Every disaster has a silver lining. OSHA has even found a silver lining in Katrina: a convenient excuse for being a bit tardy in handing in its final hexavalent chromium standard to the Office of Management and Budget so that it can be reviewed and finalized before the court-ordered deadline -- January 18, 2006 -- about a month and a half from now. OSHA was supposed to submit the standard to OMB by September 15 in order to allow 90 days for review.

OSHA is blaming its tardiness on Hurricane Katrina. According to Inside OSHA, OSHA told OMB that its "progress on the rule was impacted by the activation of the Federal Government's National Response Plan after Hurricane Katrina."

Maybe. But it seems rather curious considering it's mainly inspectors down on the Gulf Coast, not the toxicologists and regulatory experts working on the standard.

OSHA had orgininally promised to issue a rule in 1997 after a lawsuit brought by Public Citizen. At that time, OSHA told the court it expected to produce a proposed rule by 1999, but by 2003 no progress had been made because OSHA said it had "other rulemaking priorities."

Considering that the agency's rulemaking has basically ground to a halt with the exception of this court-ordered standard, clearly the agency can't blame "other rulemaking priorities." I guess Katrina was the best thing they had at hand.

Of course, the court may not be convinced. Someone on OSHA's standards office wore a prison outfit to the agency's Halloween party -- perhaps as a reminder to Acting Assistant Secretary Snare that it's not nice to mess with federal court deadlines?

In Arizona, "A person commits negligent homicide if with criminal negligence such person causes the death of another person." "Criminal negligence" is defined as “gross negligence so extreme that it is punishable as a crime,” "aggravated assault" is committed if a person causes serious physical injury to another and “endangerment” is defined as “recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical
injury."

Knowing these definitions, can anyone tell me why an employer who sends a worker to his death in an unmonitored confined space or an unprotected 12 foot deep trench shouldn't be prosecuted under any of the above felonies -- as opposed to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, where the maximum penalty for willfully killing a worker is a misdemeanor with a maximum of six months in jail?

Well, just prosecuting under the OSHAct certainly didn't make sense to the Arizona Attorney General's office. Prosecutors Christina Fitzpatrick and Mark Horlings last month convinced a jury to find the Far West Water and Sewer Company guilty on five of the six felony charges filed against it.

The jury....convicted the water and sewer company of negligent homicide, aggravated assault, violating a safety standard causing the death of an employee and two counts of endangerment in the deaths of James Gamble, 26, and Gary Lanser, 62, who were overcome by toxic sewage gases while working on an underground sewer tank on Oct. 24, 2001, in Mesa Del Sol.

***

Far West had been charged with two counts of manslaughter, one for each of the deaths, but the jury, composed of nine women and three men, found the company not guilty on both counts.

Each count of manslaughter the water and sewer company was facing carried with it a lesser included charge of negligent homicide. While jurors found Far West guilty of negligent homicide in Gamble’s death, the jury was unable to come back with a verdict for the negligent homicide charge in Lanser’s death.

Santec Corp. a subcontractor that employed Lanser, pleaded guilty last year to a felony charge of violating a safety standard causing the death of an employee. Under the plea agreement Santec was required to implement a safety program that complies OSHA confined space standards, pay $30,000 in restitution and will be inspected annually by Arizona OSHA.

This tragedy was unfortunately typical of confined space incidents, where one of the workers killed was the attempted rescuer and two other rescuers narrowly escaped death:

Gamble entered the tank to remove a plug that was blocking a line into the tank and died after being overwhelmed by hydrogen sulfide fumes when a pump that ran raw sewage into the tank from a different line was turned on.

Lanser went into the tank to try and save Gamble, he, too, was overcome. A third worker, [Nathan] Garrett, went down a ladder in the tank but didn’t make it all the way down. Forewoman Connie Charles went down the ladder after Garret and she, too, breathed the toxic gas and had to be rescued.

Garret has suffered permanent lung damage.

Enclosed areas or “confined spaces” in sewers and wastewater treatment plants (or anywhere where there is rotting organic material) are notorious for accumulations of hydrogen sulfide which can kill workers and their rescuers. Confined spaces can also develop life-threatening oxygen deficiencies and generate explosive methane gas. For this reason, OSHA has a detailed Confined Space standard which requires the air to be monitored, a means to safely rescue workers if they are overcome by fumes, and extensive training.

According to the prosecutors on the case, the violations were so blatant, and it was so obvious that the workers had no idea of the danger inherent in confined spaces, that a criminal prosecution was completely appropriate. The air in the tank had not been tested during the day of the incident, the workers weren’t properly trained and the required safety and rescue procedures weren’t followed. Unlike Santec, which admitted guilt prior to the trial, Far Western decided to fight the case, at one point arguing that the workers had mysteriously suffered simultaneous heart attacks. But the prosecution was strongly supported by Dr. Daniel Teitelbaum, a Denver toxicologist who has been a long-time fighter for workers' rights.

The AG’s office originally filed against both the company and its executives, although the judge separated the case into two trials. Far West president Brent Weidman will be tried for manslaughter, aggravated assault and endangerment in February.

Look back at the definitions at the beginning of this article, then consider that under the OSHAct, the penalty for causing the death of a worker by willfully violating safety laws is half the maximum for harassing a wild burro on federal lands. I'm very happy about the results of this case, and about the recent decision to charge Ken Formica, owner of Staten Island, New York-based Formica Construction, with manslaughter in the 2003 trenching death of a Mexican laborer. But these are only two cases.

As far as I'm concerned, every single trenching and confined space death should automatically be referred to state or local prosecutors for felony manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. I'm sick of waiting for Congress to increase OSHA penalties when all they seem interested in is weakening enforcement and making sure that the good companies don't have their feelings hurt by mean OSHA inspectors.

Carol Borieo, the mother of James Gamble, said she would like to see an example made of Far West because she is worried what happened to her son could happen again if the company isn't punished.

And in that spirit, here's our New Year's resolution: Familiarize yourselves with these cases. Download and print out the articles. And every time you see a trenching, confined space or other workplace fatality that any jury could see was preventable, contact the local media and the local prosecutor or state Attorney General and demand that felony charges be brought.

Labels: confined space hazards, Criminal Prosecution

Injured or killed anyone in the workplace lately?

Then you'll probably need some help with the press. Good news! For only $147, Eileen Wixted of SafetyChange.org is presenting a audioseminar called The Uninvited Guest: How to Deal With the Media After a Workplace Incident.

OK, I can see the benefit of learning to deal with the media, how to answer questions and all the nuts and bolts of dealing with reporters. It's the Eileen's "four-pronged message strategy techniques for crisis" that I find a bit, um disgusting:

1. Showing your concern and why this can help you 'save face'
2. Detailing how you have practiced 'due diligence' in this incident and proving that reasonable actions were taken
3. How to demonstrate your cooperative attitude and how this benefits you
4. Showing that you have a resolution

But what if your 'face' doesn't deserve saving because you 'forgot' to practice 'due diligence' or neglected to take 'reasonable actions?'

What about admitting that you screwed up? Or maybe apologizing to the injured and families of the dead? How about resolving to comply with safety standards and best practices.

Otherwise, save the money and just follow George Burns' old saying: "Sincerity is the key. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

I have to admit, after reading a couple of articles about new government regulations concerning how many hours truckers are allowed to work without rest, I'm totally confused.

But I don't think I should be.

New government regulations say that truck drivers can spend up to 11 hours a day behind the wheel before taking a break. Prior to 2003, the limit was 10 hours. The Bush adminstration recently revised some trucker rules, but the 11 hour limit remains. On the other hand, their total workday has been shortened from 15 to 14 hours and drivers are now required to rest for at least 10 hours in a row, eight of which must be in their sleeper berth.

So is all this good or bad?

Trucking company and government transportation officials contend the new rules strike a proper balance between the need to keep goods moving and the need to keep people on the road safe. Truck drivers can spend more time behind the wheel, but their rest is much more regulated than before.

***

Beth Bandy of Somerville, N.J., thinks truckers need more rest.

Her father, Bill Badger, died Dec. 23 when a tractor-trailer rear-ended his cherry red Chevrolet Cavalier, crumpling it, as he was on his way to catch a plane to see her. The driver, nearing the end of his shift, admitted falling asleep.

"We wanted to get together for Christmas and instead, we were making funeral arrangements," the 47-year-old former receptionist said, fighting back tears.

Bandy belongs to a group, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, that is pressing the government to reduce truckers' driving time. They also want the government to scrap a provision allowing drivers to spend as much as 17 more hours on the road per week on top of the 60 hours they were allowed under the old rule.

"That is twice the time that most Americans work, and they have to be alert and able to drive that big truck so it doesn't destroy other people," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer watchdog group that sued to toughen the 2003 rules. "The result is that drivers are pushed beyond their capacity ... causing horrific crashes."

Company owners think the new rules are great:

Adding an 11th hour doesn't necessarily mean driving an additional hour, said Dave Osiecki, vice president for safety, security and operations for the American Trucking Association.

"There's downtime for loading. There's downtime for unloading," he said. "A driver has to stop and go to the bathroom, (and) stop for fuel ... safety inspections."

A study by Virginia Tech found that drivers may be getting more sleep under the new rule -- almost six and a half hours a day.

Hello? 6 1/2 hour is a lot? This is more than they were getting before?

And I'm not entirely clear about this:

Cutting a trucker's driving time any further would make the roads less safe because more rigs would have to be deployed to deliver the same amount of freight, trucking companies argue.

"What you would do is actually increase the likelihood of large truck crashes," said Don Osterberg, who oversees driver training and safety at Schneider National, a Green Bay, Wis., trucking firm with nearly 16,000 drivers.

Now it gets really confusing:

The trucking association, citing federal research, says most deadly crashes involving large trucks happen in the first four hours of a shift, while only 4 percent occur after eight hours on the road.

OK, but then there's this:

The crash risk for truck drivers in the last hour of a now legal 11-hour day behind the wheel is more than three times higher than during the first hour, a Penn State research team has found.

For 60 years, federal rules limited truckers to driving 10 consecutive hours. However, in January 2004, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration raised the limit to 11 hours and reaffirmed the change in October this year.

Paul Jovanis, professor of civil engineering, faculty associate at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, and study leader, says, "Our analysis of data from three national trucking companies during normal operations in 2004 shows that the crash risk is statistically similar for the first six hours of driving and then increases in significant steps thereafter. The 11th hour has a crash risk more than three times the first hour."

Now, as I said back at the beginning, I'm confused, but I shouldn't be.

Why not?

Because I can't believe that with all the research going into astronauts' sleep requirements, and the fatigue factors of fighter pilots and other high performance jobs, that no one can figure out how long a trucker can drive safely. I mean, how long have people been driving trucks? The stakes are far too high for this stupid "he said, she said" bullshit.

Full Disclosure: My entire family came close to being obliterated eight years ago on the Interstate outside of Allentown, PA when we were rammed from behind by a trucker who had probably fallen asleep. My kids still have nighmares. I still get shivers.

This is a rare and unusual article. Unfortunately, it's not a rare or unusual story.

After an accident at work ripped his knee to shreds, Kendall Brown's life fell apart. And he fears there's nothing he can do to put it back together.

"I'm drowning. I'm one step away from the street," the Massapequa man said. "God forbid my wife lost her job."

It took a permanent disabling injury in 2004 for the husky trucker of 28 years to decide there is something wrong with the state's workers' compensation laws.

Under New York labor law, Brown, 47, cannot sue Master Mechanical Corp., the owner of which ordered Brown and three other workers to slide a 1,200-pound boiler into a basement stairwell, Brown said.

Brown said the company didn't prepare the crew to do the job. "We didn't have the proper equipment," he said.

Joel Shufro, head of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, said a state law passed in the early 1900s bars workers from suing their employers.

"The deal was that workers gave up their right to sue [in exchange] for prompt wage replacement and adequate medical coverage," Shufro said. "Unfortunately, the bargain has been broken here."

***

Two weeks ago, the doctor for Brown's insurance company met with him and determined "within five minutes" that his already meager disability income should be cut, Brown said. Now, Brown and his own doctor have to fight to get the payments back.

Brown earned about $3,500 per month before the injury. Now, he gets about $150 per week after $108 is deducted for child support.

Actually, every state has a workers comp law that prohibits employees from suing their employer, no matter how negligent the employer was. A few states have begun to make some very narrow exceptions to this rule, but the basic story is the same for injured workers: Chew 'em up, spit 'em out and forget about them.

It was a dark and stormy night, March 7, 2001....

Actually, it was only dark and stormy in my memory. On the evening of March 7, 2001, I was holed up in a small office in the US Capitol building watching CSPAN while the House of Representatives conducted a "debate" that spelled the final chapter in the short life of OSHA's ergonomics standard.

The entire specticle was revolting. The House scheduled only one hour of "debate" to trash ten years of work and the hopes of tens of thousands of American workers. Now, four and a half years later, only a few "highlights" stand out in my mind. One was the speech by Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned today from the US. House of Represenatives after confessing to evading taxes and conspiring to pocket $2.4 million in bribes, including a Rolls-Royce, a yacht and a 19th-century Louis-Philippe commode.

Cunningham's speech during the ergonomics "debate" was one of those all too common moments when, while listening to a Congressman or Senator speak, you slap yourself on the head and wonder "How the hell did that guy ever get elected to Congress?"

Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. CUNNINGHAM), my friend.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, in California we have an energy crisis. We have several small businesses going out just because of the costs of energy. We have restaurants that are on a very narrow margin. Those people employ workers.

My colleagues that are opposed to this are generally from a liberal philosophy of government control. If we fall out of line like the blacklisting that the union, the Clinton-Gore administration, put out last year*, then we can control you. We can control your private profit. We can control education. We can control your business. If you do not comply, yes, we will send in the IRS or OSHA or EPA, and what we are saying is that, yes, that my colleagues would make people think that we do not want workplace safety, we are for the evil business. That is just not true.

We support the working families, and we want to give them tax relief, but my opponents, I would guarantee that over 90 percent of them that are opposed to this do not want tax relief, and they did not want the balanced budget and they did not want welfare reform, because they want government control.

* Cunningham is referring to the federal contractor responsibility rule issued by the Clinton administration in December 2000 that required federal contractors to comply with federal public health, safety, environmental and anti-discrimination laws in order to be eligible for government contracts. The regulation became effective on January 19, 2001, but was later repealed by the Bush administration.

Labels: Ergonomics

The new NYCOSH UPDATE ON SAFETY HEALTH has been published (and it's a hell of a lot more valuable than those worthless OSHA Quicktakes).

The Contents

Worker Safety Takes a Back Seat in the Gulf Coast: Federal Agencies Offer Advice that is Either Useless or Wrong

Disputed $125 Million Aid for Injured Responders Restored to the Federal Budget, Again

Proposed Cutback In Community Right-to-Know Reporting Widely Opposed

New York City Workplace Fatalities Increase in 2004

Contractor Faces 15 Years in Prison for Fatal Trench Cave-In

AFL-CIO Launches New Research Tool Linking OSHA Records to Other Federal Agency Information

Labels: Asbestos

We've written so often about the March 23 explosion at BP Amoco's Texas City refinery that the numbers 15 and 170 -- killed and injured -- are seared in my brain.

One tends to dwell on the deaths, and think of the injured as the "lucky ones." In a sense, they were, but as the Houston Chronicle reports, many "remain nonetheless trapped by physical and emotional debris that may never be lifted."

Some lost limbs or the ability to have children or the chance of ever walking normally again.

Some were severely burned on the outside of their bodies, others literally on the inside.

Some have years, if not lifetimes, of physical therapy ahead.

Some can't sleep, remain deeply depressed or need medication to function normally.

Some blame BP for their injuries. Some don't. Many are just trying to move on.

"You can't keep looking at all the bad," said Alisa Dean, 32, who not only lost her father in the blast but also suffered severe burns and other injuries that kept her hospitalized for four months. "Because all you are going to do is be depressed."

And then there are those who are entering their first holiday season without the loved ones that they said goodbye to on the morning of March 23.

Linda Hunnings is spending her first anniversary in 30 years without her husband Jim, who was killed in the explosion:

“He was a wonderful man,” she said. “He is really going to be missed during the holidays.

“It is not easy going each day without him — it really isn’t. Jim Hunnings was a blessing. A godsend. He was everything that was good.”

For Linda, this holiday season is another in a series of steps she knows she has to take to get by. She admits she is at times angry.

“I hurt,” she said. “I hurt a lot. It is really, really painful. There is a big void in my life.

“There are times when I get angry. I get angry with BP, angry with God, angry with Jim. I guess that’s all a part of the process you have to go through.

More BP explosion stories here.

Labels: BP

A new report by Hazards, the TUC-backed health and safety magazine, concludes that the there are two to four times as many work-related cancers in the United Kingdom than had been previously estimated. The report, called Burying the Evidence, suggests that 12,000 and 24,000 workers die each year in the United Kingdom from cancers they contracted from on-the-job exposures to such carcinogens as asbestos, benzine, coal tar, second-hand cigarette smoke and other chemicals.

The report criticizes the famous Doll-Peto study, conducted in the 1980's that estimated that only 4% of all cancers were caused by work-related exposures with the vast majority caused by "lifestyle issues" such as smoking and obesity. the end result of such as serious understatement was less attention paid to workplace exposures, and less focus on restricting workers' exposure to cancer causing substances.

This was good news for some, but a death sentence for others. “The companies were ecstatic when Doll/Peto came out, because it posed the whole thing politically as a lifestyle issue,” Stirling University occupational cancer authority Dr Jim Brophy (right) told Hazards. “That had consequences for prevention, in that it effectively ended any chance of a structured and well resourced strategy to combat occupational cancer.”

Some of the many problems with the Doll/Peto study was their failure to

• count any cancer deaths in persons above the age of 65 (despite the long latency period of most cancers, combined with peoples' longer life expectency),
• take into account cancers by women or African Americans
  
• to designate certain common cancers -- such as melanoma and breast cancer -- was work-related
  
• To take into account that the risk of getting cancer is often intensified by the interaction of several different exposures. For example, exposure to smoking and asbestos exposure greatly magnifies the chances of getting cancer beyond exposure to each substance alone.

In addition, the Doll/Peto study only included 16 substances or industries thought to be carcinogenic to humans, a small fraction the true number.

Burying the Evidence focuses on cancer in the UK, but the same figures can be applied to the 570,000 cancers deaths each year in the United States. According to Doll/Peto, "only" about 22,800 of those deaths are caused by occupationally related cancer. But using the estimates in Burying The Evidence, the number of workplace cancer-related deaths in the United States may be more like 45,000 - 90,000.

The report also contains a number of recommendations for the workplace, as well as for national policies.

Labels: Asbestos

Government agencies and industry always like to announce unpopular news on Friday afternoon so that it will be buried in the weekend papers. Even better for releasing unpleasant news than a typical Friday is the day before a national holiday, which the news media calls "Take Out the Trash Day."

BP chose to take out its trash on the day before Thanksgiving, releasing the "Stanley Report," and audit of BP safety procedures conducted by former OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Jim Stanley, as well as the Telos Report, survey of employees conducted two months before the March 23 explosion. BP had witheld the two reports since June as "confidential." They were released only after the Houston Chronicle and the Galveston County Daily News sought a court order to release them on the grounds of public safety.

According to the Chronicle, a close inspection of hundreds of comments in the Telos survey

shows a consistent pattern of worker concern about safety at the plant.

Many were highly critical of not only the priority that output was given over safety, but also the condition of the refinery.

"Employees often feel pressured to bend the safety rules, but often it is just the consequence of how we push production," one wrote.

Added another: "Fixing something without having a shutdown is what gets rewarded; we get rewarded to keep the unit running."

Many workers said they often witnessed unsafe acts or conditions.

"Our deferred maintenance over the years is now hurting us," one worker wrote when asked about workplace conditions. "Our processes have now changed. We now have much higher corrosion."

Many others reported thinning pipes, a condition that can lead to fires and explosions.

"The pipe thinning issue is my biggest worry," one worker wrote. "I am not sure we know the extent of it or the nature of the risk."

Several others agreed. "Pipe thinning worries me the most," another wrote. "Its failure could be catastrophic with little warning."

And yet another wrote: "The potential for major hazards is unacceptably high. We need to look with metallurgists and do a complete assessment of this site."

The Stanley Report, meanwhile, criticized BP management

for allowing workers and mid-level managers and supervisors to get away with not following proper procedures and safety protocols within the refinery.

That failure, according to the report resulted in “a tolerance for noncompliance with those processes and procedures.”

The audit team also found that BP management failed to learn from previous incidents, audits and peer reviews. That led to “complacency towards serious process safety risks, driven by a lack of awareness of potential consequences,” the report reads. “The lack of awareness of risk is also reflected in day-to-day operational activity.”

Despite the March 23 explosions, the audit also found that supervisors and employees within the refinery still do not consistently follow Control of Work processes. Control of Work is the method of how procedures within the various units are supposed to be handled. But even those methods were questioned.

“The existing Control of Work process does not provide adequate assurance that risks are being effectively managed,” the report states.

The audit also found workplace conditions within the refinery to be below par. It noted that areas of the refinery did not appear to be well maintained and the work environment in some control rooms were inadequate to allow operators to have a full focus on unit control.

The Galveston Daily News has made both reports available here.

More BP stories here.

I'm apparently sitting on a gold mine.

Businesses have noticed the growing readership and influence of these Internet postings and are spending $50 million to $100 million this year on blog advertising and marketing, said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, a company that looks at the impact of technology on business and consumers. Recognizing that blogs have become more mainstream, companies are paying for advertisements or mentions on blogs, courting blog writers with public relations efforts and inviting writers to come blog on one of their corporate sites.

The blogosphere, companies said, is an important place to have a presence, and blog writers are not shying away from the attention.

Here I am. Lookin' for a bit of attention. Not a bit shy. This way.

But seriously folks. How would you feel about a bit of advertising on Confined Space? Google-type context driven ads? Lefty political blog ads? Would they undermine my integrity? Do I have any integity to be undermined?

That's how Gerald Morgan describes trying to breathe with lungs irreversably damaged by popcorn butter flavoring chemical, diacetyl. Morgan requires 24-hour breathing assistance:

"I’ve got oxygen tubes stuffed up my nose all the time," said Morgan, 56. "You don’t get enough oxygen to do anything.

"I hardly leave my house anymore."

Settlements have now been reached in the 57 lawsuits filed by former workers of the Glister-Mary Lee popcorn plant against th maker of diacetyl, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. Fifty four cases were settled and four cases involving seven plaintiffs resulted in jury verdicts totaling nearly $53 million.

The trials had shown that International Flavors and Fragrances and Bush Boake Allen, the manufacturers of the diacetyl had known that their butter flavoring was hazardous, but failed to warn the workers at the plant where the chemical was used of the dangers or provide adequate safety instructions.

The workers' lawyers introduced testimony showing that tests done as far back as 1993 indicated that diacetyl could cause severe lung damage and, they noted, workers at the factory that made the chemical wore respirators, unlike the workers at the popcorn plant who had insufficient warning of the dangers of the chemical. The Material Safety Data Sheet given to the popcorn factory had contained the phrases "no known health hazards" and "respiratory protection is not normally required."

This brings to an end the lawsuits against IFF, but it's only one small chapter in the stuggle of American workers' for the right to work safely with chemicals. Battles are still to be fought against industry-led "tort reform" campaigns that would weaken the ability of workers and consumers to sue the manufacturers of harmful products. There are battles to be fought against those who are trying to "manufacture doubt" in the little science we have that attempts to identify harmful chemicals before they sicken and kill workers. And there are battles being fought in Europe (battles that will hopefully be fought and won here, at home) about whether government regulators should continue to consider toxic chemicals to be innocent until proven guilty.

And without the possibility of lawsuits or a significant change in the chemical approval and regulatory practice, what are workers left with? A paltry workers comp payment and an apology from the manufacturer? In the case of diacetyl, we didn't even get the apology. Instead, we just get statements from IFF that "Our product is safe when used as directed (you stupid workers who obviously didn't use as directed)"

Even winning lawsuits and settlements are poor consolation for a man's lungs. As Morgan said, regarding the settlement: “I’d rather have my health back.”

More on popcorn lung here.

Labels: Diacetyl, Popcorn Lung

Senator Mike Enzi, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor, thinks that OSHA's wings need to be clipped because "most employers are concerned for the welfare of their employees and are fully prepared to comply with laws aimed at enhancing their safety on the job."

The Tiberti Construction Company must be one of those that isn't:

A man who worked on the Southcoast project earlier this year, but no longer does, says the construction company didn't enforce on the job safety. A worker fell to his death at the Southcoast site on Tuesday. It's the second death at the construction site in the last two months.

Construction progressed as usual at Southcoast site on Wednesday except for one small difference. The Tiberti Construction Company gave their workers the option of leaving for the rest of the day without penalty. All of the iron workers there decided not to work Wednesday out of respect for the iron worker who died after falling there Tuesday.

Eyewitness News has learned the name of the ironworker killed. He is 32-year-old Richard Reid. While his death has been ruled accidental, we do know a toxicology report is also being conducted.

One former worker, who did not want to be identified, says this project has a number of safety issues, which is why is he left. "I wasn't surprised at all. Actually, I'm surprised more people weren't killed," he said.

This former construction worker says he was hurt while working on the Southcoast Casino in May because safety rules were not being followed. He told Eyewitness News that essentially workers safety is out the door because it's all about getting the job completed on time. "Contractors get high-dollar jobs and if they prove that they did the last one on a fast-track their gonna get the next one on a fast-track."

Oops, uh, Senator Enzi, here's another one:

For the third time in five weeks, Fraser Paper Inc. has been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and faces more fines totaling $115,000.

On Oct. 14, Fraser was cited for failing to record 65 injuries within seven days of their occurrence in the period between March 2002 and February 2005. The company was fined $55,000.

On Oct. 17, the company was fined $90,500 for five willful and serious violations after the April 20 death of Marc Baron. Baron fell to his death while working atop a huge tank.

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor's New England OSHA office cited Fraser for failing to record 65 injuries and illnesses that occurred at the company's Madawaska mill and fined the company $170,000.

