I hate to beat a dead horse -- or a retired OSHA administrator -- but former Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, John Henshaw, in an interview with the American Society of Safety Engineers, is trying to change history. And such dasterdly deeds demand to be exposed:

Once at OSHA, Henshaw's vision to create a more customer-responsive agency began to take shape. It was a strategy borne largely out of the political climate surrounding regulations at that time, especially the buzz created by the repeal of the ergonomics rulemaking under the Congressional Review Act.

"Any person coming in [to head OSHA] has to take stock of the current environment. What does the universe look like? What are the powers and influences happening right now? When I took over, Congress had flexed its muscles on the ergonomics rulemaking and the economy was faltering. I realized if we followed the model of jamming it down somebody's throat, we'd be beating our heads against the wall. I knew we'd be called up to Congress constantly to defend ourselves, which would consume a lot of our resources.

First, "Congress had flexed its muscles on the ergonomics rulemaking and the economy was faltering." Take a look at history, John. Industry (and its "friends" in Congress) have tried to flex their muscles with every rulemaking in OSHA's history, whatever the state of the economy at the time. The state of the economy has nothing whatsoever to do with industry's opposition to OSHA standards. Its a control issue. They don't want no government agency telling them what to do. And if you for industry support before issuing any standards, OSHA might as well go out of the standard-setting business -- which is what they've done.

Then there's this:

"In addition to Congress feeling it could stop or at least slow regulations, there was nothing in the pipeline. The previous administration had used most of its resources on ergonomics, so we knew it would take a while to build things up and get things done."

"There was nothing in the pipeline?" Hello? What about the almost completed tuburculosis standard, which you later withdrew? And then there was the almost completed standard that would have required employers to pay for their employees' gloves, boots and other personal protective equipment. It's still sitting there, in the pipeline, without being finalized, more than five years later.

And this:

Voluntary efforts, partnerships and alliances are another part of the puzzle Henshaw focused on. And, although many said the agency didn't have the resources to pull it off, Henshaw reports that the agency added no staff and still did all the alliances, VPP activities and partnerships. "Our folks found the time because they saw there was real value in this. They saw that much more is getting done, that is it getting done on a voluntary basis and that the people doing it are owning it," he explains. "They also like people calling them in and asking for opinions and help. Before, people didn't want to talk to the agency. Now, OSHA people are sought after. Everyone responds to that."

Actually, even the Government Accounting Office says OSHA doesn't have anough resources to "pull it off." A 2004 GAO report found that not only were your planned expansion of OSHA's voluntary efforts inevitably going to cut into the enforcement budget, but there was no evidence that OSHA's voluntary efforts were effictive in preventing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

At least he recognizes some reality:

As to criticism that OSHA has lost some of its enforcement teeth as a result of this approach, Henshaw says that to big companies OSHA has always been a "drop in the bucket, a small fly on the wall." He adds, "For most cases [with large companies], OSHA doesn't have enough muscle from the statute standpoint. The agency doesn't have the kinds of fines and penalties found in other agencies. I'm not saying OSHA should, but the agency is not going to fine a large company into doing something right."

But is the administration advocating higher penalties to correct this situation? In your dreams.

Henshaw says that before he got there, "people" didn't want to talk to the agency. Actually, I was there and plenty of people wanted to talk to the agency all the time. The difference now is that plenty of industry people are talking and talking about alliances and other voluntary efforts, but not doing much else. Meanwhile, the agency has made a point of not talking to certain "people" -- like workers and labor representatives.

Finally, Henshaw doesn't seem to be giving a ringing endorsement to Ed Foulke who has now taken Henshaw's place at the helm of OSHA:

Henshaw credits his SH&E (safety, health and environmental) background with helping him be an effective leader at OSHA. In fact, he believes the agency needs a transformational leader, and that means having an SH&E professional at the helm. "I strongly believe that an SH&E person should be the head of OSHA," he says. "If we view OSHA as only a regulatory agency, one that simply goes through the process of setting and enforcing standards, then you don't need an SH&E professional. You just need someone who knows the bureaucracy, knows the legal issues and goes about doing the tasks. That's a transactional leader, someone who just follows the process, doesn't interject anything, has no real passion for the issues.

Foulke an attorney. Enough said.

I've written a few times about how OSHA caved into industry, issuing a standard to protect workers against cancer-causing hexavalent chromium that set a limit 5 times above what OSHA had originally proposed, and 20 times higher than advocated by Public Citizen, the group that sued OSHA for the standard.

The standard was issued just a week after an article was published in the scientific journal Environmental Health by George Washington University professor David Michaels revealing that the industry had covered up findings from a study they had conducted showing that hexavalent chromium causes cancer at extremely low levels. The industry never published the results, nor did they submit them to OSHA, even though the agency had requested all information when working on the standard.

Industry may have won the battle over the standard, but may be losing the war. Forbes.com has revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency, tipped off by the Michaels article, may be investigating the industry under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which requires companies to report new substantial risk information about chemicals to the government in a timely manner. Last year, EPA sued DuPont for failing to report to the agency that perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA,had been found in water and had serious health effects.

A formal EPA investigation could target Elementis Chromium, the Corpus Christi, Tex.-based unit of parent Elementis, a specialty chemicals company listed on the London Stock Exchange with annual sales of $767 million. It is unclear whether other companies that use chromium in manufacturing processes, such as Owens Corning, 3M Engelhard and Textron, were privy to the findings of the study and might also face suit.

***

Michaels notes that three trade groups--the Society of the Plastics Industry, the Surface Finishing Industry Council and the Specialty Steel Institute--all sent letters to OSHA in the final day of the post-hearing comment period that display knowledge of the concealed industry-sponsored chromium study, "and not a single one of the trade associations [or their member companies] notified EPA or OSHA."

Forbes is also the only media publication that has revealed another problem with the standard.

In its final rule in late February, OSHA set a "permissible exposure limit" to airborne particles of hexavalent chromium of 5 micrograms of the toxic dust per cubic meter of air--one-tenth the level that had been permitted for 63 years. One little-noticed exception was won by the aerospace industry, thanks to effective lobbying by the Aerospace Industry Association, whose members include Lockheed Martin. Workers who paint aircraft or large aircraft parts can work around 25 micrograms of the toxic dust per cubic meter of air.

And leave it to Forbes, one of the premier business outlets to ask the question: "Time for an Erin Brockovich sequel? "

Related Articles

• More On OSHA's Hexavalent Chromium Mess, March 16, 2006
• OSHA To Workers: You Don't Need No Stinkin' Training, March 7, 2006
• OSHA Issues Weak Hexavalent Chromium Standard: "Workers Will Die", February 28, 2006
• Chromium Coverup Story: A Bone To Pick...February 24, 2006
• SHOCKED! Chromium Industry Suppresses Data, Hides Risks, February 23, 2006

By Special Correspondant Jim Young

Neighborhood contamination in the wake of Katrina has lingered so long without government intervention that two unusual partners have joined forces to do something about it. On March 23, the United Steelworkers (USW) union and Dillard University’s Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) announced the kick-off of A Safe Way Back Home project, an environmental neighborhood clean up and outreach campaign.

The first phase of the project, which ran from March 23-26, removed tainted soil from properties on a ravaged and almost-empty block on Aberdeen Road in New Orleans East. The contaminated dirt was taken away by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Sidewalks, curbs, and streets were pressure washed until all accumulated sediment was removed. Each lot was re-landscaped with graded river sand and fresh sod.

Participants included residents, college students and Steelworkers who have received certificate training in Hazardous Materials handling in programs funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

“This demonstration project serves as a catalyst for a series of activities that will attempt to reclaim the New Orleans East community following the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. Ultimately, it is the government’s responsibility to provide the resources required to address areas of environmental concern and to assure that the workforce is protected,” said Dr. Beverly Wright, DSCEJ’s executive director.

“FEMA should replicate this demonstration project on thousands of blocks in hundreds of neighborhoods across the City of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region,” added United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard. “Only the federal government has the resources and authority to lead such a massive undertaking. But it has to be done. The human dignity and economic security of the people of the Gulf Coast depends on it.”

Both the USW and DSCEJ say FEMA should allocate a portion of the billions of dollars recently appropriated by Congress to clean up environmental contaminants in the region. They maintain the agency should provide the work force and materials necessary to complete the remediation. And it should sponsor and fund the NIEHS Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program and Minority Worker Training Program as models for educating cleanup workers about how to identify, control and prevent numerous potential health hazards.

DSCEJ and USW launched A Safe Way Back Home following an analysis of sediment samples taken by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at two properties on Aberdeen Road. The results showed that all but one sample contained at least one chemical at a higher concentration than the Louisiana Risk Evaluation Corrective Action Program (RECAP) screening levels for residential soil. The analysis was conducted by the firm of Glenrose Engineering, Inc. of Austin Texas.

Chemicals exceeding RECAP standards included:

• Heavy metals (arsenic, zinc, barium, cadmium). Arsenic levels were greater than 40 times the Region 6 EPA soil cleanup level for residential areas. This level is set at 0.39 milligrams/kilogram (mg/kg) to protect against cancer. The levels also exceeded the state guidelines for clean-up used by Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ). This level is set at 12 mg/kg.
• Diesel range organics. At both sites the levels greatly exceed the state guidelines for clean-up in residential areas used by LDEQ of 650 micrograms/kilogram (ug/kg). At 8750 Aberdeen the level was found to be more than twice the state clean-up level.
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[b]fluoranthene). At one site, the level of the cancer-causing PAH Benzo[a]pyrene significantly exceeds the state guidelines for clean-up in residential areas used by LDEQ and EPA of 330 (ug/kg).

These results, when compared to other US EPA data from across the city of New Orleans, appear typical of post-Katrina New Orleans. But that doesn’t make them safe -- they represent both acute and long-term health hazards. (See also an analysis with similar conclusions conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council.)

“There are no acceptable levels of contamination for the thousands of hurricane victims now living in what resembles a sludge pit – no matter what state and federal environmental officials say,” noted Gary Beevers, Director of USW District 13, which encompasses Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. “The government was doing next to nothing to remedy these hazards, so the Steelworkers felt like we had to step in and take some action.”

A Safe Way Back Home is the product of a strategic partnership between labor, environmental and community organizations. It offers neighborhood residents whose homes were flooded by Hurricane Katrina an opportunity to work with local Steelworkers and environmentalists to take a proactive approach to cleaning up their neighborhoods.

Health and Safety training and equipment was provided to all volunteers before starting the Safe Way Back Home project. The training is supported by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to Dillard University, home of DSCEJ, and to the Steelworkers’ Tony Mazzocchi Center for Safety, Health & Environmental Education.

“The failure to adequately respond to the devastation caused by Katrina has had disastrous environmental and health consequences,” said Jim Frederick, Assistant Director of the Steelworkers’ Department of Health, Safety and the Environment. “Thousands upon thousands of residents continue to suffer exposures to contaminated soil, unsafe water and toxic mold.”
Frederick said the Steelworkers will continue providing Hazardous Materials training for small and disadvantaged businesses and contractors involved in demolition, debris removal, mold remediation, and clean-up.

More Information:

Analysis: Health risks in Katrina's wake, United Press International March 27, 2006
By Olga PierceUPI Health Business Correspondent

New Orleans Activists Starting From the Ground Up, Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2006, By Ann M. Simmons, Times Staff Writer

Labels: Katrina

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to the United Food and Commercial Workers union confirming that they would stop impersonating Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials in order to nab undocumented immigrants.

Last summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcment officials staged a raid on undocumented immigrants in North Carolina by impersonating OSHA officials. The raid led to a firestorm of protest from unions, immigrant rights groups and OSHA who argued that such sting operations would discourage immigrants from seeking assistance from OSHA when working in hazardous jobs. ICE had reaffirmed it right to use such stings, but later said they would only be used when there was a "national security threat or extreme situation." last Summer, where they invited undocumented workers to a phoney OSHA training

This is exactly the action that I.C.E. should have taken," said Jackie Nowell, director of occupational safety for the food and commercial workers union. "Using health and safety as a ruse to catch workers is definitely the wrong way to go when immigrant workers are being killed and injured in far greater numbers than other workers."

Related Stories

• Immigration To Impersonate OSHA Only If National Security Threatened, February 27, 2006
• NY Times Again Picks Up OSHA Impersonation Story, February 11, 2006
• Illegal' Workers: "They Get What They Deserve?", February 8, 2006
• Immigration Officials Refuse To Stop Impersonating OSHA, February 7, 2006
• APHA Letter To Homeland Security Protesting Fake OSHA Sting, August 23, 2005
• Immigration Scam Causing Concern in Texas, August 6, 2005
• OSHA or Immigration? How To Tell The Difference, July 17, 2005
• NY Times Covers OSHA Impersonation Story, Saturday, July 16, 2005
• Betrayal in North Carolina: Unions Condemn OSHA Impersonators, July 14, 2005
• Stupid and Deadly: Undocumented Workers Lured into Arrest With Promise of Safety Training, July 11, 2005
  

Today is the third Blogiversary of Confined Space. In blog years, I’d say that puts me somewhere in late middle age (far, far older than I am in “person years.”) If anyone had told me three years ago that I would still be doing this (or that I would still be doing this and still be married), I’d say they crazy, nutso, one beer short of a sixpack.

This year’s anniversary coincides with the finals of the Koufax awards. The most gratifying thing about the Koufax awards (win or lose) is that people not only vote for you, but they write comments. Now, as you know, I encouraged people to vote for Confined Space, and to leave messages about what they liked about it. One could argue that I was fishing for complements. But if I was fishing, it was for trout; what I caught was Moby Dick. Thanks, when the night gets late and the hours long, your appreciation means a lot.

Although I was overwhelmed with the outpouring of appreciation, what hit me most was the hole in the health and safety movement that Confined Space seems to have filled for people over the past three years – a hole that most of us weren’t even aware existed.

There needs to be a place that really pulls together in one place everything that’s happening to workers while they’re at work. Few people, aside from those of us who do this for a living (or a hobby), or who have been “drafted” by a personal tragedy, are aware of the carnage that still plagues American workplaces, the ineffectiveness of government enforcement, the inadequacy of health and safety standards, the apathy of our elected representatives, and the hostility of the business community. Nor are people aware that the impact of the political process on the safety of everyone’s workplace.

Happily, I haven't had to do all of this completely myself. Even though I do most of the writing (with the major exception of Tammy Miser’s invaluable contributions with the Weekly Toll), this has been somewhat of a group effort. Although I have automated Google search, much of the material that I write about is sent to me by all of you out there who keep me supplied with far more material than I can ever cover. That, and the feedback I get – both in the comments, and privately, keep me thinking.

But it takes more than good material and anger to keep a blogger going; it also takes inspiration. It seems that every time I start thinking about giving this up so that I can start sleeping more, reading good books and watching lousy T.V., I get an e-mail from someone whose found their way to Confined Space, whose husband, wife, partner, father, mother, son or daughter was killed in a needless, preventable workplace “accident,” for which the employer paid a relatively small fine, even though she or he knew (or should have known) that workers were being place in hazardous situations. Their lives are forever changed, a part of them irreplaceably gone.

Even worse, their loss is rarely acknowledged or sufficiently recognized by society. If they’re lucky, there may be a short news report that rarely mentions what caused the “accident,” what OSHA standards might have been ignored, the history of the employers past citations, or interviews with other workers who may have warned of unsafe conditions. Readers are often left with the impression that the tragedy was “just one of those unfortunate things,” a “freak” accident, or even an unavoidable “act of God” Even worse, the victim’s name is often not mentioned, pending notification of family. By the time that’s done, the media has lost interest and moved on to the next robbery, traffic accident or missing blonde in Aruba. End of story.

Mostly, they’re not union members and don’t have a COSH group in the area. Many live in rural areas, and too many are immigrants who don’t even have family here. What has been missing for the families, and what they seem to find in Confined Space, is an outlet for their anger and frustration, a confirmation that their loss didn’t have to happen and a feeling for the political context in which all of this is happening. What I’d also like to provide is a constructive outlet for their emotions: a local or national struggle to join in where they can make sure that the loss of their loved one may not have been completely in vain, that their efforts can contribute to preventing similar tragedies from happening to other families.

And, to a certain extent it’s working. This is an excerpt from a note I received today from Michelle Lewis, whose step-father was killed in a trench collapse:

When I felt no one else was listening or cared about the death of my step-dad in a trench, you did. Through your passion and commitment, you gave me a voice and I will be eternally grateful for that. After you posted my letter and upon learning from your work, I felt more empowered to see the connection between policy and my personal loss. I've contacted my state officials and have encouraged them all to use your blog as a resource for truth, prevention and justice.

Things like that makes it all worthwhile.

Unfortunately, organized campaigns in which people can involve themselves are few and far between, and this is one of my biggest frustrations. Several larger cities in the country have COSH groups that are active in local issues and national issues and involve families of workplace victims. But there’s not much out there, especially on a national level. There are bills in both the Senate and the House that would raise the penalties for workplace crime, but their mostly token efforts backed by few co-sponsors, with no hope of getting anywhere in this political environment.

