I contract sub-clinical chronic beryllium disease I'll be able to run marathons and climb mountains?

The recent Human Rights Watch report about hazardous working conditions in this country’s meatpacking plants seems to have puzzled some North Carolinians. North Carolina is home of the Smithfield's plant in Bladen County, one of the plants covered in the report.

State Department of Labor officials said that all six of pork giant Smithfield Foods' North Carolina meatpacking plants have generated only 19 worker safety complaints and three accident reports in the last two decades.

The Republican Labor Commissioner seemed totally clueless:

State Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry declined Wednesday to comment on the report. She said she had not seen it and didn't know where to find it. She said she knew nothing about Human Rights Watch.

It's right here, Cherie.

The state OSHA director seems a little more aware of real life: "If there are accidents, I wonder if they are just not calling," said Allen McNeely, director of the Labor Department's Division of Occupational Safety and Health. "Knowing what I know about employees, sometimes they don't feel like they can call us without some kind of retaliation."

McNeely also noted that the state OSHA is hardly in a position to know everything that goes on in a meatpacking plant: The Labor Department also does random inspections of plants but has a shortage of workers. McNeely said he has about 110 inspectors to handle 230,000 North Carolina workplaces. Since 1987, the department has done five random inspections of Smithfield's plants.

Lance Compa, a Cornell University professor who wrote the Human Rights Watch report, said Wednesday that he interviewed about 50 workers at three meatpacking plants: the Tar Heel [NC] pork plant, a poultry plant in Arkansas and a beef plant in Nebraska. He said nearly every worker had evidence of being injured at work.

He said employees told him serious accidents happen weekly.

***

Compa, who studies labor relations and is a former union organizer, said worker safety programs across the country are underfunded and understaffed. Even when officials cite companies for violations, Compa said, they often don't have the authority to punish them seriously.

In his report, Compa cites the N.C. Labor Department's handling of the 2003 Tar Heel death as evidence that worker safety laws lack teeth. The worker died after being overcome by fumes inside a giant chemical holding tank.

The Department of Labor found that the man was a new employee who had not been properly trained or supervised while working with dangerous chemicals. Smithfield paid $4,323 in fines, according to a report the state submitted to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

McNeely said the state imposed all the fines that state and federal regulations allow.

I'm not quite sure what they were thinking over at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)when they concluded that an Northwest Airline worker, Denise Bogucki, was to blame for her own death when she was crushed against the nose of a plane in September 2003.

According to the NTSB, the accident occurred because "Bogucki made a "decision to use improper equipment" to push back an airplane from the gate."

The report states there were two pushback tugs and two tow bars to choose from and that Bogucki used a tow bar that was too short for the tug she was driving. A tow bar is a long, straight bar that connects the tug to the airplane’s front-wheel assembly.

***

The accident occurred on the evening of Sept. 12, 2003, when Bogucki had connected one end of a tow bar to the airplane and was driving the tug slowly toward the other end, trying to attach it to the tug.

The NTSB report states that the tow bar buckled and the tug struck the nose of the plane. Bogucki, who was riding in the open-air cab of the moving tug, was pinned between the tug and the plane.

Why this "improper decision" was made, the report doesn't say. One thing is certain. Bogucki, 43 and the mother of two grown sons, was no novice. She had worked for Northwest for 13 years.

Unfortunately, the NTSB, unlike its sister agency, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, does not always look for the "root causes" of such incidents. But by focusing more on the immediate cause, the agency fails to identify to underlying causes which, if addressed, can prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

Again, I don't know what the NTSB was thinking, but we do know what the union, Virginia OSHA and Northwest Airlines were thinking.

The union contends she was using the only equipment Northwest provided to do the job. Union officials say Northwest had just one pushback tug, and that only one of the two tow bars would fit the DC-9 plane at the gate.

"She had no choice to make," said Bob Bennek , safety and health director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Transport District 143. He added that even if the other tow bar did fit the plane, it was shorter than the one Bogucki used....

"This is the worst publication I’ve ever seen the NTSB put out," Bennek said. "They’re misstating the facts… I don’t get it. It very much upsets me."

***

Bogucki was trying to do a job alone that many in the industry say takes two to do safely.

Before she died, Northwest workers had complained that staffing cutbacks were jeopardizing safety. Staffing was not mentioned in the federal report.

Virginia OSHA probably didn't think much of the NTSB's conclusion either:

The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Northwest $6,300 for a "serious" violation of workplace safety laws. The maximum penalty for that violation was $7,000.

State safety officials wrote that Northwest failed to provide a work environment that was “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” They also stated that employees “were exposed to crushing hazards while conducting aircraft pushback operations.”

Northwest Airlines, which is contesting the OSHA penalty, made no statement about the NTSB report. But actions speak louder than words:

Shortly after the accident, Northwest began requiring two people for pushbacks. The airline also replaced the open-air tug at Norfolk with a vehicle with an enclosed driver’s cab that offers more protection.

Machinists leader Bennek said

he had hoped the NTSB findings would be strong enough to spur an industry-wide movement for eliminating open-air tugs and standardizing the length of tow bars.

"We were hoping to have a detailed finding to help the whole industry prevent this from ever happening again," he said.

That would have been nice.

Labels: Airport Ground Crew Hazards, Chemical Safety Board, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)