Ahh, the life of a nurse. The rewards of being able to help people and being appreciated by sick and disabled patients, the knowledge that you're doing one of the most difficult jobs there is. That, combined with high rates of back injuries, exposure to communicable diseases, toxic drugs and chemicals, mandatory overtime, and a birds-eye view of declining health care quality for those who can't afford the best.

Sounds like the basis for an internet-based reality show? You bet! Someone has already thought of it and is looking for "real nurses" to cast the show.

But I'm not sure exactly how many "real" nurses can relate to the "reality" being portrayed:

An Internet-based reality show about nurses made its debut Wednesday in a bid to improve the image of the profession and attract more nurses to California.

The show, "13 Weeks," started Webcasts on http://www.nursetv.com/ . It follows six nurses recruited from across the nation as they live in a rented $10 million mansion, go surfing and sky diving in their spare time and work in hospitals in Orange County -- home of MTV's reality show "Laguna Beach" and the hit Fox TV drama "The O.C."

Sounds good to me. Where do I sign up?

Sometimes corporate spokespersons speak the truth without being aware of how true their words are:

OTTUMWA (AP) --- Some production areas of a meatpacking plant, where a man died in an accident last week remained shut down as investigators
continued to look into the cause.

Paul McCrory, 41, died Wednesday in an accident at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant, a pork processing plant. Authorities said he was trapped for about 40 minutes when a rail on a conveyor system collapsed. He was taken to Ottumwa Regional Health Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Cargill spokesman Mark Klein …. said he could not offer an estimate of when the slaughter operation would resume.

Indeed. Does it ever end?

Now, some may take exception to this article from The Onion, feeling it isn’t appropriate to find humor in work-related respiratory disease; that being unable to take in a full breath isn’t funny, that you shouldn’t laugh at the idea of people coughing up their lungs. And although as an asthma sufferer I have some sympathy for that opinion, I just have one thing to say: LIGHTEN UP DUDE. TAKE A CHILL PILL.

For is it not human to find humor in tragedy? (On the other hand, this could just be an artifact of my Semitic heritage)

I actually enjoyed the humor, but more interesting is the fact that the author had clearly done his homework on the biology and politics of work-related respiratory disease.

Cases Of Glitter Lung On The Rise Among Elementary-School Art Teachers

CHICAGO—The Occupational Safety And Health Administration released figures Monday indicating that record numbers of elementary-school art teachers are falling victim to pneumosparklyosis, commonly known as glitter lung.

Dr. Linda Norr scans a sufferer who spent more than two decades in the classrooms.
Nearly 8,000 cases were reported in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available. This is the highest number since the arts-and-crafts industry was
deregulated in 1988.

Characterized by a lack of creative energy and shortness of breath, and accompanied by sneezing or coughing up flakes of twinkly, reflective matter, glitter lung typically strikes teachers between the ages of 29 to 60 who spend 20 hours per week in an art-class setting during the school year.

"When art teachers spend so much time in confined quarters with inadequate ventilation amid swirling clouds of glitter, it's only a matter of time before their lungs start to suffer negative effects," said Dr. Linda Norr, a specialist in elementary-school-related respiratory diseases. "Those sufferers who are not put on a rigorous program of treatment often spend their last days on respirators, hacking up a thick, dazzling mucus."

As incidences of glitter lung continue to rise, critics are accusing public schools
of not doing enough to protect art teachers.

***

"Most art teachers are afraid to come forward, for fear of losing their jobs," Winfield said. "At an absolute minimum, an art teacher should be equipped with a respirator, thick goggles, and a reflective-field smock. But schools don't want to stand up to Big Glitter, which continues to insist that this stuff is safe. Schools end up falsifying the safety reports and hoping they get away with it. And they usually do."

Well he's gone and done it.

Despite a thorough trashing in Confined Space last week, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) has introduced his OSHA Deform legislation: S. 2065 -- the Occupational Safety Partnership Act, S. 2066 -- the Occupational Safety Fairness Act, and S. 2067 -- the HazCom Simplification and Modernization Act of 2005.

As might be imagined, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)praised Enzi's bills, for allegedly implementing "voluntary, solutions-oriented workplace safety initiatives rather than enforcing unrealistic standards that impose undue burdens on small companies."

They are, of course, full of crap.

In a rather ominous statement, NAM President John Engler "These bills are a good first step in bringing effectiveness and fairness to the OSH Act." A good first step? What else do these jokers have planned?

The AFL-CIO is preparing to mount a major campaign against the bills.

As I described last week, Enzi's "Partnership" bill (S. 2065) promotes partnering between OSHA and industry by promoting unproven voluntary programs and allowing companies to self-certify compliance through audits by third parties. But unlike Enzi's previous "partnership" bills, this one does not even require employers to set up a comprehensive safety and health program. And, as I mentioned before, in order to buy more business contributions support, it eliminates the provision in the earlier Enzi bill to make criminal penalties a felony instead of a simple misdemeanor, which they are under the current law.

The "Fairness" bill (S. 2066) unfairly penalizes workers by rolling back and weakening OSHA enforcement. It makes it virtually impossible for OSHA to cite employers, allows OSHA to penalize employees adopts Charlie Norwood's small business "relief" bills passed in the House last summer.

The HazCom bill (S. 2067) starts the process of bringing the U.S. up to international chemical Right-to Know standards by setting up a commission to examination the adoption of a globally harmonized hazard identification and communication system. It has widespread support.

Enzi, who clearly doesn't read Confined Space, justified the bills, saying that

Cooperation, not confrontation is essential in making our workplaces safer. The notion that employers care little about worker safety, or are prepared to sacrifice worker health in the pursuit of profit is a dangerous myth.

In fact, most employers are concerned for the welfare of their employees and are fully prepared to comply with laws aimed at enhancing their safety on the job. This package of bill will provide employers new opportunities to protect their important assets—hard working employees.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

OK, Senator, so most employers are concerned about the welfare of their important assets. Maybe that's true, but what about the other ones, the ones who are, in fact, prepared to sacrifice worker health in the pursuit of profit. They will also be the beneficiaries of your version of "partnership" and "fairness."

In fact, they're already getting away with murder. How will these bills make it better? Particularly since you've even dropped the only crumb -- making criminal penalties a felony -- that would have made it easier to punish them.

What a turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving.

.

There seems to be some dispute between Valero management and workers at the refinery over the reason that two workers, John Ferguson and John Lattanzi, died of nitrogen asphyxiation two weeks ago. As far as investigators know now, Ferguson may have tumbled into a tank while using wire in an attempt to fish out a dropped roll of tape; Lattanzi may have climbed in afterward in an attempt to help. The workers had been installing an elbow on top of the tank which had recently been purged using nitrogen gas.

The company claims that the workers had been warned of the gas and instructed not to open the tank. A co-worker disagrees:

There was no warning and no reason to suspect the presence of deadly nitrogen gas in a tank where two men died this month, a former supervising contractor at Valero has told federal investigators.

Missouri resident William Pyatt is disputing company accounts of the work environment on the night John Lattanzi and John Ferguson died at the refinery near Delaware City.

In a telephone interview with The News Journal, Pyatt said he was unaware of any nitrogen risk at the work area and questioned a company claim that the two men had received verbal instructions barring them from opening the tank where their bodies were later found.

"Those guys know the status when they're told the status. It's written on the permit," said Pyatt, a contractor who was supervising several activities at the refinery on Nov. 5, the night Lattanzi, of New Jersey, and Ferguson, of Springfield, Md., died in a reactor tank.

"There was no barricade. There was free access, and that's definitely not typical in that situation," said Pyatt, who said he was too shaken by the accident to remain on the job in Delaware.

***

A copy of the permit signed by both men described their task simply as "Install Top Elbow" pipe, and listed nitrogen gas risks as N/A, or not applicable.

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is investigating the incident. Board investigator Steve Wallace noted that there had been at least one similar close call in the recent past.

Stephen Wallace, lead investigator for the board's investigation in Delaware, said he was seeking additional details about an incident in November 2004 involving a carpenter assigned to scaffolding work near the plastic-covered opening of a tank filled with nitrogen gas.

Another worker who was supplying the nitrogen gas from a truck spotted the carpenter and sounded an alarm that brought the employee out of danger.

"We're looking at all the near-miss reports. We're currently in the process of gathering information. That's about all I can say at this point," Wallace said.

The Board has published a bulletin warning of the hazards of nitrogen asphyxiation stemming from a 1998 incident at a Union Carbide plant that killed one worker and seriously injured another.

These deaths ocurred at the same plant, then owned by Motiva, where a worker was killed when a tank of sulphuric acid exploded. That incident was also investigated by the Chemical Safety Board.

Labels: Chemical Safety Board

More than fifteen years after OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard was issued to protect workers against contracting bloodborne diseases like AIDS and hepatitis B and C, some employers still haven't gotten the idea.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten accused the [New York City] Department of Education on Nov. 15 of ignoring federal law requiring it to protect educators at risk of exposure to life-threatening pathogens in blood or bodily fluid.

Weingarten introduced Queens paraprofessional Lori Baron who contracted the potentially deadly Hepatitis C virus while working with special education children.

“Lori is sick because of the neglect and indifference of the Department of Education,” Weingarten told reporters at a crowded news conference outside the Tweed Courthouse. “Educators are not being adequately trained. They are not being routinely offered the Hepatitis B vaccine.”

Weingarten contended that the Department of Education is flouting the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act and New York State guidelines that require employers, like hospitals and schools, to provide training and protective clothing, such as latex gloves, to workers at risk of being exposed to blood in the course of their duties. These workers are also supposed to get a vaccination for Hepatitis B, she said.

“The Board of Education routinely ignores these standards,” Weingarten said. “As a result, both staff, and in some instances children, have gotten sick.”

As many as 128 UFT members in schools have been exposed to blood-borne pathogens through scratches or bites, Weingarten said.

The union filed its first major complaint 10 years ago with the state Labor Department about the DOE’s lack of compliance with federal standards. After conducting investigations at several special education sites, the state has issued 13 citations against the DOE and levied fines totaling more than $50,000. The DOE is currently being fined $1,280 a week for failing to improve conditions at Beach Channel HS, where Baron works.

Hepatitis C is a particularly virulent, often fatal, type of hepatitis that can often lead to the need for a liver transplant.

As usual, the employer says it is doing all it can, but the workers and the state don't agree say that all is not what it seems. The Department of Education won't even give Baron workers comp:

After Barron’s diagnosis, the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau conducted an investigation and found her school guilty of 14 violations, for which the Board of Education was fined tens of thousands of dollars.

The board asserts that it has practices in place, such as the use of gloves that should protect employees, but Baron claimed, “We were told directly that there were not enough gloves, so please use them sparingly. Or, we were told not to use them at all, because they make the children feel bad.”

Lou Heller, the chief attorney representing Baron’s case, said that his client is simply demanding that the Board of Education admit its negligence and take the necessary steps to right the situation.

“Correct the problem. Workers’ compensation doesn’t cure Hepatitis C,” said Heller.

I cross-post some articles on Labor Blog. This is a comment from the article I wrote last week about OSHA Deform legislation being introduced by Utah Republican Senator Mike Enzi. People who think that the best way for OSHA to protect workers' health and safety is form Alliances should read this:

This is pretty disturbing news. The last time I worked at a manufacturing plant I was designing punches and safety equipment for the punching machines themselves.

The reason the company wanted safety equipment installed, and the only reason, was that OSHA inspectors had told them they needed to do it or else.

One day one of the punch machine operators lost several fingers while using the machine due to an on and off switch that was so worn out that it was defective. When I saw the switch you could put it in any position and it might be on, and it might be off, there was absolutely no way of knowing by looking at it.

I told my supervisor that it looked like negligence and I was out the door within a week. The operator was a poor Mexican and from what I heard from my friends that still worked there was that the company hushed the whole thing up by paying off the worker with a ridiculously low sum.

Frankly I did not give a damn about losing my job once I realized what kind of scum I was working for. But I sure feel sorry for the guy that lost his fingers, those won’t grow back again.

Rob Payne

A partial list of American workers killed on the job over the past two weeks.

Man crushed together by road grader

ALTON, N.H. --Authorities are investigating the death of a Brentwood man who was crushed by a road grader he had been driving.

Nathan Sims, 29, was working on a private driveway in Alton on Friday when he either fell or tried to jump from the grader. The vehicle then rolled over him into a ditch.

Alton police and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into whether the accident was caused by operator error or mechanical failure.


Lowell man dies from fall at Ayer plant

Lowell, MA - Fidel Mbony, 38, of 1301 Middlesex St., a maintenance worker at the Copeland Drive CPF Inc. plant, fell on Monday afternoon while he was trying to free something from a machine, police said. He struck his head when landing on the concrete floor and was transported to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester by helicopter, according to police.

OSHA records show that CPF has been investigated at least three times since the 1980s, according to Chavez. All three investigations found serious violations, for which the company was fined $1,215, $1,750 and $2,275, respectively.


OSHA eyes mulcher fatality

BELCHERTOWN, MA - Officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are scrutinizing the work-related accident that led to the death of Matthew P. Kosloski, 23, of Palmer. Kosloski, who lived in the Thorndike section of Palmer, died Tuesday afternoon at a work site on Warren Wright Road in Belchertown, after he apparently got caught in a landscaping machine that used an auger to churn mulch.

Kosloski worked for the Taylor Davis Landscaping Company of Amherst for the past eight months, said Kosloski's fiancee, Crystal P. Bleau, 23, of Palmer.

Bleau said officials and others at the scene told her Kosloski was apparently trying to unclog something blocking the machine when he slipped and fell into it.


Highway Worker Falls From Aerial Bucket, Dies

NORTH EAST, Md. -- A State Highway Administration employee working on an overhead sign at an intersection in Cecil County died Thursday after falling from the aerial bucket of his truck. According to state police, Mickael Locklear fell at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Maryland routes 272 and 273 in North East.

He fell about 20 feet and hit his head while working at an intersection in Calvert around noon Wednesday, police said.

Authorities said Locklear fell after a gust of wind blew him into the sign, entangling him in the sign and a traffic signal.

Locklear was not wearing a mandatory safety harness at the time of the accident, Buck and police said.


Department mourns death of firefighter

Joplin, MO -- Timmy Shane Hardy, 32, an 11-year-veteran of the Neosho Fire Department and the father of two children and stepfather of four more, apparently was killed when his equipment became tangled in a conveyor-belt support structure that he was using to carry him to the top of a bin at the Ragland Mills feed plant west of Neosho.


M'boro officer dies after motorcycle crash

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A Murfreesboro police motorcycle officer died early Wednesday after a traffic accident. Officer Kay Rogers died just after 4 a.m. at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said hospital spokesman Jerry Jones. Rogers, who was in her fourth year with the department, collided with another vehicle Tuesday evening.


Worker Killed in Trench Collapse

Philidelphia, PA- November 8, 2005 - New Castle County police say a contractor repairing a septic system (John Jones Jr., of New Castle) died today when a trench collapsed, leaving him trapped beneath more than one thousand pounds of dirt. New Castle County police spokesman Corporal Trinidad Navarro says the 32-year-old New Castle resident was working in the nine-foot-deep, three-foot-wide trench shortly before noon when it collapsed for unknown reasons. The man has not been identified.


Fla. Construction Worker Dies After 8-Foot Fall

Orlando, FL- A 44-year-old construction worker died Wednesday after falling 8 feet off a ladder while working on the new north annex for Holmes Regio! nal Medical Center in Melbourne, according to Local 6 News partenr Florida Today. The accident happened about 7:56 a.m. at the construction site at 450 East Sheridan Road. The worker was identified as Chris Monochein of Melbourne.


Fall kills rig worker

Moab, Utah - drill rig worker was killed in a fall off a derrick Monday near Battlement Mesa. Larry D. Hill, 42, of Moab, Utah, was pronounced dead at the scene Monday, Garfield County Coroner Trey Holt said.

"He was trying to fix something on the rig," Holt said. "He wasn't tied off."

Hill fell 75 to 80 feet off the rig, Holt said.

Rig workers are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to wear safety belts, said Herb Gibson, Denver area director. "We do require fall protection when people are working at heights," he said.


Operations resuming at iron ore mine where worker died

RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Operations are resuming at the Upper Peninsula iron-ore mine where a worker was killed over the weekend. Chad Weston of Ishpeming died Sunday when he became caught in some equipment at ! the Empire Mine. The 28-year-old was the first worker to die at the mine in more than six years.


Explosion at North Carolina asphalt plant kills one

KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. - A small explosion at an asphalt plant killed one person Thursday, authorities said. The victim was believed to be an employee, authorities said. No one else was hurt, they said. The explosion happened at about 7 a.m. at Rea Contracting Asphalt Plant here, about 30 miles west of Charlotte, county officials said. The blast did not create any fire or heat, said Police Capt. Derek Johnson, who arrived at the plant shortly afterward.


Danville police officer killed in the line of duty

Roanoke, VA- Officer Courtney Dickerson is the first Danville Police Department Officer to be killed in the line of duty in 84 years.

Dickerson was driving around a curve on Halifax Road on his way to an alarm call, when he skidded off the road and ran over the curb. He hit a telephone pole, shot up a small bank, and sailed roughly 50 feet, his cruiser bouncing off the ground, and slamming into the steps of Pleasant View Baptist Church.


Dunlap farmer killed in tractor-semi crash

Dunlap, MO -- Richard C. Grote, 72, Dunlap area farmer was killed the afternoon of Oct. 20 when a semi-tractor trailer passing his John Deere tractor on Highway 30, struck it. Iowa State Patrol Dist. 4's report said Grote was eastbound on Highway 30 approximately one mile east of Dunlap and attempting to turn left into his driveway at the same time that a semi, driven by John Miner, 62, Emerson, attempted to pass him. Both vehicles left the road and went into a ditch. The patrol did not have information as to whether Grote's turn indicator was on.


Worker Run Over By Garbage Truck, Killed

PITTSBURGH, PA -- Police said a garbage truck ran over a city of Pittsburgh refuse worker in Carrick around 10 a.m. Monday. According to police, three male refuse workers were on the job, with two of the men acting as spotters. 44-year-old Eugene Sunseri, of Carrick, was riding on the back of a waste removal vehicle in the 200 block of Stewart Avenue, when he apparently fell off the vehicle and was run over, police said.


Man Jailed in Slaying of Social Worker

Kitsap, WA - Police say Friday night's fatal stabbing was Poulsbo's first murder in 18 years. A man with a criminal history reportedly stabbed to death a Kitsap Mental Health employee Friday night when the case worker went to his home to evaluate him. The suspect, Larry William Clark, 33, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder soon after the crime at his home in the Viking's Crest condominium complex. Clark is being held in Kitsap County Jail on $2 million bail. The victim, 46-year-old Marty Smith, was evaluating Clark for possible commitment when the attack occurred.


Wilma relief worker accidentally shot and killed by boss

Fort Lauderdale, FL - An Arkansas man who traveled to South Florida with his company to assist with Hurricane Wilma recovery was accidentally shot and killed by his employer behind a McDonalds in Lauderdale Lakes. The shooting occurred 1:50 a.m. Saturday at the McDonalds at 4400 North State Road 7, according to Broward Sheriff's Office homicide detectives. The man, Brian Bouzigard, 28, worked for Mojo Recovery Inc., a private relief and recovery contractor based in Malbern, Arkansas. He, three female co-workers and their boss, Jonathan Hearle, 43, also of Arkansas, drove to Florida, arriving in Lauderdale Lakes Saturday night. They were scheduled to drive to Homestead Sunday morning.


Worker Crushed To Death At Construction Site

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A 22-year-old construction worker died after he was crushed while building a CVS pharmacy at about noon Monday, officials said. Christopher L. Pruitt, of Trenton, Ohio, was working for H&G Erectors near the intersection of Montgomery and Columbia Roads when he was smashed between a mobile crane and a stabilizing arm. He was rushed to Bethesda North Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Warren County Sheriff's Office are investigating the accident


FARMER DIES FROM INJURIES

Pocatello, ID - A sad update to a story we first told you about yesterday - the man critically burned in a farming accident has died. Staff at the University of Utah Hospital tell us that this morning, 68-year-old Jack Waddell died from his injuries. The Madison County Sheriff's Office and emergency responders were called to his farm near Archer Tuesday morning. Waddell was using a cutting torch to cut up an old piece of farm equipment for scrap metal when he hit the gas tank and it exploded. The blast sent Waddell - on fire - over a fence and into a corral. He suffered serious burns and was flown to the Utah Burn Center, where he died.


At least 3 killed when cement truck rear-ends landscaping van

HOUSTON, TX - Carnage at a northwest Houston intersection today. At least three people were killed today when a cement truck slammed into the rear of a van on State Highway 249 at Gessner, next to Willowcreek Mall. Investigators say the 15-passenger van was carrying at least seven landscape workers. Witnesses say some of the van's occupants were ejected on impact, while some others remain trapped inside. No clear word yet on how many were injured in the collision and what their conditions are.


Truck ramp crushes, kills driver

EAST DUNDEE, IL — A 34-year-old Arizona truck driver with a young son was trapped Tuesday by a heavy metal ramp as he worked inside his semitrailer and was slowly crushed to death. Police and fire officials believe Danny Joe Pennington, of Payson, Ariz., lay dead inside the truck for at least two hours after the accident before he was found.

Accident at LP fatal for county man, 49

Roxboro, NC - Allen Keith Whitfield of Hurdle Mills, who recently gave up farming to take a job with his brother-in-law’s welding firm, died suddenly Monday in an accident at Louisiana Pacific’s Roxboro plant. Details of the accident remained sketchy Tuesday pending further investigation by authorities, but Whitfield, an employee of Olive Hill Welding, was installing a catwalk above a plant conveyor, according to Person County Sheriff’s Department Captain Mike Clayton. While welding on the catwalk, said Clayton, the conveyor belt below it “cut on and caught him (Whitfield) in it.”


Safety glass mishap kills Dodge Arena employee

HIDALGO, TX — A work-related accident at Dodge Arena cost an employee his life Monday evening. Florentino Quintanilla, 41, of Hidalgo, died after some heavy-duty glass panels removed from the hockey rink’s dasher boards fell on him about 8:45 p.m., according to Lou Rivera III, the acting general manager of the city-owned events venue. (More here.)


Manager found dead inside store

Bonner Springs, MO - A manager at the Dollar General in Bonner Springs was found beaten to death in the store Saturday morning, marking the city’s first homicide of 2005. Police identified the woman as Robin Bell, 44, of Tonganoxie. Bell’s husband called police sometime after 2 a.m. Saturday, asking them to check on his wife because she hadn’t arrived home. The store closes at 8 p.m.


A Warner Bros. Records employee was found shot to death Friday night in his car on Chapel Avenue in east Nashville.

Nashville, TN - Eric Scott Mansfield, 33, had just called his roommate at 6:35 p.m. to find out if their driveway on the 1400 block of Greenwood Avenue was full, police said. He went looking for a parking spot on the street, and after the roommate didn't hear from Mansfield for several minutes, he went out to look for him. Mansfield's roommate found his 2002 Volkswagen Jetta pulled over near the intersection of Chapel and Greenwood avenues and broke through the window to get in. Mansfield was unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to police.


Big-rig driver killed on I-80 identified

OAKLAND, CA - A man killed when his big-rig has been identified as 41-year-old Jorge Sanchez of Dixon, according to the Alameda County Coroner's bureau. The solo-vehicle accident occurred around 4 a.m. on an I-80 ramp that leads to southbound Interstate Highway 880. The truck driver was trapped in his cab, which was hanging over the edge of the ramp, according to CHP Officer B.J. Whitten. CHP Officer J.D. Cook said that earlier in the morning that the right lane and the shoulder were blocked, causing traffic to snarl.


Employee killed in mine accident

Duluth, MN - An employee of the Empire Mine near Marquette, Mich., died Sunday in a work accident. The victim, a 28-year-old Ishpeming resident, became stuck in a cooler, a machine that cools iron ore pellets, according to a news release issued by the Michigan State Police. He was transported to Marquette General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was withheld pending notification of relatives. An investigation is being performed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.


OSHA looks into fatal construction accident

Great Falls, MT - Authorities Thursday identified the Great Falls man who died after a cement truck on a construction job site near Benefis East backed over him. Terry Richerson, 40, died at Benefis Hospital around 7 p.m. Wednesday from injuries sustained earlier in the day, said Cascade County Coroner Scott Wagner. Around 8 a.m., a 41-year-old driver with United Materials was backing a concrete truck up a 10-degree ramp to pour cement when the vehicle backed over Richerson.


Farmer dies in accident

Troy, AL- Shock turned to deep sadness Wednesday as word of the tragic death of J.R. Sanders began to circulate in Goshen. Sanders, a favorite son and prominent farmer died following a farm accident around noon, bringing grief and mourning to the small, close-knit community. "This is a very sad day in Goshen," said Nadine Johnson, a cousin and close friend of Sanders. "The flags here should fly at half mast. We have all lost a dear friend. "J.R. was an icon around here. He spent his whole life here after he came home from World War II. He lived in that one place and built what I consider an empire - a farming empire. His death shook up the whole town. He will be so greatly missed." Johnson said Sanders was moving hay bales and was killed when the tractor overturned.


Danville police officer dies in crash while responding to call

DANVILLE, VA - His cruiser crashed at turn in the road; he is survived by wife, son The city's police department is mourning the loss of an officer, 24-year-old Courtney Dickerson, who died last week after his police cruiser crashed while he was responding to a call. A funeral service for Mr. Dickerson is set for Monday at 1 p.m. at Bibleway Cathedral in Danville. Mr. Dickerson, of Dry Fork in Pittsylvania County, was driving west on Halifax Road to an alarm call Thursday just before 11:30 p.m. when he flipped his cruiser at a turn in the road near Pleasant View Baptist Church. Another officer, who had been traveling behind Mr. Dickerson, came upon the crash and called for help. Mr. Dickerson, who had been a member of the police department for 15


2 killed in plane crash

ANKENY, Iowa — Two people were killed when a small plane crashed Tuesday northeast of the Ankeny Regional Airport, officials with the Polk County sheriff’s office said. Chief Deputy Bill Vaughn said the plane went down about 10:20 a.m., about 2 miles northeast of the airport. Only two people were on board, he said. Vaughn said the plane’s pilot, Doug Dority, 63, of Des Moines, and a passenger, Harold Miller, 56, of Des Moines, died in the crash.