The answer, of course, is changing the political environment. And by making the connections between workplace death, illness and injury and politics, some of the familys’ energy and emotions can be channeled into the political process which may, in the medium term, bear some fruit in better enforcement, improved standards and meaningful penalties.

We’re now in an election year. Workplace safety issues are rarely an issue in national or even local elections. After Sago, however, this year has the potential of being different, at least in certain parts of the country, if the issue is framed properly. Some of us are also looking for ways to tie the endless tragedy contained in each Weekly Toll with local elections. There are lots of ideas out there; all that’s needed is several more hours in each day, and more money. With the demise of the AFL-CIO’s Safety and Health Department, the prospects for putting significantly more resources into political organizing around safety and health issues seem less than probable.
But I digress.

So where are we, how far have we come? On the first anniversary of Confined Space, in 2004, I wrote the following:

Think of what's happened since Confined Space hit the web. One year ago today, George Bush was president, OSHA was sinking into irrelevancy and still hadn't issued its Tuberculosis or Payment for Personal Protective Equipment standards, most public employees weren't covered by OSHA, immigrant workers were dying and being injured in record numbers, American soldiers were dying in Iraq and weapons of mass destruction had yet to be found.

OK, moving right along…

Two years ago I boasted of having 40,000 hits and 70,000 page views in the past year. I was averaging around 200 visits a day, 1500 a week. Today, I’m averaging 1200 visits and 2000 page views a day.

But who’s doing all that reading. I think I’m reaching most health and safety activists. I’m also reaching a lot of health and safety professionals who find Confined Space on a Google Search. I occasionally get a message from them saying they’ve found a lot of good information year, but it’s too bad there’s so much politics.

My main target when I started this was workers do dangerous work and find Confined Space an important resource. I’m not sure much has changed from what I wrote two years ago:

I had fantasies that every organized -- and lots of unorganized workers would be avid readers. I'm still around twenty to thirty million hits short. Confined Space has been linked on a number of local and international union websites, although it's becoming increasingly clear to me that most workers don't come home and surf the web every night (or at least they don't surf their union's webpages much). In fact most of my readership comes during weekdays, presumably at work.

And the workers who do the most dangerous work probably have the least daytime access to the internet.

Aside from Google searches, links on websites or other blogs, and occasional media stories, the main way we’re going to expand the circulation and potential impact of Confined Space is with your help. Forward it around, send me e-mail addresses of those who might be interested, download this flyer http://users.rcn.com/jbarab/Flyer.pdf and take it to conferences.

So, what does the future hold? Who knows? Will there be a fourth Blogiversary? Some days I think I won’t last another week, some days I think I would be happy just doing this all day long (emphasis on day) -- if I didn’t have to make money.

So, thanks again for all the support and kind words.

And, by the way, if anyone wants to try out as a blogger-in-training, let me know.

The last few weeks have been kind of busy, so I passed up this story. It's not a completely unusual story, except for few details.

Workers who work in century-old steam tunnels are exposed the the threat of cave-in and lots of crumbling, cancer-causing asbestos. The employer, although well aware of the hazards, refuses to do anything about it.

You can read similar stories almost every week around the country, but there's one thing "special" about this situation.

The workplace: The United States Capitol.

The employer: The Architect of the Capitol.

NOTE: I am about to say something good about Republicans.

Until the Republican takeover of the Congress in 1994, congressional employees were not covered by OSHA, despite the fact that they do the same maintenance and construction jobs that private sector employees do, and despite the fact that even white-collar congressional employees suffer from exposure to asbestos, poor indoor air quality and ergonomic hazards.

The new Republican Congress decided this was unfair; Congressional employees should be covered by OSHA standards, and their employers should be forced to comply with OSHA standards -- that includes Senators, Congressmen and the Architect of the Capitol. The Congressional Accountability Act was passed and the Congressional Office of Compliance was created to monitor safety conditions. This was, of course, a good thing, even if the motive wasn't entirely pure. The new Republican majority figured that if Congressmen and Senators had to comply with stupid OSHA regulations, that would give them even more incentive to weaken or even abolish the agency.

But there were some unintended conseqences: real hazards are being found. At the beginning of March, the OOC filed its first occupational safety and health complaint against the office of the Architect of the Capitol, "warning that the agency is allowing employees to operate in dangerous, rotting tunnels that run under the Capitol complex.

"The miles of tunnels are in such a dilapidated state that they are subject to cave-ins that could trap and injure employees who are working in them, according to Carl Goldman, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 26, and Nan Ernst, a representative for the union local 2910 at the Library of Congress.

“Some of the tunnels are 100 years old,” Ernst said. “Those who do the maintenance on the pipes are subject to injury. They have no unions there to protect them. We are concerned about our co-workers there being subjected to those conditions.”

She added that in addition to the potential for cave-ins, the tunnels are lined with carcinogenic asbestos.

The complaint was filed before a hearing officer, requesting an order mandating the correction of the violation because the Architect of Capitol failed to respond to a OOC citation in 2000 for failing to maintain the aging infrastructure.

The Architect of the Capital finally admitted to an unhappy Senate Committee that there was an asbestos problem and that workers had only recently been giving respirators.

Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman yesterday admitted that he did not do enough to protect workers in crumbling asbestos-lined utility tunnels.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), angrily told Hantman, “We knew there was asbestos, we knew that it was hazardous … and literally waited years before we provided safety devices for these workers to protect them. How can we explain that to the workers and their families?”

Hantman conceded, “We have ongoing inspections going — but clearly they were not adequate.”

“That is cold comfort,” Durbin retorted. "We have done a great disservice to these workers’ families. I want to say to you point blank, if you do not come forward with requests for life-safety measures, [such as] protective devices to protect these workers, then you are not doing your duty."

Indeed.

Labels: Asbestos

All this Global Warming talk: is it happening, isn't it happening, it's all so confusing, what's on T.V.?

I've written several times about one of the favorite games of the chemical and tobacco industry: "manufacturing doubt," as George Washington University professor David Michaels described it in several articles (here and here, for example).

What's worked so well with tobacco and chemicals also seems to be working well for the oil industry with global warming "debate," according to an ABC News report. It's not like there isn't enough good information already out there.

The vast majority of scientists has determined global warming to be a real threat. So why has it taken so long to convince Americans?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan blames a 15-year misinformation campaign by the oil and coal industries.

"The point of this campaign was not necessarily to persuade the public that global warming isn't happening," Gelbspan said. "It was to persuade the public that there is this state of confusion."

A 1998 memo by the American Petroleum Institute said, "Victory will be achieved when … average citizens recognize uncertainties in climate science." To redefine global warming as theory — not fact — the industry funded research by "friendly" scientists such as [climatologist, Pat]Michaels.

Michaels (no relation to the aforementioned good [David] Michaels) was quoted by ABC as saying

"The American people have just been bludgeoned with climate disaster stories for God knows how long....and they're just, they've got disaster fatigue."

ABC at least puts him (and those like him) in his place: "Michaels is one of a handful of skeptics still downplaying the danger. But they are a tiny minority." Maybe, but unfortunately, that tiny minority seems to control our government -- and perhaps the fate of the earth.

(Hat tip to Susie)

In November 2000, this nation finally took a giant step toward addressing the biggest workplace hazard facing American workers: strains, sprains and back injuries, technically known as musculoskeletal disorders. Among the main victims were our nation's caregivers, nurses, nursing home workers and home health care professionals. After a ten year fight with Congressional Republicans and the business community, OSHA finally issued its long-awaited ergonomics standard.

Less than two months after George W. Bush took office, however, the standard was dead, repealed by Congress, its death sentence signed by George W. Bush.

The administration promised a "comprehensive plan" to address ergonomics injuries. Aside from dozens of industry alliances, the only thing the Bush program has produced is a handful of OSHA citations over the past five years.

A handful of OSHA citations and thousands of disabled workers, disabled from injuries that didn't have to happen.

***

"Imagine lifting 200 pounds or more of dead weight by yourself several times a day. That's a typical day for nurses and X-ray techs, and it's becoming unbearable."

And then imagine suffering chronic pain for the rest of your life.

More than half of nurses and radiology technicians don't have to imagine. It's their reality.

According to Candice Owley, chair of Healthcare for the American Federation of Teachers. "Construction workers use cranes, package delivery personnel use dollies, yet most healthcare workers are on their own and getting hurt. This is affecting patient care and the profession."

AFT released a study today, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research associates showing that

Large majorities of both hospital nurses and radiology technicians report that they have suffered job-related chronic pain or on-the-job injuries resulting from lifting, moving or repositioning patients. Among nurses, 56 percent have suffered chronic pain and/or an injury that they associate with lifting or moving patients. Among radiology technicians, fully 64 percent have suffered chronic pain, injury or both.

The study also found that whereas staffing had been the number one problem among nurses, "the physical demands of the job have become so severe that these are now considered by nurses to be just as serious a problem as understaffing."

And they're not at all happy about the situation, which is bad news considering the on-going nursing shortage:

Among all nurses, slightly fewer than half (47 percent) have considered leaving their field during the past two years specifically because of their work's physical demands. The proportion of nurses who have considered leaving rises to 59 percent among those who have suffered from chronic pain or injuries, compared to 31 percent among those who have not experienced on-the-job pain or injury.

The study also looked at what action nurses and other hospital professionals thought should be taken:

The vast majority of nurses and radiology technicians believe that their state should adopt regulations mandating that hospitals provide patient-moving equipment and relevant training. More than four in five nurses (82 percent) and radiology technicians (85 percent)would support state standards.

So any of you health care professionals out there who are reading this, remember that this is an election year, and there are crimes to answer for. What you do at the ballot box has a direct effect on your chances of living a healthy life.

Labels: Ergonomics

I've already written my piece about the illegal alien undocumented immigrant debate, plus I'm on vacation, so go read what Revere and Nathan Newman have to say -- as usual, perspectives you'll generally only find in blogs, but they seem to make so much more sense than the demagoguery that the main-stream-media spends its time reporting.

A sampling...

Revere:

If you want to take those who break civil laws and turn them into felons, why start with hard working people whose only crime is being poor and not speaking English? Here is a whole shithouse full of civil lawbreakers poisoning our rivers and streams. Let's prosecute the corporate officers and responsible officials as felons.

Given the choices, which one do you think would make the average person better off?

Nathan Newman:

If we want to slow immgration to the United States, the real way to do it is to end sweatshops in Mexico and the rest of the developing world and end the rising inequality in global wealth within such countries. Mexico, for example, has increasing wealth, but because of the trade deals we created with them, most of that wealth goes to the richest section of the population-- Mexico has 13 billionaires yet working families are left struggling to survive.

To tell such refugees from an economic system the US government helped engineer that they are to blame for their fate is immoral. And progressives should be standing side by side with the labor unions, civil rights groups and religious leaders marching by the hundreds of thousands in the streets to demand decent treatment for those refugees and a more just global economic system.

Go read the whole things.

Coit Smith's son Donald was electrocuted one year ago today at Sanderson Farms when handling a pump that had 489 volts of electricity flowing through it. Confined Space readers may be familiar with Coit's campaign to challenge the inadquacy of workplace safety laws and enforcement in this country. I published a letter from him last year and he's a frequent contributor to the comments.

Today, the The Bryan-College Station Eagle had an article today about the pain of his son's death and his Coit's campaign to change the way workplace safety system. He didn't discuss his son's case with the paper due for legal reasons.

But that shouldn't matter, he added, explaining that the problems he wants to address are industry-wide. And he should know, he said. He's spent the past 20 years as a workplace safety expert trying to prevent exactly what happened to his son.

For years, Smith said, he has seen the inequities in the system, but it wasn't until his son's death that he had the courage and motivation to stand up and do something about it.

He now wants to persuade lawmakers to develop regulations with more teeth that might allow "meaningful prosecution of companies that violate federal regulations and cause death in the facility."

The first step, he said, is to change workers' compensation laws at the state level so that workplace safety violations that lead to an employee's death carry punishments similar to what happens with drunken driving deaths. If CEOs have to be put in jail for such negligence, so be it, he proposed.

The law as it is currently written protects employers from workplace injury and death lawsuits, he said. Corporations keep score by dollars, he argued, and without stiffer penalties or the threat of lawsuits, many factories don't have enough incentive to stop cutting corners.

The second step, Smith said, will be to take the fight to the national level - trying to persuade Congress to make the necessary changes at OSHA.

"If OSHA fees and punishments were more severe, there are many companies out there that would comply with federal regulations," he said, explaining that trying to prove a company committed gross negligence is "arduous at best."

The maximum penalty for gross negligence is a six-month jail term, he explained.

Smith started a letter-writing campaign about six months ago, starting with his local representatives. Since then, he has written letters urging a change in the law to every member of the Texas Senate, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. He is about halfway through contacting every member of the Texas House of Representatives.

So far, Smith said he has gotten a lot of automated responses. But there are a few politicians, he said, who have shown a genuine interest in the issue and have given him encouragement to keep fighting.

"This is just the beginning of it," he said, describing his actions so far as "just the baby step."

"This is a big mountain I'm trying to climb, but the legislators do not know my tenacity. This is a moral issue for me."

There are thousands of other fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in this country facing similar pain every year. Think what could be accomplished if they all understood how things work and what needs to be done as well as Coit Smith.

The time is now.

Koufax Award voting ends tonight at midnight. Confined Space is doing well in the Best Single Issue Blog category, but so are the other worthy nominees.


More voting information here.

The Centre Daily Times gets it.

I wrote earlier this week about the administration's chemical plant security plan: let private industry set the standards and private sector auditors police it. It didn't sound like a good idea to me. The Centre Daily Times out of State College, Pennsylvania doesn't either:

Cozy - like too many government-industry relationships these days. "Trust industry" is a lousy safety philosophy. If industry cooperation worked so well, Congress wouldn't be investigating the hands-off approach of the Mine safety and Health Administration following the Sago mine accident.

Chemical plant security needs a vigilant watchdog, not the industry-sanctioned benchmarks and private auditors that Chertoff prescribed Tuesday. Congressional testimony and Government Accountability Office reports have repeatedly rejected industry's "voluntary efforts" as insufficient to protect chemical plants from terrorist attack. It's long past time that Congress mandated better.

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

Today is the ninety-fifth anniversary of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed 140 workers who had “burned, fallen from the collapsing fire escapes or jumped to their deaths.” Author Katherine Webber, writing in today’s New York Times, describes the events of that tragic day, but adds another perspective that is usually forgotten: Many of the dead – and no one knows the exact figure – were children as young as 11, and possibly younger.

Although the official list of those killed “include one 11-year old, two 14-year olds, and 14 17-year olds,” the question remains: “Were the ages of workers, living and dead, modified to finesse the habitual violation of child labor laws in 1911?” We may never know how many young children were among the six unidentified victims, or other victims whose ages may have been falsified.

We’ve come a long way since 1911. No longer do we lock small children into sweatshops (although we don’t seem to have quite gotten beyond locking grown-up workers into their buildings.)

But much of the rest of the world is still living in that period: crowded and unsafe conditions, locked exits, hundreds of undocumented female workers as young as 12, a deadly fire.” Weber describes how we will never know how many children were killed in the 1993 fire at the Kadar Industrial Toy Company in Thailand (a supplier of Hasbro and Fischer Price) that killed 188 workers, or the 2000 Chowdhury Knitware fire in Bangladesh (contracted by Wal-Mart and the Gap) where 52 died behind locked doors and at least 10 were under the age of 14. Nor will we ever know how many children died just last month at the KTS Composite Textile factory fire in Bangladesh where 84 workers may have been killed.

Things may be better here at home,

But as long as we don’t question the source of the inexpensive clothing we wear, as long as we don’t wonder about the children in those third world factories who make the inexpensive toys we buy our won children, those fires ill occur and young girls and boys will continue to die. They won’t die because of natural catastrophes like monsoons and earthquakes; they will die because it has become our national habit to outsource, and these days we outsource our tragedies too.

Voting will end Sunday night. So if you haven't voted yet for Confined Space in the Best Single Issue Blog, now is the time (who wants to be bothered over the weekend?)

Go here for instructions, but just to repeat, there are two ways to vote:

1. If you like what you read here, go ahead and vote for Confined Space, click on Best Single Issue Blog. Just scroll all the way down the page to the bottom of the page to the comments and leave a comment with the following words: "Confined Space." If you have time, feel free to embellish with kind words so that people know what we're all about. OR


2. If that's too much trouble or you're one of my many fans at OSHA or a secret dissident at some Washington D.C. law firm and you'd rather not leave an identifiable public comment, you can also just send a private e-mail to Mary Beth or Dwight, with the heading "Koufax."

Breaking News: Confined Space has won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO's Blog. No word yet from Change to Win.

Update: My father has also voted for me (several times, tsk, tsk). No word yet from my mother.

Now, back to more important things....

The next few postings below contain graphic and upsetting material that may not be appropriate for small children, weak stomachs or those who continue to believe that all is well in the American workplace.

There are no good days in the American workplace.

Still, it seems like some days are worse than others. This is a small sampling of what arrived in my in-box today:

OSHA investigates Metro East man's workplace death

SAUGET, Ill. Federal workplace-safety officials are investigating a man's death while he worked at a Metro East plant.

Police say 27-year-old J-D Croom of Cahokia died yesterday when he was sucked into a large machine at the Mid-America Fiber Company plant in Sauget.


Worker Dies After He Is Pulled Into Machine

NEW HAVEN -- A worker died after he was pulled into a machine at a scrap metal yard Wednesday, police said.

The accident occurred at about 4:15 p.m. at Regan Metal Corp., 69 Poplar St., police said. Richard Larson, 54, of Kensington, was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:45 p.m., Sgt. Robert Dudley said.

Police said Larson was loading metal into a machine that coils the metal. His work glove apparently got caught in the machine when he went to adjust a bar, and the machine pulled him in, Sgt. Andrew Muro said.

OSHA is to review fatal work accident

BRUNSWICK HILLS TWP. - The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration is expected to probe Tuesday's death of a delivery man crushed by about a ton of granite slabs.

Owatonna man killed in job accident

OWATONNA, Minn. — A 25-year-old Owatonna man died in a workplace accident, police said Wednesday.

Patrick Donahue was pinned under a crate that weighed nearly a ton while working in the shipping area at Viracon Inc., an architectural glass fabricator based in Owatonna.

White Mills Man Dies In Construction Accident

(RADCLIFF, Ky.) -- A construction worker died on Thursday morning when the trench he was working in collapsed on top of him.

Tommy Hensley, 42, was standing about eight feet deep in the trench in a new construction site off Hill Street when the sides of the trench caved in, Radcliff Police spokesman Bryce Shumate said.

Days like this always bring to mind the wise words of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY):

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.

I gotta go to bed.

Labels: Trench Hazards

Well, you can't say that BP didn't plan well.

Early last year, BP officials circulated a planning document for 2005 that lamented safety shortfalls and identified the following "key risk" for the year: "TCS (Texas City site) kills someone in the next 12-18 months."

Less than three weeks later, at 1:20 p.m. March 23, a massive explosion killed 15 people and injured scores more in the worst U.S. refinery accident in more than a decade.

Today, one year after the explosion damaged and ended so many lives, many of the survivors of the explosion as well as families of the victims are readying themselves for a court battle with the company.

While BP paid tens of millions of dollars each to the majority of the most serious victims — family members of loved ones killed and workers who were burned or lost limbs — shortly after the accident, scores of less-seriously injured people are still waiting for what they call justice.

Armed with the pre-explosion plan, which was obtained by the Houston Chronicle Wednesday, and thousands of other company documents they say point to longstanding safety concerns at the company — the victims are looking forward to their day in court with the oil behemoth.

Galveston County State District Judge Susan Criss recently gave them just that, setting the first trial date for Sept. 18. That's when the first batch of plaintiffs — eight of an estimated 500 remaining — will take their claims of widespread negligence against BP to a jury.

"They're the string-alongers," said Beaumont attorney Brent Coon, who is representing more than 100 people. Their injuries run the gamut, he said, from broken backs to injured knees and legs, to hearing loss.

Many, he said, have the added diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder, the psychological fallout from "being at ground zero."

"It was like a war zone out there, seeing people running and screaming," he said.

Labels: BP

We have a little more about the poorly-reported death of Francisco Alejandro Garcia. You may recall that I was rather upset at the lack of information in the article about his death.

First, Mary Vivenzi whose boyfriend Kevin Noah was killed, falling from Golden Gate Bridge in 2002 while working on an earthquake retrofit project, sent a letter to the WBDJ who ran the original story.

I would like to inquire on what do you base the importance of your journalistic efforts when deciding what or what not to give a story.

Because it is personally offensive that when reporting such a tragic event as a workers death you would not allow your journalism to extend itself further than a whole paragraph I fail to understand why this article seemingly failed in comparison next to that of your article Radford student gets big chance on Price Is Right which somehow managed to merit the importance of a full page story. It makes me angry and it makes me sick and once again gives merit to my belief that there are those who come to work for the love of what they do and others who only show up for the check.

Its a sad thing when the public is forced to rely on passionless journalism as a source of information. And sadder still to imagine how hard your lack of compassion affects those who need you most.

And the station's response?

Our information was based on a brief news release from the Henry County Sheriff's Department sent to us Saturday evening. That was all the information available to us all weekend. We passed along all we had regarding the circumstances both on the air and on the Internet.

Perhaps you are upset we did do more on this story Monday, although by then, the events were three days old. And we have learned over and over that grieving family members resent media inquiries as they prepare to bury a loved one.

But that does not mean we are done with the story.... we will request a copy of the state or federal safety inspection report.

Nonetheless, we regret that you find our response to be inadequate, and we do not pretend to be perfect in our decision-making process. Please let us know what elements to this story we failed to present that you believe are important and deserve our further attention.

What elements you failed to present? How about what happened? What safety standards might have been violated? What other workers had to say about working at the plant? The company's safety record? You know, "journalism." And it's not always necessary to invade the privacy of grieving families to get some useful information -- especially, as we shall see, there most of the grieving family wasn't even there.

And speaking of journalism, Cathleen in the comments brought our attention to the local newspaper, the Martinsville Bulletin, which has done some decent coverage of the story (but is apparently too small to show up in Google.)

It seems that Garcia was working for a contract company, National Service Co. of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, that cleans industrial equipment. Garcia was on a platform above a processing machine, hosing off the moving blades with a water hose when he fell in. No one observed him fall, but he apparently either slipped or the hose got tangled in the blades. (Guardrails? Lockout?)

The result was not pretty:

The State Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke completed an autopsy of Garcia on Monday. Dr. William Massello, assistant state medical examiner, said Garcia's cause of death will be listed as multiple injuries from body fragmentation. He said it would be accurate to say Garcia's body was pulled into pieces when he was caught in the machine.

Sadly, Garcia's wife and child were on their way from Mexico to visit him when he was killed:

A week and a half ago, Alejandra Jimenez Arias was a happy young wife and mother with a promising life ahead of her. She had left Mexico with her 2-year-old daughter, Zuemy, on a week-long, 3,000-mile journey, expecting a joyous reunion with the husband and father they had not seen for 10 months.

She arrived in Martinsville on Monday as a widow.

When Arias reached the Mexican/American border late Friday night and called her husband to tell him that they were nearly here, her brother-in-law answered. Julio Cesar Alejandro Garcia broke the news to her that 19-year-old Francisco Alejandro Garcia had died that evening when he fell into a processing machine at the Knauss Snack Food plant.

The community is taking up a collection from Hispanic stores and Mexican restaurants throughout Virginia and South Carolina where many of their townspeople and distant relatives live. They're trying to raise the $6,800 it will take to send his body back to Mexico for burial.

Garcia's brother-in-law said that "neither he nor anyone in the household has been contacted by Knauss or National Service since the accident, and he has not known how to reach appropriate authorities to make inquiries."

Labels: Immigrant Workers, Journalism

Voting is hot and heavy over at the Koufax Awards for Best Single Issue Blog, with Confined Space among the front-runners. Check here for background and how to vote. Then vote for the only workplace safety or labor blog in the running.

March 23, 2005:

The punch list meeting was going on without a hitch. Less than 200 feet away, things were going terribly wrong within the isomerization unit.

David Leining said the crew heard a boom, followed by another explosion that began to shake the trailer.

“Debris starting flying — the trailer began to roll,” said Leining. “It’s hard to explain what happened. It was so quick. “There was just a tremendous, tremendous amount of pressure, a lot of noise and a lot of smoke, all instantaneous.”

Twelve of the 15 people killed were in the trailer. Leining was one of seven people in the trailer who survived.

About 10 minutes later, he was able to get a radio working.

“We radioed out that we were stuck in the trailer, and the answer came back: ‘You can’t be; the trailer is gone,’” said Leining. “We just radioed back for someone to come get us.”

With all of the attention paid to the 14 miners killed in the Sago mine earlier this year, it's easy for most Americans to forget that one year ago today fifteen workers lost their lives and 170 were injured in a massive explosion that ripped through the BP Amoco refinery in Texas City, Texas. It was one of the biggest workplace disasters in over a decade.

But it's not surprising that people have forgotten. Unlike the recent mining disasters, the BP explosion produced no Congressional hearings, no emergency legislation, no calls for OSHA to enforce the law more effectively or to raise its fines. The story fell from the national headlines after barely more than 24 hours.

What was the difference between BP and the mine disasters? Possibly that miners die in slow motion over days while the agony of their family and community is televised nationwide. The refinery workers, on the other hand, were literally gone in a flash. Or maybe it's the "romance" and folklore of mining compared to the grease and grit of working in a refinery. But similar issues were raised in both disasters.

BP management initially tried to blame the operators for the explosion, but in the face of evidence compiled by the US Chemical Safety Board and OSHA, they were forced to acknowledge that they were operating dangerous, obsolete equipment with a history of problems and a malfunctioning level indicator, level alarm, and a control valve. Instead of venting flammable liquids to a flair, they were vented into the atomosphere where they overflowed and exploded, despite the fact that OSHA had warned them years before that the equipment was dangerous and should be replaced. But the OSHA citation was withdrawn and BP refused on numerous occasions to make the needed changes. All of those killed in the refinery were contractors in or near trailers that had been placed too close to the unit that exploded.

A preliminary report by the CSB found serious lapses in the company's safety systems and recommended that BP commission an independent panel that would review a range of safety management and culture issues stemming from the March 23, 2005 explosion and several other incidents before and after that event. The panel is being headed up by former Secretary of State James Baker.

While the families of those killed mourn, several are also organizing for improvements in the industry. The Galveston Daily News describes the activities of Linda Hunnings and Eva Rowe. Hunnings’ husband, Jim, and Rowe’s parents, James and Linda, were among the 15 people killed in the explosion.

Both, independent of one another, decided to begin lobbying legislators and the public. They also want to see the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration given more power to regulate and fine employers.

“There’s no reason at all these should be blowing up,” Rowe said of the nation’s refineries. “You don’t go into an office building to work expecting it to fall down while you are sitting there. Why should you expect that there would be explosions in a plant?”

Hunnings, herself a longtime petrochemical worker, said her personal experience had convinced her that all the talk of an emphasis on safety is just that — talk. Even BP’s recent efforts to improve its Texas City facility, the company’s quick action to settle a majority of the legal claims, a $21 million fine by OSHA and all other efforts in the wake of the March 23 blasts have done little to change her mind.

“I think it’s all a show for Texas City and a show for the families,” she said. “They need to give a wakeup call to the petrochemical industry.”

Dangerous practices need to be eliminated, she said.

“If you are doing those things, then you need to be shut down until it’s fixed,” she said. “Period.”

OSHA issued a $21.3 million fine against the company last September and referred the case to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges. Even though the fine was the largest in OSHA's history, it came to only a few hours of BP's annual profit.

The Chemical Safety Board is expected to issue its final investigation report later this year, along with recommendations. The CSB is not empowered to issue fines, however.

Hunnings is lobbying for the State of Texas to take action, citing the example of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin's actions after the recent mining disaster when he pushed through emergency legislation and shut down the mines for a day after two additional miners were killed. Texas Governor Rick Perry argues that only federal OSHA has the authority to take such action, but Hunnings is advocating a Texas state workplace safety agency that can crack down on companies that refuse to take safety seriously.

“Maybe they need to see the pain that is caused when the state of Texas turns its back on us,” said Hunnings. “I am getting so damn tired of hearing about recommendations. Something needs to be changed. Laws need to be passed.”

Hunnings and Rowe hope others will join their efforts.

“I need to know my parents died for a purpose and not in vain,” said Rowe. “I want to make a difference. I want to make sure legislators change the laws so people can work safely.

“Refineries should not explode around you.”

And the Galveston Daily News brings it all home with an editorial about need to empower OSHA with the authority to force companies to make changes or shut them down:

The reality is that, through the years, Congress and presidential administrations pulled the watchdog’s teeth. Regulators could complain about BP’s safety practices, but they couldn’t force the company to make changes.

Those changes would cost money — and there’s a reluctance to force corporations to spend money on safety equipment.

That reluctance with corporate giants is odd, given that regulators routinely force ordinary people to spend money on safety.

Imagine taking your car to get its inspection sticker. Suppose the inspection reveals the brakes are bad.

Do you get off the hook by claiming that new brakes cost too much?

And, if you failed to get new brakes and then drove your car through a crowd, would you expect to get off with a light fine?

***

As it stands today, some federal officials have a responsibility to protect the safety of workers. But they don’t have the authority to compel reluctant companies to take action. They ought to have that authority.

More BP stories here.

Labels: BP, Chemical Safety Board, Coal Mining

No, no. Don't skip this.

Oops. It seems that out of 65 nominees, I've somehow made the Final 10 for Best Single Issue Blog in the Koufax Awards for the best "lefty" bloggers. This puts me in the rather embarrassing position of asking for you vote for me yet again, one last time this year. Promise.

Although it's a cliché, I'm truly honored to be nominated with so many great blogs, many of which are better written than Confined Space and have far more readers than Confined Space (hint hint). Go read them.

So why vote for me? Two reasons. Out of all the nominees in this and every other category, Confined Space is the only blog that addresses workplace safety and labor issues on a regular basis and by winning, more people will read it, exposing them to the reality behind the road work, the factories, the construction sites and the convenience stores they pass by every day. And on those rare occasions when other blogs pick up on health and safety news, it comes from Confined Space.

In addition, if I win, my kids will think I'm cool.

Voting Instructions

There are two ways to vote:

1. If you like what you read here, go ahead and vote for Confined Space, click on Best Single Issue Blog. Just scroll all the way down the page to the bottom of the page to the comments and leave a comment with the following words: "Confined Space." If you have time, feel free to embellish with kind words so that people know what we're all about.


2. If that's too much trouble or you're one of my many fans at OSHA or a secret dissident at some Washington D.C. law firm and you'd rather not leave an identifiable public comment, you can also just send a private e-mail to Mary Beth or Dwight, with the heading "Koufax."

And, although it might be tempting to stuff the ballot boxes, only vote once. That goes for your spouse, children and third cousins as well.

The voting is expected to last a week, but in a desperate effort to burn all of my annual leave as early as possible, I'm going on yet another vacation next week, where I may or may not have the capability to do mass mailings to 10,000 of my closest friends. So, as my father used to say "Don't make me come in there and ask you again."

Vote early (but not often.) Hurry, I'm being crushed. Yes, that means you.



Also



If you have time, read some of the other blogs in this and other categories. You'll be glad you did. And if you find anything that changes your life, send a little thanks (the green variety) to the kind folks at Wampum who are doing all this in there spare time.



My recommendations for other awards:


Best Blog (non-pro): Majikthise or Crooks and Liars
Best Blog (pro/sponsor): Political Animal/Washington Monthly
Best Group Blog: AmericaBlog
Best Writing: Suburban Guerilla
Best Expert: Effect Measure
Most Humorous Blog: Jesus' General

So what are we all going to do now? Go here.

Thank you.

There are 3,400 high-priority chemical facilities in this country where a worst-case release of toxic chemicals could sicken or kill more than 1,000 people, and 272 sites that could affect more than 50,000 people. Yet despite reports from government agencies and independent journalists since 9/11 that chemical plant security is seriously flawed, the Bush administration has refused to address the issue.

Now, however, with Iraq disintegrating into civil war, with the port fiasco barely behind us, and Congressional elections rapidly approaching, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, has finally decided that it might be time for the Bush administration to do something about chemical plant security.

And guess who's going to be running the show:

Chertoff, speaking at a forum hosted by the chemical industry, called on Congress to give his department authority to approve or reject security plans for an estimated 15,000 facilities nationwide. But he said the government would not set minimum standards for chemical companies to follow, allowing the industry to tailor its own "so we can go about the objective of raising our security in a way that doesn't destroy the businesses we're trying to protect."

"There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and we're going to let chemical operators figure out the right way, as long as the cat gets skinned," Chertoff said.

He also said private-sector, "third party" inspectors could check on compliance, unlike the way OSHA or EPA currently enforce the law.

Oh, and in case individual states decide that federal laws are not good enough to protect their citizens or that it might make sense to require chemical plants to use "inherently safer" technologies to reduce the target,

Chertoff generally backed an industry push to preempt state and local governments from enacting tougher rules. He said inconsistent rules that expose businesses to "ruinous liability" would create "a regulatory regime that is doomed to failure." He criticized as "interference with business" a proposal backed by environmental groups that would require industry to substitute "inherently safer" chemicals and processes.

Chertoff's aversion to states developing their own rules is aimed at New Jersey, which became the first state to issue regulations requiring chemical plants to take measures to reduce their vulnerability to catastrophes resulting from terrorist attacks. The best part is that 43 (of the state's 140 plants) using the most hazardous chemicals are required to review the potential for adopting inherently safer technologies.