Truck driver killed in rear-end crash

Montgomery, NY – It was all over in a second. Michael Herman plowed his rig into the back of another 18-wheeler that was slowing down on Interstate 84 at about 9:15 yesterday morning. The impact crushed the cab of his rig, killing Herman.


Beauty shop worker convicted in colleague's shooting death

BLOOMINGTON, IL — A McLean County jury has convicted a Bloomington woman in the death of her co-worker during an argument at a beauty shop. The jury found Tauheedah Rasool, 58, guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm but acquitted her of first-degree murder in the death of Billie Spiller, 42, of Bloomington. Police said Rasool shot Spiller in the back during a confrontation on Nov. 5, 2004, at the Beauty NU Barbershop Salon in Bloomington.


Well-liked MPD officer dies in motorcycle crash

Murfreesboro Police Officer Kay Rogers didn't like rushing to emergency calls while riding her motorcycle on duty because of safety concerns, Detective Ava Radley said. "She said she didn't want to get taken from her mother," Radley said. Rogers, 43, of Murfreesboro, died in the line of duty about 3 a.m. Wednesday after a Tuesday crash on Middle Tennessee Boulevard near Bellwood Elementary School.


Explosion kills worker at asphalt plant

KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. -- One person died Thursday after an explosion at a Cleveland County asphalt plant. The explosion happened around 7 a.m. at the Rea Contracting Asphalt Plant near Interstate 85, county officials said. No one else was hurt. "There was a small explosion, but it did not create any fire or heat," said Capt. Derek Johnson of the Kings Mountain Police Department. The victim was identified as Paul David Van Dyke, 58, of Stanley. He was an experienced employee, officials said.


Accident Kills Road Worker

Lakeland, FL - A Davenport road construction worker was killed Wednesday afternoon when he was struck by a sheet of steel at the U.S. 27 overpass near U.S. 17-92, Haines City police reported. Procorio Hernandez-Herrera, 54, was declared dead at the scene of the accident, according to a Haines City Police Department news release. A 20-foot-long, 2-ton steel sheet toppled over toward employees and struck only Hernandez-Herrera shortly after 3 p.m., the release said. Hernandez-Herrera was working for a Fort Lauderdale company named Freedom Pipeline Company, the release said. The body of Hernandez-Herrera, of 119 San Juan Court in Davenport, was taken to the Polk County Medical Examiner's Office, the release said.


Postley trial to begin Dec. 6

Battle Creek, MI - The trial of the man charged with killing a Battle Creek detective is scheduled to begin early next month.Jury selection is to begin Dec. 6 in the Calhoun County Circuit Court trial of Genail Postley Jr., 22, charged with the May 9 shooting death of Battle Creek Detective LaVern Brann.


Man Shot, Killed After Intervening During Robbery

LOS ANGELES, CA -- A well-known Oxnard resident was shot and killed Sunday at a donut shop. Benjamin Gomez, 52, was shot as he tried to intervene during a holdup at Sunshine Donuts. The store is in the 1200 block of South Oxnard Boulevard. "I ask myself, 'Why? Why did this happen?'" said Mary Lou Gomez, the victim's wife. "My husband, he was a hard worker. I want justice for somebody robbing me of my husband." Residents conducted a candlelight vigil Monday night. They said Gomez was involved in many community events. Family members described Gomez, a Marine, as someone who always tried to help other people.


Pool company faces fine in fatal crash

Elmira, NY - According to the Labor Department's investigation, the worker was driving a company-owned pickup truck this past summer near the town of Apalachin when the vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer. The 17-year-old and his 18-year-old passenger, also an employee, were killed in the crash. The names of the two men were not immediately available. The men had been working on a job site in Binghamton, and Chavez said they were returning to Waverly for parts needed to complete the work. Federal labor law prohibits 17-year-old employees from driving a vehicle for their employer beyond a 30-mile radius from their place of employment. Earlier in the day, the 17-year-old also was driving a dump truck at the work site, which Chavez said is also in violation of federal labor laws that regulate the employment of workers younger than 18 years of age, including prohibitions barring such workers from engaging in specified hazardous occupations. Richard Spicer, owner of the business, referred all questions to Waverly attorney Robert Miller, who could not be immediately reached for comment.


Accident At Steel Plant Crushes Worker
Government Records Show Company Has History Of Unsafe Work Environment

HOUSTON, TX -- A worker was crushed Tuesday morning during an accident at an industrial plant in Baytown, The accident happened at about 2 a.m. at the Jindal United Steel Works on East McKinney Street near James Road. LifeFlight transported the injured worker to Memorial Hermann Hospital with injuries to his lower body. Authorities have not released any details on the accident. (More here)


Officer shot, killed in hunt for suspect

Dallas, TX - Police were answering call about domestic disturbance. Marta Cruz had told police that her ex-boyfriend had been threatening her for weeks. But as he emptied his handgun in an act of rage early Sunday, police say, his last bullet found another victim. Dallas police Officer Brian Jackson died of a gunshot wound to his right underarm suffered in a gunfight on Madera Street near North Henderson Avenue in Old East Dallas.


Assistant principal killed in Tennessee school shooting honored at funeral

LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. (AP) — Teachers lined the streets of this mountain community Saturday to honor an assistant principal who was killed as administrators tried to wrestle a gun away from a student. Several hundred people attended a funeral Mass for Ken Bruce, 48, who was remembered as a peacemaker and a role model respected by students. "Children loved him. He wasn't the type to intimidate kids or anything," said Campbell County Sheriff Ron McClellan. "They knew they could come to him with anything." Following the service at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, more than 1,000 teachers lined the route to a nearby cemetery.


Doc calls for probe in death of fighter

Las Vegas, NV - A longtime Nevada ringside physician has called for an investigation into the September death of a boxer who died in a Las Vegas bout, believing that it could lead to necessary health and safety improvements in boxing. Dr. Margaret Goodman, a Las Vegas neurologist who worked more than 3,500 bouts over the past 11 years, feels so strongly about the need for more stringent safety standards in boxing that she resigned last week from her ringside physician post to draw attention to the issue. "I gave up the very thing I love the most because I think the standards and the process we have to evaluate and take care of the boxers need improvement," Goodman said. "I've tried as best I could to work with the system in place but haven't been able to do the job I felt needed to be done." Goodman was one of the ringside physicians Sept. 17 when Leavander Johnson was pummeled by 409 punches from fellow lightweight Jesus Chavez. Before what proved to be the final round of that bout, Goodman quickly examined Johnson, conversed with him and concluded that he could continue with the bout, even though he was being thoroughly whipped. Moments later, the fight was stopped in the 11th round. Johnson collapsed after returning to his dressing room and died five days later.


Worker dies after falling 35 feet in Muskego

Muskego, WI - A contract worker died after he fell 35 feet onto a concrete slab from a ladder while working on one of the city's sewage lift stations Monday, police said. Officials refused to release the man's name because relatives had not yet been notified. Police Lt. John La Tour said the man, 53, was working above the lift station tightening a flange before his fall down a dry shaft along Woods Road, near Sandy Beach Drive. Another contractor who saw him fall called rescue workers at 11:23 a.m.


Services for rig worker set for Wednesday

Christi, TX - Roth fell to death at industrial yard; review under way Funeral services for the Kiewit Offshore Services subcontracted employee who fell to his death Sunday morning are set for Wednesday. Twenty-five-year-old Frank Warren Roth plummeted more than 100 feet at 9 a.m. Sunday while working on the construction of an offshore rig at Kiewit's industrial yard, said San Patricio County Justice of the Peace Charlotte Griffin.


Firefighter dies after being burned during training exercise

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A firefighting instructor died Tuesday after being badly burned during a training exercise at the state fire academy. Robert Gallardy, 47, died Tuesday morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, where he was being treated for the severe burns he suffered Sunday.


Jersey City robbers kill deli worker in heist bid

Newark, NJ - An employee at a Jersey City delicatessen who recently emigrated from Egypt was shot and killed during a robbery Wednesday night, authorities said yesterday. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Nabile S. Sharoubin, 41, was shot once in the arm, but the bullet passed through his chest. He was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center at 8:48 p.m. Wednesday. "That was a holdup that apparently, unfortunately went bad," DeFazio said yesterday.




Woman dies in workplace accident - 44-year-old fell from machinery

CITY OF PEWAUKEE - A 44-year-old woman died after injuries she sustained in a fall at her workplace Tuesday night, police said. The name of the Cedarburg woman was not released pending completion of the autopsy, which was conducted Wednesday, said City of Pewaukee Police Capt. Dave Funkhouser. The incident occurred at the Boelter Co. on Ridgeview Parkway at about 9:56 p.m. Tuesday when the woman reportedly fell from the top of an order picker, a machine similar to a forklift. She fell 12 feet to 17 feet, landing on the concrete floor below, Funkhouser said. However, there were only three people working the shift at the time, and she may have been on the floor for as long as 15 to 20 minutes before she was discovered in a semiconscious state, Funkhouser said.


SHOT KILLS CLERK; PAIR FLEE

Jersey City, NJ -- A deli worker with a wife, a child and another one on the way was fatally shot during one of three attempted armed robberies that were committed within a half-hour period Wednesday night, officials said. Police are trying to determine if the three robberies are connected. None of the stores that were robbed lost money to the gunmen. Nabil S. Sharoubin, 41, of Jersey City, was shot once inside the Superior Markets deli at about 8:30 p.m. on Jewett Avenue near Summit avenues, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. He was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center at 8:48 p.m.


Apprentice jockey killed in race at Beulah Park

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A 16-year-old apprentice jockey died after falling from his horse Wednesday while leading the third race at Beulah Park.

Josh Radosevich fell to the muddy track after Nyoka broke his right front leg at the upper stretch, and the horse rolled over the jockey, Beulah spokesman Joe DeLuca said.

Radosevich was pronounced dead at Grant Medical Center about 30 minutes after the fall, said Louis Tejada, a nursing administrator at the hospital. The horse was euthanized.


West Palm Beach worker dies under a ton of wet dirt near Vero Beach

Palm Beach, FL -- Jose Vega of West Palm Beach couldn't have seen it coming as he worked on an Indian River County construction site.

As the laborer bent over in a 5-foot-deep hole to work on a water pipe for a new upscale subdivision Wednesday, a ton of wet dirt fell on him.

And no one knew -- not even the backhoe operator who dumped the dirt, Indian River County sheriff's investigators said


Worker dies after accident at pork plant

OTTUMWA, Iowa -- An Ottumwa man died Wednesday morning after a rail on a conveyor system collapsed at a pork processing plant.

Paul McCrory, 41, was trapped under the rail at Cargill Meat Solutions for about 40 minutes before being transported to Ottumwa Regional Health Center and pronounced dead, authorities said.

The cause of the accident has not been determined but will be investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said plant Manager Randy Zorn.


Arizona truck driver crushed inside trailer

EAST DUNDEE -- A truck driver apparently was crushed to death Tuesday in East Dundee as he worked inside a trailer for hauling cars, police said.

Preliminary autopsy results concluded Danny Joe Pennington, 34, of Payson, Ariz., died when a movable ramp in the trailer crushed him, the Kane County coroner's office said.

Working alone, Pennington apparently was readying the trailer before picking up a car at G. Schmitz & Associates Inc., 1089 Rock Road Lane, said East Dundee Police Detective Mike Seyller. The trailer was parked outside the business, Seyller said.

Pennington was pronounced dead at the scene.


RECYCLING WORKER DIES IN ACCIDENT

Madison, WI -- A worker at Samuels Recycling Co., a metal recycling firm on Madison's East Side, was killed Friday morning when he became entangled in machinery.

The company identified the worker as Kevin Brown, 29, of Madison, who had been working at Samuels for seven months at its plant at 4400 Sycamore Ave. A statement from Gary Bachus, vice president of operations, said the company notified authorities immediately after co-workers discovered the accident.

The Dane County Coroner's Office said it was notified at 6:22 a.m. and that Brown had gotten caught in machinery that was part of a large shredding drum he was servicing. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputy Coroner Colleen Little described Brown's injuries as "crushing injuries."


CHP officer slain during traffic stop

San Francisco, CA -- A motorist shot and killed a California Highway Patrol officer during a traffic stop in Yolo County on Thursday, and more than 300 law enforcement officers were on a manhunt for the shooter.

The officer, a 13-year veteran with the agency, was identified as Andy Stevens of the greater Sacramento area. The 37-year-old officer leaves behind a widow.

Authorities said the slaying had occurred during a traffic stop at about 2:30 p.m. on the outskirts of Woodland, an area of back roads, farmland, small towns and casinos.


Construction worker killed in cave-in

Marshall County, IN - A cave-in at a Marshall County construction site killed a worker Wednesday afternoon when a trench collapsed as he was installing a septic system.

The incident happened at a truck stop on the east side of Plymouth shortly after 2 PM.

The worker, whose name has not been released, was trapped underground for approximately 15 minutes.


Aroostook County Truck Driver Killed In Maryland

Portland, ME -- A truck driver from Aroostook County was killed Wednesday in Maryland, when the tractor-trailer he was driving flipped over and caught fire.

23-year-old Brad Flewelling of Monticello died in the crash. It happened during the early-morning rush hour, on a Capital Beltway off-ramp near Bethesda, MD.

He was hauling potatoes in a refrigerated truck.

Maryland authorities plan to inspect the truck in the next couple of days, to see if they can figure out if it had any mechanical issues.


Truck driver killed in Dan Ryan accident

Chicago, IL -- A semitrailer truck involved in a fatal accident Wednesday morning blocks the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway just south of Pershing Road. A 40-year-old man died when the semitrailer truck he was driving rear-ended the truck.


Man killed when co-worker accidentally runs him over

Tacoma, WA -- A 51-year-old man has died after a co-worker accidentally ran him over with a truck in Fife.

The man, who worked for Bartleson Transport Inc. in Edgewood, was inspecting semitrailers in the 4600 block of 20th Street East about 9 a.m. Tuesday when a co-worker thought he had completed the job and drove the truck over him, said Tony Budzius, a Fife police detective sergeant.


Robber Shoots Midland clerk

Tacoma, WA -- Pierce County sheriff's deputies believe a callous gunman might have committed more armed robberies after he shot and killed a 30-year-old store clerk in Midland on Friday night.

The robber waited until customers left the Plaza Guerrero Mexican minimart at 816 E. 72nd St. before entering and pointingSupervalu his gun at the victim's 10-year-old nephew, Troyer said.

When the nephew apparently tried to translate the robber's demands from English to Spanish, the gunman raised his weapon and killed Leonardo Velazquez-Vazquez, who was standing at the cash register. The shot came without warning. The gunman left without taking any money. There was only about $ 100 in the register, Troyer said.


Bus station guard dies after shooting

San Antonio, TX -- A security guard working at the downtown Greyhound bus station was shot and killed Thursday afternoon, police said.

The shooting occurred about 3:15 p.m. after the guard searched a man's bag and discovered a weapon, said San Antonio Police Department spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino.



Rural towner farmer dies in loader accident

TOWNER, N.D. - A McHenry County farmer was killed when the loader bucket of a tractor fell on him.

Gillman Sjong, 78, apparently was trying to fix a leak on a hydraulic hose.

"He took the hose off the main cylinder ... and the pressure went down," Deputy Jeremy Tofteland said. "The bucket went down on top of him and pinned him between the loader and the frame of the tractor."


Fire Chief Dies While Fighting Blaze

Benton, AR - The fire chief of a small Grant County community was killed while battling a blaze earlier this week.

A fire broke out at 8722 West Cherry Street around 10:00 Thursday morning.

Authorities say 59-year-old Ken Mitchell was pronounced dead at Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton. His body has been taken to the State Crime Lab for an autopsy.

The cause of the fire is under investigation and authorities say criminal charges could be filed in connection with Mitchell's death if the fire was deliberately set or was caused by criminal activity.


El Paso man crushed and burned in forklift accident

EL PASO, Texas — A 32-year-old El Paso man was killed Monday after being crushed and burned in a forklift accident, El Paso County sheriff's officials said.

Luis M. Castro was working on a forklift Monday when he got off the machine to toss debris into a fire bin at Kastro's Wood Pallets Inc. in east El Paso and was pinned against the bin, sheriff's spokesman Rick Glancey said.

Investigators believe Castro left the forklift in gear, allowing it to roll forward and pin him, Glancey said.

A man who answered the phone at the business said the company had no comment.

Officials with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which investigates work-related accidents, responded to the scene Monday.


Sioux Falls utility worker dies in fall from Minnesota wind tower

CHANDLER, Minn. - A Sioux Falls man was killed after falling more than 200 feet from a wind tower after it caught fire Friday morning near Chandler, authorities said.

Benjamin James Thovson, 26, died at the scene after falling about 210 feet, Murray County (Minn.) sheriff's deputy Randy Donahue said.

The victim was installing a Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. wind turbine, according to a statement released Friday evening by Suzlon and another company, Gary, S.D.-based Energy Maintenance Service.

The workers were replacing a bolt when the fire started, the Associated Press reported.

Two other employees of the Gary firm were injured and treated at a local hospital, according to the statement. They were able to climb down and escape.


Police say cab driver dragged to death by passenger

MIDLAND, Texas — A taxi driver tangled in his seat belt was dragged to his death after a passenger seized his car, police said.

Monica Palmer, 30, was arrested and charged with capital murder Thursday after Midland police said she fought with Richard Allen Cullum, 57, and partially forced him from the vehicle before driving off. Police said his body was dragged about a mile.

Authorities said it was the second time Cullum had picked up Palmer that night. Palmer was brought back the first time after telling Cullum she had no money. After Cullum picked up Palmer again later, he began driving before turning around and stopping the car.

Police said that's when the fight began. Palmer was arrested hours later after a tip led to police to a motel.


Bakery worker stabbed to death

TRENTON, NJ - A bakery worker was stabbed to death early yesterday morning in an alleyway behind a shop in the 500 block of Hamilton Avenue, police said.

The block-long alley called Baldassari Lane runs from Chambers Street to Anderson Street, behind a row of Hamilton Avenue businesses.

Gilbert Cascante, 53, of Quintin Avenue was rushed to St. Francis Medical Center, about a block away, but was pronounced dead from numerous stab wounds, police said. He is the city's 26th homicide victim this year.

Police did not disclose a motive for the attack, but a departmental spokesman, Sgt. Pedro Medina, said attempted robbery is a possibility. Investigators have no evidence to confirm that but, "It's in the back of our minds," he said. He said there is no indication gangs were involved.

According to the police press release, Cascante worked at Dave's Donuts on Baldassari Lane and left work around 12:30 a.m. About 15 minutes later, a co-worker found him behind the building suffering from apparent stab wounds and called 911, stated the release.


Ellerslie fireman killed in wreck

Columbus, GA -- A firefighter with the Ellerslie Volunteer Fire Department died Saturday after the truck he was driving went out of control on Warms Springs Road, authorities said.

Kevin Foster, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident which occurred about 3:15 p.m. just south of Georgia 85 in Ellerslie, said Harris County Coroner Lori Camp.

Scott Davis, chief of the Ellerslie Volunteer Fire Department, said Foster of Ellerslie was responding to a call when the northbound fire truck went out of control and crashed off the right side of the road. He said the truck had 1,000 gallons of water in it.


Manager found dead in store

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. -- A woman was found beaten to death Saturday inside the Dollar General store she managed, marking the city's first homicide of the year.

Robin Bell, 44, Tonganoxie, was found inside the store about 2:30 a.m. after her husband called police to say she hadn't arrived home. The store closes at 8 p.m.

Bell had suffered severe head trauma, said Sgt. Mark Zaretski. He said police were reviewing a tape from a security camera outside a nearby restaurant, but that no suspects had been identified.

Money was found in the Dollar General, he said.


Hit and Run Fatality

Sioux Falls, SD -- Gregory Zuba, who was 55 and from Erie, died yesterday after he was hit by a truck at the Pilot truck stop on North Cliff Avenue. Police say Gregory Zuba was stopped at the truck stop in Sioux Falls because of mechanical problems with his semi-truck.

Sioux Falls Police Lieutenant. Jerry Miller says, "He was on his cell phone talking to his mechanic back in Pennsylvania at the time he was struck."


Arkansas man electrocuted during Hurricane Rita restoration

FOUKE, Ark. — Funeral services are pending in Texarkana for an Arkansas lineman who was electrocuted while he repaired a building in Silsbee, Texas, during restoration work in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

Ricky Whittington, 37, of Fouke, died Tuesday. He was in a large utility construction vehicle, or bucket truck, in the southeastern Texas town when a high voltage power source struck him. Whittington was working for Texas-based Broadband Specialists Inc. with three other linemen, none of whom were injured.


Worker, 36, dies in accident at Port Road reconstruction site

Fox Point, WI - A 36-year-old construction worker was killed Thursday when an excavator fell on him while he worked on the reconstruction of N. Port Washington Road.

Police Chief Thomas Czaja said the worker, who is from Westby, near La Crosse, was standing next to a small excavator being used to lower a piece of concrete sewer pipe into the excavated roadway in the 8100 block of Port Washington Road about 9:50 a.m. The excavator tipped onto the man, causing extensive head, chest and neck injuries.

The worker was employed by Hoffman Construction Co. of Black River Falls, the contractor for the Milwaukee County project, a complete reconstruction and widening of the road from Good Hope Road to Bergen Drive.


Police: Gunman killed boss, shot state trooper, then killed self

DUNCANNON, Pa. (AP) - Police investigating yesterday's shootings in Perry County say it's unclear exactly why the gunman killed his boss at a construction site.

But whatever the motive was that led 38-year-old Randy Lee Campbell of Thompsontown to kill building contractor Steve Willow, it led to a violent day for the rural area. Police say Campbell sped off and was pursued by police near Duncannon. He then fired a rifle at Trooper Ron Colyer's cruiser, seriously wounding him. He was airlifted to Hershey Medical Center. Campbell then killed himself.


Slaying of 2 teens called 'very brutal'

Phoenix, AX -- Miguel Macias wondered what took him so long.

His friend, Chris, said they would go to a party late Saturday. He'd call back when friends picked him up.

Those friends - Guillermo Rodriguez and Rafael Encinas, both 17-year-old high school students - were closing at Subway in Phoenix and couldn't roll until midnight or so.

But Macias' phone didn't ring again until 4 a.m. It was Chris, and he was sobbing. He said Rodriguez and Encinas had been shot dead in what appeared to be a robbery.

Police said video surveillance helped them piece together what happened.

Two masked men walked into Subway about 11:40 p.m., one guarding the door while the other approached the counter. It was 40 minutes past closing time, but the front door hadn't been locked.

The boys were working in the backroom when one of them heard something and peeked around the corner only to see the masked men. Having nowhere to go, the boys tried to hide; their only exit was the door at the front of the restaurant, said Sgt. Lauri Williams, a Phoenix police spokeswoman.


Construction worker crushed in crane accident

DEERFIELD TWP, NJ -- A crane accident Monday killed a 22-year-old construction worker, authorities said.

Christopher L. Pruitt of Trenton was standing behind a mobile crane when he was crushed between the crane and a stabilizing arm, the Warren County sheriff's office said. Pruitt was dead on arrival at Bethesda North Hospital, police said.

He was at a job site in Deerfield Township and was an employee of H&G Steel Erectors of Hamilton, authorities said. There was no answer at the company Monday evening.


California Firefighter Dies At Structure Fire

Riverside, CA -- A veteran California firefighter died in the line of duty on November 5 at the scene of a structure fire.

Eduardo Teran, 43, a 17-year veteran with the Riverside Fire Department, collapsed and went into cardiac arrest while performing firefighting activities. The department is waiting on autopsy results.

Firefighters saw Teran fall near a parked engine as they were doing cleanup work. Riverside Fire Department paramedics performed advanced life support before transporting Teran to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than two hours later.


Shop owner, suspected robber killed in Anderson shooting

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) - A shop owner and the man authorities say tried to rob the business are both dead after a shootout at an upstate car detail shop.

Investigators say Keena McAdams, 20, entered the office of the McDuffie Street Clean-Up shop shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, pulled out a gun, and ordered everyone in the business to get onto the floor.

Officials say 59-year-old store owner Willie Paul Peterson then pulled out a gun of his own, and the men began shooting at each other.

Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said Peterson died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, belly and leg.


Trucker dies 2 days after I-40 crash, fire

Fayetteville, AR -- A trucker died late Friday from injuries suffered in a fiery crash that backed up traffic for miles on Interstate 40 in Brinkley earlier last week, the Arkansas State Police reported.

Travis Hill, 27, of Seagrove, N. C., was driving a Peterbilt tractor-trailer west on the highway about 1 : 46 p. m. Wednesday, when he crashed into the rear of a truck that had broken down in the right-hand traffic lane.

The fuel tank on Hill’s truck ruptured and ignited, and the truck overturned and was consumed by the flames. Hill was airlifted to a hospital in Memphis, where he died about midnight Friday.


Empire Mine Employee Killed

PALMER, Mich. (AP) — An employee of the Empire Mine was killed when he got caught in some equipment last weekend, officials said.

Chad Weston, 28, of Ishpeming, an assistant plant operator, is the first worker killed at the mine in more than six years, The Mining Journal of Marquette reported Monday.

Weston was working Sunday outside the "cooler," a device that receives iron ore pellets as they are dropped from a kiln, state police reported from the Negaunee post.

He apparently became caught between two pieces of equipment used in the operation of the machine, said Dale Hemmila, spokesman for Cliffs Michigan Mining Company.

He was pronounced dead at Marquette General Hospital.

Labels: taxi drivers, Weekly Toll

How would the American business community feel if they knew that one of President Bush's first major actions was to effectively give them a $16 billion tax increase?

Employers spent $50.8 billion in 2003 on wage payments and medical care for workers hurt on the job, according to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in its Workplace Safety Index. $13.4 billion of that total -- the largest contributor -- was overexertion-related injuries caused by excessive lifting, pushing, pulling, holding, carrying or throwing of an object. Another $3 billion blamed on repetitive motion injuries. Almost half of corporate Chief Financial Officers mentioned overexertion and repetitive motion as their number one cause of workers compensation loss.