Although the NY Times calls Chertoff's proposal "unusual turnabout by the Bush administration," this whole debate is following a familiar pattern:

1. Industry opposes any government regulation.
2. States that have given up hope of federal action begin to issue their own regulations.
3. Industry, suddenly facing the prospect of being forced to comply with multiple different state regulations, turns around and advocates for a weak federal regulation that pre-empts the states.

This debate has been going on since shortly after 9/11, initially with legislation introduced by former New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine that would have forced the chemical industry to implement, where possible, inherently safer technologies (e.g. substituting safer chemicals, storing smaller amounts of hazardous chemicals, etc.), along with increased traditional security measures. The American Chemistry Council (formerly the Chemical Manufacturers Association) and their clients in Congress managed to kill Corzine's bill and instead suggested an approach that focusses almost entirely on traditional security (guns, guards and gates), and relies on compliance with voluntary guidelines -- developed by the American Chemistry Council.

Some experts aren't quite so confident about the ACC's program as Chertoff is. According to an article in US News and World Report earlier this year,

The American Chemistry Council, the leading industry group, says its 2,000 chemical facilities have invested nearly $3 billion in security since 9/11 to adhere to an industry-developed set of voluntary security measures. But Sal DePasquale, a former security official with Georgia-Pacific Corp., who helped craft the code, calls it "window dressing." He says investments in cameras, fencing, and network security are "a sorry joke" compared with the highly armed teams that guard nuclear plants. DHS estimates 20 percent of the roughly 300 highest-risk plants aren't even signed up for a voluntary program.

In addition to the discussion over whether standards should be madatory or voluntary, the most contentious part of the debate was whether to require the chemical industry to seriously consider inherently safer technologies. For example, immediately after September 11, Washington D.C.’s Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant changed from chlorine to sodium hypochlorite, essentially a strong version of bleach, but much safer than liquid chlorine. The change cost about $1 million, which translates into about 50 cents per customer more annually for sewage treatment.

One of the main advantages to inherently safer technologies is that they not only protect against a terrorist attack, but also against the every-day run-of-the-mill domestic chemical accident. But even if the only threat we had to worry about was terrorism, how much sense does it make to only commit resources to guard a target (with questionable effectiveness) when in most cases it’s entirely possible to shrink or even remove the target completely? As outlaw Willie Sutton explained, they robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Terrorists would be tempted to attack chemical plants because that’s where the greatest potential for terror is. Take the money out of the banks -- or the catastrophic potential out of chemical plants -- and no one cares.

Chertoff clearly doesn't get it:

Clearly a lot of chemical companies on their own, in meeting performance standards, will want to look at inherently safer technology as a means to reduce the risk, and therefore achieve what they need to achieve. But we have to be careful not to move from what is a security-based focus, as part of the type of regulation I'm describing, into one that tries to broaden into achieving environmental ends that are unrelated to security. There is an Environmental Protection Administration. They deal with environmental matters that are distinct from security. And I want to make sure that we don't allow our focus on security to become a surrogate for achieving ends that may very well be worthwhile but ought to be pursued in a debate in another forum. (emphasis added)

Another point of sharp disagreement is whether DHS or the Environmental Protection Agency should handle chemical plant security. The chemical industry feared that the EPA may end up being too hard to control (in future administrations, not this one). Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), who has introduced industry favored legislation that resembles Chertoff's plan, has opposed giving EPA the responsibility for chemical plant security, despite their obvious expertise in chemical plant safety: "Whom would you trust to protect chemical plants against terrorists, former Navy Seals or Greenpeace?," Inhofe asked

Most recently Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) have proposed a compromise legislation. The Collins/Lieberman bill addresses one of those problems (pre-emption, by allowing states to set their own standards), ignores another (inherently safer technologies), and apparently admits defeat on the third (Homeland Security wins, EPA loses).

Although Collins praised Chertoff's speech, environmentalists and others were not so pleased:

Andy Igrejas, a program director at the National Environmental Trust, which is frequently critical of the administration's environmental policies, said of the speech: "It was lame. It reflects pandering to the industry. And it means this could end up being more of a paperwork exercise instead of something that really protects people."

Dan Katz, chief counsel to Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, joined the criticism.

"That is the Enron mentality: trust industry and put the public at risk," Mr. Katz said. "But unlike Enron, the risk here is not that people will lose some of their stock savings. It is that we could have a catastrophic terrorist event."

Rick Hind of the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign said there were sewage treatment plants in 45 urban areas, as well as power plants and refineries in a number of states, that used extremely dangerous chemicals like chlorine gas and hydrofluoric acid and that could replace those chemicals with alternatives widely used elsewhere and without excessive cost.

"With guards, fences, cameras, lights and gates, we are still gambling with people's lives," Mr. Hind said.

The irony is that, after sitting on their bony behinds for the past several years, the administration is suddenly in quite a hurry to look like it's doing something:

Mr. Chertoff said he expected vigorous debate on any legislation. But the fact that this is an election year should not prevent Congress from acting, he said.

"The terrorists aren't planning to take this year off," Mr. Chertoff said. "I refuse to simply abdicate the field this year and say, 'Well, we're going to have to wait until after the election to get serious again.' "

Well certainly not, after abdicating the field for the past three years.

The full text of Chertoff's speech is here.

Related Articles

• Ho, Hum. Yet More Chem Plant Security Stuff, January 23, 2006
• NY Times Says It's Time To Take Chem Plant Security Seriously, May 22, 2005
• Itty Bitty Steps Forward On Chemical Plant Security?, December 27, 2005
• NJ Issues Chem Plant Safety Regs; Including Safer Technologies, December 1, 2005
• WMD Found! Look Over Your Shoulder, May 9, 2005
• "We can't protect ourselves if we are not part of the plan", February 20, 2005
• NY Chem Company Decides Terrorism Threat Is Over, February 6, 2005
• Department of Homeland Security: Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?, September 27, 2004
• Chris Cox & Tim Russert: Educate Yourselves!, July 17, 2004
• If Safety Was Voluntary, Only Volunteers Would Be Safe, April 8, 2004
• Chemical Industry Steps Up To the Plate...And Strikes Out, June 26, 2003
• Weapons of Mass Destruction Found -- In Our Backyards, November 17, 2003
• The War for Chemical Plant Safety, May 4, 2003

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

What is this? Journalism? I think not.

This is the entire article:

Martinsville man dies on the job in Henry County

Martinsville, VA -- Local and federal authorities are investigating a fatal industrial accident in Henry County. It happened around 8:00 p.m. Friday, March 17 at Knauss Snack Food in the Beaver Creek Industrial Park. Officials say 19-year-old Francisco Alejandro Garcia fell into a processing machine and died. Garcia was a contract employee responsible for cleaning the machines that night.

He fell in "and died?"

What, a heart attack? Natural causes? Or is this perhaps a lockout incident? Was he crushed in moving machinery that wasn't de-energized? Or did Garcia fall into an opening and hit his head? Or maybe he was electrocuted. Was he working alone? Are there OSHA standards that may cover this incident? Any witnesses?

But wait, answers to these questions might actually take a bit of work and research, some actual interest in why this man died. Anyway, he was probably just an immigrant, most likely "illegal."

Are we ever to hear more about Francisco Alejandro Garcia? Probably not.

(Thanks to Coit Smith for seeing the obvious.)

Labels: Journalism

No-Nonsense Enforcement? High Fines? Tell Me Another One.

As a father of three children, I would punish them for three reasons: As a punishment for the "crime," as a warning not to let it happen again, and as a lesson to the other kids. We all know what happens when you "spare the rod." It's no different in the corporate suites.

For the past five years, American citizens have been plagued by an administration in Washington that isn't crazy about punishing business-related crime. But there have been exceptions -- large, highly publicized for the really bad guys allegedly showing that the feds are cracking down on lawbreakers. But as soon as the spotlights are turned off, the fines are quietly negotiated to just a fraction of their original amounts.

An Associated Press investigation shows that there's actually not much behind the curtain:

When a gasoline spill and fiery explosion killed three young people in Washington state, officials announced a record penalty against a gas pipeline company: $3 million to send the message that such tragedies "must never happen again."

When nuclear labs around the country were found exposing workers to radiation and breaking other safety rules, assessments totaling $2.5 million were quickly ordered.

When coal firms' violations were blamed for deaths, injuries and risks to miners from Alabama to West Virginia, they were slapped with more than $1.3 million in penalties.

What happened next with these no-nonsense enforcement efforts? Not much. The pipeline tab was eventually reduced by 92 percent, the labs' assessments were waived as soon as they were issued, and the mine penalties largely went unpaid.

And (surprise, surprise), things have gotten much worse recently.

The amount of unpaid federal fines has risen sharply in the last decade. Individuals and corporations regularly avoid large, highly publicized penalties for wrongdoing - sometimes through negotiations, sometimes because companies go bankrupt, sometimes due to officials' failure to keep close track of who owes what under a decentralized collection system.

And getting of lightest is "white collar" crime (even if it results in the death of blue collar workers.) A report by the Government Accountability Office investigators found that just 7 percent of restitution is paid in white collar cases.

Like many agencies, OSHA has a forumula for reducing fines:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's written policy explains to inspectors that they can reduce penalties by as much as 95 percent, "depending upon the employer's `good faith,' (25 percent) `size of business,' (60 percent) and `history of previous violations.' (10 percent)"

What's the justification?

Officials explained that compliance is the agency's goal, and that the law allows penalties to be reduced when companies make amends. Violators who don't comply risk being referred to the Treasury Department, which can collect by seizing federal benefits.

Of course, as we saw recently, some agencies (like the Mine Safety and Health Administration), kind of neglect to send unpaid fines over to the Treasury Department. Computer problems. And stuff.

So why is all this a problem?

"Fines and orders to pay restitution are an important part of how we punish convicted criminals. When so little effort is made to collect that money, we allow convicted criminals to avoid punishment for their crimes, weaken our criminal justice system and ultimately deny justice to the victims of crimes," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who has pressed for closer scrutiny for years.

Newly appointed OSHA director Ed Foulke told his Senate confirmation committee that he saw no need to amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act to make it easier to jail employers who kill. The current penalty structure is perfectly adequate to enforce the law. What we're left with -- in even the most serious cases -- is little chance of prison time and fines effectively reduced to pennies and what do we have left? The corporate equivalent of spoiled children-- with more tragic consquences.

Labels: Weekly Toll

I've writtten a couple of times about anti-labor kook Richard Berman's Union Facts (sic) website and its effort to kill "card check" labor organizing. (here, here and here)

The AFL-CIO Today blog reprints an "at times tongue-in-cheek" article about Berman's boondoggle ,posted by Fred Glass at the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). Glass teaches at the San Francisco City College and is the Communications Director for the California Federation of Teachers/AFT.

A taste, wherein he congratulates Berman for his scam:

Not every PR consultant can convince his backers to come up with a quarter of a million dollars to run an ad for one day in four newspapers, and using a cheap, recycled image from a quarter century ago is what we call cost-effective. The commission on placing the ads brings in a tidy little sum. That’s financially very sound, for Mr. Berman, if not necessarily for his clients.

“And clearly his thriftiness extends to the anti-union website the ad extolled, since in a ninety second spot check I came up with about a dozen factual errors, including consistently calling the AFL-CIO a “union,” which is like calling the Chamber of Commerce a “business;” missing all 135 of the California locals of the American Federation of Teachers in its “comprehensive” national directory; and listing Sandra Feldman, who has been dead for five months, as president of the national AFT.

“Of course, Mr. Berman is no stranger to such work. He has been delivering campaigns every bit as good as this one for his clients for years. As noted in news stories the day after the ad appeared, he has represented the big tobacco lobby against anti-smoking efforts, claiming there is a “lack of evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer;” the alcohol industry in fighting against Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s effort to hold the line on blood-alcohol levels; and cheap bosses in fighting increases to minimum wage laws, to mention a few.

“But the remarkable thing about Berman’s accomplishment this time is he convinced anti-union types to light a match to their money on these ads, instead of investing in something proven, like, say, lawyer fees for weathering the years of litigation that comes with illegally firing union activists during an organizing campaign. Sure, it takes longer, but it’s guaranteed; by the time the workers get reinstated in their jobs, even with back pay, it’s years down the road, the organizing campaign is long dead, and everyone in the corporate community agrees, it’s money well-spent.

Oy

If you're in the neighborhood next Monday, OSHA whistleblower Adam Finkel will be speaking at the St Johns University School of Law, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, NY.

Finkel, as you may remember, was removed from his job as OSHA Regional Administrator in Denver because he revealed that OSHA had abandoned its plan to screen its inspectors for beryllium disease. OSHA eventually agreed to the tests and several employees have been affected by exposure to the deadly metal.

Finkel will talk about his experiences as a scientist and advocate for worker and public health. He is currently Visiting Professor of Public Affairs,Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, UMDNJ School of Public Health.

More details about the event here.

Related Stories

• Whistleblower Condemns OSHA's Response to Beryllium Exposures, June 20, 2005
• Ten OSHA Staff Test Positive For Beryllium Sensitization, March 24, 2005
• Washington Post on OSHA Inspectors' Beryllium Exposure, February 1, 2005
• Blowing Off Whistleblowers, January 26, 2005
• OSHA Inspectors: Left Twisting In The Wind, January 19, 2005
• OSHA Regional Administrator Accuses OSHA of Refusing To Test OSHA Inspectors for Beryllium Disease, October 12, 2003

I'm not the only one who feels sorry for Lord John Browne, Chief Executive of British Petroleum who had his 2005 bonus cut because his company killed 15 workers at BP's Texas City refinery last March. The Houston Chronicle's business columnist Loren Steffy also feels for the guy.

As I wrote yesterday, Brown pulled down a cool $11.2 million last year, a significant raise over the $10 million he made the year before. But, as Steffy notes, his bonus was cut by almost $1 million due to the unfortunate events in Texas City:

That'll teach him.

Browne, by the way, is still ignoring my interview request, which I first made almost a year ago.

The problem is that Browne and other BP executives have spent the past year pledging their commitment to safety, to fixing the problems that caused last year's explosions.

Once again, BP says one thing and does another.

Steffy interviews Tara Hart, chief executive of the Houston-based Compliance Alliance, which develops workplace safety programs.

[Hart] convinced an industrial company to set up a suggestion box and allow employees to anonymously submit safety problems and possible solutions. In the first month, a senior vice president tried to analyze the handwriting to determine who wrote them. Workers stopped making suggestions when they realized management was using them for retaliation.

Workers, Hart says, know what the safety problems are. More companies should encourage them to speak up.

***

Hart hopes the government, the public, and corporate executives will begin to take notice.

"We don't have a demand at the top," she says. "It's really management that sets the culture and the pace and the response to safety."

When that management gets a 12 percent raise after presiding over the worst refinery accident in almost two decades, it's pretty clear what kind of response that is.

Indeed.

Labels: BP

The killing of Texas social worker Sally Blackwell, 53, is bringing attention to the hazards faced by social service workers. Blackwell, a program director with Texas Child Protective Services, was found dead in a field. The authorities have not said whether her death was related to her job, although she had received threats.

Threats and violence against social service workers is nothing new, but it rarely rises into the headlines until someone gets killed.

A study released last week by the National Association of Social Workers found that 55 percent of 5,000 licensed social workers surveyed said they faced safety issues on the job. Sixty-eight percent of them said their employers had not adequately addressed their concerns. A survey in 2002 of 800 workers found 19 percent had been victims of violence and 63 percent had been threatened.

In 1997, federal OSHA issued guidelines to assist health care and social service workers to prevent workplace violence, but Texas isn't exactly at the forefront of protecting public employees:

Currently, social workers in Texas receive a half day of safety training, and the issue frequently comes up in a 12-week course, said a spokesman, Chris Van Deusen.

The child services department has no way of tracking how many threats its roughly 3,000 caseworkers receive, said Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services. But even people who have spent their entire careers with the agency can remember only a few instances in which threats escalated to violence, Mr. Crimmins said.

Texas social worker Holly Jones stressed that "We don't have weapons, we don't have training in self-defense, we didn't go through a police academy and we're dealing with the same people they are."

After Marty Smith, a crisis responder for the Washington State mental-health system, was beaten to death last November while attempting to hospitalize a schizophrenic client who had not been taking his medication, Smith's union, SEIU 1199NW, began organizing to pass Marty's Law: Make Our Work Safer. (HB 2921). Marty's Law would provide funding so clinicians can work in pairs when they are sent to evaluate a client in a private residence. The bill also requires clinicians to be provided with cell phones, prompt access to patient records, and training on violence prevention.

In addition,

In 2001, Michigan lawmakers toughened the penalties for people who threaten or attack social workers after a child welfare caseworker was beaten, bound, gagged and suffocated while checking on a family. The law also required safety training for workers who make home visits.

The death of a Kansas mental health social worker prompted Representative Dennis Moore, Democrat of Kansas, to introduce a resolution last fall that would encourage state and local agencies to improve the safety of social workers. The resolution is pending.

Hey, I have another idea. Being as workplace violence is a serious workplace safety problem across the United States, and there are feasible ways to prevent attacks, maybe a federal government agency responsible for workplace safety should issue an enforceable standard.

Related Stories

• Case Worker's Death Spurs Safety Campaign in Washington, January 29, 2006
• Conducting The Public's Business -- And Dying For It, November 11, 2005
• Precautions Save the Life of Child Protective Services Worker, February 17, 2005
• Social Worker Killed In The Line Of Duty -- What's Being Done?, September 14, 2004
• Workplace Violence in Health Care on the Rise, April 26, 2004

Labels: Public Employees, Social Workers, Workplace Violence

Poor Lord Browne. Tragedy upon tragedy.

The performance bonus of Lord John Browne, chief executive of British Petroleum, has been cut due to the catastrophic explosion last year at the company's Texas City, TX refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170 .

But don't worry about how Lord Browne is going to make it through the year; his overall compensation went up.

Browne will receive a bonus of £1.75 million, or $3 million, for the year, compared with £2.28 million in 2004, according to the company's annual report. His total pay, including salary and long-term remuneration, was £6.49 million, up from £5.7 million a year earlier.

The remuneration committee at BP considered "both positive and negative" events during the year when setting bonuses, the report said. "Safety performance was impaired by the incident at Texas City" last year, which killed 15 people and injured 170.

Yes, I guess you could call 15 deaths and 170 injuries "impaired" safety performance.

And one small question. Why is he receiving any bonus? Time off for good behavior or a cushy job in the prison library, maybe, but a bonus?

Might have something to do with the record $22.34 billion dollar profit BP made in 2005.

Labels: BP

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

Martinsville man dies on the job in Henry County

Martinsville, VA -- Local and federal authorities are investigating a fatal industrial accident in Henry County. It happened around 8:00 p.m. Friday, March 17 at Knauss Snack Food in the Beaver Creek Industrial Park. Officials say 19-year-old Francisco Alejandro Garcia fell into a processing machine and died. Garcia was a contract employee responsible for cleaning the machines that night.


Worker Dies After Electrocution At Gravel Pit

FORT LUPTON, Colo The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the death of a man who was electrocuted while working at a gravel pit north of Fort Lupton.

Weld County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Margie Martinez says 30-year-old Christopher Carder of Littleton was pronounced dead at the scene yesterday, but his heart started beating again.

Coroner's officials say he was flown to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Martinez says Carder was walking beside an industrial-sized piece of equipment when it got close enough to a power line, causing it to arc and send electricity to the ground. He was nearby and was electrocuted.

The gravel pit is owned by Compass Environmental Incorporated.


Oil field roustabout dies in fall

Mobile, AL - Federal and local authorities are looking into incident that claimed life of Carey Clemons. A man died after falling 75 feet from a Clarke County oil rig as rescue workers struggled to get to the scene, hampered by washed-out roads. A LifeFlight helicopter based in Mobile was initially called for Carey Clemons, 23, but he died on the scene before it arrived, said Virgil Chapman, chief investigator with the Clarke County Sheriff's Department. The incident occurred Friday. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating to see if any workplace violations contributed to the incident, Ken Atha, lower Alabama's area director for OSHA, said on Monday. The investigation could take months.


Worker in Brooklyn Dies as a Wall Falls

Brooklyn, NY - A construction worker was killed yesterday morning when a garage wall collapsed at a building site in Brooklyn, investigators said, and the city has cited the building's owner for three violations. The worker, Anthony Duncan, 46, was removing wooden molds for an underpinning meant to buttress a garage wall next to the construction site at 733 Ocean Parkway when the wall collapsed. Firefighters worked quickly to remove the debris covering Mr. Duncan. But investigators believe he was killed by the impact of the collapse, said a Fire Department spokesman, Deputy Chief David Jakubowski. A woman who answered the phone at the A-1 Construction Expo Corporation, a Brooklyn-based general contractor at the site, said Mr. Duncan worked for a subcontractor, but she would not provide its name. Mr. Duncan was helping to excavate the property to make way for an eight-story residential building.


Dairy Worker, Son Found Dead

Grangevile, CA - A dairy worker and his 8-year-old son died in a manure pit after going out at night to feed calves at the dairy where they lived, authorities said Tuesday. Luis Gutierrez, 27, and his son, Luis Armando Gutierrez, left their home Saturday night to check on the animals, investigators said. When they didn't come back, worried family members contacted authorities and the owners of Contente Dairy in Grangeville. During an all-night search, investigators found Luis Gutierrez's stalled pickup truck. Deputies believe the father and son got out of the truck and tried to take a shortcut home, stumbling across the manure pond. Footprints and signs of slipping near the edge of the 10-footdeep pit indicate that one of them may have fallen in, said Kings Country Sheriff Allan McClain.


Worker Dies In Accident At Building Site In Muskogee

Muskogee, OK - A Vian man was killed in an industrial accident in Muskogee Wednesday morning. It happened at the Dal-Tile plant in Muskogee. Authorities say 30-year-old Steven Tracy Conrad was trapped in a conveyer-belt chute. Conrad was freed, but showed no signs of life. No one else was hurt. Conrad was a temporary worker for Express Personnel Services in Muskogee. He worked at the plant for about two months.


Riverside woman killed in crash - Police seek driver, may issue warrant

Riverside, IL - Police Tuesday morning were still hunting for the driver of an SUV that slammed into a Berwyn train platform last Friday, killing a Riverside woman who worked for the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad. The crash occurred at approximately 5:45 a.m. on March 3, shortly after Kathleen Talmage, 58, arrived for work at the train platform located at 7135 W. Windsor Ave., a half block east of Harlem Avenue. Talmage was a long-time Riverside resident. According to one eyewitness account, the 2004 Range Rover sped past him westbound down Windsor Avenue, flew up an earth berm on the station’s east side and rammed through a brick wall without the driver ever applying his brakes. "I was on my way to work when I saw him coming westbound," said a man named Phil, who lives in the 7100 block of Windsor Avenue. He declined to give his last name.


Robbers killed 2 for 'less than a couple hundred dollars'

El Cajon, CA - “Less than a couple of hundred dollars.” That's what two robbers who shot and killed two young liquor store workers last week got away with, according to Auday Arabo, president of the California Independent Grocers and Convenience Stores Association. Arabo spoke at a news conference in front of St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Church on Jamacha Way on Wednesday morning as hundreds of friends and relatives came together to mourn victims Heather Nabil Mattia, 22, and Firas Waahid Eiso, 23, who were shot to death the night of March 1 at Granada Liquor on Broadway. Police said both were ordered to lie down and were killed by shots to the back of the head. As a light rain fell and several mourners wearing badges and T-shirts bearing Heather's picture gathered around, El Cajon Police Chief Clifford Diamond announced the release of portions of a surveillance video taken inside the store on the night of the slayings.


Police, OSHA Looking Into Roofer's Electrocution, Death

Aliquippa, PA - A 25-year-old roofer was killed Friday in when the scaffolding on which he was standing became charged by a piece of aluminum from some loose power lines nearby. Investigators said Regis Williams, 25, of Neville Island, was electrocuted, and fell about 30 feet. Friends and family said his death came as a complete shock. "'Rege' was the best guy I know," said cousin Jack Herbert. "'Rege' didn't have any acquaintances, everybody was (his) friend."


Worker at WPS dies from injuries

Green Bay, WI - A worker injured in an accident while working on a Green Bay building Feb. 28 died from his injuries March 3, according to his brother. Scott Walls, 41, Hartford, died at St. Vincent Hospital after being hit on the head with a metal object while working on equipment at a Wisconsin Public Service building at 600 N. Adams St. He never regained consciousness, said David Walls, Scott's brother, who lives in Green Bay. David Walls said the accident is still under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and McQuay International — the company that employed Scott Walls.


Watchung police officer killed when chase ends in crash

NORTH PLAINFIELD N.J. -- A Watchung police officer involved in a vehicle pursuit was killed Wednesday night when his cruiser crashed into a tree in North Plainfield after he swerved to avoid a minivan that had pulled out in front of him.

Matthew J. Melchiondia, 31, of Readington was the first officer killed in the line of duty in Somerset County in at least eight years. A six-year veteran of the force, he was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred around 5:20 p.m.


Truck wreck kills driver, shuts down U.S. 183

Lockhart, TX -- An 18-wheeler carrying propane flipped Thursday afternoon, killing the driver and shutting down a portion of U.S. 183 for hours, a Lockhart Police Department dispatcher said. About 2 p.m., the truck, carrying about 8,800 gallons of liquid propane, overturned about a mile north of Lockhart, said Lockhart Fire Marshal Mark Baker. Baker said none of the propane spilled and workers transferred the propane to another truck before clearing the road. A nearby day care and church were evacuated, Baker said. The identity of the driver was not released. No other vehicles were involved.


3 dead in Maui air ambulance crash

Maui, HI -- A pilot and two medical personnel died last night when a Hawaii Air Ambulance airplane crashed into a BMW dealership near Kahului Airport, state and county officials said.The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed into the dealership near the Hana Highway at 7:15 p.m., state Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said. There were no survivors on the plane and no reported injuries on the ground, officials said.Hawaii Air Ambulance identified the victims as: pilot Peter A. Miller, a 32-year-old Kailua resident; Brien P. Eisaman, 37, a nurse and Waipahu resident and the assistant chief flight nurse; and Marlena L. Yomes, a paramedic, Honolulu base station supervisor and a Waianae resident.


Trash worker killed by utility pole

Castle Shannon, PA - A refuse worker was killed yesterday when a utility pole fell on him in Castle Shannon in what the police chief called a "freak accident." Matthew Goldsmith, 28, of Hempfield, was pronounced dead around 10 a.m. at Walnut and Spruce streets near the library. Castle Shannon Police Chief Harold Lane said he believed Mr. Goldsmith died instantly. Mr. Goldsmith was standing on a platform at the rear of the garbage truck near the hopper when, investigators believe, the truck snagged a guy wire on the utility pole at the intersection as it turned right from Walnut onto Spruce.


Industrial Worker Killed After Equipment Falls

Ogden, UT - An industrial worker was killed Thursday afternoon when a piece of equipment suddenly fell on top of him. The incident happened near 1800 Wall Avenue in Ogden. Officials said 53-year-old Tony Guthrie was working near a front-loader when a bucket fell and landed on his head. He died at the scene. Guthrie was working for AAA Towing and Salvage when the accident happened. Friends said he was a self-less man. “He'd go out of his way to help anybody. He was very kind,” said Todd May. Officials said a mechanical problem may have been to blame.


Business owner dies from gunshot wounds

Dayton, OH - Gary L. Shehee, shot three times in his West Third Street business on Tuesday afternoon by an armed intruder, died about 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Miami Valley Hospital. Shehee, 34, is the city's 10th homicide victim this year. Two employees in the store told Dayton police a gunman entered the rear of Tees & Things, 1710 W. Third and that Shehee and the intruder wrestled down the back stairs. A male employee heard Shehee scream and looked down the stairs to see the gunman aiming his weapon at the employee. Three shots were heard. Shehee was struck in the arm, hand and head. Police believe Shehee and the assailant knew each other.


Pa. man dies in farm accident

Wellsboro, PA - A Tioga Township man became entangled in a cable attached to a tractor's power takeoff and died of massive injuries early this afternoon. Tioga County Medical Examiner Dr. James L. Wilson of Wellsboro identified the dead farmer as Thomas Haldeman, 36, a Bucks County native who farmed land along Meeker Road, north of Tioga. Haldeman was using the power takeoff on a large John Deere tractor to power a spreader and somehow became entangled in a cable connecting the two, Wilson said. The cable was wrapped twice around Haldeman's neck and caused several injuries before the entanglement stalled the idling tractor, Wilson said. He listed the cause of death as cardio and respiratory arrest, and noted other injuries as well, including multiple arm fractures. The mishap occurred at 12:37 p.m. Wilson did not order an autopsy.


W.Va. teen dies in Greene accident

Chloe, WV - A 19-year-old West Virginia man died Tuesday night when he fell off a railroad overpass, landing on the road below. State police said Phillip R. Watkins of Chloe, W.Va., and another unidentified man climbed the bank onto the overpass, which is above Route 21 west of Sugar Run Road, and were waiting for a train to pass so they could cross the tracks and proceed down the other bank. The accident happened at 10:15 p.m., police said, noting that both men were in Waynesburg working for Osmose Holdings Inc., a New York-based company that inspects and treats wooden utility poles with a preservative. The unidentified man who witnessed the accident told police Watkins "lost his footing" and fell onto the eastbound lane of the road while they were waiting for the train to pass, according to a police report filed by trooper Robert H. Cree.


Officer dies after incident while directing traffic

Jacksonville, FL - A public service assistant with the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office died at Baptist South hospital in Jacksonville Wednesday. Robert Junod was on traffic duty at County Road 210 and Leo Maguire Road around 8 a.m. when he had an apparent heart attack, according to Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Chuck Mulligan. "He was directing early morning rush hour traffic," said Mulligan, adding the cause of death had not yet been confirmed.


Semi Kills Two Highway Workers

Neenah,WI - The Wisconsin State Patrol believes slowing traffic had a lot to do with an accident that killed two highway workers along Highway 41 Tuesday. About 2:15 p.m., 55-year-old Marc Neumeyer of Neenah and 53-year-old Daniel Melhorn of Oshkosh were filling potholes in the southbound lane of Highway 41 near the Breezewood exit near Neenah. Officers say traffic was slowed down to about 45 miles per hour in the area, when a semi-truck driver tried to swerve to miss a station wagon that was slowing down to change lanes. They say the car's driver was trying to give the workers some space. "The station wagon appeared to obviously observe it. She slowed and started to make her manuever to the left lane to avoid them," Sgt. Mark Abrahamson said. Investigators believe the semi driver was caught off-guard and hit the back of the station wagon then the workers' truck, and the two men doing repairs. Neumeyer and Melhorn were killed instantly.


Painter is shot to death working in law office

Chicago, IL - A Chicago man was shot to death Monday evening while painting in a law firm in the Bridgeport neighborhood, police said. "They were painting in the building, and his buddy went to go to get something to eat, and his buddy came back and found him shot to death," a co-worker told police. The man, who is believed to have been shot about 11:48 p.m. Monday in the business in the 3700 block of South Halsted Street, was dead when police arrived. He was identified as Cornelio Valadez, 43, of the 2600 block of South Damen Avenue, a spokesman with the Cook County medical examiner's office said. No arrests were made in the shooting by Tuesday evening.


Worker Dies After Crane Collapses On CSU Campus

WILBERFORCE, Ohio, -- Officials at Miami Valley Hospital said a 35-year-old man who fell from a crane at a local construction site has died. James Hill, of Fairborn, passed away early Tuesday morning. The accident happened last week on the campus of Central State University. Authorities said Hill fell about 40 feet when the crane collapsed. The Occupational Safety and Health Organization continues to investigate what caused the crane to fall.


Construction worker killed in Meridian accident

Meridian, NY - A 42-year-old construction worker was killed this morning after he was struck by a load of lumber. The accident happened at a construction site in the Meadow Lakes Retirement Community in Meridian. The lumber was said to have weighed between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. Police say said the lumber was being lifted off a truck when the load slid off the forklift and struck the man, knocking him down. It appears he hit his head on a semi-trailer. Paramedics treated the man at the scene, but he died from the injuries. The Ada County coroner has identified the victim as Dwayne Korte of Caldwell. The cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma to the head. Meridian Police and Ada County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the accident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating to determine if there were any safety violations.


PSE CONTRACT WORKER ELECTROCUTED IN VAULT

RENTON, WA -- A 24-year-old contract worker for Puget Sound Energy died Wednesday night after being electrocuted, the Renton Fire Department reported Thursday. The death is being classified as an industrial accident, and an investigation is under way, Lt. Larry Welch said.

"We don't see this very often," he said. "Those guys are pretty safe."

The accident occurred about 11:30 p.m. in the 600 to 700 block of Rainier Avenue South. The worker was in an underground power vault when he made contact with a wire or something else, according to Welch.

His partner, a 41-year-old man, was handing him something and suffered a jolt of electricity.

The man got a safety insulation blanket and pulled his partner out of the vault.


Ranger Dedicated To Helping Motorists

Tampa, FL - Donald Bradshaw came out of retirement to become a road ranger, taking a largely anonymous job that doesn't pay a lot and that sometimes can be very dangerous. Bradshaw, 66, was attempting to direct southbound traffic around the site of a wreck in the inside lane of Interstate 275 near the Howard-Armenia exit early Sunday when he was hit and killed by a motorist. He is the second road ranger killed while working in the Tampa Bay area in the six years the state-funded program has been operating here. "He was dedicated to what he did," said Terry Hensley, the Department of Transportation's traffic incident manager for District 7, which includes Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties. "He was very much about helping other people." Bradshaw was wearing a yellow reflective vest, backing up a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on the scene of an accident early Sunday. He had positioned cones and flares to close three lanes to traffic, Trooper Larry Coggins said. But a Nissan Sentra went around the stopped traffic and, on seeing Bradshaw and the wreck, slammed on his brakes too late and slid into Bradshaw and the wreck. Bradshaw died at the scene. The Sentra's driver, Benjamin Green, 31, of St. Petersburg, has not been charged, pending the results of blood-alcohol and drug tests.