Most of these injuries would have been covered by the ergonomics standard, issued in 2000 and repealed in March 2001 by the Republican Congress and Bush administration.

Good work guys.

Labels: Ergonomics

Chemical manufacturers don't have many friends these days. Everyone's always getting upset about toxic chemicals being spewed into the air and water, cancer and all that icky stuff.

It didn't help that they recently killed Senator Jon Corzine's (D-NJ) chemical plant security bill that would, in part, have made plants secure by requiring them to consider inherently safer processes. It also doesn't help that they're behind the Bush administration's strident opposition to the European Community's proposed new chemical program that would reverse the current practice of treating chemicals as innocent until proven guilty by the illnesses and deaths of workers and consumers. And then there's the years they've spent "manufacturing doubt" about our entire scientific and regulatory system designed to protect people's health. (And that's just the most recent history. For a more comprehensive picture of what the chemical industry has contributed to the safety and health of American citizens, check out Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner's excellent book Deceit and Denial.)

Luckily, the American Chemistry Council (formerly the Chemical Manufacturers Association) has a friend who feels its pain: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which has formed a new Alliance with the ACC so that all of their little voluntary programs -- OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and the ACC's Responsible Care® initiative -- can "dialogue" together (whatever that means). In fact, with this Alliance, ACC has basically enlisted OSHA in the association's membership campaign.

So what does this Alliance mean, aside from the usual press release, photo ops, fancy pens and signing ceremonies? Well, let's see. Basicially, to quote the official agreement: (AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND THE AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL), OSHA and ACC will

• Promote membership in each others' program to potential companies and program auditors.
  


• Work with OSHA to provide expertise in the development of training and education programs for VPP evaluators (including VPP Regional staff) and Responsible Care auditors, regarding the similarities and differences in the two programs and communicate such information to appropriate individuals.

Before gettting down to business, let's take a minute of have a bit of fun ridiculing them for a couple of seconds. Check out this sentence, it's just so....Washington:

"OSHA and ACC will continue to work with the synergies between the two programs in order to leverage resources and work on the continued goals of safety and health."

You just can't get much better than that.

OK, enough fun. Now let's talk about government ethics, or lack thereof. Turns out that this Alliance is a bit more than the usual meaningless waste of taxpayer dollars by an agency that's evading its mission. As a matter of fact, I'll come right out and say it: This Alliance with the ACC borders on unethical. Anyone from the Department of Labor's Inspector General's office listening?

I'll explain.

ACC is a membership association of chemical companies. In order to be a member of ACC, member companies must commit to complying with the Responsible Care® program. But Responsible Care is actually a mixed blessing for ACC. On one hand it is intended to give the organization a more responsible image with the general public and, at least in the case of chemical plant security, to sell Responsible Care® as the model for a federal program. (ACC is actually promoting chemical plant security regulations...as long as they're based on the Responsible Care® program.)

On the other hand, however, ACC is losing members(partially due to high memberships fees and allegedly ineffective advocacy) and doesn't want the Responsible Care® program to make the problem worse, or scare off potential members who don't want to comply with a program that goes "above and beyond government requirements," as the ACC likes to boast.

ACC recently revised Responsible Care® , replacing its ineffective self-audit process with a mandatory third-party auditing requirement. That may have enhanced the credibility of Responsible Care® , but it certainly didn't help their membership much. Obviously, the less burdensome ACC can make the program seem, the better its bottom line. And what better way to make the program seem attractive than to have OSHA on board training Responsible Care® auditors (who eventually audit ACC members) , selling the program along with the OSHA-sponsored VPP, and giving Responsible Care (and ACC membership) OSHA's official stamp of approval. In other words, OSHA has signed onto ACC's membership-building campaign as a full partner.

If ACC wants to have a mandatory safety program, more power to them. If OSHA thinks the program is good enough to praise, go for it. But this Alliance, with OSHA going around arm in arm with ACC to promote ACC's proprietary program, essentially making it easier for companies to join, is on a bit of a different scale.

Doesn't anyone else see anything not quite kosher about this?

I mean, can you imagine what the Republicans and Rush Limbaugh types would have done if Bill Clinton's OSHA had gotten actively involved on the union side of organizing campaigns, going around educating workers about the benefits of organizing a union? (And union membership, unlike business association membership, is supposed to be a right promoted by the federal government -- at least back before the Department of Labor became a subsidiary of the Department of Commerce).

Wouldn't it be nice to have at least one house of Congress back again so that our legislators could actually hold some meaningful oversight hearings about how OSHA and other compliance agencies have strayed from their original intent?

In OSHA's case, the original intent was:

To assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women; by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the Act; by assisting and encouraging the States in their efforts to assure safe and healthful working conditions; by providing for research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health; and for other purposes.

...And where does "assisting industry associations to build membership" come in?

Labels: Chemical Safety Board

Attention journalists, political activists and residents of any area near a company that employees workers -- in other words, everyone. Check this out.

The last problem we seem to have these days in this increasingly computerized world is lack of information. The real problem is knowing where to find it and how to use it. Journalists or political organizers, if they're knowledgeable about the web, can ferret out valuable information about individual companies that they may be interested in. But mere mortals often have a harder time.

Now, Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has created Job Tracker, putting an enormous amount of valuable workplace-related information at the fingertips of anyone with a web browser. They've constructed an ingenious tool for discovering, by inputting a zip code or state, vital information about companies and how they treat their workers: OSHA citations (when, for what, how much ), layoffs, exporting jobs and violating labor laws. It even has each company's OSHA injury and illness rate, and whether the rates were high enough to earn a letter from OSHA warning them that they're on the targeted inspection list. You can also search by company name and by industry.

But enough talk, time to take her out for a test spin. We'll feed in my zip code, 20912 ... and seconds later I find that within 100 miles of my home are 17 companies that have been exporting jobs, 15 companies that have been laying off workers, 13 companies that have violated federal labor laws and 94 companies with safety and health violations.

OK, narrowing it down to the service sector, I find General Dynamics Robotic Systems in Westminster, Maryland which killed a worker in 2004 and received a $2,375 penalty. Bad.

And, in case you're interested, the CEO of the company, Nicholas D. Chabraja, "raked in $7,145,081 in total compensation including stock option grants from General Dynamics" in 2004, in addition to "another $17,807,840 in unexercised stock options from previous years."

"Awesome," as my kids would say.

Much of the information is linked to its source. For example, the OSHA violations link right to OSHA's inspection data webpage.

It's fun to think how this tool can be put to use. Workers can discover their employer's history of NLRA and OSHA violations. Journalists can instantly find if a company has "a history." Political organizers can ask Senator Porkafeller why he's getting contributions from a company that has 12 NLRB violations, 3 OSHA citations and is exporting jobs to China. Bloggers can get a few more minutes of sleep at night.

I'd suggest a few enhancements, in case anyone's asking. Adding environmental citations and toxic releases would not only attract environmentalists and residents who are wondering what's being spewed over their neighborhoods, but also highlight the connection between workplace, labor and environmental criminals.

And then maybe tying in some Google maps, with different colored pins: red for OSHA violations, yellow NLRB citations, and searching by Congressional District, and .... This could be fun.

Labels: AFL-CIO

Guess what, Latino's aren't just the main source of cheap labor in farms, construction sites and meat processing, they're also the major source of manual labor in America's forest industry. And, as usual, they're paying the price in injuries and abuse. But there's something different from the usual exploitation suffered by Latinos at the hand of greedy corporations; this abuse is brought to you by your federal government.

I've been writing this blog for two-and-a-half years, and working in this field for 23 years, and there are still stories out there that amaze and appall me -- and occasionally reporters and news media that continues to impress.

The Sacramento Bee has just published a must-read three part series on pineros, the men who work in the pines.

Guest forest workers are routinely subjected to conditions not tolerated elsewhere in the United States, The Bee investigation found. They are gashed by chain saws, bruised by tumbling logs and rocks, verbally abused and forced to live in squalor.

Rainstorms pummel them. Cold winds sweep over them. Hunger stalks them. And death claims them. Across Honduras and Guatemala, 14 guest workers lay in tombs, victims of the worst non-fire-related workplace accident in the history of U.S. forests.

***

This fall, 17 guest workers slashed through dense stands of pine and fir in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest for a contractor with a history of labor violations: Universal Forestry of Orofino, Idaho.

While cutting a dead tree without safety goggles - another violation - one of them was struck in the face by a branch, which gouged a deep crescent beneath his eye. The company declined to discuss the situation in Montana. But other crew members complained of unsafe working conditions, of unexpected payroll deductions and of hunger.

"We are uneasy because we don't even have enough money to eat," said Luciano Hernández, who said he was down to his last $15.

But unlike the millions of Latin Americans who are in this country illegally, the 10,000 pineros working in the forests are here legally, on H2B visas, at the invitation of the federal government, to plant trees across and thin fire-prone woods out West as part of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative. But they're hardly treated with the hospitality that guests deserve:

• Over the past decade, forest contractors certified by the U.S. Department of Labor to hire foreign guest workers have shorted them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages and violated scores of state and federal laws. Some employers have taken workers' visas and personal papers, including deeds to cars and even a home - in effect, holding them hostage to hard labor.
• The H2B forest workers toil in a regulatory void. Rules that protect H2A farmworkers - such as requirements for free housing and access to federal legal services - don't extend to forest guest workers.
• In national forests, where the contractors are paid with tax dollars, federal officials overseeing the work witness the mistreatment and wretched working conditions. But they don't intervene. Responsibility for workers, they say, rests with the Department of Labor and the forest contractors themselves.
• And, where government oversight of contractors exists, it's often inconsistent. Companies cited by one branch of the Labor Department for abusing forest guest workers are regularly certified by another branch to recruit and hire more.

And cutting trees is not the only problem.

The number one cause of death among pineros - Latino forest workers - is not the slip of a chain saw or the falling trees known as widow-makers. It is van accidents. And unlike most highway tragedies, the crashes that claim migrant lives are not born of chance alone.

They are the byproducts of fatigue, poorly maintained vehicles, ineffective state and federal laws, inexperienced drivers and poverty-stricken workers hungry for jobs.

"When you add everything up, it's a formula for disaster," said Robert Perez, a Fresno lawyer who has represented scores of Latino laborers hurt and killed in van accidents.

All told, 21 pineros are known to have died in van accidents over just the last three years: 14 in Maine, five in Washington and two in Oregon. But those numbers don't begin to measure the pain: across Guatemala and Honduras, at least 15 women have lost their partners and 69 children no longer have their fathers.

Beyond the hazards of cutting trees and transportation, there are the hazards of planting:

The greatest dangers for pineros are not always the obvious ones. One of the riskiest jobs isn't cutting trees down - it's planting them in the ground, another Canadian report found.

"Planters typically cover 16 kilometers (9.6 miles) per day over difficult terrain," said the study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2002. "In the process of planting, 20 percent will suffer a debilitating injury, a rate far in excess of the all-industry norm of five percent. ... Long-term implications for degeneration of the musculoskeletal system cannot be ignored."

Eladio Hernandez, a former Oregon tree planter, calls it "probably the hardest job in the world."

"Slopes are slippery," he said. "There's poison oak and ivy. Every day, you come back with a fever. It's that difficult. You either get used to it or quit."

The worst part is that this isn't the first time the Bee has written about this problem. There was a flurry of attention after a Bee article 12 years ago and the forest service promised to address the problems. But

Despite calling for tougher law enforcement and assembling a 264-page watch list of troubled contractors, the agency today routinely contracts its work out to reforestation companies that violate state and federal safety, health and labor laws.

***

"We're not very good at managing things like this anymore," said Stan Bird, a veteran Forest Service contracting officer in John Day, Ore. "Years ago, it was important. But it's gotten lost in the midst of a lot of other priorities."

In the Klamath National Forest in California, federal law enforcement officer Jeff Brown worked a flurry of cases in the mid-'90s involving undocumented workers. Since then, Forest Service reforestation officials have not referred a single case to him. "In my opinion, the problem is still out there," Brown said. "It hasn't gone away."

Labels: Immigrant Workers;journalism

This is the kind of case where you wish OSHA had the ability to send an employer to jail without passing go and without a chance of a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

A worker was crushed to death yesterday at the Jindal United Steel Works in Houston, Texas. The details about the accident haven't been released, but an enterprising reporter did take the time to check the company's past OSHA history, and guess what?

In a 40-page document from the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 100 citations for safety and health violations were listed for Jindal. The citations range from failure to correct crane hazards to serious health violations.

In October 2000, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration fined Jindal $1.7 million for 182 alleged violations.

Jindal's sister company, SAW Pipes USA, Inc., was fined $500,000 three months later by OSHA for 67 alleged willful violations for failing to document illnesses and injuries on the job.

OSHA noted the penalties against the company represents one of the largest record-keeping violations in years.

The citation, which you can view here, is still being appealed by the company.

The huge fine was mainly for recordkeeping violations, crimes that Senator Enzi (see below) would undoubtedly consider to be insignficant not even punishable if the employer fixed it within 72 hours.

But as the OSHA press release said at the time of the citation:

The inspection found that the company purposefully did not record numerous injuries and illnesses from 1998 through part of 2000, significantly lowering the company's lost workday illness and injury rate.

"Documenting workplace injuries and illnesses is a vital part of protecting our nation's workers," said OSHA Administrator Charles N. Jeffress. "Under our inspection targeting system, had this employer reported the correct injury and illness rate for 1998, the facility would likely have been placed on the list for a programmed inspection prior to the complaint that initiated this investigation."

Failing to record workplace injuries and illnesses is a serious deficiency, not merely a paperwork violation. Accurate records of injuries and illnesses help workers and employers identify hazards that require correction and help OSHA pinpoint worksites that need to do a better job of protecting workers.

And, as we saw yesterday, fraudulent recordkeeping may also be indicative of lousy safety conditions.

Labels: Criminal Prosecution

Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) is reportedly poised to introduce wide-ranging legislation that will seriously weaken the Occupational Safety and Health Act. While all the details aren't in, Inside OSHA (subscription required) has obtained a summary of the bills and the first impression is...worse than anyone expected.

First, what won't be on the bills: Enzi had originally planned to make it easier for OSHA to seek criminal penalties against employers cited for willful violations, but succumbed to industry pressure to drop that proposal. The criminal penalties language would have raised the maximum prison sentence for willful OSHA violations from six to 18 months, according to Inside OSHA.

Oh well. I mean, it's not like they're actually killing people. Oh, actually, yes they are.

Among the bills that Enzi is expected to introduce as early as next week are:

Occupational Safety Partnership Act: Enzi will also repropose his pet project -- privatizing OSHA enforcement by allowing employers to hire private sector consultants to inspect their workplaces and issue a "certificate of compliance," exempting them from an OSHA citation for two years. The Partnership act will also increase the use of voluntary protection programs and technical assistance programs. These are the same programs that the Government Accountability Office studied in 2004 and found to have no proven value.

Occupational Safety Fairness Act: This bill includes Charlie Norwood's (R-GA) four OSHA-weakening bills that already passed the House of Representatives last July. In addition, there's are some even worse provisions, including one that would allow employers to vacate citations "if an employer can demonstrate that the employees of such employer were protected by alternative methods equivalent or more protective of the workers’ safety and health." In other words, instead of citing according to OSHA standards, the agency would be forced to use its shrinking resources to prove that the employer's "alternative" methods weren't equally as protective as the OSHA standard.

It would also allow employers to avoid non-serious citations if they fix the problem within 72 hours and requires OSHA is issue most citations within 30 days (instead of the current 6 months), doubles the amount of time the employer has to contest a citation. (With no additional resources, of course.)

This bill also states that “other than serious” citations may not be used as a basis for issuing subsequent, repeat, or willful violation. In other words, if OSHA cites a "close call" or an unsafe condition, and then the same problem eventually leads to a serious injury or fatality, OSHA would be prohibited from issuing a significant citation.

But the worst part of this bill is that for the first time in OSHA's history, the agency would be empowered to cite workers if they aren't wearing their personal protective equipment. Yes, this is the same agency that after five years, still refuses to issue a completed regulation requiring employers to pay for personal protective equipment mandated by OSHA standards.

Those are the best parts. More details as they emerge.

Get ready for a fight.

AFSCME in Minnesota is warning the public that there may be trouble during snow storms if the state goes through with its plan to put desk-bound workers behind the wheel of snow plows, even though they had a two-week training course -- in the summer.

Their inexperience raises safety questions, said Bob Hilliker of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

"(The training) was on dry ground," Hilliker said. "It was up at Camp Ripley with no traffic and now they're going to go out in a storm and be in a lot of traffic at a high speed with the worst conditions possible."

This statement from a union representative may seem obvious to most of us, but not apparently to the Bush administration. Labor unions who represent health care workers are none too happy with the recently released White House Avian Flu plan, according to Inside OSHA (subscription required). The guidance is ineffective and contradictory.

HHS recommends that workers use surgical or procedure masks when entering a patient’s room. However, labor groups say that this is not enough and that an N95 respirator, which is recommended by the World Health Organization, should be required for all healthcare workers. HHS only recommends use of the N95 mask when performing aerosolgenerating procedures such as intubation, nebulizer treatment, bronchoscopy and suctioning. But CDC, which is part of HHS, recommends that healthcare workers always use N95 respirators or better.

Union reps fear that if health care workers do not feel they're being adequately protected, they won't show up for work in the event of a pandemic.

The Institute for Southern Studies has started a new webpage and blog called Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch "a new project to document and investigate the rebuilding of the Southern Gulf in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita"

Through much of the Gulf Coast coast, there's now an eery silence. The hurricanes have left, the flood waters have receded, and the TV cameras are nearly all gone.

But for the people of the hurricane-ravaged South, the struggle for their region's future has just begun.

While residents are focused on picking up the pieces, a handful of powerful interests -- well-connected contractors, unscrupulous developers, and ambitious politicians -- are cutting deals, making plans and seeking to capitalize on the disaster.

But who's watching them?

We are.

Good. Someone needs to do it.

Labels: Katrina

More today on the struggles of workers in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. First, Amanda Schaffer at Slate writes about "Katrina Cough."

Katrina cough is a constellation of symptoms—coughs, sore throats, runny noses, and respiratory trouble. As I mentioned in my yesterday's review of Gulf Coast problems, many downplay its seriousness, although it can be dangerous for people with asthma, respiratory illness, or compromised immune systems.

Schaffer has been paying close attention to what happened after during the World Trade Centers cleanup.

Following 9/11, the EPA and OSHA failed to safeguard nearby residents and workers at Ground Zero from unnecessary exposures to asbestos, lead, glass fibers, concrete dust, and other toxins. The damage was caused not by a few days of rescue work, but by weeks and months of cleaning up the site or living nearby. The EPA offered assurances that the air outside of Ground Zero was safe to breathe—even though, as the agency's inspector general found in 2003, the agency "did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement." The EPA also caved to pressure from the White House Council on Environmental Quality "to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" from its public announcements about the disaster. And in overseeing work at Ground Zero, OSHA decided not to enforce workplace health rules as it regularly would have, but instead acted primarily as an "adviser" to employers. As a result, the agency did not ensure that workers wore proper protective gear, especially respirators, though the equipment was widely available on the site. (For more on respirators and Ground Zero click here.)

The EPA is again downplaying the risks to Katrina survivors. Many of the educational materials prepared by EPA aren't reaching the people who need them, and although the American Lung Association estimates that more than 16 percent of New Orleans children suffered from asthma, EPA has not told parents to keep children away until the cleanup has significantly progressed. People working on houses are unable to find enough protective respirators and are instead using paper dust masks that can trap the contaminents in the mask, making the problem worse.

And then in a potentially tragic deja vu,

Also troubling is the lack of protection for recovery workers hired by contractors. Subra says the workers she has seen have no respiratory gear. Contractors are reportedly hiring the workers, many of them Latino immigrants, in nearby cities like Houston. "I know men who have gotten so sick with diarrhea, skin inflammations and breathing problems they can't work. … The contractors just hire more," said Juan Alvarez, director of the Latin American Organization for Immigrant Rights in Houston, in a letter sent to Congress by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health and other groups.

Meanwhile, over at Salon, Roberto Lovato writes about the Gulf Coast Slaves of KBR, "a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton that was awarded a major contract by the Bush administration for disaster relief work."

Workers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants, report not being paid, not being fed, being kept captive on the military bases they're working on, and being thrown out on the streets after being kicked out of promised jobs. The job brokers and sub-contractors claim they can't pay the workers, because they haven't been paid by their contractor. On top of the heap stand Halliburton and KBR atop "a shadowy labyrinth of contractors, subcontractors and job brokers, overseen by no single agency, [who]have created a no man's land where nobody seems to be accountable for the hiring -- and abuse -- of these workers."

Meanwhile, it's almost impossible to hold Halliburton/KBR responsible:

Halliburton/KBR is the general contractor with overarching responsibility for the federal cleanup contracts covering Katrina-damaged naval bases. Even so, there is an utter lack of transparency with the process -- and that invites malfeasance, says James Hale, a vice president of the Laborers' International Union of North America. "To my knowledge, not one member of Congress has been able to get their hands on a copy of a contract that was handed out to Halliburton or others," Hale says. "There is no central registry of Katrina contracts available. No data on the jobs or scope of the work." Hale says that his union's legislative staff has pressed members of Congress for more information; apparently the legislators were told that they could not get copies of the contracts because of "national security" concerns.
"If the contracts handed out to these primary contractors are opaque, then the contracts being let to the subcontractors are just plain invisible," Hale says. "There is simply no ability to ascertain or monitor the contractor-subcontractor relationships. This is an open invitation for exploitation, fraud and abuse."

Labels: Katrina

If you're a worker, resident or tree in New Orleans or on the Gulf Coast, things aren't going so well these days. A series of recent articles in a variety of newspapers tell stories of contamination of the water and land with toxic chemicals, dangerous molds that may already be causing disease, workers without proper safety equipment who often don't get paid for the work they've done, and corporations involved in the cleanup who want Congress to free them of any liability for damage that they may cause.

The contamination that has gotten the most attention comes from the 1 million gallons of oil spilled from a Murphy Oil Corp. storage tank, which left unsafe levels of diesel and oil-related organic chemicals in sediment. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease

said that people should not move back into homes where oil is visible and that they should use protective gear when they are working around contaminated homes. The agency said studies have shown that if someone touches oil substances with their bare skin they may suffer from rashes and be at a slightly higher risk of skin cancer.

EPA has also found high levels of arsenic, diesel fuel and other petroleum-based chemicals around the refinery.

Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle reviewed data from the National Response Center which showed

that the two storms caused at least 595 spills, incidents that released untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other chemicals into the air, onto land and into the water.

The quantity and cumulative magnitude of the 595 spills, which were spread across four states and struck offshore and inland, rank these two hurricanes among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Some have even compared the total amount of oil released — estimated at 9 million gallons — to the tragedy of Exxon Valdez.

***

"This is about the tenth disaster I have responded to, and this is the worst I have ever seen," said Wally Cooper, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's on-scene coordinator, in charge of overseeing the Murphy Oil spill cleanup. "This is worse than the worst-case scenario."

Mother nature is only partly to blame for the high number of chemical tanks that ruptured during the storm:

"A high proportion of them are not properly tied down," Ivor van Heerden, the center's director, said in a November 2003 report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Imagine a storage tank full of diesel lifted by floodwaters,shearing its hoses, and its pipes working loose, and leaking."

Environmentalists say faulty equipment, not the hurricanes, was to blame for many of the spills. For the activist community, the storms' environmental impact has refocused efforts from day-to-day pollution and on to bigger issues such as whether energy infrastructure should be located along a hurricane-prone coast, said Denny
Larson, coordinator for the Refinery Reform Campaign.

"People have said for years that they shouldn't have facilities in low-lying coastal areas where contamination risks are great," Larson said. "It's ... the poorest possible choice." As Congress considers building new refining capacity, environmentalists are already pushing for lawmakers to require companies to have plans for natural disasters. The design of storage tanks also is likely to be a topic in the storms' post-mortem, experts say.

In order to understand the possible long-term effects of the contamination in New Orleans, the Dallas News reviewed the EPA test results of every chemical test at every site in Orleans Parish through Oct. 1 and compared them with the EPA's screening levels for residential soil. The News found high levels of cancer-causing arsenic, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, the banned insecticide dieldrin and lead.

Although early reports from EPA claimed that the water in New Orleans was no more polluted that normal flood water,

Contaminated sediment was always a more serious long-term worry than floodwater, since the water was quickly removed. In September, experts advised the EPA that toxic dust could spread as the sediment dried.

Buildings in New Orleans are now contaminated with mold and the toxic "soup" has dried into toxic mud, creating all kinds of new problems:

That debris includes a thick layer of dried mud that cakes much of St. Bernard and lower Plaquemines parishes and vast areas of Lakeview, the 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans. As the mud crumbles to dust and goes airborne or people come into contact with it on the ground, there is increasing concern it could be harmful to humans. Some sediment samples have contained arsenic, lead and petroleum products, and EPA officials said residents should avoid contact if possible.

Mold is being detected in previously unseen levels. According to Physicians for Social Responsibility, "preliminary testing results indicate that the indoor mold spore count in flooded homes is reaching 2.5 million; a count of more than 50,000 is considered severe by the National Allergy Board" and stores have run out of the recommended respirators.

The mold be be causing what is coming to be called "Katrina Cough," according to the Los Angeles Times:

Dr. Dennis Casey, one of the few ear, nose and throat doctors seeing patients in New Orleans, called the condition "very prevalent." And Dr. Kevin Jordan, director of medical affairs at Touro Infirmary and Memorial Medical Center in downtown New Orleans, said the hospital had seen at least a 25% increase in complaints regarding sinus headaches, congestion, runny noses and sore throats since Katrina.

In most cases, Casey said, patients appear to be "allergic to the filth they are exposed to." Those allergies make the patients more susceptible to respiratory illness, including bacterial bronchitis and sinusitis.

Among the public, the condition is known alternately as "Katrina cough" and "Katrina's revenge" — much to the consternation of physicians who feel the monikers paint a needlessly alarming portrait of the environment

***

But the condition could be more serious for people whose health is otherwise compromised — for example, organ transplant patients; people who are undergoing chemotherapy; or people who suffer from emphysema, asthma, chronic bronchitis or ther ailments.

"It could be life-threatening to those people," said Dr. Peter DeBlieux, associate medical director of the Spirit of Charity, a MASH-style clinic that has been set up in downtown New Orleans. "Those people are already living on a precipice and could be pushed off. Those people are encouraged not to come back to the city."

With the promise of work and high pay, high numbers of undocumented immigrants have flocked to New Orleans and Mississippi. Unfortunately, on top of the dirty and dangerous work, the AP's Justin Pritchard reports that many complain of not being paid after weeks of work.

A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of Mississippi's Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant laborers are being stiffed. Sometimes, the boss simply vanishes. Other workers wait on promises that soon, someone in a complex hierarchy of contractors will provide the funds to pay them.

Nonpayment of wages is a violation of federal labor law, but these workers — thousands of them, channeled into teams that corral debris, swaddle punctured roofs in blue tarps and gut rain-ravaged homes — are especially vulnerable because many are here illegally.

Many of the firms that aren't paying are subcontracting from KBR, a firm owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton.

The worst problems seem to be in Mississippi, although it's hard to gauge accurately, as the state doesn't even have a labor department, it's not against the Mississippi law to not pay workers, and any complaints are forwarded to the federal Department of Labor. The only option workers have is to file a claim with the federal government or take their employer to court, options that few, if any, immigrant workers will take advantage of. In fact, despite widespread complaints of non-payment of wages, Mississippi prosecutors have not received a single complaint.

On top of all this, corporations involved in the cleanup are pushing a bill, S. 1761, through Congress that would "streamline" contractor-liability laws and push all related lawsuits into the federal court system.

In addition, the proposed Act would temporarily bar contract employees from suing government contractors handling the Gulf Coast clean-up, end monetary awards for emotional and other non-physical damages and prohibit courts and juries from levying punitive awards in such cases.

S. 1761 would apply not just to the Katrina disaster, but to any future national disasters in which federal aid costs more than $15 billion. A coalition of labor and environmental groups have sent a letter to Congress opposing the bill.

The letter urges that

"Congressional relief, recovery, and rebuilding assistance must make clean air and water for the people of the Gulf Coast a priority. Instead, the residents of the Gulf Coast who have already been victimized by the terrific force of these hurricanes will be victimized again by this bill, which would leave them without a remedy against government contractors that cause irreparable harm to their air and water."

Noting that contractors' actions can either help people or imperil their safety, the letter asserts that such contractors, "who are paid by the taxpayers for the work that they do, should be held fully accountable to the public if they behave carelessly and cause harm to people or the environment. No public policy reason justifies Congress granting federal contractors legal immunity for negligence or illegal activity."

The letter warns that S.B. 1761 also would immunize contractors from liability for personal injuries or property damage in most cases by expanding the Government Contractor Defense. Currently, that defense generally applies only if the government provides precise instructions that the contractor must follow – such as design requirements for military airplanes – and the injury occurred because the contractor adhered to those specific, mandatory instructions.

But S.B. 1761 would create a presumption that all elements of the Government Contractor Defense are met merely by the Army Corps' Chief of Engineers certifying the contract as necessary for disaster recovery. The presumption could only be overcome if the contractor acted fraudulently or with willful misconduct in submitting information to the Chief of Engineers at the time of the contract. The letter notes, "In other words, the defense will almost always apply to disaster contractors

Despite the serious problems, however, the major media has moved on from the hurricane stories. Workers and residents of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast aren't so lucky, however, and may still be feeling the health effects of this disaster decades from now.

Labels: Katrina

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the 29 mariners lost when the 729-foot freighter was caught in storm Nov. 10, 1975, and sank as it carried a load of iron ore across Lake Superior.

At the time, it was the worst shipping disaster on the Great Lakes in 11 years.

The 729-foot freighter was caught in a catastrophic gale after taking on a load of taconite iron ore at Superior, Wis. Gusts exceeding 90 mph kicked up 30-foot waves as the ship struggled toward the safety of Whitefish Bay, in the lake's southeastern corner.

Capt. Ernest McSorley radioed the Arthur M. Anderson, a trailing freighter, that the Fitzgerald had topside damage and was listing. At 7:10 p.m., he told the Anderson's first mate, "We are holding our own." It was the last anyone heard from the Fitzgerald.

The ship plunged to the bottom, 530 feet down. Diving expeditions later determined the freighter had broken into two large sections, its cargo strewn along the lake floor. No bodies have been recovered.

Update: NPR's All Things Considered had a segment on the 30th Anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The independent panel studying the "safety culture" of BP North America met for the first time last Thursday. The panel, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker III, was formed at the request of the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) to "review a range of safety management and culture issues in the wake of recent chemical accidents at BP's south Texas facilities." Although the CSB will monitor the panel, it is being organized and funded by BP.

As reported earlier, a preliminary CSB report of the investigation at the BP Texas City Plant where a March 23 explosion killed 15 workers could have been prevented if the refinery had installed a flare system years before, as OSHA had recommended, and heeded past warnings of previous "close calls" and malfunctioning alarms, indicators and other equipment.

Some health and safety activists have questioned what the Board means by "safety culture," and what issues the panel will be looking into. To clarify some of those issues, check out the following sections from the statement of CSB Chairman Carolyn Merritt at the opening meeting of the panel.

A good safety culture is the embodiment of effective programs, decision making and accountability at all levels. It is a much different concept from simply having good procedures on paper.

There is a widespread misperception that safety culture can be improved solely through modifying unsafe worker behaviors. While human errors contribute to most major incidents including this one, they are rarely the root cause. The mistakes that were made in Texas City have their roots in decisions made by managers at the facility and the corporate level, sometimes years earlier.

Thus when we talk about safety culture, we are talking first and foremost about how managerial decisions are made, about the incentives and disincentives within an organization for promoting safety. Are production and cost control being rewarded at the expense of safety and risk management?

One thing I have often observed is that there is a great gap between what executives believe to be the safety culture of an organization and what it actually is on the ground. Almost every executive believes he or she is conveying a message that safety is number one. But it is not always so in reality.

Merritt also noted some other areas that she wanted the panel to look into.

• One is management of fatigue. Our information indicates that on the day of the incident, some BP operators had worked 30 days straight, 12 hours per day, some with two-hour commute times.


• Another is the downsizing of both supervision and training. For example, BP Texas City went from 38 trainers in 1998 to just nine in 2005. And on the day of the incident there was no supervisor with appropriate experience overseeing key phases of the startup operation.


• Another concern is workload management. On March 23, a single board operator was responsible for simultaneously running the controls of three different complex process units, including the isom unit that was starting up.


• Finally, there is the issue of how obsolete equipment is managed. The blowdown drum and stack in Texas City was half-century old technology. Yet in the 1990s it was completely rebuilt according to its original design, which was by then recognized as antiquated and unsafe. How does BP’s management assure they are using current safety equipment that is appropriate for the risks involved?

More BP stories here.

Labels: BP, Chemical Safety Board

Despite their mistreatment, organizing immigrant workers is not easy. They often have had bad experiences with government-run unions in their native countries, and they often just want to make money -- even under terrible conditions -- without risking getting fired or turned over to the Migra. But progress is being made, even in the anti-union South.

Last year, after a five-year fight with the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, the Farm Labor Organizing committee reached an agreement with Mt. Olive and the North Carolina Growers Association (NDGA):

Mario Elias Gervacio doesn’t work on an assembly line or hold a government job. He’s not even a U.S. citizen.

Each spring for the past five years, Gervacio has left his town of Senguio, Michoacán, Mexico, and come north to plant and pull tobacco on a Guilford County farm for almost six months. He rose from simple farmhand to crew leader.

This year, he had an added duty: union treasurer.

For the first time, the welfare of Gervacio and 4,100 fellow “guest” migrant workers is under the auspices of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

Gervacio and his brethren are card-carrying union men working in the depths of anti-union America.

While they are here, FLOC’s mission is to ensure that the temporary migrant workers are treated fairly, receive adequate quarters and get appropriate medical care.

For Gervacio, the union is an advocate, a watch dog. At a union meeting this past June, he told a story of being grabbed a few years ago by a man who questioned his immigration status when he was out doing errands.

The union has arranged to recruit "guest" workers in Mexico who can then join the union and work legally in the US.

And with only four inspectors to inspect North Carolina's 1,002 farms, the union plays an important role mediating health & safety and other workplace issues that the state inspectors can't get to.

Of course, the old problems don't disappear:

Even the legal temporary jobs are drying up. Fewer guest workers are getting called up to North Carolina because farmers are growing fewer acres of tobacco.

And some farmers are falling back on illegal immigrants, who they can pay less than the guest workers’ wage of $8.24 an hour.

That means Gervacio, who has worked for Gibsonville farmer Robert Lewis for five years, has little chance of securing his long-term dream. But he says giving up a portion of his wage makes sense for other reasons.

While his living conditions exceed most workers — he and the 10 other men in his crew have washing machines, satellite television and access to a van for errands — he supports the union’s pledge to lobby for social security in Mexico and life insurance from farmers, among other issues.

Labels: AFL-CIO

As the health and safety director for AFSCME, the union that represents public employees, conversations about my job were often met with quizzical looks from people wondering what hazards government workers -- bureaucrats -- face aside from paper cuts or possible computer related ergonomic injuries.

Of course, public employees do all kinds of dangerous work -- on highways, in wastewater treatment plants, putting out fires, chasing bad guys -- and then there's social services.

It was after dark last Friday night, and Marty L. Smith was alone when he knocked on Larry W. Clark's door in Poulsbo.

Smith's job — a crisis responder for the state mental-health system — is inherently dangerous. But Smith had done the work for years, and, according to Poulsbo police, Clark was familiar to the local mental-health agency.

Smith had been summoned by Clark's mother, who told neighbors that her son had schizophrenia and was not taking his medications. Instead of consenting to a hospitalization, Clark attacked Smith with his fists and then a carving knife, according to charging papers, as Clark's mother screamed for help outside.

Smith, 46, died in Clark's dining room. He is the first designated mental-health professional (DMHP) to die on the job in Washington since 1987.

In a letter to the Kitsap Sun, John P. Masterson, Chief Executive Officer of Behavioral Health Resources provides a fitting eulogy:

As a CDMHP, Marty responded to mental health crises in Kitsap County 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Marty and his peers throughout the state routinely respond to requests from families, friends, police and others. They go when and where they are needed, often alone, responding to the call for help.

They go without weapons, armed only with their knowledge, their skills, and their commitment to care for very ill people.

They go wanting to help, knowing they are the only ones authorized by law to require gravely mentally ill persons to be hospitalized against their will, if it is necessary.

Above all, they are vital to the health and safety of the individual and to our communities.

Marty's willingness to provide this service is a testament to his compassion.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer notes that the attack on Smith was no fluke -- and there are things that can be done to prevent such tragedies:

Earlier this year, Child Protective Services worker Edith Vance was attacked with a machete and a two-by-four during a child welfare check at a residence in Ferry County. Her attacker, 35-year-old Bryan Russell, who had been convicted of assault and drug possession, was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy who had accompanied Vance and a coworker.

In 2002, Roger Erdman, a field inspector with the state Department of Licensing, was murdered by trucker Ralph Benson near Davenport.

The solution, of course, is not to arm all government workers but to devote necessary resources to guard their safety. Any potentially risky visits should be accompanied by a uniformed police officer or, at the very least, carried out in teams of two or more workers.

Indeed

Labels: Public Employees

The avian flu pandemic hasn't even hit yet, but respirator manufacturers, in the form of the Coalition for Breathing Safety, are trying to use fear of a pandemic to relieve them of legal liability for faulty respirators:

The Coalition for Breathing Safety warned today that availability of respirators -- a key aspect of President Bush's National Strategy to Safeguard Against the Danger of Pandemic Influenza -- is threatened by the growing burden of questionable silica litigation, and called for federal legislation to address this problem.

***

"Respirators have long-played an important role in protecting workers against exposure to hazardous materials, and would be necessary in the event of a pandemic, terrorist incidents and other disasters," said Daniel K. Shipp, President of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), a member of the Coalition for Breathing Safety.

"However, a wave of unfounded lawsuits claiming defective design or
failure to warn may force manufacturers to abandon production of respirators, when, conversely, what we need right now is to preserve U.S. respirator production capacity so that U.S. respirator manufacturers can help build stockpiles that will be available in case of a national emergency."

What's behind all of this?

Respirator manufacturers and others are being sued by victims of silicosis who claim that defective design and warnings have lead to disease. In 2003 the state of West Virginia, along with western Kentucky coal miners filed against respirator manufacturers claiming they developed black lung disease and silicosis.

The dispute focuses on disposable dust masks that have replaced heavier cartridge respirators. A 2004 US News & World Report investigation found that:

the respirator mask that was to have revolutionized American industry in the '70s has today become a public-health calamity, and the dimensions of the problem are only now becoming apparent. The 3M Co., which produces everything from Post-it notes to Scotch tape, is one of America's best-known and most admired firms.

The problem, according to government regulators, is that the disposable masks can't be satisfactorily tested to ensure that they form a tight seal around the face. Without fit-testing that ensures a tight seal, toxic dust gets around the mask into the lungs. But much scarier to respirator manufacturers than a few coal miners are the 1.7 million U.S. workers who are exposed to silica dust in jobs like construction, sandblasting, and mining and several hundred deaths that are reported each year. Respirator manufacturers (and other businesses) fear that silicosis will take the place of asbestos suits and are trying to nip this "crisis" in the bud.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have already used the flu pandemic to convince Bush to urge Congress to exempt them from possible lawsuits against a flawed flu vaccine. Well, if it's working for big Pharma, why not for "big Respi":

Bush asked Congress to remove "one of the greatest obstacles to domestic vaccine production: the growing burden of litigation." He continued, "In the past three decades, the number of vaccine manufacturers in America has plummeted, as the industry has been flooded with lawsuits ... That leaves our nation vulnerable in the event of a pandemic ... Congress must pass liability protection for the makers of life-saving vaccines."

Shipp stated, "Like vaccine makers, U.S. respirator manufacturers need federal legislation not only to protect against frivolous lawsuits, but also to provide manufacturers with the financial stability and predictability that will allow them to support the stockpiling of respirators. Such legislation would not prevent legitimate claims from being filed."

Probably more to this story. Stay tuned.

Labels: Asbestos

Thanks to Kevin Drum's Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal, my Tuesday evening post about how National Association of Manufacturers' blogger Pat Cleary finds childhood lead poisoning to be the funiest thing since George Bush pretended to look for Iraqi WMDs under his bed, was circulated widely around the blogosphere yesterday (Check out the comments on Kevin's blog, especially this one.)

After a day of rather pathetic attempts to defend himself in the comments of his blog, Cleary (or his superiors) seem to have quietly surrendered. The childhood lead post has has been pulled from the front page of his blog (although you can still read it -- and the comments here.)

These people are shameless, so I guess this is about as much of an apology or admission of guilt as we're ever going to hear from them.

***
One other observation. Pulling posts from a blog is generally considered to be against the blogging "rules of the road," to the extent they exist. Despite frequent criticism that blogs are often unethical and irresponsible and not held to the same standard of fact and truth as the mainstream media (and that they cause riots), the truth is that the blogosphere tends to be fairly self-policing. Bad, unfactual, dishonest posts get roundly criticized and the blogger will then either defend him/herself, or admit that he was wrong, apologize, explain and move on.

But you generally don't just disappear your own blog post as if it never existed. It's almost kind of Orwellian

This came in today as a comment on the Weekly Toll of April 10, 2005 from the father of Donald Wilcher Smith who was electrocuted while working at Sanderson Farm's poultry processing plant.

I thought everyone should see it:

In review of Confined Space, I found the 3rd article was about my son's death and felt drawn to comment.

As a safety professional with multiple years of field work experience, I know that to call something an "accident" is misleading. The definition of accident is something in effect that is going to happen no matter what the individual does, or how much or little is in prevention. Now, an "incident" is what I term something that happens and is preventable...largely through the human factor. In my 32 years in industrial manufacturing, 17 of those in the safety area, I have never seen an accident. BUT I have seen a lot of incidents.

Prevention is the key... and training along with ENFORCEMENT OF SAFETY RULES is integral to that key. ALL LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT must accept the Safety Culture, embrace it as second nature, and follow up with its charges to see that they too live in that culture.

Here is a safety axiom that I agree with: If you have a hazard, and there is exposure to it even for a short period of time,and over any (given) period of time where the exposure exists, THEN injury (incident) is CERTAIN TO OCCUR. (You may have heard this in several forms elsewhere... this just happens to be the wording that I teach to my managers.) The objective is to ELIMINATE THE HAZARD, whether it be through engineering out the hazard, training, guarding, etc.

I reflect more often these days about how I can have a positive effect on those around me, especially regarding their safety. I only wish all of Corporate America held the same view of safety as I do, but then, that's my job... right? I consider it a moral issue.

In closing, my son's death devastated my soul and caused me to reflect on my faith in God. Out of all this my objective surfaced: communicate the necessity of safety at any cost. A report my son gave last semester in one of his classes was on the 2004 Tsunami. He commented at one point when reviewing the costs of an early warning system,"After all, who can put a price on human life."

Here was my Agronomy major telling my story for me. How ironic is that?

-- Donald Coit Smith

Michigan business association representatives are not happy that the Governor Granholm's state OSHA is still working on an ergonomics standard after the legislature tried to rescind the ergonomic committee's funding.

They're so mad that they're trying to take their ball and go home. Unfortunately, the game is going on without them.

A state ergonomics advisory committee that has been meeting for two years is on at least its 10th draft of proposed rules that would govern how employers must identify and address conditions that could put workers at risk for job-related injuries caused by repetitive motion, force and other factors.

Business lobbyists say the committee's work violates a business-requested provision in the recently approved 2006 Department of Labor and Economic Growth budget that prohibits the use of state funds to develop mandates more stringent than federal voluntary ergonomics guidelines.

At least two business/industry representatives have resigned from the ergonomics advisory committee in protest.

Amy Shaw, director of education and employment relations for the Michigan Manufacturers Association, resigned in protest over the committee's continuing to work despite the budget prohibition. But Greg Bird, a spokesman for the state budget office, says the budget provision is unenforceable because it attempts to amend Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration practices through a budget bill, rather than through MIOSHA law.

Last year, Charlie Owens, director of the National Federation of Independent Business-Michigan, resigned, saying he "could not participate in an exercise that will result in one of the most far-reaching and burdensome regulations on small business and all business in this state."

The committee started taking shape in 2002 under former [Republican] Gov. John Engler. The advisory committee has more than a dozen representatives from business, labor and other interests.

And then we have the same old tired job blackmail argument:

“I feel very, very strongly that if we were to put in a Michigan-specific ergonomics rule, we might as well put up a big stop sign to businesses, that says, ‘Don’t bring your jobs to Michigan,’ ” Jones said. He said he plans to introduce legislation prohibiting the state from enacting the ergonomics rules.

Well, if you feel that strongly that Michigan would be put at a disadvantage if it was the only state (besides California) with an ergonoimics standard, then the logical solution would be to have a national standard.

Oh, oops, we actually had one of those, but you guys killed it.

Related Stories

• MI Governor Tells Ergo Foes To Stick It Up Their Carpal Tunnel, October 28, 2005
• Michigan Legislature Stops Work On Ergo Standard, October 12, 2005
• MI Governor Disappoints Right Wing, April 2, 2004
• Anti-Ergonauts on the Rampage Again, March 23, 2004
• Ergo Battle in Michigan, March 3, 2004

Labels: Ergonomics

Every once in a while industry associations slip up and reveal their true sociopathic colors.

Pat Cleary, who writes the "Manufacturers' Blog" for the National Association of Manufacturers has always been a bit of a joke -- a bad joke considering NAM's "contribution" to repealing the ergonomics standard in 2001 and generally weakening workers health and safety rights.

Now, however, he's gone over the edge, way beyond bad taste, all the way to dispicable:

Trial Lawyers and the Theory of the Lead Paint Diet

Great editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal entitled, "Paint by Lawyer" about the trial lawyers' assault on the paint industry because of people eating -- that's right, eating -- lead paint. If you're eating lead paint as you're reading this, please stop. Paint is a coating, not a foodstuff.

Since when is lead poisoning in children a joke?

I guess there's not much funnier at NAM than reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit, disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, kidney damage, mental retardation, and even death.

Not only that, but Cleary lies:

No matter, the last time one nationally-known paint company had any lead in their paint was 1938, a fact little-known to the public and oft-ignored by the trial bar. In the 40's and 50's, it was essentially discontinued industry-wide. In 1954, the industry developed a standard that banned the use of lead pigments in paint. There's been a lot of paint over the dam, as it were, since then.

It's little known because it's not true. Even the Journal column that he quotes states that

Until 1978, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned it for residential purposes, lead paint was widely used (though the industry had voluntarily reduced the amount of lead in paint about 20 years earlier).

And 75 percent of houses and apartments built before 1978 in the United States still contain lead paint. About two-thirds of the homes built before 1940 and one-half of the homes built from 1940 to 1960 contain heavily-leaded paint. Especially in low income areas, the paint is still chipping, still turning to dust and being ingested by hundreds of thousands of small children every year.

The Journal doesn't get away blameless either. First, the only reason the industry "voluntarily" reduced the amount of lead in paints was overwhelming evidence, not just that lead was poisoning children, but that the industry knew that lead was poisoning children.

The Journal's article was basically its usual screed against trial lawyers. It ends with this line:

A better way to protect [children] would be to pursue landlords who don't maintain their properties, rather than hooking up with contingency-fee lawyers to loot the paint industry for products that it believed to be safe when they were sold 30 years ago.(emphasis added

This is also a bald-faced lie. Anyone who knows the history of the lead industry in this country (and if you don't, read Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner's excellent book Deceit and Denial -- now) knows that knew that that children were being poisoned from ingesting lead as far back as the 1920's -- and spent the next several decades manipulating the media, buying scientists and fighting government regulation. [Actually before the 1920's: See here.]

But the myths live on, as Rosner and Markowitz point out:

Immediately after taking office in 2001, Bush, known to be a friend to industry, appointed Gale Norton to head the Department of the Internior. Norton, a former lobbyist for NL industries, the modern incarnation of National Lead, was quick to claim that the lead industry had first learned of the dangers of its products to children in the 1940's and had acted immediately to remove lead from point, when in fact industry documents indicate that they had known more than twenty years earlier that their product was killing children.

P.S. They're probably beyond shame, but it might not hurt to write a few outraged letters to NAM President John Engler (National Association of Manufacturers, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20004-1790) or e-mail him here.

UPDATE: Cleary is unapologetic, and digging himself in deeper. Check out his responses here.
UPDATE2: NAM pulls blog entry. Details here.
.

Labels: National Association of Manufacturers

The blogosphere afire today with a story about a Cleveland Plain Dealer article accusing Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is challenging Ohio Senator Mike DeWine, of plagiarizing a post on Nathan Newman's blog detailing the anti-worker decisions of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Nathan denies that he was a victim. The real victims, in fact are "the workers denied minimum wage, family leave, or a day in court to challenge racial and gender discrimination because of Alito's decisions? "

In fact, he emphasizes, he (and the rest of us bloggers) want nothing more than progressive politicians to pick up our stuff.

DeWine just cracked a joke about not knowing to whom to respond -- Brown or Newman.

And Nathan, who was on his honeymoon when all this erupted had this to say:

So DeWine thinks workers having their paychecks stolen by employers is a joke?

DeWine thinks union workers being denied the freedom to form unions is a joke?

DeWine thinks racial discrimination is a joke?

That's the story the reporter should have concentrated on.

Who the hell cares if a Brown staffer copied a factual listing of legal cases into a letter? This was hardly a literary blog post using deathless prose for the ages. It was the facts that made this post interesting, not its literary value. But in typical manner, the response of the media is to ignore the substance and focus on some stupid "he said, she said" story.

As for me, if any politicians out there are thinking of plagiarizing my stuff -- GO FOR IT. (and a little attribution wouldn't be bad either.)

You know Tysons Foods must be a slimy organization if such working class heros as Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and John Roberts vote against your case (along with the rest of the Supreme Court.)

Workers at meat-processing plants must be paid for the time they spend walking between their work stations and the locker rooms where they don and doff protective gear, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

The justices, interpreting a federal wage law, today unanimously ruled against two companies, including Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat processor. The court also said workers must be paid for some of the time spent waiting at stations to receive and return equipment.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court, said that donning and doffing gear were "integral and indispensable'' parts of the job and that the workday begins once workers start putting on their equipment.

UFCW President Joe Hansen said that he appreciated the Court's recognition "that employers must pay workers for time spent obtaining required safety equipment and reporting to their work location in the plant"

For far too long, employers have cheated workers out of their full paycheck by refusing to pay them for the time it takes to pick up their required safety equipment such as chain mail gloves, hair nets, aprons and heavy boots. Meat industry giants like Tyson Foods, which owns IBP, have long insisted that workers paid time does not include as much as thirty to forty minutes per day spent collecting and putting on their gear and walking to their station on the production line.

Today, the Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed that workers deserve to be paid for that time. In reality, the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court had to rule on such a case speaks volumes about the greed and arrogance of employers in this country. It wasn’t enough to cheat workers out of their wages, the meat packing industry fought for the right to continue its rip-off all the way to the highest court.

In a statement after the Court's ruling, Tyson said that they "appreciate the court's clarification of the law." I'm assuming that Tyson's "approximately 114,000 Team Members employed at more than 300 facilities and offices in the United States and around the world" appreciate the court's clarification as well.

"By all accounts, Jim Bill Lynn bled Wal-Mart blue." That's how Harold Meyerson's starts off an American Prospect article about Lynn, who really believed Wal-Mart's rhetoric about improving working conditions in the factories of its foreign contractors, who really believed that Wal-Mart's "open door" policy made union's unnecessary.

Turns out Wal-Mart doesn't really care about foreign workers, or hearing the truth. Jim Bill Lynn no longer works for Wal-Mart and has filed a whilstle-blower complaint against the company.

Lynn's story is also featured in Robert Greenwald's new film, Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost, which is being released this month.

"Damn workers and going and getting themselves killed and bringing us down, hurting the shareholders. So any more of you get yourselves killed and we'll fire your asses."