Truck Crushes Electrical Worker

Avoca, IA - An electrical worker was killed when he was crushed under his truck in Southwest Iowa on Sunday night, according to Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Department. The man's body was discovered beneath his truck at the fairgrounds in Avoca. "It's a middle-aged man from out of town that was servicing a vehicle and it apparently rolled on him, and he was pinned under the rear axle," said Deputy Tom Bernemann, a spokesman for the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Department. Bernemann said it's believed the victim was an electrical worker from Eastern Iowa who was part of a crew laying power lines in the area.


Missing CPS worker found dead

Dallas, TX - A missing Child Protective Services program director has been found dead, officials said Wednesday. Family members had reported Sally Blackwell, 53, missing and were worried about threats she received on a case, San Antonio television station KENS reported. She was last heard from Monday about 9 p.m. and did not report to work at her Victoria office on Tuesday, police and CPS officials said. "It's been confirmed to us that the body they located is our employee, Sally Blackwell," CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "We are shocked and saddened at that fact. Everyone who was aware of her disappearance had been hoping there would be a happier outcome. Word has been spreading across the state." Child Protective Services investigates reports of abuse and neglect of children, and, if necessary, places them in foster care. According to CPS, Blackwell oversaw 46 caseworkers, their supervisors and additional support staff in nine counties. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family."


Man killed in fall from fork lift

Neosho, MO, -- An Anderson man was killed in a forklift accident at Jarden Consumer Solutions, the former Sunbeam plant.

Edward J. Anderson, 29, died at 12:33 a.m. Tuesday morning. He leaves behind a wife, Amanda, and two sons: Brett and Branden. Full obituary information is on page 2 of today's edition.

Officials at Jarden deferred questions to a corporate spokeswoman, Rocky Rockingham, who said she could not comment on the details at this time and would not even name the victim. A company statement was not available as of Tuesday afternoon, but would be available sometime Wednesday.

However, Mark Bridges, Newton County coroner, said the accident happened as Anderson raised the truck's lift up high while it had a heavy clamp attached to it. The vehicle evidently became top-heavy, causing it to topple over with Anderson inside. The man fell out of the forklift and hit his head, Bridges said.


Iowa worker dies in 150-fall from communications tower

GLADSTONE, Mo. -- An Iowa man dies after falling about 150 feet from a communications tower where he was working. It happened this afternoon in Gladstone, Missouri, just north of Kansas City. Authorities were withholding the name of the 28-year-old man while his family was notified, but a supervisor said he was from the Iowa town of Knoxville. Employees of Interstate Tower Incorporated of Hawarden, Iowa, have been working on the 300-foot tower for about two weeks, installing new equipment. The accident happened while the victim and another man were about halfway up the tower. Three other workers were on the ground. The cause of the fall is being investigated. Gladstone Police Sergeant Richard King says the victim was wearing a safety harness when emergency personnel reached the scene.


Former Claiborne County employee accused of killing board attorney

Port Gibson, MS - A former Claiborne County employee allegedly killed the Board of Supervisors attorney this morning and injured at least one other person in a shooting rampage, according to WLBT-Channel 3. The station, quoting police, identified the suspect as Carl Brandon. Killed was Allen Burrell, who was reportedly shot shortly before 8 a.m. today just outside his office in Port Gibson. WLBT reported that Burrell’s law partner also was wounded but the extent of his injuries is not known.


Kin say WTC killed Mom, EMS worker dies of rare cancer

New York, NY - A retired FDNY paramedic died Wednesday from cancer that her doctor and family insist was linked to her work at the World Trade Center morgue after the 9/11 attacks. Debbie Reeve, 41, died at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx after mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer in her lungs, ravaged her body, leaving her emaciated and unable to walk, her loved ones said yesterday. Reeve, a Bronx mother of two who worked at the Ground Zero morgue for several months, developed the cancer after being exposed to asbestos thrown into the air by the collapsing twin towers, her family and doctor contend.


QuikTrip clerk, 17, dies after shooting

Wichita, KS -- A 17-year-old QuikTrip clerk died today after being shot in the head in an unprovoked and unexplained attack, Wichita police said.

A spokesman for QuikTrip Corp., Mike Thornbrugh, said: "We're absolutely devastated by this, and our hearts are broken by this... senseless, senseless act of violence.

Police and school district officials said the clerk, Brian C. Hall, was a senior at East High School. Hall had been involved in Junior ROTC and the school's construction program, said Susan Arensman, a school district spokeswoman. East High made counselors available for students, she said.


Flagman killed in mishap on Miss. 16

Canton, MS - The Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol is investigating the death of a road construction worker who was killed Wednesday morning when a tractor-trailer from his work crew backed over him. Jefferson Hutchins, 56, died from multiple trauma about 7:50 a.m. near 3681 Mississippi 16 East, Madison County Coroner Alex Breeland said. Highway Patrol Sgt. James Walker said Hutchins was a flagman for Dickerson and Bowing Construction Co. of Brookhaven.


Crash kills two- Official: No distress signal was sent by helicopter

Lafayette, LA - An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the Monday morning crash of a Bell 206L Series helicopter, which crashed - killing two of its four occupants - into a remote and marshy area in St. Mary Parish. The crash occurred minutes after the helicopter's take-off from Patterson at about 7:30 a.m. in an area about five miles south of the town, said Gerry Golden, general manager and director of operations for Broussard-based Rotocraft Leasing.


Trucker who was killed is identified

Berlin, MA - A Maine man was killed and an Illinois man suffered minor injuries in a late night crash involving two tractor-trailers Monday. Truck driver John Gelinas, 45, of Saco, Maine, was killed and truck driver Innocent Yudo, 59, of Chicago suffered minor injuries during the accident on Interstate 495 North in Berlin, a mile south of Exit 26, according to state police. Yudo was treated and released from Marlborough Hospital early yesterday morning, according to a hospital spokesman


Worker Crushed By Falling Smokestack

Baltimore, MD - A worker (Jimmy Wayne Streeter, 43) sitting in a parked pickup truck was crushed to death when a nearby smokestack collapsed and fell onto his vehicle. "He apparently never knew the smokestack was falling towards him," Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright said. The accident occurred Tuesday evening at the W.R. Grace Chemical Co.'s Curtis Bay plant during a period of high winds. The 200-foot metal smokestack broke off, cleared a small building and crashed onto the parked vehicle underneath.


Contractor dies at VA center site

Hampton, VA - A Virginia Beach contractor was killed Monday in the parking lot at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Hampton as he helped another contractor unload a supply of commercial doors. Wilbert McNeil Jr., 55, was doing renovation work on the interior of the geriatric/psychiatric unit about 10:15 a.m. when the doors he was helping to unload shifted and fell on him, said Jenny Tankersley, the center's public affairs officer. McNeil, who worked for Robra Construction in Virginia Beach, was pronounced dead 20 to 25 minutes after the accident. Robra has been renovating the geriatric/psychiatric unit since October, Tankersley said. Police and fire officials responded. The medical center's police department and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the accident.


Truck driver recalled as family man- Death occurred in work-related accident

North Manchester, IN - Jerry D. Huffman was a kind, family man who loved children and who was eager to become a grandfather, said a family member. Huffman’s hopes of seeing his grandchildren ended in a matter of seconds when he was killed in a work-related accident Sunday. Family members grappled with their loss Monday while making funeral arrangements in Bluffton. Huffman, 50, was killed about 12:30 p.m. at Dexter Axle in North Manchester, the Wabash County Sheriff’s Department said. Huffman, who was employed by Evans Trucking in Butler, was checking a load of axles on a trailer. About 10 axles were bundled together, secured by metal straps, and stacked two high on the trailer. At some point one of the bundles and Huffman fell from the truck, according to the sheriff’s report.


Man killed while trying to protect pregnant employee

Houston, TX - It happened around 10:45pm Sunday on Crosstimbers and Fulton in north Houston. Police say a woman and her estranged husband began arguing outside the Lucky Seafood Market near Northline Mall. The woman works at the market and her boss tried to get the husband to leave. An eyewitness says that's when the husband pulled a machete and attacked the market owner. "The lady came, saying her husband killed some man. Me and that lady went back there to check and the back of his head he has a big hole in the back," said eyewitness Gustavo Silva. "The husband hit him with a machete in the back of his head" The estranged couple's 12-year-old daughter was also on the scene and saw the entire incident. The husband took off and has not been found. His wife, being pregnant, was taken to the hospital as a precaution.


Road worker killed by cement truck

NY - A state Department of Transportation worker was struck by a cement truck and killed while repairing potholes on Sunrise Highway at 10:30 a.m. Friday, spokeswoman Eileen Peters said. Patrick Mapleson, 66, of Ridge, was pronounced dead at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center at 11:24 a.m. "Poor Patrick. He was just working on making the road safer for everybody and he lost his life," Peters said.


Robbers shoot, kill gas station worker

Milwaukee, WI - 57-year-old gas station employee died from a gunshot wound to the back during an armed robbery Saturday at a Citgo gas station at 3531 N. Teutonia Ave., police said. The shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. The victim was identified as Surinder Singh Toor, 57, the older brother of the owner of the station, Surjit Toor, according to Gurmail Toor, Surinder's nephew. Gurmail Toor said that he was at Jack's Beverage Center next door when he heard over the intercom that his uncle had been shot. The family owns both businesses.


NASA Employee Dies After Fall From Roof

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL -- A roofer died after falling from a warehouse Friday at Kennedy Space Center as employees returned to work with orders to be more careful a day after a stand-down was ordered following a spate of recent accidents. James Kennedy, the space center's director, ordered work stopped for two hours Thursday while he addressed nearly 15,000 employees on safety issues over closed-circuit television. He warned that a major accident could derail NASA's plans to complete the international space station and to begin exploring the moon and then Mars. "We must stop in their tracks the events that led me to call for this safety stand-down," Kennedy said. Steven Owens, 51, had removed his safety harness and was moving toward the edge of a warehouse roof when he tripped over a lightning protection wire, said Sam Gutierrez, a spokesman for Space Gateway Support, which holds the joint base operations contract at the space center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Firefighter dies of heart attack at fire

Hastings-on-Hudson, NEW YORK -- A Westchester County firefighter died after suffering a heart attack while responding to a fire Friday.

Battalion Chief Robert Schnibbe Jr., 57, of the Hastings-on-Hudson Fire Department, suffered the attack while directing firefighters at a house under construction in Irvington, the department said.

"Chief Schnibbe was one of the most widely known and respected fire officials in Westchester County and throughout the State," the department said in a statement.

Schnibbe had served in his department for 39 years and was chief officer from 1977 to 2001.


Hit/Run Freeway Crash Kills Road Worker

CARLSBAD, CA -- A predawn hit-and-run crash on a North County freeway killed a road worker today, authorities said.

The victim was in a closed section of Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, helping install electronic sensors in the roadway, when a pickup truck veered into the area and struck him about 1:45 a.m., the California Highway Patrol reported.

The motorist pulled over briefly a short distance away, near Jefferson Street, then continued driving out of the area to the south, CHP public affairs Officer Joel Arding said.

Medics took the injured worker, a 26-year-old Olathe, Colo., resident employed by a Caltrans subcontractor, to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, where he was pronounced dead about six hours later.


Assumption deputy killed trying to help apprehend suspect

NAPOLEONVILLE, LA - Known fondly as "Streetfly" for his gregarious ways, Assumption Parish Sheriff's Sgt. Jeremy Newchurch moved comfortably between two very different worlds.

On Feb. 24, the 31-year-old Newchurch - who coached a youth softball team - was volunteering at a school Mardi Gras carnival, judging children in a costume contest, his godmother, Tina Landry, said.

Wednesday night, Newchurch was fatally shot in the chest while trying to help a fellow officer arrest a suspected drug dealer, Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said Thursday.


Truck driver killed in collision with train

NEWNAN, Ga -- - A man driving a cement truck was killed Tuesday when his truck crashed into a train.

Coweta County Sheriff's Office officials said a CSX train hit a cement truck at Weldon Road U.S. 29 Tuesday morning. The sheriff's office received a call about the wreck at 10:42 a.m.

The truck driver was killed. No other injuries were reported. The man's identity was not immediately released.

Investigators are continuing to work the scene.


Container ship crew member dead in safety exercise in Seattle

SEATTLE, WA -- A man who died in a lifeboat accident during a safety drill was a member of the crew of a container ship based in Hong Kong, investigators in the King County medical examiner's office said.

Jie Zheng, 25, drowned at Terminal 18 after a lifeboat containing him and three others from the crew of the OOCL Britain flipped while being lowered into the water near the mouth of the Duwamish River, investigators said Monday.

Coast Guard personnel pulled all four from the water within about 20 minutes Sunday but Zheng died after being taken to Harborview Medical Center.

A second crew member was treated for a broken leg, and the other two others were returned to the ship.

The Britain had arrived in port earlier in the day. The accident, which occurred during a safety drill supervised by the American Bureau of Shipping, remained under investigation, Coast guard officials said.


Lafayette County deputy killed when patrol car goes off road

LEWISVILLE Ark. -- A Lafayette County sheriff's deputy died in a traffic accident while on his way to help another deputy who was answering a domestic disturbance call, the sheriff's office said Saturday.

Deputy Stacy McMurrough, 32, of Stamps died when the patrol car he was driving went off Arkansas 29, went into a ditch, overturned, and he was thrown from the vehicle, according to an Arkansas State Police report. The accident happened at 8:21 p.m. Friday. The highway was wet at the time because it had been raining. McMurrough was not wearing his seat belt, the state police report said.

Sheriff Danny Ormand said Saturday that his deputies usually wear their seat belts. "But for some reason, he didn't have it on." The sheriff said the accident happened not long after McMurrough apparently had stopped a traffic violator, received the call for backup, got back in his car and hurried off to help the other deputy.


Logger killed in Halifax

HALIFAX , VT -- A 55-year-old Wilmington man was struck and killed by a falling tree during a logging accident on Sunday.

According to Halifax Fire Chief Wayne Courser, Joel Greene was logging alone about a half-mile off Thurber Road when the accident occurred. Courser said the tree which hit Greene was standing on the edge of a marshy area and appeared to have uprooted a short time after being struck by another tree that Greene had just cut down.

Courser said it appeared Greene was trimming the limbs off the felled tree when he was hit from behind by the toppling tree. Courser said Greene had probably been struck around 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

This is the third logging accident that resulted in a death in less than three months in southern Vermont.


Coroner IDs I-680 tow truck driver

CONCORD, CA -- The Contra Costa Coroner's Office has identified the man struck by a car and killed while assisting another motorist on Interstate 680 as Jody Ehling, 42, of Concord.

The collision occurred before 9:30 p.m. on northbound I-680 at the westbound Highway 4 onramp, the California Highway Patrol said.

Witnesses said Ehling, an American Tow tow truck driver, was standing on the right-hand shoulder of the connector, operating levers on the side of his truck when a gold 1995 Volvo bounced off the left-side concrete barrier and overcorrected toward the right, plowing into Ehling, who was thrown several yards, Sgt. Keith Marsden said.


Semi driver killed in head-on collision

WILTON, Iowa — A semi-truck driver from Spencer, Iowa, died in a head-on collision Wednesday morning with another semi along Interstate 80 near Wilton.

David Lynn Loerts, 39, died at the scene when the other semi, driven by Michael Morrow, 56, of Cherokee, Iowa, crossed the centerline at 2:39 a.m. and collided with Loerts’ vehicle.

A Tipton ambulance took Morrow to Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Street, Davenport. A hospital spokesman said he was treated there and released.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, Loerts was westbound on I-80 and Morrow was eastbound. Loerts’ vehicle became engulfed in flames, and Morrow’s truck came to a rest in a ditch on the north side of the road, police said.


Construction worker killed on I-75

Lowndes County, GA - A construction worker was killed today in a tragic accident on the Interstate.

The man was working on a road resurfacing project on I-75 near exit 29 in Lowndes County when a co-worker accidentally backed over him. The driver of the truck was backing up to get a load of asphalt, and didn't see the man behind him.

"He was looking in his left side mirror and the other worker was on the ride side, to the rear of his truck," said Trooper Jim Brown.

Both men worked for Douglas Asphalt Company. Troopers have not released the victim's name pending notification of kin.


Double murder possibly a ’hit’: Businessman, worker killed in Wakefield

Wakefield, MA -- The president of a Wakefield concrete business and one of his part-time truck drivers were shot to death at the family-owned firm yesterday morning in what investigators are looking at as a possible execution, authorities said.