This was approximately how Frank Williams III, chief executive at Williams Industries of Manassas, described the construction company's financial problems to its shareholders at its annual meeting.

Executives at Williams Industries Inc. shed new light on the construction firm's financial problems at a shareholders meeting Saturday, saying two work-related deaths contributed to $1.6 million in workers' compensation payouts this year.

At the annual meeting, a glum affair after Williams Industries of Manassas recently reported a $11.4 million loss for the fiscal year ended July 31, chief executive Frank E. Williams III said the two workers had not followed company safety rules.

The accidents involved "very seasoned veterans, and in both cases I believe the individuals put themselves in a situation where they shouldn't have been because of complacencies," Williams said, responding to a shareholder's question about the company's safety policies.

Those damn complacencies again. Ought to be a law against 'em. But don't worry, the problem is being dealt with:

Williams said the company has new safety rules. "We have instituted a zero-tolerance policy in the field," he said. "If you are caught not obeying the company's safety rules you are terminated. There is no warning system. There is no probation. You are gone. We can no longer afford to allow a safety violation of company policy to occur."

I tried to do a bit of research on the two deaths. According to the Washington Post, one occurred at the Springfield Interchange project in Northern Virginia in April.

Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Titunic says two workers were in a steel cage about 70 feet in the air, preparing to move the last of four large steel beams into place, around 2 a.m.

Titunic says it's believed one of the workers looked over the side of the cage, accidentally moved it and hit his head on the beam, suffering a fatal head or neck injury.

The man, identified as 35-year-old Darren Havermale, of Berkley Springs, W.Va., was pronounced dead at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Havermale worked for Williams Steel Co. based in Manassas.

I found it on OSHA's website. OSHA fined the company $8375 for two serious citations.

The other fatality happened at a steel-fabrication plant in February, according to the Post, but I could find no evidence of it on OSHA's web site. I did, however, find a story about the death of Ronal Alvarado Gochez, 25, a Williams Steel employee who was crushed to death under a 35-ton concrete slab yesterday morning, when the top two floors of a six-story parking garage being built for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda collapsed. That fatality resulted in a $14,000 OSHA fine.

Zero Tolerance Policies

Now I'm sure to get a comment from someone asking how I could possibly have a problem with a "zero-tolerance safety policy." The problem is bloody pocket syndrome which Steelworkers union health and safety director Mike Wright describes as "steelworkers who may have as little as a cut on their hand while on the job and in fear of retribution will hide it and wait until after their shift to go to the hospital."

After all, if you get injured, it means you must have violated some kind of safety rule, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten hurt. And if you violated a safety rule, you're outta here. To quote Mr. Williams III again, "There is no warning system. There is no probation. You are gone."

As we have said over and over (and over and over) again here at Confined Space, most workplace accidents are caused not by careless workers or "complacencies," but by unsafe working conditions. Blaming accidents on employees, disciplining and firing them for any injury or safety violation doesn't encourage employees to look for, report and analyze the root causes of workplace accidents and close calls, but to hide them.

Most accidents can be traced to 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. Zero tolerance. 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, or didn't follow the written procedure. Why? Were they told to do it by a supervisor who had a quota to fill? Did they feel rushed by the constant drive to finish a job by the deadline? 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? Were employees expected to take shortcuts to get the work done faster?

In addition to worker getting themselves killed, Williams blamed the company's financial problems on soaring steel prices, acquisition of a steel-fabrication facility in Alabama that failed, and the fact that the Springfield project was "very unprofitable." In other words, the company was having all kinds of problems. Did the problems cause projects to be rushed? More overtime? Short cuts to get the job done on time? Or is the company stricken with an epidemic of "complacencies?"

Who knows?

One thing I do know is that if you fire the workers as soon as a mistake is made, you'll never find out.


Related Stories

• Behavioral Safety Out of Control and The KFM Flu, April 12, 2005
  
• Bloody Pocket Syndrome in the Steel Industry, April 6, 2005
• Safety Pays? Maybe. But Workplace Fatalities in The Steel Industry Don't Pay Much, March 9, 2005
• Deaths and Injuries at US Steel: Blame the Workers?, February 24, 2005
• Steelworkers Continue to Die, February 6, 2005
• Steelworker Deaths and Injuries on the Rise, January 6, 2005
• Steelworker Deaths Climb: Manage Change or Manage Funerals, August 30, 2004
• Bloody Pocket Syndrome in the Steel Industry, April 6, 2005
  
• Behavioral Safety Comes To The Railroads, November 15, 2004
  
• So Cal Edison Screws Itself With Safety Incentive Programs, October 22, 2004
  
• Safety Bingo: Bad Behavior, October 1, 2003

Labels: Behavioral Safety

Workers Comp Insider notes that not only does this November mark the 100th anniversary of the Industrial Workers of the World, more commonly known as "the Wobblies," but it's also one of the bloodiest months in labor history.

A partial list of the roughly two-hundred American workers killed on the job over the past two weeks.

Two workers killed at the Valero refinery

Two workers at the Valero oil refinery died Sunday while working on a unit at the facility, which is the same refinery where an explosion in 2001 killed one man and injured eight others.

Cpl. Jeff Oldham, a state police spokesman, said the men appear to have succumbed to nitrogen fumes inside a silo just after midnight Saturday.

"A witness said that when he saw them up there it looked like they were trying to retrieve something from inside the silo," Oldham said.

When the witness left and came back about five minutes later, he saw the men were unconscious, Oldham said. The witness used a radio to make an emergency call. A man wearing an oxygen mask retrieved the men, Oldham said.

State police identified the men as John Ferguson, 29, of Westminster, Md., and John Lattanzi, 57, of New Jersey. They were pronounced dead at Christiana Hospital, Oldham said.


Logli employee killed trying to thwart suspected shoplifter

ROCKFORD, IL - One man was dead and another hospitalized in stable condition Saturday night after they were stabbed while trying to stop two suspected shoplifters at Logli Supermarket, 6410 E. State St.

The men, both Logli employees, began following the suspects inside the store about 6:30 p.m. When the suspects tried to leave without paying, the employees stopped them in the foyer of the store's southwest entrance. A confrontation ensued and the employees were both stabbed.


Swansea officer killed in collision

SWANSEA, MA -- Police Sergeant Robert Cabral was known as a good cop in Swansea: a patrolman with 26 years on the force, a soccer coach, a devoted dad who dedicated his spare time to teaching children not to use drugs and alcohol.

For 24 years, Wayne Smith has been a volunteer firefighter in Swansea, where he grew up, resides with his family, and responds to roughly 15 calls a year.

The two men knew each other, the way people do in a small town.

At 12:37 a.m. yesterday, their fates collided when, police said, the pickup truck Smith was driving slammed into Cabral's police cruiser. Cabral, who turned 52 Oct. 29, was pronounced dead at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. Smith, 49, was arrested and charged with motor vehicle homicide while intoxicated. He was being held at the hospital for treatment of injuries that did not appear to be life threatening, police said.


Randall Man Run Over By Gravel Elevator, Killed

Randall, MN -- A man was killed in a construction accident Friday, according to the Pine County Sheriff's Office.

Mitchel Lee Mammenga, 32, of Randall, Minn. was run over by a 120-foot gravel elevator and was pronounced dead on the scene.

The accident occurred about 12 miles northwest of Pine City, Minn. Mammenga had been working as for Tri-City Paving of Little Falls as a foreman on the crushing crew.


Second EMT Dies of Lung Disease

New York, NY -- The Fire Department Oct. 28 held funeral services for an Emergency Medical Technician who passed away Oct. 23 from a lung illness believed to be related to his work at Ground Zero.

EMT Felix Hernandez, 31, died surrounded by friends and family members in Orlando, Florida. The details of his death haven't been released at the request of his family. Mr. Hernandez was on medical leave from the FDNY at the time of his death. .... He joined the FDNY as an EMT in 1995, starting in Station 21 at Lincoln Hospital and later moving to Station 17.

He was one of hundreds of EMTs who responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, and he later returned to help with the ongoing recovery efforts. He's believed to be the second city-employed EMT to die from an illness related to work performed at the WTC site.

EMT Timothy Keller died June 23 at age 41 after a heart attack brought on by respiratory distress. Like Mr. Hernandez, Mr. Keller was a non-smoker with no previous lung problems who developed serious respiratory issues a few years after Sept. 11.


Family copes with loss after police officer killed in tragic wreck

INGLESIDE, TX - The family of a Corpus Christi police officer killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident remembers the father of three.

Officer Wesley Hanks was riding his motorcycle near Little Rock, Arkansas, Thursday when a vehicle caused a pickup to crash into him.

Investigators say Hanks was run over by the truck, and both drivers fled the scene.


Man dies when bulldozer is submerged

HOLIDAY, FL - For weeks, residents on Ivy Lane have heard the sound of bulldozers and construction trucks clearing land for a new lakefront home at the end of their cul-de-sac.

But Monday, that work took a tragic turn.

Taylor G. Bingham IV of Oldsmar died Monday afternoon when the front-end loader he was operating ended up submerged in the water. Authorities said it appeared the ground beneath the bulldozer either eroded or gave way. But nearly three hours after it happened, they weren't yet certain how 33-year-old Bingham died.

"We're not sure yet," Pasco County sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said. "It wasn't apparent whether he drowned or had some type of medical condition."


Trash Truck Driver Killed In Bizarre Accident

MOTEBELLO, CA - A trash truck driver was killed when he apparently got out of his truck to check on mechanical problems and the truck rolled over him.

The accident happened about 6 a.m. in Montebello at Whittier Boulevard and Fourth Street. Reportedly, the driver (Jose Abraham Robles, 39)was making a turn on Fourth Street when he experience problems with the truck not going into reverse. He got out of the vehicle to look underneath it and see what was wrong. It was then that the truck rolled over him.


Worker killed while repairing truck

SOLVAY, N.Y. -- A central New York man was killed early Monday after being run over by the truck he was trying to fix.

The Onondaga County Sheriff's Department said Christopher Hilton, 50, of Clay, was helping a co-worker at Solvay Paperboard repair a truck in the company's parking lot around 2:30 a.m.

The co-worker, Richard Kadlubowski, started to drive the truck to another location but didn't realize Hilton was still working on the rear of the tractor, deputies said. Hilton was run over by the rear tires.


Blaze ravages home; firefighter dies

LEWISTON, CA -- A firefighter died after battling a blaze last week that also claimed the 1850s-era home built for this town's founder, Frank B. Lewis.

Walter Sykes, 48, of the Lewiston Volunteer Fire Department, was taken ill in the midst of fighting the Oct. 26 fire and later died of a heart attack. The fire destroyed the two-story home of former fire chief Jesse Cox, 63, and his wife, Rosemarie, 62.


Forklift accident kills man near Manassas

MANASSAS, VA -- A 68-year-old man died Monday when a forklift he was operating fell on top of him at a construction site.

The man, whose name was not released, was found by co-workers at the construction site at 8220 Birch St. near Manassas. The forklift flipped on its side while the man was operating it, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, said Officer John Bogert, spokesman for Prince William County police.


Natural gas drilling rig worker dies in W.Va.

CHAPMANVILLE, W.Va. - A 19-year-old rig worker drowned Wednesday after getting trapped under a plastic liner in a natural gas drilling pit, officials said.

Albert Murphy, of Lefthand, was performing maintenance on the rig when he slipped into the basin. He died on the scene near Chapmanville along U.S. 119, the Logan County Sheriff's Department said in a release.

Murphy was employed by Indiana, Pa.-based contractor S.W. Jack Drilling Co., said Jessica Greathouse, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. The site is owned by Denver-based Energy Corporation of America, she said.


Crossing guard hit by car near Mahwah school

MAHWAH, NJ - An elementary school crossing guard was hospitalized Wednesday after being struck by a car as she waited in the street to cross a group of children, police said.

Shirley Sochulak, 70, was carried about 20 feet before she fell from the car and hit her head on the blacktop, said police Lt. Bruce Kuipers. She was bloodied but conscious while being taken to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, and her injuries weren't considered serious, Kuipers said.

No citations were issued to the driver of the car, Leona Fleissman, 63, of Ridgewood, pending the outcome of a police investigation, the lieutenant said.

Sochulak "was out in the street with her stop paddle while the vehicle was making a left from West Ramapo Avenue onto Island Road," Kuipers said. "She was in the process of starting to cross the children when she was hit."

It was the second time in just over a week that a crossing guard was struck while on duty in Bergen County.

On Oct. 25, 81-year-old Estelle Reynolds was struck and killed by a fellow crossing guard near Park Ridge High School, police said.


Russell man dies filling pothole

Columbus, GA -- A Russell County employee died Wednesday while filling a pothole, Russell County Deputy Coroner Doug Lee said.

Joseph Linsey was filling a pothole next to a trailer carrying tar on Sandfort Road, a quarter mile east of Clark Road, Lee said. A car struck Linsey and pinned him between the car and the trailer.

Linsey, 46, of Phenix City, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:40 p.m. from blunt force trauma, Lee said.

Another person, whose name was not released due to notification of family, was injured in the traffic accident, said Jeff Nelson with the Alabama State Trooper traffic homicide unit.


Worker killed in factory accident

WYOMING, MI -- A 30-year-old plastics engineer who family members said was excited about the impending birth of his first child, died Wednesday in an industrial accident at a Wyoming plant.

Martin Nimptsch, of Rockford, died while working on a machine at Leon Plastics, 4901 Clay Ave. SW.

The accident occurred at 10:41 a.m. Nimptsch was working at a compression former, which forms molds under pressure.

He appeared to be leaning over the machine when he was struck by a piece of it, said Wyoming police Lt. Scott Beckman.

"We don't know if it was employee error or manufacture error. It (equipment) blew off, striking him. He was unresponsive," Beckman said.

Nimptsch died at the scene. Leon Plastics officials could not be reached for comment.


Man dies at Supervalu center in Hopkins

Hopkins, MN -- One man is dead and another is in critical condition after a construction accident in Hopkins.

The two men were working at the Supervalu distribution center when a wall collapsed on them. One man fell forty feet and survived, while another fell onto scaffolding below and died from head trauma.

Supervalu representatives call the death and injury a tragic accident.

The two workers – both from out of state – were installing shelving inside for a subcontractor. A large metal wall collapsed on them, as they stood forty feet above the ground on a high jack lift.

According to Connie Kurtz of the Hopkins Police, “everybody was wearing hard hats.”

Supervalu officials will temporarily shut down the plant while investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration look in to the incident.


WELDER DIES AFTER BLDG. FALL

Brooklyn, NY -- A WELDER died yesterday after falling from a Brooklyn condominium project, officials said.

Heng Zheng, 50, of Chinatown was dead at the scene, 207 South First St. in Williamsburg.

Police and city Department of Buildings officials gave conflicting accounts of how Zheng fell, with cops saying he slipped from the third floor about 10 a.m. and Buildings officials saying he was knocked off by a falling concrete block.

Zheng lived on Henry St. with his wife and had two adult children.


OSHA looks into fatal construction accident

Great Falls, MT -- Authorities Thursday identified the Great Falls man who died after a cement truck on a construction job site near Benefis East backed over him.

Terry Richerson, 40, died at Benefis Hospital around 7 p.m. Wednesday from injuries sustained earlier in the day, said Cascade County Coroner Scott Wagner.

Around 8 a.m., a 41-year-old driver with United Materials was backing a concrete truck up a 10-degree ramp to pour cement when the vehicle backed over Richerson.

Great Falls police called it an accident and said no criminal activity was involved.


Horrific accident claims man’s life

CHAPEL HILL, NC — An accident at a work site in thesouthern Covington County area of Chapel Hill, near Florala, Saturday left one man dead and investigators busy trying to discover what exactly happened.

According to a news release by the Covington County Sheriff’s Office, around 10:30 and 11 a.m. rescue officials were called to the Southern Rock & Lime site just off of Hwy. 54 East in regards to a work-related accident.

Upon arrival at the seen, on Stovall Road, officials discovered that Primitivo Cuaquuha of Samson, had died as a result of the accident.

The accident, as described by CCSO officials, involved a dump truck falling into a pit.

“He was backing a dump truck down a hill to be loaded when he lost control of his vehicle and backed off of a cliff and into the pit,” the CCSO release stated. “Mr. Cuaquuha died as a result of his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Coroner’s office.”


Man killed by straw bale in Gratiot County

BETHANY TOWNSHIP, Mich.-- A Bay Port man died after being crushed while delivering straw to a Gratiot County farm Thursday morning, the county sheriff's office said.
A 650-pound bale of straw fell on Robert Dale Wertz, 62, from a semitrailer as it was unloading at the Bethany Township farm, the Gratiot County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Wertz was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, the department said.


Swansea police officer killed by alleged drunken driver

SWANSEA, Mass. - A Swansea police officer was killed by an alleged drunken driver early this morning.

Police say Sergeant Robert Cabral driving on Route Six when his cruiser was struck head on by another vehicle near a nursing home around 12:42 a.m. Cabral was pronounced dead at Charlton Memorial Hospital.

The other driver -- 49-year-old Wayne Smith of Swansea -- was arrested and charged with drunken driving resulting in motor vehicle homicide.


Rio Vista Officer Killed Three Weeks After Wedding

Rio Vista, CA -- A Rio Vista police officer who was injured in a head-on crash in Solano County on Friday has died, the Rio Vista Police Department announced Sunday night. The department expressed "profound sadness" at the loss of Officer David Frank Lamoree, who died around 5 p.m. Sunday, on his 26th birthday. Lamoree was driving home from work late Friday night when his vehicle was struck head-on by an eastbound vehicle attempting to pass a truck by moving into the westbound lane of state Highway 113. Stockton resident Vincent Ellis, 18, one of four occupants of the vehicle that struck Lamoree's vehicle, died at the scene. The other three occupants were seriously wounded.


Md. School Worker Dies in Fall - Germantown Man, 53, Was on Catwalk Setting Up Lights

Washington, DC - John Horvat made a living as a media services technician at Seneca Valley High School and responded to fires and other emergencies during his free time as deputy chief of the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad. The 53-year-old Germantown man died yesterday morning after falling from the school auditorium's catwalk as he was setting up lights for a church service.


Cab driver found dead was strangled by cord

Louisville,KY - Planes Aldophe, a cab driver found dead Sunday morning on East Kingston Avenue, was strangled with an electrical cord, Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Jack Arnold said yesterday. No arrests have been made in the death of Aldophe, 36, a native of Haiti. Anyone with information should call Louisville Metro Police at 574-LMPD.


Accident kills worker at LMC Industries

A worker was killed in an industrial accident at LMC Industries in Arnold on Tuesday. Jefferson County police and fire officials withheld the man's name. Officials at LMC Industries could not be reached. LMC is a manufacturer and distributor of injected molded plastics and metal stampings.


OSHA probes Milford death

Nashua, NH– A Brazilian man who had lived here for three years was killed Friday in an accident at Northern Marble and Granite, a Milford company that makes countertops and other stone products for homes and businesses.Valtecir Lopes, 37, worked two jobs to support a daughter here, and his wife and two daughters back in Brazil. He was apparently killed after stonework fell on him. Federal work-safety officials were in Milford on Monday to investigate, and few details were available.


Wichita Bus Driver Killed In Traffic Accident

Wichita, KS - October 25--Authorities are investigating a fatal bus crash this morning in Northwest Wichita. That took one life, and sent four people to the hospital. The accident happened just after 7:00, on Ridge Road near 37th Street North. A city bus driver died in the crash. He's been identified as 40-year-old Joseph Downing. He worked for the Transit Authority for 5 months. Police say a minivan going east on 37th street north failed to yield and collided with a MTA bus going north on Ridge Road.


Worker dies after falling 35 feet in Muskego

Muskego - A contract worker died after he fell 35 feet onto a concrete slab from a ladder while working on one of the city's sewage lift stations Monday, police said. Officials refused to release the man's name because relatives had not yet been notified. Police Lt. John La Tour said the man, 53, was working above the lift station tightening a flange before his fall down a dry shaft along Woods Road, near Sandy Beach Drive. Another contractor who saw him fall called rescue workers at 11:23 a.m.


Services for rig worker set for Wednesday

Corpus Christi, TX - Roth fell to death at industrial yard; review under way Funeral services for the Kiewit Offshore Services subcontracted employee who fell to his death Sunday morning are set for Wednesday. Twenty-five-year-old Frank Warren Roth plummeted more than 100 feet at 9 a.m. Sunday while working on the construction of an offshore rig at Kiewit's industrial yard, said San Patricio County Justice of the Peace Charlotte Griffin.


NORFOLK POLICE IDENTIFY SUSPECT IN SHOOTING DEATH OF OFFICER

NORFOLK, VA -- A manhunt continues for a 29-year-old man accused of shooting to death Norfolk Police Officer Stanley Reaves on Friday afternoon.

Reaves was answering a call in the Park Place neighborhood about 4 p.m. when he was fatally shot. "He had gotten out of his car and was walking toward the suspect just to talk to him. As the officer approached him, without warning, the man pulls a gun out and shoots the officer," Amos said.

Reaves was no more than a few feet away when the man fired multiple times.

Police wouldn't say how many times the officer was hit or in what part of the body. Reaves was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he died.

Reaves, 33, joined the Norfolk police force in March after 11 years with the Baltimore police.



Firefighter dies after being burned during training exercise

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A firefighting instructor died Tuesday after being badly burned during a training exercise at the state fire academy. Robert Gallardy, 47, died Tuesday morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, where he was being treated for the severe burns he suffered Sunday.


Truck driver killed

Englewood, Fl -- A Thonotosassa, Fla., man was killed early Thursday morning when his semi truck overturned on Interstate 75 just north of the Sarasota-Charlotte county line. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Joseph C. Watson, 25, was traveling south on I-75 around 5 a.m. when his truck veered onto the grass median. The truck overturned and spun around. Watson died at the scene, according to the FHP.


Roofer dies in fall at Rutland school site; Skylight opening was uncovered

RUTLAND, MA -- David A. Wheeler's family was shocked by the sudden death of the man they had come to think of as "superman" because of his ability to miraculously recover from near-fatal injuries.

Mr. Wheeler, 64, a roofer on the $17.7 million elementary school being built between Naquag School and Central Tree Middle School died at UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus in Worcester on Monday night from a severe head injury suffered in a fall.

The accident occurred during the drizzly afternoon about 1 p.m. when Mr. Wheeler plunged through an opening in the roof meant for a skylight.

The plywood covering that usually secured the hole had been removed because crews expected to install the skylight that afternoon, according to the town's School Building Committee chairman.


Texas Pastor Electrocuted During Baptism

Waco, TX -- A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after adjusting a nearby microphone while standing in water, a church employee said.

The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock, said University Baptist Church community pastor Ben Dudley.

Water in a baptistery usually reaches above the waist, said Byron Weathersbee, interim university chaplain at Baylor University.

Lake was pronounced dead at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, nursing supervisor Pat Mahl said. The woman being baptized apparently had not stepped into the water and was not seriously injured.


Driver arraigned in bridge death

Redding, CA - A Redding driver accused of second-degree murder in the death of a road worker last week was arraigned today in Shasta County Superior Court where his public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Lawrence Javier Apodaca, 34, who is facing life in prison if convicted of the charges against him, is tentatively due to have his preliminary hearing on Nov. 3. He is charged with murder and a series of related crimes, including a special circumstance of vehicular manslaughter and having three prior misdemeanor driving under the influence convictions. Apodaca is suspected of having been drunk when his minivan slammed into a street sweeper operated by Ronald Joe Toney, 45, of Redding, Thursday night on the Market Street Bridge. An employee of J.F. Shea Co. Inc., Toney was thrown to the ground and crushed by the heavy machinery, which traveled nearly 70 feet from the point of impact before coming to rest on its side.


Volunteer clearing debris killed in accident

An out-of-town relief worker was killed Saturday near downtown Miami while moving debris from Hurricane Wilma into a vacant lot behind a fire station, officials said.

The unidentified man was killed when the heavy-digging machine called a track excavator tumbled over and trapped him. The cause of death is still under investigation, but he may have been electrocuted by fallen power lines.


Big Rigs Collide, Closing I-70 - Victim's Name Not Known

WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Part of Interstate 70 remains closed in Washington County after two tractor-trailers collided near mile marker nine in Buffalo Township overnight. State police said a big rig flipped on its side, blocking the westbound lanes, at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. A second tractor-trailer carrying steel coil came through and smashed into it. The steel coils came through the cab and killed the driver, Ralph Smith, 51, of Ohio. The driver of the first truck, Robert Pannell, 53, of New Jersey, was taken to Washington Hospital for back pain. Another tractor-trailer driver was behind the trucks. He watched everything happen. Jeff Grimm said, "I just watched him. He just kept coming. He just stayed in the right lane and drove right into the bottom of the semi that was on its side." Pennsylvania state police said they expect the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 to reopen by Wednesday afternoon.


Man dies after fall at Grede Foundry

REEDSBURG, WI - A male employee of Grede Foundry in Reedsburg died at UW-Hospital Saturday after falling while at work, Stewart Davis, Grede's Vice President of Human Resources said. The 68-year-old employee, James Kingsbury, was cleaning an area above a sand silo when he fell at least 30 feet onto a metal grate near the bottom of the silo, according to an incident report from the Reedsburg Police Department. Andrea Christensen, a nurse at Grede Foundry, several foundry employees and EMT Betty Hinze assisted in carrying Kingsbury out of the silo, the report states. Rescue workers had to free Kingsbury's leg from the silo before he could be carried out. His injuries included deep cuts on his legs and forehead area.


Man killed after dump truck hits train in northeastern Wisconsin

ARMSTRONG CREEK, Wis. - A dump truck hit a moving train in northeastern Wisconsin, killing the truck's driver.

Jeffrey Diges, 38, of Crivitz, was driving south on Old Highway 101 about a mile south of Highway 8 when he hit an eastbound train at about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday in Forest County, according to a Wisconsin State Patrol news release.

The truck rolled and caught fire, officials said.

Diges, who worked for D & C Trucking of Crivitz, died at the scene. The train conductor had minor injuries, according to the State Patrol.


Van Houten Produce owner, 46, dies after chasing thief

Lansing, MI - The owner of a well-known local produce store chased a robber away from his store and gave police crucial information about the break-in Tuesday morning before he collapsed and died. Jeff Van Houten, 46, was opening up Van Houten Produce in Lansing shortly after 6 a.m. when he caught a man trying to steal from his store, Lansing police Lt. Bruce Ferguson said. "He chased him out and got the license-plate number," Ferguson said about the Lansing business owner.


Probe continues into death of gold mine worker near Carlin

ELKO, Nev. - State and federal safety regulators continue to investigate the death of a worker who fell about 15 feet at a gold mine north of Carlin, the third mining-related fatality in Nevada this year. Matthew Willkie, 45, was working as a process operator for Barrick Goldstrike Mines Inc. and was helping a co-worker remove a sump pump for replacement when he fell from an upper work deck on Saturday, Barrick Gold Corp. spokesman Vince Borg said.


More charges filed against suspect in on-camera killing

PHILADELPHIA - A man charged in two murders, including one caught on tape by security cameras, was charged in a third killing, police said Wednesday. Juan Covington, 43, was charged with murdering Odies Bosket, a longtime city employee who was shot several times in a subway station in March while on his way to pick up his daughter from day care.


Bus driver killed in I-35 accident identified

San Antonio, TX -- The name of the bus driver killed in Tuesday's accident has been released.

42-year-old Juan Martinez of Houston was killed when the bus he was driving slammed into an 18-wheeler at about 2:30 p.m. along Interstate 35 and Fischer Road.

Investigators say a blown tire on the driver's side of the bus might have caused the deadly crash.

The tour bus was headed to Mexico when the accident occurred. The crash shutdown all northbound lanes of I-35 for almost four hours.



Worker crushed to death south of Olathe

Kansas City, MO - A 51-year-old Olathe man died this afternoon when he was crushed by a piece of machinery at a Johnson County business. Rescuers were called about 3:30 p.m. to Kerry Sweet Ingredients, 400 Prairie Village Drive at the New Century AirCenter southwest of Olathe. Authorities said the company makes sweet ingredients for food products.


City bus driver killed in crash

Wichita, KA - A Wichita city bus driver was killed Tuesday in a collision at 37th North and Ridge Road.

Police said a van was stopped about 7:10 a.m. on 37th Street North trying to cross Ridge Road. A Wichita Transit bus was northbound on Ridge.

The van began to move eastward, crossed the line of traffic and collided with the bus, said Lt. Jeff Weible.

The driver of the bus, Joseph B. Downing, 40, of Wichita, was partially ejected and died at the scene.


Elderly man shoots and kills caretaker in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA - An 83-year-old man in a wheelchair shot and killed his caretaker, saying he thought she had been stealing from him, police said. Lincoln M. Sowell was arrested at his apartment building following the shooting around 4 p.m. Tuesday, Philadelphia police Cpl. Jim Pauley said. Donna Bond, 52, was shot in the stomach, chest and arm. Pauley said she was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead less than an hour after being shot three times


Worker Killed by Toxic Fumes

A man was found dead after inhaling toxic fumes and now several government agencies are investigating the mysterious death, News 4 WOAI learned Monday.

Thirty-three-year-old Hector Viesca was found dead in a field Saturday night in Pleasanton, officials said.

Viesca was inspecting oil wells off Corn Road when investigators believe he inhaled hydrogen sulfide.

“He checked the tank and what happened was he was supposed to look away,” Pleasanton Fire Marshal Trinidad Vosquez told News 4 WOAI. “I don't know if he did or didn't.”

Government agencies want to know if the oil company Viesca worked for, trained him properly.

“When a truck driver goes out, they should know what to do and what to carry with them,” Vosquez said.

Viesca was alone in the field when the accident happened. Coworkers tried to reach him be cellphone, and when he did not respond, they searched for him. They later found his body.


Worker succumbs to April injuries

RANDOLPH, NJ – A 23-year-old construction worker who hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps, died on Friday, Oct. 21, from injuries suffered in an April accident while working on a school construction project in Dover. The worker, Kevin John Caponegro, 23, died on Friday, Oct. 21, at Morristown Memorial Hospital where he had been a patient since he was injured on April 7. Mr. Caponegro would have celebrated his 24th birthday on Tuesday, Oct. 25....Dover Capt. Robert Kerwick said Mr. Caponegro had been operating a fork lift-type vehicle at the construction site when he was injured. “He had parked and gotten off the fork lift near an excavating machine,” said Kerwick. “The operator of the excavator backed up without seeing Caponegro, and pinned him against the fork lift’s tire. He was crushed between the two vehicles.”


Store owner shot to death in front of wife

Houston, TX - Nerves are on edge in a north Harris County neighborhood where a store owner was gunned down late Wednesday during an apparent robbery. The victim was shot in front of his wife in the 9000 block of Cheswick at Gulf Bank. Hung Bui and his wife had just locked up their convenience store when two young men approached them outside. "His wife gave him the money. She said, `Just take the money.' She said, `Take the money and take the keys,' said family friend Valory Barnett. "He gave them the keys. And they just shot him down in front of his wife." The 54-year-old died on the spot.


Crossing Guard Killed by Another in Accident

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Oct. 26 - A school crossing guard driving to work on Tuesday morning struck and killed another crossing guard, an 81-year-old woman, as she tried to usher students across a busy road in the rain. The driver, Marvin Hodgdon, 70, of Montvale, N.J., said on Wednesday in a telephone interview that he had been on his way to his second day on the job as a crossing guard in nearby Hillsdale when Estelle Reynolds, a crossing guard here for 16 years, raised her hand-held stop sign and stepped onto Pascack Road, across the street from Park Ridge High School.


Jersey City robbers kill deli worker in heist bid

Newark, NJ - An employee at a Jersey City delicatessen who recently emigrated from Egypt was shot and killed during a robbery Wednesday night, authorities said yesterday. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Nabile S. Sharoubin, 41, was shot once in the arm, but the bullet passed through his chest. He was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center at 8:48 p.m. Wednesday. "That was a holdup that apparently, unfortunately went bad," DeFazio said yesterday.


TRUCK DRIVER DIES IN ROLLOVER CRASH ON I-95

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL -- A truck driver hauling a load of Busch Natural Ice beer Friday morning died in a rollover wreck after he collided with a Dodge Durango and swerved off Interstate 95, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Three people inside the Durango were not injured.

Beer and beer cans spilled onto the southbound lanes of the highway and the grassy shoulder a mile north of the Gatlin Boulevard interchange, where FHP shut down two of the three southbound lanes after the 9:30 a.m. accident. At one point, all southbound lanes were blocked while a crew pulled the truck wreckage onto the highway.


2 men sought in store killing

Indianapolis, IN -- Police investigating the weekend killing of a popular Eastside gas station owner are trying to determine whether Palwinder Singh was shot by a man who robbed the store twice in August.

The shooter could be part of a two-man team sought in multiple armed robberies, police said.

"I think it's the same person," Rick Singh, the victim's cousin, said Sunday. "Heightwise, it's the same."

The shooting occurred about 9:20 p.m. Saturday. The store video shows two men were involved, one outside and one who approached the counter and pointed a handgun at Palwinder Singh. The robber fired as the clerk reached for his attacker's gun.


Sargento worker dies of injuries

Sheboygan, WI - A 41-year-old Kiel man died Wednesday from injuries sustained in an accident Saturday morning at Sargento Foods Inc. in Plymouth, said Sheboygan County Coroner David Leffin. Jason W. Schmoller, of 16932 Lax Chapel Road, died at St. Nicholas Hospital, where he had been on life-support since Saturday, Leffin said.....One of the forks from the other forklift struck Schmoller's leg below the knee, Gannon said. Whether the other forklift was in motion at the time of the crash is uncertain at this point, she said. Other employees with first-aid training applied pressure to Schmoller's leg to stem the bleeding until ambulance personnel arrived, she said. "He had massive blood loss on the scene," Leffin said. "Because of the collapse of the circulatory system, they weren't able to get any IVs started on him while en route (to the hospital)." Schmoller went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, Leffin said. Schmoller was resuscitated and underwent surgery, where doctors amputated his leg. He had suffered a brain injury, however, because of a lack of oxygen to his brain due to the massive blood loss, Leffin said.


Trucker killed in fiery crash on Interstate 75

RIDGE MANOR, FL -- A tanker truck carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel collided with a box truck filled with fruit on Interstate 75 early Tuesday, resulting in a fiery, deadly wreck and a cleanup effort that could take days or even a week.

The driver of a 2003 Mack tanker, Terry Ray Hillhouse, 49, of Ocala, died at the scene, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver of a 1993 Chevrolet box truck, Donald E. Ferguson, 56, of Leesburg was flown to Tampa General Hospital, where on Tuesday afternoon he was listed in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Ellen Fiss said.

"It was a very eerie scene," Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins said.


Worker operating forklift dies after 17-foot fall

City of Pewaukee, WI - A Cedarburg woman working alone moving materials with a forklift fell 17 feet at work and later died, police said Wednesday.

Linda M. Smith, 44, was found by a co-worker at 9:56 p.m. Tuesday. She was taken by Flight for Life to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa, where she died early Wednesday, Police Chief Gary Bach said.

Officials said Smith had worked for about three years at Boelter Co., N22-W23685 Ridgeview Parkway, a food service and equipment supplier. Details of how the accident happened were under investigation and specifics were not immediately released. An autopsy showed Smith died from blunt force trauma, a spokesman for the Waukesha County medical examiner's office said.

Smith's husband, Scott, an Ozaukee County sheriff's deputy assigned to courthouse security in Port Washington, described her as "an awfully good woman" in brief remarks Wednesday but declined to comment further.

Linda Smith was the second person this week to die from a fall in Waukesha County. Thomas Bolan, 53, of the City of Pewaukee, died Monday after falling more than 22 feet from a ladder down one of Muskego's sewage lift station shafts.

He worked for Milwaukee-based Faust Co. Inc. and was tightening a flange when he fell.

Fisherman Dies in Kahana Bay

Honolulu, HI - A Kane'ohe man in his 50's died while fishing with a friend on Thursday in Kane'ohe Bay. It happened shortly after one o'clock in the afternoon. Friends identified the victim as Gerald Lee, a long-time employee of Hawaiian Electric. "They were trolling for papio, they had already set their crab lines and there was a set of bigger waves that came in, came up, pushed the boat up, it flipped them out of the boat," explained Capt. Kenison Tejada of the Honolulu Fire Department. The two men were onboard Lee's Zodiac boat. Fire officials said the survivor blew up an inflatable life vest, and both men hung on.


Man dies after train collides with his truck

Albany, GA Ben Hill County- Co-workers say they can't believe 61-year-old James Nichols is gone. "He was very dependable and dedicated, always there. He would go day or night in emergency storm damage or whatever. Just a fine individual, as an individual and an employee, just a fine person," says Marvin McKie, Assistant Road Superintendent. "About 8:41 AM this morning we got the call that one of the county trucks collided with a CSX train here on Zinnia Road, Ben Hill County," says Sheriff Bobby McLemore. Authorities say Nichols was headed south on Zinnia Road. He was dropping off a load of field dirt to a spot where other county road employees, including his son, were working.


Georgia man killed while dismantling S.C. water tower

Bowdon, Ga. - A 33-year-old worker has been crushed to death while working to dismantle a water tower. Mike Lowery of Bowdon, Ga., was cutting the tank with a torch when a chunk of metal shifted, trapping him between two sections of the tank, authorities said. Firefighters from across the street responded immediately, but with the worker trapped more than 100 feet above the ground, a ladder truck had to be called in from Lancaster, about 20 miles away. Kershaw Town Administrator Tony Starnes said it took about an hour to get Lowery down. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death.


Women gives birth as son dies in same hospital

NEW YORK - At Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Thursday, a woman gave birth to a son, delivered by Caesarean section. She did not know that during her recovery, elsewhere in the same hospital, she lost her oldest child, a 19-year-old deli worker who had been shot behind the counter by a man in a mask. The 19-year-old man, Yaser Saleh, was shot in the stomach on Wednesday night in a Springfield Gardens deli by an unidentified man who witnesses believe argued with Saleh last week over something that seemed trivial: the man had been short a quarter for a 79-cent candle, and the cashier would not give it to him.


Farmer dies in tractor accident

WESTMINSTER, Mass. --A 71-year-old Westminster farmer died on Thursday when the tractor he was driving rolled on top of him, authorities said. Vilho A. Lucander was found under the rear wheel of the tractor and pronounced dead at the scene of an apparent crushing injury, police said. An autopsy is scheduled. Lucander was working his 42-acre farm when his wife, Eleanor, asked a chimney sweeper working at their house to look for her husband, fire Chief Brenton W. MacAloney said. The man found Lucander under the tractor. The accident was reported just after 1 p.m. "We have no idea what caused him to be there," MacAloney said.


Norfolk police officer dies in shooting

Norfolk, VA - A police officer who was shot while standing near his car Friday afternoon died a short time later at a hospital, police said. Police responding to a call that an officer had been shot shortly after 4 p.m. found the wounded officer, who was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, according to the police department. The officer's name was not immediately released. Olan Burruss, a police spokesman, said the officer apparently did not discharge his weapon. Police were looking for a man in a late-model green Jeep Cherokee in connection with the shooting. They described the suspect as a black man, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, wearing a green jacket and shoulder-length dreadlocks.


Trucker found dead in parked semi

Dallas, TX - Authorities discovered the driver of an 18-wheeler dead Friday morning in the sleeping quarters of his truck, which had been parked on the side of Interstate 20 in Hutchins since the day before. As late-morning traffic accumulated behind the roadblocks protecting the investigation scene in the westbound lanes near the Trinity River, a chain-reaction crash unfolded about two miles to the east in Dallas. Five vehicles collided, and two caught fire. Three people were taken to a hospital, but their injuries weren't thought to be life-threatening. The Dallas County medical examiner's office hadn't ruled on what killed the trucker. Hutchins police identified the man as 48-year-old Eddie Montgomery of Laredo. He worked for a trucking company there.


Truck driver charged in fatal crash with school bus

HERTFORD, N.C. The driver of a pickup truck that collided with a school bus in Perquimans County, killing four people in the truck, has been charged.

The Highway patrol says 25-year-old Ruben Fajardo of Wilson was charged with four misdemeanor counts of death by motor vehicle and a count of failure to reduce speed.

The accident occurred Monday on U.S. 17 when the school bus and the truck from a Wilson contractor collided and caught fire near Hertford.

The man's brother and three fellow workers died in the truck.


Tractor-trailer driver killed in I-70 crash

Pittsburgh, PA -- A tractor-trailer driver was crushed to death by a roll of steel he was hauling early today when he crashed into an overturned rig on Interstate 70 in Washington County. Ralph T. Smith, 51, of Bellaire, Ohio, died shortly after midnight, state police said.

Another tractor-trailer driver was traveling west on I-70 in Buffalo Township when he lost control, and his rig traveled onto an embankment and overturned in the westbound lanes, according to state police. Smith struck the overturned rig, which caused a roll of steel he was hauling to snap loose and crush his cabin.

Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other rig was taken to a local hospital.


Worker Crushed

Authorities are investigating how a factory worker became entangled in machinery and suffered fatal injuries.

The accident happened yesterday at Kerry Sweet Ingredients in southern Johnson County. John Frisbey, 51, had worked at the plant for 19 years.

Sheriff's spokesman Tom Erickson says Frisbey got caught in a conveyor-belt type of machine. Fellow workers were being interviewed about how the accident happened.


Tow truck driver killed on I-15

VICTORVILLE, CA — The flashing lights of a still-running tow truck illuminated the pavement just feet from where its former driver lay dead.

The man, whose name was not being released until his family is notified, was struck and killed on the shoulder of northbound Interstate 15 between Mojave Drive and D Street around 6:57 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

Initial reports from investigating Officer D. Bradford of the California Highway Patrol state that a woman called roadside assistance to have a flat tire changed and the service sent a tow truck driver from Garon-T-Towing to the scene, Bradford said.

He added that the deceased tow truck operator was standing on the shoulder changing a flat tire for the stranded motorist just before the collision.


Alcohol Believed To Be Factor In Crash That Killed Construction Worker

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A portion of the East-West Expressway was shut down for nearly five hours Friday morning when a driver struck and killed a construction worker. The crash happened just east of downtown Orlando near the Primrose overpass.

It was a scene traffic homicide investigators have become all too familiar with. Around two o'clock Friday morning, a construction worker was killed by the driver of an SUV on the 408 just east of downtown Orlando.

According to the Orlando Police Department, it was the eighth time this year a pedestrian has been killed by a reckless driver. The latest victim was John Baggett, a 45-year-old from Magnolia, Texas.

Witnesses told police Michael Cole, from Casselberry, was traveling at a very high rate of speed when he crossed into the construction zone and struck Baggett. Investigators said alcohol was a factor in the crash.


Gary truck driver struck, killed by rig on Tri-State

WORTH -- A Gary truck driver was struck and killed by another driver's rig Thursday on the Tri-State Tollway in Worth, authorities said.

Michael Buchanan, 53, was checking the straps on the sides of his truck about 9:30 a.m. when another truck clipped the end of his vehicle and continued on to strike him, police said.

Buchanan was stopped along the southbound lanes of the highway, where he was checking his cargo on the traffic side.


Deputy's fatal crash studied

VISALIA, CA --Authorities haven't determined what caused a Tulare County sheriff's deputy to lose control of his patrol car on a tree-lined road north of Porterville, leading to his death and the serious injury of a chaplain.

Kevin Elium, a five-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, was driving his police cruiser north on Main Street about 9 p.m. Oct. 6 when he crashed into a silk oak tree along the roadway.


Martell man dies after farm accident

MARTELL, Neb. -- A Martell farmer has died following injuries he received in a farm accident earlier this month.

Clarence Forsgren, 77, died this week after being injured Oct. 1 while repairing his combine in a field on the family farm near Martell, Lancaster County officials said.
Forsgren was repairing the combine when he told his son Lynn to start up the belt drive system, the sheriff's office said. Forsgren's right arm became entangled in the belt, causing severe injury.

Another son, Chuck Forsgren Jr., said his father lost a lot of blood in the accident, and his health deteriorated.

"That shock and everything wasn't good for him," his son said.


CWA, OSHA Probe Death at Texas Plant

An IUE-CWA member in San Antonio died Oct. 20 when he was crushed by the forklift he was operating at Newell Recycling. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating, as is the union.

Alejandro Gonzales, 39, who was married and the stepfather to three children, had worked at the company for 11 months. He was a member of Local 86780, which represents about a dozen workers at the scrap metal recycling center.

Charlie Barrett, CWA representative for occupational health and safety, said Gonzales was trying to remove some stray copper wire caught in an axle of the forklift. To do so, he had to raise the forklift and apparently had moved it onto a railroad tie and wood support.

"It's still not totally clear how everything happened," said Barrett, who went to San Antonio to investigate. "He was underneath the forklift, trying to remove some wire and it came down on his chest."

Labels: Weekly Toll

Wondering what's really wrong with the American auto industry? Well, wonder no more. It's the piss-poor dedication of workers to their jobs.

Workers at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck plant are allowed 48 minutes per shift for bathroom breaks, and they're taking advantage of it, according to plant management.

Managers at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck plant in Wayne say workers are spending too much time in the bathroom, an internal memo says.

So supervisors will start collecting weekly data to monitor rest room breaks, according to the memo, distributed to workers at the plant this week.

The factory's 3,500 hourly workers are allowed 48 minutes per shift for such breaks.

Ford says workers taking longer breaks are slowing down production of the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles built at the plant, The Detroit News reported Thursday.

"In today's competitive environment, it is important that Michigan Truck plant immediately address this concern to avoid the risks associated with safety, quality, delivery, cost and morale," the memo says.

The union, of course, is pissed off:

Some managers get "petty" during tough times, said Jody Caruana, a committee member for the United Auto Workers Local 900 that represents plant workers.

"It's an excuse by upper management to gloss over some of the real problems we have out here," Caruana said. "Is this causing a quality or productivity problem? No. If someone is not on the job, you can bet someone else is who knows what they are doing."

UPDATE: Chrysler, which doesn't seem to be having as many problems lately as Ford or GM, seems to think its workers should be treated as adults:

Chrysler on bathrooms: Take your time
Car maker says it has no plans to follow Ford plant in monitoring restroom breaks.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If assembly-line workers at Chrysler Group plants gotta go to the bathroom, they can take their time, according to a Web posting by a top executive.

Jason Vines, the automaker's vice president of communications, says on his corporate Weblog that the North American division of DaimlerChrysler (Research) doesn't plan to monitor workers' bathroom breaks.

The statement is an apparent response to the Detroit News disclosure last week that trips to the lavatory are being monitored at a Ford Motor (Research) plant in Wayne, Mich., in an effort to cut costs at the beleaguered automaker.

"We're not gonna use a stopwatch, turning a natural function into an Olympic sport," said Vines on his blog. "That ... would just be ... well ... too anal."

For those of you who missed the Nightline series on the W.R. Grace Asbestos tragedy in Libby, Montana and around the country brought to you by W.R. Grace, you can watch the program at the Nightline webpage night one here and night two here.

Related story

Hallelujah: Grace Miraculously Cures Asbestos Victims, November 4th, 2005

Labels: Asbestos

While the Washington Post reporters write today about how "Senators Praise Nominee's Candor," and "Alito is Called 'Sensitive' to Executive Power" (whatever that means), the New York Times zeros in on the meat of the problem, writing of how Alito has "reliably favored big-business litigants" and how "with few exceptions, he has sided with employers over employees in discrimination lawsuits and in favor of corporations over investors in securities fraud cases."

It is such business cases, which arise far more often than privacy and abortion cases, that are the bread and butter of the appeals courts and the Supreme Court. And, according to his supporters and detractors, it is where Judge Alito has left his mark in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Judge Alito's record in business cases presents some political strengths and weaknesses as he heads into his confirmation hearing, scheduled to begin Jan. 9. Major business groups are preparing to spend millions of dollars to lobby on his behalf, and may help him with pivotal Democrats. Liberal groups, meanwhile, have begun to cite his record to make the case that he is insensitive to the plight of minorities and the environment.

The judge's reputation over the last 15 years was such that corporate lawyers relished the prospect of his participation in cases, while plaintiff's lawyers hoped to avoid him.

"We're always happy to see Judge Alito on the panel," said Robert C. Heim, the head of the litigation department at Dechert, a large law firm based in Philadelphia that represents some of the nation's largest corporations, typically facing accusations of antitrust, securities or corporate law violations.

Oh goody.

Meanwhile, on NPR Weekend Edition this morning, University of Chicago Professor Cass Sunstein expanded a bit on why corporate America is so happy. Regarding Alito's dissent from a decision allowing Congress could pass a law restricting the sale of machine guns, Sunstein called it

A very big deal, much of what Congress does with respect to the environment and civil rights and a lot more,it does under the commerce clause What Judge Alito says in this dissenting opinion. was that the possession of machine guns wasn't something that Congress could reach under the commerce clause That opinion does signal that unlike Justice O'connor, ...he will be interested... in resricttng congress's power under the commerce clause in a way that could have serious implications for the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. .

We're in the midst of a minor and quiet revolution in which the Supreme Court has, for the 1st time in many decades been striking down acts of Congress under the commerce clause and its r

It is reasonable to say, not that Alito will be a "firebrand" or lawless, but that he will be "interested" in attacks on laws that are apparently beyond Congress's power under the commerce clause.

And I thought they were opposed to judical activism. I guess overturning long established laws and protections doesn't count as activism.

Silly me.

A Staten Island, New York, construction company owner, Ken Formica, owner of Port Richmond-based Formica Construction, was charged with manslaughter yesterday in the 2003 death of a Mexican laborer, Lorenzo Pavia. Pavia was crushed to death under tons of earth when a 15 foot deep unshored trench collapsed on top of him and then decapitated in the rescue attempt.

What is significant about this is that the prosecutor used manslaughter laws instead of the Occupational Safety and Health Act which carries much lower penalties. Until the OSHAct is changed to allow stiffer penalties that will effectively deter these types of preventable tragedies, we need to strongly support aggressive prosecutors who apply tougher criminal penalties to workplace incidents.

I wrote about this first tragedy last May, basing it on an excellent article by Staten Island Advance reporter Heidi Shrager, who went far beyone the usual "trench collapsed, worker died, terrible accident, everyone's sad, one of those things, move on" stories that we see by the dozens every week.

According to yesterday's indictment,

Formica allegedly knew the 15-foot-deep, waterlogged trench that he helped dig was deadly when he directed Lorenzo Pavia, 39, to descend into it, according to the seven-count indictment unsealed yesterday.

"No worker, regardless of his or her job, should be exposed to the dangers posed by an unshored trench," said District Attorney Daniel Donovan during a press conference after Formica's arraignment in state Supreme Court, St. George. "The lives of construction workers in our community are not a dispensable commodity. Failure to protect workers in this way is a crime and will result in your prosecution."

In addition to second-degree manslaughter, Formica was charged with criminally negligent homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment, and third-degree assault.

In New York, "A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when...He recklessly causes the death of another person."

Formica's attorney said it was just an accident:

"We believe this was a tragic accident," said Joseph V. Sorrentino, Formica's defense lawyer. "This is a guy with a stellar safety record who cooperated from the beginning of the investigation. There was no attempt here to cover up or to run from responsibility."

Formica, the "guy with a stellar safety record," had received a previous citation nine months before Pavia's death. In that case, an inspector from the city Department of Transportation ordered one of Formica's workers out of an unsafe trench, and warned Formica to follow safety regulations.

Formica faces 15 years in jail. OSHA had previously fined the company only $15,000 even though there were 14 serious and one willful violation. Had OSHA sought a criminal prosecution under the OSHA Act, the charge would have been a misdemeanor with a maximum of 6 months in jail. This case, is therefore, particularly significant:

"Indictments are extremely rare," said Jordan Barab, a former OSHA official who writes extensively about the issue on his worker safety Web log. "The real importance here, beyond punishing the management of the company itself, is the message it will send to other employers. They can't take shortcuts lightly. There is a major price to be paid for putting someone's life at risk just to do things more quickly, or make more money."

Under OSHA regulations, trenches deeper than 5 feet must be either shored or sloped. During his deposition after Pavia's death, Formica admitted to OSHA investigators that he made a mistake by leaving the trench unshored, and was at a loss as to why that was the case.