Allstate Concrete Pumping Inc. President Michael Zammitti Jr., 39, of Wakefield was shot in the head from the front as he sat at his desk in a cramped office above the company garage, authorities said.

Chester Roberts, 51, also of Wakefield, was shot in the back at least once and found near the bottom of the stairs to the office.

“It does appear, given the location of the bodies, that he may not have been the intended target of this, that he may have happened upon the circumstances,” Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said of Roberts.


$20K Reward Offered in Hit-Run Freeway Crash that Killed Road Worker

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Authorities announced a $20,000 reward today for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a motorist involved in a predawn hit-and-run crash that killed a road worker on a North County freeway.

The March 6 accident, which occurred in a closed section of Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, killed 26-year-old Olathe, Colo., resident Zachary Zura.

The victim was helping install electronic sensors in the roadway near Jefferson Street when a southbound pickup truck veered into the work area and struck him about 1:45 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.

Medics took Zura, an employee of a Caltrans subcontractor, to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, where he was pronounced dead about six hours later.


Worker Killed, One Injured in Plant Accident

Shertz, TX -- One worker was killed, another injured during an industrial accident at a plant in Schertz, officials told News 4 WOAI.

The accident happened close to 2 p.m. Tuesday at PSP Monotech, authorities said. The company builds steel components for power plants.

The victim killed in the accident was identified as 27-year-old Mike Apaez from San Antonio, officials with the City of Schertz told News 4 WOAI.

The other worker, 40-year-old Roland Luna, was rushed to University Hospital, officials said. His condition was unknown Tuesday night.


Truck driver dies in wreck

Greenville, OK -- An Arkansas truck driver was killed Tuesday morning when his tractor-trailer ran off Interstate 35 and struck a tree in Love County, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

James Pruett, 42, of Greenbrier was driving south on the highway when his truck left the road about 10 a.m. near Greenville, ran though a fence, struck a tree and caught fire, troopers said. The cause of the accident was unknown Tuesday.


Teacher Dies, 8 Students Hurt When Car Slams Into CrowdLos Angeles, CA -- A teacher (Carrie Phillips, 24) was killed and eight students were injured Wednesday when an out-of-control car jumped a curb in Culver City and slammed into them as they returned to their school from a nearby park.

Both the driver of the car and her male passenger fled the scene but were later arrested. They were identified as Laura Samayoa, 20, of Los Angeles, and Reynaldo Cruz, 19, also of Los Angeles, said Lt. Chris Maddox of the Culver City Police Department.


Truck driver dies in I-495 crash

BERLIN, ME -- A truck driver from Saco, Maine, was killed Monday night when his tractor-trailer smashed into the rear of another truck on Interstate 495, state police said.

The crash, which occurred on I-495 north, about a mile south of Exit 26, was reported to state police about 11:30 p.m. It was raining and visibility was poor, though traffic was light. The accident occurred on a long incline, which begins at the Interstate 290 interchange and ends at Exit 26.

John Gelinas, 45, of Saco, Maine, died in the crash, according to state police. His tractor-trailer was in the right lane when it rear-ended a tractor-trailer driven by Innocent Yudo, 59, of Chicago, police said.

Labels: Asbestos, Weekly Toll, Workplace Violence

Several people sent me this USA Today article, Dangerous jobs come in all shapes, sizes, by Emily Bazar. It's a description of a number of hazardous jobs in this country. I generally enjoy reading such articles, figuring that we're providing just a bit more information to the masses who otherwise see, hear and smell no evil in our nation's workplaces.

But after my first quick reading I was strangely unsatisfied. Then I realized why. It's not so much what was written but what wasn't written:

Try writing an article about the most dangerous jobs in American without even mentioning the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Spend about half the article talking about the incredible suffering plaguing millions of American workers from back injuries and other strains and sprains caused by lifting and other repetitive motions, without once mentioning the ergonomics standard repealed by the Bush administration in 2001.

And make sure that after doing a good job describing a host of work-related hazards, you don’t say anything about how to reduce or eliminate any of the hazards (except for a safety committee whose only function seems to be warning new workers not to be too impatient to wait for assistance to lift heavy boxes.) Don't mention OSHA standards that aren't being followed, or other well-recognized industry best-practices that are being ignored. Or how employers who are literally getting away with murder by getting tiny fines for killing workers.

Add a few sentences like these: “Everyone admits that some danger is inherent to these industries. But many workers accept the risks”

“Besides, he says, the risks become a part of life. ‘You get used to it," he says, "and take pride in your job.’"

You’ll have this nice little USA Today article.

No wonder it's so hard to make national progress on health and safety issues in this country. You finally get a bit of newspaper real estate and they waste it.

Labels: Ergonomics

You'll be happy to know that the International Coal Group announced yesterday that its 2005 income was $31.8 million, compared with a 2004 loss of $102.4 million. The only bad news was that damn coal mine explosion that killed 12 of their employees and seriously injured one. ICG President Ben Hatfield assured stockholders that "This tragedy will always remain in our memories, but we must do more than just remember the good people that died and were injured. We must learn lessons from this accident that will make coal miners safer in years to come."

One of the things that will make coal miners safer will apparently be praying to Mother Nature for mercy. On Tuesday, ICG released the results of its investigation into the disaster. The first "key finding" was that the explosion was ignited by lighting and fueled by methane that had naturally accumulated in an abandoned area of the mine that had been recently sealed."

Curse that Mother Nature! She not only supplied the fuel, but also the ignition source. Oh, and don't forget the oxygen. All three sides of the fire triangle.

The evidence: “unusual streaks” on the mine roof where company officials believe an electrical charge from the lightning may have entered the mine. But the press release also states that the investigators can't say how the lighting got into the mine. In addition, “The testing of these unusual features has not been completed to determine if it was created by the passage of electrical energy from lightning.”

The Mineworkers union was not amused. Cecil E. Roberts, International President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) called the the ICG's findings "unprecedented, reckless and premature."

This action does a disservice to the families of those who were killed at Sago,” Roberts said. “ICG even acknowledges that it doesn’t know how an electrical charge could have traveled from the surface to the mine and ignited the explosion. To publicize their unfounded conclusion now, well before the official investigation by federal and state experts is finished, is extremely reckless

Mineworkers safety experts say this is the first time in their memory that a company has released a report before MSHA's releases its report.

Roberts says the intent is clear:

“I believe it’s fair to ask why ICG is leaping to this conclusion and publicizing its version now,” Roberts said. “ICG is essentially saying this was an act of God, and we all know you can’t sue God. One can make a case that this announcement is more about future litigation defense purposes that it is about actually shining a light of truth on what really happened.

The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward also points out that even if lightning did spark the explosion,

previous government reports have indicated that there are ways to reduce the chance of a lightning strike causing a mine explosion.

For example, state investigators have said ICG was taking methane readings from inside the sealed-off area of the mine.

Data from those tests could have hinted that methane was building up to dangerous levels, giving the company a chance to vent the area. Information about readings prior to the blast has not been released.

And the AFL-CIO reports that

If the lightning did travel to the sealed area, it could only ignite methane behind the seals if the methane levels had not stabilized, as they should have if the area was properly sealed, say mine safety experts.

Generally speaking, methane is only explosive when it makes up between 5 and 15 percent of the atmosphere. Above that level, it becomes inert as it replaces oxygen—which is needed to fuel an explosion. Proper sealing of a worked-out area should bring the methane levels to the non-explosive point. There are reports the Sago sealing was done about a month before the blast.

Yes, although you might not know it from ICG's press releases, but one of the most interesting and important aspects of the history of the last several thousand years is man's ability to overcome the hazards created by Mother Nature.

Labels: Coal Mining, Sago

West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has put a hold on the nomination of Richard Stickler to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.

Byrd said Tuesday that he wants to meet with Richard Stickler before he allows the Marion County native’s confirmation to move forward.

“I have yet to meet with Mr. Stickler, and I will continue to hold his nomination until I can meet with him to discuss the urgency of coal safety improvements — modern communications equipment, better enforcement of safety laws already on the books, and minimum safety fines to encourage compliance with safety practices,” Byrd said in a statement.

“MSHA’s political leadership seems to have lost sight in recent years that miners’ safety and health is that agency’s top priority,” Byrd added. “Until I know that Mr. Stickler will make safety job number one at MSHA, I will not allow his nomination to move forward.”

Stickler was Director of the Pennsylvania Department of Deep Mine Safety after spending 30 years working for coal companies. His nomination is opposed by the United Mineworkers union, the AFL-CIO and the Charleston Gazette.

Labels: AFL-CIO, Richard Stickler

The Senate confirmed Edwin G. Foulke as Assistant Secretary of Labor For Occupational Safety and Health Monday. Foulke, formerly chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, comes from a law firm well known in union-busting circles, where he has spent most of his career representing management in workplace safety and health cases. Nevertheless,

he told the Senate committee reviewing his nomination in January that he could protect workers as OSHA's new leader.

"As head of OSHA," he said, "I understand that I will be ultimately responsible for helping to ensure as much as possible that every employee in the United States works in a safe and healthy workplace."

We'll see.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE HONORABLE EDWIN G. FOULKE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

Dear Assistant Secretary Foulke:

Congratulations on your appointment to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It's an enormous responsibility, as I'm sure you are aware: you literally hold the lives and health of thousands of American workers in your hands. Don't screw it up.

I'm sure you're not happy that I've previously characterized you as a union-busting Republican political operative whose fundraising and party leadership skills have finally paid off. And you may not be happy about my prediction that your administration will be (yawn) a continuation of the same tired, ineffective, moribund, anti-worker programs that have succeed in making OSHA almost totally irrelevant to workplace safety in this country.

On the other hand, I'm sure, in the wee hours of night, as you lie awake in bed, wondering what the next three years hold, you're also asking yourself what contribution you can possibly make to humanity by heading up an agency that has been castrated by the President at whose pleasure you serve.

Well Ed, here's your chance to put your money where your silver-toungued mouth is. For a short period of time, you have an opportunity to take a number of giant steps to protect workers, defend your manhood, and, most important of all, do what both John Henshaw and Jonathan Snare have spent countless hours fantacizing about: you can make a complete fool out of me.

Here's how.

You can show the Mayberry Machiavellis at the White House, and those wet-behind-the-ears, know-it-all, young Republicans who are actually running this country that that you’ve got balls, cajones, that you’re no Brownie, that all that B.S. you were spewing at your confirmation hearing about how OSHA’s biggest challenge is to cater to small business was just a bunch of confirmation claptrap intended to warm the cockles of Senator Enzi’s heart.

OK, here's your 100 day agenda:

• Issue the "Payment for Personal Protective Equipment" standard. The standard has been languishing at OSHA since the end of the Clinton Administration. Explain that if anyone is going to take seriously OSHA's efforts to reach out to Hispanic workers, the first step must be to ensure that employers pay for their boots, gloves and other equipment.


• Issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a standard to protect health care workers against a flu pandemic. Show you’re serous about ensuring that this country is ready for a flu pandemic by safeguarding the health of our caregivers


• Propose legislation calling for increased criminal penalties and higher fines. Yes, maybe most employers may take safety seriously, but there are still far too many in this country who continue to knowingly and willfully cut corners and kill workers. Their only punishment is a relatively insiginificant fine, considering that they killed someones' father, mother, son or daughter. Only the certainty of high fines and jail terms will stop them from considering violations, injuries, illnesses and fatalities to be an acceptable risk. (Spend a few hours reading Confined Space, and then tell me you don't agree...)
  
• Launch a serious and sustained effort to update the OSHA's Permissible Exposure Limit for chemicals. Hundreds of chemicals are regulated by OSHA based on science from the 1950's and 1960's, making the agency a laughing stock, and exposing workers to thousands of hazardous chemicals.
  
• Fill the empty labor-liaison positions in the field. Due to deaths and retirements, fewer than half of the OSHA Regional offices have labor liaisons. None of the empty positions have been filled. If you really want to know what goes on in American workplaces, you need people that workers will trust.
  
• Announce that you are launching a review of the recently issued Hexavalent Chromium standard. New information has surfaced that the chromium industry hid important studies showing lung cancer at very low exposure levels, and there are numerous other flaws in the standard. Basically, the thing's a piece of shit, but you have a chance to blame it on someone else -- if you act fast.


• Announce that you are launching a serious review of OSHA's voluntary Programs, based on the 2004 Government Accountability Office report that showed there was no evidence that the programs were effective. Oh, and while you're at it, get rid of that idiotic alliance program. Admit that it's just a rather unsuccessful public relations ploy to hide the fact that OSHA has gone out of the standard setting business.

Do these things and not only will you have made a name for yourself in workplace safety, but I'll eat crow, because right now, I don't think you really get what's going on in this country's workplaces. And even if you do, I don't think you have the balls to do anything about it.

So, come on, Ed, prove me wrong. What do you have to lose but your irrelevance? You’ll never have more political capital than you have now. They can’t fire an Assistant Secretary the month after he’s confirmed. What are they going to do, send you on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney? Dude, You’ve got ‘em by the balls. Now, squeeze.

Good luck. You'll need it.

Sincerely,


Jordan Barab
Blogger, Confined Space.

P.S. I'm sure many of my readers have other suggestions. Check the comments below.

The Hazard Communication Standard, which gives workers the “right to know” about the hazards of the chemicals they are exposed to, is arguably OSHA’s most important standard. It was issued during the Reagan administration, not because Reaganites thought workers should have information about the chemicals they were being exposed to, but because the agency was forced to issue the standard by the states.

Under court interpretations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, “federal” OSHA states (states where OSHA enforces the law) can issue their own workplace safety and health standards as long as federal OSHA has no standard in that area. In “state plan” states (where the state administers the law), states can issue their own standards as long as OSHA determines that they’re “at least as effective as” the federal law.

When the newly inaugurated Reagan administration withdrew a Carter administration proposal for a “Right-to-Know” standard, cities and then states began passing their own. Facing the potential of 50 different right to know laws, corporate America, which had strongly opposed a national standard, changed its mind, leading the the issuance of today’s Hazard Communication Standard (CFR 1910.1200).

California has been one of the leading states in requiring automobiles to meet more stringent standards than the federal government, single-handed driving industry innovation. States have been out front in a number of other areas, including food safety, at least until now, if the Republicans in Congress have their way.

Harold Meyerson tells the sad tale in today’s Washington Post:

Last week, even as Congress with great fanfare was protecting the American people against whatever mischief the harbor barons of Dubai were contemplating, it quietly decided to strip some long-standing protections from the same American people at the behest of our very own food industry. Last Wednesday the House passed the National Uniformity for Food Act, which might better be named the Swallow at Your Own Risk Act.

In one swoop, the bill preempts roughly 200 state laws governing food safety. The theory here is that we lack uniform national standards in such areas as lead and arsenic content, milk and shellfish safety, and the stuff that goes into food coloring and additives. National standards, the bill's champions argue, would be good for the whole country.

Funny thing, though. The bill doesn't set any national standards. It doesn't require that the Food and Drug Administration set such standards. It merely reserves to the FDA the right to set such standards, and negates a slew of laws that every single state has enacted over the past 60 years to make up for the FDA's neglect of food safety.

Examples? A Utah law addressing food additives that's stricter than federal law, a California law banning Mexican candy that contains lead, and numerous state laws addressing the hazards of raw shellfish.

The bill is, of course, being pushed by the food industry, and the Republican-controlled House of Corporate Representatives has – true to form – held no hearings and scheduled no debate – just a vote.

"What did Energy and Commerce base its decision on?" asks Henry Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat who led the opposition to this mischief. "There was no analysis. There was no evaluation. Republicans just followed their leaders, and
some Democrats who had initially signed on as co-sponsors were waiting, presumably, for somebody authoritative to review the bill. But there was no review, and some of them couldn't figure out that they should have rethought their commitment."

The bill now goes to the Senate, where California's two senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, have vowed to defeat it. But the message from the new, John Boehner-led reformed Republican House to American business couldn't be clearer: We're not going to let anything so vulgar as evidence, or our ostensible belief in states' rights, sway our judgment when the interests of our financial backers are at stake. Money still talks here; money screams.

Oh, and one more thing. 71 Democrats voted for the bill, “prima facie evidence,” Meyerson says, “that the Republicans deserve to lose control of Congress and that Democrats don't yet deserve to win it.”

People get ready.

April 28th is Workers Memorial Day, where unions around the world remember those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew the fight for safe workplaces. This has the potential of being a special Workers Memorial Day -- it follows the mine disasters earlier this year that revealed the bankruptcy of our workplace safety agencies -- and it's an election year.

The AFL-CIO is the lead organizer in the United States, but it's up to you to organize or join local events:

Within just a few weeks' time, the disasters at the Sago mine and five other mines claimed the lives of 18 miners. These tragedies focused the nation's attention on the dangers faced by workers and the weakness in job safety protections. But the Sago disaster was not an isolated event. Before this year is over, thousands of more workers will be killed on the job and millions will be injured or diseased.