OSHA charged the company with 15 violations totaling almost $15,000. All the fines were deemed "serious" except for one: The charge of not shoring the trench, which was deemed "willful," the most serious kind of offense and the required classification in order to criminally prosecute under the OSHA Act. Still, prosecutors charging defendants with violating the OSHA Act can seek only a misdemeanor charge and a maximum penalty of six months.

Donovan's felony charge of second-degree manslaughter represents "a more creative way" to tackle the problem, said Barab.

Prosecutors are "drawing the parallel between killing someone in a bar fight and killing them in the workplace," he added. "They are taking a law used for other purposes and applying it to the workplace, which I think, given the weakness of the OSHA Act, is a very good thing."

OSHA, which is attempting to focus more on criminal penalties after being embarassed by a couple of NY Times series in 2003, assisted in this indictment.

Labor officials and advocates hailed the indictment as a huge step toward ensuring workplace safety, especially for undocumented immigrant workers like Pavia, who typically are ignorant of regulations, hesitant to report employer violations to regulators and speak little English.

While workplace fatalities are on the decline in the general population, they are soaring among Hispanic and immigrant workers, said Robert D. Kulick, the director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration branch in Avenel, N.J., whose staff worked with Donovan's office in the indictment.

Bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives (by NY Congressman Major Owens) and in the Senate (by MA Senator Ted Kennedy) that would change the OSHAct to make corporate manslaughter a felony offense, with the possibility of sentences that might range from no time behind bars to up to 10 years in prison. Upon a second offense, the maximum sentence could be doubled.

Labels: Criminal Prosecution, Journalism, Trench Hazards

You've got to hand it to OSHA. They make a special effort to communicate to their "customers."

But does this look like a tough enforcement agency using any means necessary to fight for the lives and health of American workers?

From OSHA's November 1, 2005 "Quick Takes: A bi-weekly e-news memo with information, updates, and results from OSHA about safety and health in America's workplaces."

In This Issue

OSHA Outreach Training Program Sets Record
OSHSPA Issues Latest Grassroots Worker Protection Report
More Hurricane Quick Cards and Fact Sheets Available
OSHA Education Center Offers Training Courses
Spanish-language Versions of Worker Safety and Health Training Set for Chicago
OSHA Welcomes New National Alliance Participant, Renews Others
Nebraska, Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland Worksites Earn "VPP" Recognition
Latest Regional Alliances Formed with OSHA
Voluntary Protection Programs Activity

Now what message does this send to employers who are putting their employees at risk?

a) Putting workers at risk of injury or death is unacceptable!

b) Shape up or face the fearful wrath of the mighty U.S. Government.

c) OSHA standards are the law of the land; violating them makes you a criminal and possibly a murderer,

d) Uh, excuse me, sorry for bothering you, but if you happen to be interested in some workplace safety and health issues, would you mind checking out some of our information? Oh, and if you have a few minutes, maybe we can get together for a nice spot of tea.

But just when you're about to give up on OSHA, they do something to redeem themselves submerge you under waves of depression:

Newsflash:OSHA Aligns with International Carwash Association
.

Yet another McWane indictment, this time for pollution:

Pipe Company Faces Pollution Indictment

McWane Inc., one of the world's largest pipe manufacturers, was indicted yesterday in Utah, accused of a six-year conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and falsify tests to cover up emissions of a dangerous air pollutant.

According to the six-count indictment, McWane conspired to mislead regulatory officials into believing that Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe, its pipe foundry in Provo, Utah, was in compliance with air-pollution laws. The indictment accuses senior executives of tampering with pollution monitoring devices, knowingly making false statements to regulators and obstructing the Environmental Protection Agency.
McWane is based in Birmingham, Ala.

McWane is the company made notorious for its workpace safety and environmental crimes, first publicized in a 2003 New York Times/Frontline series.

Oh, but wait, nevermind:

McWane's Union Foundry recognized for exemplary safety

A McWane Inc. facility in Anniston has been honored by the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce for its community involvement and outstanding safety record.

Union Foundry was the winner in the safety category and a finalist in the community involvement category during the chamber's 2005 Industry Awards of Excellence, which were presented by chamber president Sherri Sumners during a breakfast ceremony recently.

Tim Douty, assistant general manager of Union Foundry, said in a prepared statement he was especially proud of receiving the safety award. "Union Foundry is being noticed by the Chamber of Commerce as a leader in the community for recognition of worker safety and our safety program," he said. "This award is a reflection of the commitment our employees have toward safety."

So what's next? Michael "Brownie" Brown and I Lewis "Scooter" Libby win Presidential Medal of Honor?

Related Stories:

• McWane Guilty Again, August 31, 2005
• Jury To McWane: It's Not Nice To Pollute Mother Nature, June 12, 2005
• McWane Admits to Environmental CrimesMarch 23, 2005
• Of Fish and Men: Corporate Penalties And The Law, March 19, 2005
• Another McWane Death, January 25, 2005
• McWane Employee Admits Illegal Dumping, May 31, 2004
• More Charges Against McWane, May 26, 2004
• McWane a "Model Corporate Citizen?"....God Help Us All!, December 16, 2003
• McWane/Tyler Pipe: Getting better or Same Old, Same Old?, September 28, 2003
• McWane Fined Again, September 8, 2003
• Oops, McWane Does it Again: Mistakes Are Made, July 24, 2003
• Three Finger Defense: McWane/Atlantic Pipe Talks to the Press, July 24, 2003
• McWane Fingered in Workplace AccidentThe NY Times ..., June 5, 2003
• More McWane Violations: High Crimes, Low Fines, April 15, 2003

Labels: McWane

Am I missing something here?

Skaneateles cited in death of worker

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The town of Skaneateles (NY) highway department was cited with a violation in the death of a town worker in August. Ruth Pillittere,speaking for the state Public Employees Safety and Health Bureau, said the department was cited for failure to provide training on the proper use of the asphalt roller and failure to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.

Highway department employee Scott Clarry, 35, of Maple Street, Skaneateles, died Aug. 29 while paving a portion of Hencoop Road. Pillittere said the department must provide a training session for town equipment by Jan. 23.

Highway superintendent James Card said the violation citation was fair.

He said training will be done by deadline.

Labels: Public Employees

Hopefully you were able to watch tonight's Nightline program on W.R. Grace asbestos tragedy in Libby, Montana. If not, you have two options: Check out part 2 on Friday night, and/or read this article in the Baltimore Sun by Andrew Schneider who broke the orginal Grace story in 1999.

In case you've missed hearing anything about this story, hundreds of deaths and more than 1200 illnesses have been diagnosed among the residents of Libby and surrounding communities from exposure to Grace's asbestos-laden vermiculite. These include not only workers who worked at W.R. Grace, but family members and residents who had no relation to the plant but breathed the air contaminated by the 5,000 and 10,000 pounds of asbestos a day that spewed up the stacks.

The worst thing about the contamination is the Grace executives knew that they were killing their workers and the community. W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives and department heads were indicted last February for attempting, for attempting, since the 1970's, to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company’s Libby, Montana plant.

But it's still getting worse (if that's possible):

Lloyd Arlt was breathing hard when he reached his roadside mailbox 100 feet from his front door. Even though oxygen flowed from a tank strapped to his back, he was forced to pause, trying to catch his breath.

As he shuffled back to his mobile home, he pulled two envelopes from Health Network America from the mail. One letter was addressed to his wife, the other to him.

"I got halfway down the first page and broke out laughing," said Arlt, a 79-year-old former heavy equipment operator. "Here's this letter from the insurance company for W.R. Grace who poisoned the countryside with asbestos telling me that I'm cured. Since 2000, doctors have run test after test and told me that the lining of my lungs is crusted with asbestos and was getting worse."

The letter to Marjorie, his wife of 58 years, also declared her free of asbestos-caused disease. Similar letters went to 178 others who had worked or lived in and around Libby and been exposed to asbestos fibers from vermiculite ore mined by Grace, an international chemical company based in Columbia. Like the Arlts, they had been diagnosed as ill and eligible for the health care that Grace promised residents of this mountain valley.

In a dispute over the validity of the victims' medical diagnoses, physicians hired by Grace's insurer, HNA, are challenging the findings of Libby physicians, national pulmonary specialists and federal public health experts. In the past two months, more than a quarter of the 700 people covered by the HNA plan have gotten what some residents call "miracle letters" saying they show no signs of asbestos disease. The rest of the victims covered by the plan got letters affirming their diagnoses.

Those who were declared disease-free were told their X-rays had been reviewed by one or more radiologists working for the insurer. "In your case, none of the peer reviewers was able to identify an asbestos-related disease or condition," the letter said.

"Now Grace is performing miracles, curing people with simple letters that say they are free of disease," said Gayla Benefield, whose husband, David, and a nephew received letters saying they are disease-free. Her letter agreed she has asbestos disease. In her extended family, 42 people have died from asbestos disease, are sick from it or are at risk, she says.

So is what Grace saying true? Hardly:

In a review of 10 patient files, a leading pulmonologist in Detroit found signs of asbestos disease in nine, including Lloyd Arlt's, and suspected it in the remaining case. The clinic plans to send additional cases to experts elsewhere to present to HNA, which has the last word on patient appeals.

Meanwhile, those "cured" by Grace are now unable to get their medical bills paid.

And what is Grace's motive?

Washington attorney Peter Lockwood says Grace's motivation is monetary. Lockwood is with Caplin & Drysdale, the law firm appointed by the bankruptcy court to represent the interests of those people who have asbestos injury claims against Grace.

"Grace has a very significant financial interest in reducing the number of people everywhere who could validly claim the company's actions made them sick. Decisions made by their health plan is one way," Lockwood said, referring not only to the bankruptcy proceedings in which he is involved but also to the criminal cases.

"Probably, if you're the prosecutor in the case, the more people that got sick and the more serious their illnesses were, the better the case you have," he said. "If Grace is going to be asking its experts to tell the court that the claims out of Libby are worthless, it would be somewhat inconsistent for its health program up there to be saying, 'Oh, my. You people are all really sick and you need a lot of medical treatment.'"

Grace, which last year had 6,500 employees and sales of $2.3 billion, said it lost $402 million in 2004 because of the latest amount set aside to pay potential claims.

Dr. Alan Whitehouse, the pulmonary specialist who first documented asbestos illness in Libby residents in 1980, has this view: "What Grace is doing by magically declaring them cured is an attempt to minimize their liability for future medical care."

Finally, the Grace tragedy was not just limited to Libby, Montana. Grace's vermiculate was shipped throughout the country to be processed where in contaminated thousands of other workers and dozens of communities. That's the subject of tomorrow's Nightline.

The basic facts about Grace and Libby:

• Hundreds of deaths have been linked to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from its mine, once the world's largest producer. More than 1,200 illnesses were diagnosed out of 6,600 residents of Libby and surrounding counties who were tested.


• It was not just the miners who became sick and died, it was their spouses who washed their work clothes, their children who rushed to hug them, the kids who raced on the contaminated high school track and the people who spread the feather-weight vermiculite in their gardens and stuffed Grace's Zonolite insulation in their walls and attics.


• Most residents inhaled the fibers from just living in Libby and the surrounding valley, where a persistent air inversion trapped the fibers. Court records show that between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds of asbestos a day spewed up the stacks at the sorting plant.


• Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 because, according to its Chairman, it was the only way to protect itself from tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming death or illness from exposure to asbestos in Grace products or from its facilities.


• Last February, the Justice Department indicted Grace and seven current or former executives and managers on federal criminal charges that they knowingly endangered the public and Libby mine workers through exposure to asbestos and concealed the information. If found guilty, Grace could be fined up to $280 million and individuals could face prison terms of up to 60 years.


• In declaring the area a Superfund site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called Libby "the most horrific environmental disaster in this country's history."


• In June, New Jersey's attorney general filed civil charges against Grace and two executives for allegedly concealing asbestos contamination at its former vermiculite processing plant in Trenton.

UPDATE: For those of you who missed the Nightline series on the W.R. Grace Asbestos tragedy in Libby, Montana and around the country brought to you by W.R. Grace, you can watch the program at the Nightline webpage night one here and night two here.

Related Stories

• Grace's Deadly Asbestos Tentacles Continue To Reach Across The Country, October 2, 2005
• Wanted: More Journalists To Pick Up On Asbestos Stories, July 4, 2005
• Lessons of Hamilton, New Jersey, June 29, 2005
• Grace Knew About Asbestos Contamination of NJ Plant, June 28, 2005
• Attorney for Grace To Head EPA Enforcement, June 27, 2005
• W.R. Grace: Did These Guys Ever Tell The Truth?, March 4, 2005
• Asbestos: Cruel, Deadly and Uncompensated, February 19, 2005
• 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
• W.R. Grace Execs Indicted For Asbestos Coverup, February 8, 2005

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Labels: Asbestos

JUST HEARD THIS IS TONIGHT

UPDATE: Obviously, this didn't happen. I'll try to find out ahead of time and let you know.

ABC's Nightline will air a 2-part series on asbestos-contaminated vermiculite, W.R.Grace and Libby, Montana on Wednesday 11/2 and Thursday 11/3, with Ted Koppel anchoring.

W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives and department heads were indicted last February for attempting, since the 1970's, to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company’s Libby, Montana plant. 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. The asbestos was processed in plants across the country, exposing workers and contaminating communities.

With natural catastrophes, bombings, and indictments occuring too quickly to count, it is possible that the shows will be postponed to air breaking news, but as of this moment ABC plans is to air part one tomorrow night.

More here.

UPDATE: For those of you who missed the Nightline series on the W.R. Grace Asbestos tragedy in Libby, Montana and around the country brought to you by W.R. Grace, you can watch the program at the Nightline webpage night one here and night two here.

Labels: Asbestos

Two new recent polls show Proposition 75, Paycheck Protection Deception, losing.

The usually reliable Field Poll showed 29% in favor and 46% opposing, while a Los Angeles Times poll showed that 33% favored the initiative and 44% opposed it. Unions have spent $100 million ot fight the initiative. In August, the Field Poll found Proposition 75 winning by 13 points.

Proposition 75 is a Schwarzenegger-backed initiative designed to cripple the political power of public employee unions by requiring government employee unions to give prior notice to members before using dues on political activity.

According to the Times poll, Proposition 75 supporters aren't fooling many people. Although the initiative is billed as an attempt to protect the rights of union members, most (whether they're for or against) believe it's really designed to reduce the unions' political influence:

More than six out of 10 voters believe that Prop 75 is intended to decrease the influence that unions have in state politics, while 26% said the measure is intended to protect the rights of union members. Interestingly 30% of union members believe this initiative is on the ballot to protect their rights. And among that small group, an overwhelming majority are supporting the initiative. Also, nearly two out of five voters believe unions in California have too much influence, while a fifth think they have too little. More than a third (36%) believe unions exert the right amount of influence and seven in 10 of this group say they are voting against Prop 75. A surprising 25% of union members who are deemed likely to vote, think unions have too much influence and they overwhelmingly support the measure. Also, nearly half of Republicans amd 45% of conservatives do not believe the initiative would protect union members rights, but rather decrease the influence of unions around the state, compared to 38% of Republicans and 39% of conservatives who believe this proposition is intended to protect the rights of union members.

Arnold can't even get his base to support Prop. 75:

For example, 42% of moderate Republicans, 27% of conservatives and 26% of Republicans are all voting against Prop 75. Voters in a more affluent household are opposed to Prop 75, as are all age groups, especially the elderly.

The poll also shows the growing influence of Latino voters and Latino union members:

White voters are split, while 56% of Latinos are against the measure. This poll shows 28% of union members who are likely to vote to be Latinos, or put another way, 41% of Latino likely voters are union members.

All of Schwarzenegger's initiatives are losing, exept for the teacher tenure measure, which is roughly tied, according to the Times.

On Sept. 23, 2001 two explosions ripped through the Jim Walters mine in Brookwood, Alabama, killing thirteen workers, many of whom were trying to assist four co-workers injured in the initial blast. MSHA fined Jim Walter Resources Inc. $435,000 for major problems. On Tuesday, administrative law judge David F. Barbour threw out most of the fine, requiring Jim Walter to pay $3,000 in fines for minor violations. According to the judge, the government did not prove wrondoing by the company.

That was news to MSHA which accused the company of lacking proper roof supports, improper training and inadequate efforts to prevent the buildup of volatile coal dust and gas.

The United Mineworkers conducted a year long, 100-plus-page report on the disaster, finding that the explosions resulted from a breakdown in the federal Mine Safety and Health Act's (Mine Act) checks and balances designed to protect miners' safety.

he UMWA determined the accident occurred when part of the mine's roof fell on top of and short-circuited a 6-ton scoop battery, generating sufficient heat to ignite methane. The union alleges the roof fall resulted from the mine operator's failure to adequately support adverse roof conditions. Following the first explosion, four miners were injured (including one unable to move) and ventilation controls were damaged, allowing methane gas to build up in the No. 4 section. JWR's emergency response was deficient and failed to protect and evacuate the miners. Twelve miners, who responded to the accident without necessary information and direction, were caught in the second explosion about 55 minutes after the first blast. They all perished along with the previously injured and immobile miner.

The investigation found that float coal dust, which had not been adequately controlled, helped fuel the second explosion.

"MSHA's District 11 allowed many violations to languish well after the required abatement dates had passed and kept fines low by, for example, citing that only one miner would be injured or killed by most violations," said UMWA Safety & Health Administrator Joe Main, who led the investigation called for by Roberts. "Since the mid-1990s, numerous complaints have been filed by miners and the union about the lax enforcement of the Mine Act by MSHA's District 11 office in Alabama."

"Our investigation identified several reforms needed to improve health and safety protections at coal mines," concluded Roberts. "We urge immediate action by MSHA and the mining industry to take steps to make all mines safer and healthier."

The Mineworkers called on MSHA to re-open the investigation and accused the agency of ignoring the testimony of miners who had complained about pre-existing hazardous conditions in the mine and downplaying JWR management's role in examining the mine and its ventilation problems.

The Mineworkers were angry:

"This decision is a bitter disappointment for our union and the families of those who lost their lives on that tragic day four years ago," said Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America International.

In a statement, Roberts said the judge "found that MSHA simply did not do its job when it came to proving its case" against Jim Walter Resources.

"It's high time MSHA started devoting more funding, more scientific and forensic expertise and more institutional concern to its investigations," Roberts said.

(Full UMWA report here.)

Jay Herzmark, an AFSCME member at the University of Washington, creates a "Haunted Workplace" every Halloween to illustrate the horrors workers face every day on the job. Here are a couple of examples from this year. (The sign next to the hand says "Put it on your regular insurance so my workers comp rates don't go up.")

While left and right duke it out over Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito's position on Roe v. Wade, corporate America is as happy as pigs in shit, according to Business Week.

Of the dozen or so names on Bush's rumored short list of high court candidates, Alito ranked near the top for the boardroom set.

In the 800-plus opinions he has penned during his 15 years as a federal judge, Alito consistently has come down on the side of limiting corporate liability, limiting employee rights, and limiting federal regulation. "He would be a liability restrainer," says Stan Anderson, legal-affairs lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Wall St. Journal agrees that "In 15 years on the federal bench, Judge Samuel Alito often has sided with positions backed by business leaders."

For those assessing Judge Alito, there are dozens of business cases to sift, some of which are widely known and many which are more technical. One of the best-known is a 1997 dissent in which Judge Alito argued against a racial-discrimination claim made by a black housekeeping manager who was denied promotion to a job at a Marriott International Inc. hotel. The position, at a hotel in Park Ridge, N.J., went to a white woman. While the court ruled the woman could take the case to a jury, Judge Alito argued that, although she might be able to claim she had been treated unfairly, that wasn't enough to let her sue.

"What we end up doing then is ... allowing disgruntled employees to impose the cost of trial on employers who, although they have not acted with the intent to discriminate, may have treated their employees unfairly," he wrote. "This represents an unwarranted extension of the anti-discrimination laws."

And although Democrats are complaining the Bush failed to consult with them about the current nomination, business groups didn't have the same problem, according to CNN:

Greg Valliere, chief strategist for Stanford Washington Research Group, added that it's unlikely that Alito would have been nominated if his judicial philosophy wasn't geared towards business interests.

In fact, the White House was reported to have consulted business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, headed by former Michigan governor and Bush friend John Engler, over potential nominations in order to garner support for what many see as an uphill battle to seat a conservative judge to replace moderate O'Connor.

President Bush made a major address about preparations for a possible Avian flu pandemic today, asking Congress for $7.1 billion to help prepare the country for a global epidemic of influenza.

The President wants $2.8 billion "to subsidize rapid development of cell-based technology for making influenza vaccine -- an investment that the United States' dwindling vaccine industry has declined to make" and between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion would be used to build a 20 million-dose stockpile of an experimental vaccine

Revere, over at Effect Measure, wasn't particularly impressed (although the drug companies were.) Optimistically, it's "better late than never," although I can't help but get the feeling it's too little, too late.

The bottom line for Big Pharma (the only line it cares about) will be that the public will fund the R&D and the big drug companies will be allowed to privatize the profits. And they are being asked to do it in a hurry, without time for adequate safety testing. So they don't want to take the risk and want immunity from suits.

If the problem is that the market doesn't work for vaccines, stop trying to make it work by artificially creating monopolies and insulating manufacturers from the costs of negligence ("the burden of litigation," in Bush's words). Big Pharma is even richer than Big Oil. It was reported yesterday that Europe's number two drug company, Novartis, has $5 billion dollars of cash flow to play with every year. It just used some of it to buy the vaccine maker, Chiron, which itself just got a huge US government contract to make a bird flu vaccine after they flushed half of the nation's supply down the toilet last year with contaminated production facilities. These guys don't need much help except to chew faster and swallow harder to get all the bucks down.

Revere also wasn't impressed with the $580 million for "pandemic preparedness" and Bush's talk about strengthening the hospital system while "his Republican comrades in the Congress are cutting Medicaid and Medicare, funds that the hospitals depend on to operate. "

If Bush really wanted to get us ready for a pandemic, he would get our critical infrastructures ready, especially public health and the health care system. Instead what we got is a proposal to throw money at the problem, with most of it destined to stick to the walls of Big Drug Companies. The public is like the person with a broken leg who is wheeled into the Bush Emergency Room and is told Bush doesn't do broken bones but Doctor Frist and company would be glad to give them a rectal exam.

The threat of a pandemic is serious. This plan isn't serious. It's a distraction to divert attention from Miers, Scooter, Iraq, Katrina and all the other crap Bush has served up. Watch the birdies (they might have the flu) while the other hand is stripping you bare and handing your possessions over to Big Pharma, Halliburton and Big Oil. That's a disgrace.

But wait, all is not lost. As Revere points out, Big Pharma really likes the plan. Not hard to figure why.

Everyone can go home now.

There's an old story that a US Patent Office official resigned in 1889 because "everything that can he invented has been invented." Turns out the story was a myth, but some myths die hard. And some myths are newly created.

The Bureau of National Affairs (subscription required) recently did a story on the effect of Newt Gingriches Contract On America on the making of OSHA regulations.

The obvious conclusion was

Since 1994, significantly fewer Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations have been promulgated than had been in the previous decade. Whether the slowdown can be linked directly to the shift in political philosophy in the Congress, or because of a combination of factors, many OSHA observers agree that job safety and health regulations have slowed to a trickle, particularly those described as "economically significant" with an impact of $100 million or more on the economy.

The reason, according to the National Association of Manufacturer's Pat Cleary ranks right up there with the Patent Office myth:

Cleary suggested that the reason that regulations are not promulgated at a faster pace, is because so many hazards have already been addressed.

"The pace of regulations has slowed, there's no doubt about it," Cleary said. "But it was a blistering pace for a very long time. It's fair to ask, what's [left] unregulated?"

Cleary maintained that the U.S. workplace is safer than it has ever been.

Happily, the BNA sought a more expert (and accurate) opinion on the matter:

[Jordan] Barab, on the other hand, said there are numerous job safety and health issues that have yet to be dealt with by OSHA. Ergonomics issues are present despite the agency's promises to address them through guidelines. He also said there are standards incorporated by reference into rules that need to be updated as well as issues such as confined space in construction.

"You've got hours-of-work and stress-related [issues], workplace violence, and communicable diseases beyond bloodborne pathogens," Barab said. "There are plenty of hazards out there."

Labels: Ergonomics

The Bush administration's bad week continues.

While this won't make the same headlines as the Miers withdrawal or Scooter's journey to the dark side, the underbelly of the Bush administration's coziness with its special corporate friends was revealed for all to see as the Bush Labor Department was taken to the woodshed yesterday by its inspector general who criticized the Department for an agreement promising the stores 15 day notice before labor invstigators woud inspect its stores for child labor violations.

The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.

The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.

The report said that in granting Wal-Mart the 15-day notice, the Wage and Hour Division violated its own handbook. It added that agreeing to let Wal-Mart jointly develop news releases about the settlement with the department violated Labor Department policies.

The inspector general, Gordon S. Heddell, said the agreement did not violate federal laws or regulations.

The Labor Department had reached the special deal with Wal-Mart last February when 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 inspector general wrote that all Wal-Mart promised to do if caught violating the law again was to bring a store into compliance within 10 days of when the department notifies it of a violation, but that there was

"little commitment from the employer beyond what it was already doing or required to do by law."

"In our view," the inspector general's office wrote about the Wage and Hour Division, "the Wal-Mart agreement may adversely impact W.H.D.'s authority to conduct future investigations and issue citations or penalty assessments, and potentially restrict information to the public."

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 inspector general's report was conducted at the request of California Congressman George Miller who has had a pretty good month, after succeeding in pressuring the administration into backing off of its Davis Bacon wage support suspension last week.

The inspector general also contradicted the Labor Department's claim that there was nothing about this agreement that the Clinton administration hadn't done, finding that

the agreement between Wal-Mart and the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division (W.H.D) "was significantly different from other agreements entered into by W.H.D." and "had the most far-reaching restriction on W.H.D.'s authority to conduct investigations and assess" fines..

The full inspector general report can be found here.

Related Articles:
What's It All About, Vicky? Child Labor, Wal-Mart and the Bush Administration, Feb. 19, 2005
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