But unfortunately, rather than addressing the serious safety and health problems faced by workers, at the urging of corporate interests, the Bush Administration and conservative Republicans, have moved to rollback and weaken protections. Since 2001, the Administration has blocked or withdrawn dozens of important safety rules, including a number of measures that may have prevented the recent mine tragedies. Voluntary compliance has been favored over issuing new protective standards and enforcement. Industry officials have been put in charge of government safety programs.

In the Congress, Republican leaders have ignored calls to strengthen the mine safety law, and instead are pushing legislation that would gut OSHA enforcement.

Organizing materials and information on American events can be found here. The AFL-CIO is also working on a new Death on the Job report, although the 2005 edition is still on their website.

Events are also being organized around the world. Check out the Hazards Workers Memorial Day website for more information.

So let's get organized and invite those politicians to your events. Make them earn your votes by sponsoring and working for the Protecting America’s Workers Act (S944 and HR2004), or explaining to you why they're not. (Right now the bills only have 5 cosponsors in the House and 10 in the Senate. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ for more information on the bills' status.)

Labels: AFL-CIO

Unless your father happens to be Benito Mussolini.

I've written a couple of times recently about the Center for Union Facts, the group that recently compared UNITE HERE president Harris Raynor to Fidel Castro and Kim Jon Il, the group headed by the same joker who formed corporate-backed associations to defend mercury in fish (FishScam.com), challenge Mothers Against Drunk Driving and its efforts to lower the legal blood alcohol content limit, dismiss concern about obesity as "hype," to defend the tobacco industry against smoking curbs in restaurants and the beverage industry against restrictions on alcohol use, and to argue against raising the minimum wage.

I need a shower just writing about these guys. But they've got some friends over at the Labor Department, according to the Washington Post:

There's a new spirit at the department, judging from a June 15 e-mail from Lynn Gibson, an aide in the public liaison office that alerts people to a training opportunity.

"The next [noteworthy item] is a new website, if you were not already aware of it," she says. "The website is dedicated to providing information on labor unions and their expenditures. UnionFacts.com launched on Monday, February 13th, and some news links are listed below."

Turns out, according to a linked article by our colleague Amy Joyce , this is a stridently anti-union site that talks about the "political activities, and criminal activity of the labor movement." The site lets members check their union's "shady tactics" and highlights how to bust a union's right to represent workers at a company.

Doesn't surprise me. When I worked at the Labor Department, the televisions in the lobby were turned to CNN all day long. When I returned after 2001, the T.Vs were tuned to Fox.

More about this unfortunate relationship at the AFL-CIO Today blog.

The Bad

Republicans are in a dither about the FY 2007 budget as they try to work out a budget blueprint for Fiscal Year 2007. On one hand, they want to increase spending on port security, homeland defense, health care and education, while on the other hand, they want to balance the budget by cutting budgets that have already been cut to the bone ( environmental and natural resource programs by 20 percent, community and regional development by 32 percent, and politically sensitive transportation spending would be cut by 17 percent.) But they've backed off cutting $37 billion in the growth of Medicare

The Good

Meanwhile, just to make matters worse for Republican leaders, moderate Republicans say their party has gone too far:

"We're beyond cutting the fat and beyond the bone. We're down to the marrow," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who plans to introduce an amendment today to raise spending on health care, education and worker safety by billions of dollars above the president's request for next year.

Specter's amendment, co-authored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), is only the beginning. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he and Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) will introduce an amendment this week to broadly raise spending on homeland defense. Senate Democrats on their own will move to increase spending for homeland security by nearly $3 billion more than Bush's wishes.

Reps. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Calif.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) plan to unveil legislation today that would raise spending on port security by $801 million a year. That bill nearly equals a bipartisan Senate legislation that would raise annual port security spending by $835 million.

The Ugly

Some Republicans are downright pissed off at their party leaders for not getting serious about budget cutting. Some, like the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee, are so angry that they've resurrected the old Contract with on America, only this time it's the Contract with American RENEWED.

Read it yourself, if you can stomach it. But this will give you the idea:

Unfortunately, we are once again at a historic crossroads in the nation’s future. Despite initial successes, Republicans today are confronted with familiar challenges: expanding government, a worsening fiscal position, and an explosive growth in spending and earmarks. In fiscal year 2005, the federal government spent $2.47 trillion—49% more than it spent in fiscal year 1995 after adjusting for inflation. The deficit for the current fiscal year is projected to be upwards of $400 billion, the largest nominally in history. In 1995, the public debt limit stood at $4.9 trillion; it now stands at $8.2 trillion, up 67% and yet again in need of an increase. This is not the result of war and economic challenges, as is often claimed, but rather an unwillingness to make choices and trade offs.

What kind of "choices and trade offs?"

How about getting rid of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the only governement agency that conducts research into workplace safety and health issues?

Eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Program at the CDC. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is responsible for “conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related illnesses and injuries.” It is questionable whether this constitutes a “disease” and if the program should be housed within the CDC. Also, the program duplicates functions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This proposal was included in the original budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 67) passed by the House of Representatives in 1995.

It just goes to show: bad ideas never die.

I confess, I can never quite figure out the Department of Homeland Security. Everything they touch seem to turn to excrement, and now we have the Transportation Security Administration issuing a new rule allowing small knives on planes.

Does this make sense? I mean, the 9/11 hijackers used box cutters, not guns and not explosives to wreak havoc on this country, so Homeland Security is now letting people carry knives on board. Meanwhile they're still making us take our rubber sneakers off because some nutcase tried to blow up a plane with and exploading sneaker. So why do we have to take off our tennis shoes before walking through the X-ray machine? God forbid someone ever tries blow up a plane with an exploding jockstrap.

Oy.

Anway the Association of Flight Attendants is rather confused as well -- and for them it's a life and death matter. The AFA-CWA has launched a new campaign: "Leave All Blades Behind "

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced that it would lift restrictions on certain items from being brought onboard aircrafts. These items, such as scissors, large screwdrivers and other items will be allowed onboard aircrafts that AFA-CWA flight attendants work to keep safe. This unilateral change in security regulations will put our AFA-CWA members, as well as pilots and you, the travelling public, in danger. It is important that as safety & health activists we support our sisters and brothers in the AFA-CWA in this battle to keep the runways and skies safe.

Go to Leave All Blades Behind to sign the petition and gather information on the "Leave All Blades Behind Act" introduced in Congress by Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA), Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). This legislation will restore the "Prohibited Items" list and keep dangerous items that can be used as lethal weapons by drunk or unruly passengers, as well as by a terrorist group, from being brought onto aircrafts.

Mike Begatto, Executive Director of Delaware's American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees urges the Delaware legislature to support a bill that would give collective bargaining rights to the state's public employees. Public employees are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act and only 27 states allow collective bargaining for public employees. Delaware is one of those states, but the law doesn't allow them to bargain over economic issues.

Full collective bargaining for public employees is a good thing. But so is the right to come home from work alive and healthy. Delaware is also one of 26 states that does not provide OSHA coverage for public employees. While AFSCME lobbies for collective bargaining right, maybe they should also lobby for the right to a safe workplace.

After all, the logic is the same. As Begatto writes in defense of collective bargaining:

Those who oppose the right of state employees to bargain over wages cannot justify their position based on the nature of work performed by state employees. For many occupations there is little, if any, distinction between public and private sector work. Services provided by nurses and attendants at a private hospital are no different than those provided at a public hospital. Yet one group of workers enjoys the right to bargain over wages while the other does not. Laborers employed by a private firm that contracts with the state have the right to negotiate over their wages, but laborers employed directly by Delaware do not. There are countless other examples. The bottom line is, the current status of labor relations law in Delaware is not rational or justifiable.

Just replace the right to "negotiate" or "bargain" with the "right to work safely."

To paraphrase Begatto, "The bottom line is, the current status of public employee workplace safety in Delaware is not rational or justifiable."

Makes sense to me.

Labels: Public Employees

Wherein I continue to rant about the recent atrocity issued by OSHA -- the new Hexavalent Chromium Standard.

Before we begin, remember what seems to be OSHA's new rule. Repeat five times:

• Simple and understandable regulations: Good for employers
• Simple and understandable regulations: Bad for employees.

For those who are just tuning in, OSHA issued a new (court-ordered) health standard, to address exposure to the cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium. The standard was released a week after the publication of a report showing that the chromium industry had covered up evidence that very low levels of chromium can cause cancer. OSHA not only refused to lower the permissible exposure limit to a safe, low level, but actually raised the acceptable level 5 times above the level the agency had originally proposed in 2004.

Last week I wrote a piece describing how the standard also broke new ground -- and not in a good way -- by eliminating training requirements that have been included in all other OSHA chemical program standards. All employees had to do if they wanted to figure out their employer's training obligations was to find and understand a bunch of interpretations letter, compliance directives and related standards. Sound simple?

Today, we venture into another part of the standard where workers again get screwed: employee notification of exposure monitoring results.

All previous OSHA chemical standards, including the hexavalent chromium standard, require employers to monitor employees' exposure to ensure that they aren't being over exposed and to ensure that the employer takes action to reduce exposures if workers are being overexposed.

In addition to monitoring, previous standards, such as OSHA's methylene chloride standard, require employers to inform employees of their exposure results -- whether they're over or under the Permissible Exposure Limit.

The hexavalent chromium standard is, once again, different. Paragraph (d)(4)(i) of the standard states that:

Where the exposure determination indicates that employee exposure exceeds the PEL, within 15 working days the employer shall either post the results in an appropriate location that is accessible to all affected employees or shall notify each affected employee individually in writing of the results.

Did you get that? The employer is only required to provide exposure results if "employee exposure exceeds the PEL" instead of providing all exposure records to the employee.

Why is this bad? A couple of reasons.

First, suppose you work with hexavalent chromium. There's this new OSHA standard and for the first time, your employer is monitoring your exposure. Good thing. But he never tells anyone what the results are. Hmmm. That could be good. No news is good news in this case, right? If we're not notified, that means that the exposure doesn't exceed the PEL. Right?

Possibly. Or it could just mean that the employer isn't complying with the law. No way to know except ask -- which, if you're one of the few American workers lucky enough to be represented by a union, is not big deal. For everyone else, however, confronting the employer about whether the exposure levels are low -- or he's violating the standard -- could cause problems.

Another reason that it's good to get all the exposure data is a problem we've discussed here many times before: Workers are the canaries of the American workplace. When a chemical causes cancer or other health effects, it's generally workers who find out first -- up close and personal. If health problems are occurring, even if the exposure levels are lower than the PEL, that's information that workers should know about.

The problem is especially serious with this standard because OSHA admits that there is still significant risk of lung cancer at the new 5 micrograms per cubic meter level Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL). OSHA estimates 10 to 45 lung cancer deaths per 1,000 workers over a lifetime at the 5 micrograms level, compared with 2.1-9.1 lung cancer deaths per 1,000 workers over a lifetime at the 1 microgram level that OSHA had originally proposed in 2004, and compared to the .53-2.3 deaths per 1,000 workers over a lifetime at the Public Citizen-requested standard of .25 micrograms per cubic meter.

Considering the risk that still exists, even well below the PEL, workers might want to know what they're being exposed to -- and maybe even organize for a lower level than OSHA requires. Hard to do, however, if you don't know what you're being exposed to.

Now, if someone confronted OSHA on this, the agency might explain that workers already have a right to exposure information under OSHA's access to medical and exposure records standard (29 CFR 1910.1020).

(I say OSHA might explain this because OSHA didn't bother to explain in the preamble to the final standard why it removed the traditional employee notification requirement from the 2004 proposed standard -- a likely violation of the Administrative Procedures Act which requires the agency to justify any changes from the proposed standard based on evidence or testimony in the record.)

As I was saying, workers already have the right to be provided with all exposure records within 15 days of requesting them. But once again, as it did in the communication (minus training) paragraph, instead of putting all of the relevant information in one place, OSHA leaves it to workers to figure out that there' s this other standard that provides them access to their exposure records, even when their exposures fall below the PEL.

Now repeat again what we said at the beginning:

• Simple and understandable regulations: Good for employers
• Simple and understandable regulations: Bad for employees.

Related Articles

• OSHA To Workers: You Don't Need No Stinkin' Training, March 7, 2006
• OSHA Issues Weak Hexavalent Chromium Standard: "Workers Will Die", February 28, 2006

VOTING ENDS MONDAY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT FOR FIRST ROUND. IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO SO

****

(Reposted from March 7)

Well, the Academy Awards may be over, but don't let it get you down. It's time to vote for the more exciting Koufax Awards, given to the best "lefty" blogger.

This year, I have once again been nominated in two categories: Best Single Issue Blog and Best Expert blog.

Discover

The best thing about the Koufax awards isn't that I have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but they provide the chance to read the best writing out there in the blogosphere. In addition to checking out the categories in which I've been nominated, take a day off of actually working (or a night off of TV) and check out the blogs in these other categories as well:

Best Blog (non-professional)
Best Blog -- Sponsored or Professional
Best Blog Community
Best Writing
Best New Blog
Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
Best Post
Best Series
Best Group Blog
Most Humorous Blog
Most Humorous Post
Best State or Local Blog
Best Commenter

Vote

As for me, if you like what you read here, go ahead and vote for me -- in both categories if you have time, or only in Best Single Issue Blog, if you don't. Again, I most likely won't win, but I will know that someone out there likes me (in addition to Mom), and strangers who see all the votes I'm getting will come calling to find out what this Confined Space thing is.

How To Vote

Just to to the Best Single Issue Blog and/or Best Expert blog page, scroll all the way down the page to the bottom of the comments and leave a comment with the following words: "Confined Space." Feel free to embellish with kind words as well.

Or if you'd rather not leave an identifiable public comment you can also just send an e-mail to Mary Beth or Dwight.

Be Appreciative

Oh, and by the way, this is all brought to you by the kind folks at Wampum, who, like me, are crazy enough to kill themselves just for the betterment of personkind. But it also costs them a bit of money (bandwidth and other such stuff that us smaller bloggers don't have to worry about). So if you discover any new blogs that change you life, consider donating a bit of loose change (upper left of their site).

No, this isn't America in the 1880's, it's America in the 21st century, if you can believe it:

Above the photographs of Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il of North Korea and an American union president, the full-page advertisement contains a provocative quotation: "There is no reason to subject the workers to an election."

Below the photographs, the advertisement asks, "Who said it?"

For the answer, readers are directed to a Web site, which explains that those words were uttered by Bruce S. Raynor, the union president and the leader of Unite Here, which represents hotel, restaurant and apparel workers.

In seeking to equate Mr. Raynor with foreign dictators, the business-backed group that ran the advertisement was trying to discredit the most successful strategy that unions have used to try to reverse a decades-long slide in membership.

Now, to the uneducated observer, this ad by the Center for Union Facts (which I wrote about last month) might make some sense. Of course, anyone who knows anything about union organizing compaigns understands that if democracy in American politics looked anything like democracy in the American workplace, we'd be living in a fascist dictatorship: According to a report issued by American Rights at Work,

• 30% of employers fire pro-union workers.
  
• 49% of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to form a union, but only 2% actually do.
  
• 51% of employers coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery or favoritism.
  
• 82% of employers hire high-priced unionbusting consultants to fight union organizing drives.
  
• 91% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.

And the systematic use of legal and illegal tactics impedes union organizing.

• Aided by a weak labor law system that fails to protect workers’ rights, employers manipulate the governmentsupervised union recognition process in a way that allows them to abuse their power and significantly influence the outcome of union representation elections.
  
• In 91% of the union recognition petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the survey, a majority of workers indicated they wanted a union before the process began. In several cases, workers demonstrated more than 80% support.
  
• However, unions were victorious in only 31% of the campaigns in which they filed a petition.

Given these facts, it's no wonder that employers associations are horrified at the labor movement's new strategy:

That strategy is known as card checks, a process in which companies grant union recognition once a majority of workers sign cards saying they favor a union. Unions increasingly want to use this procedure to replace the traditional organizing method: secret-ballot elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

Many businesses oppose card checks because they say the procedure makes it much easier for unions to secure majority support, often giving management little chance to present its case against unionization. But unions say companies often prevent fair elections by firing and intimidating union supporters.

And, labor leaders complain, elections often become so contentious that nearly half the time unions win, companies fail to sign collective bargaining agreements. Card checks lead much more easily to contracts, union leaders say.

Card checks were used to sign up roughly 70 percent of the private-sector workers who joined unions last year, according to A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials. That compares with less than 5 percent two decades ago.

Through card checks, 150,000 private-sector workers joined unions in 2005. Over the past year, the procedure has been used to unionize 4,600 workers at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino, 5,000 janitors in Houston and 16,500 workers at Cingular, the cellphone company.

In an interview this week, Mr. Raynor again maintained that it was better to use card checks than "to subject workers to an election."

And, of course, the business leaders have their lapdogs allies supporting them in Congress:

Representative Charlie Norwood, Republican of Georgia, who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, is sponsoring legislation that would outlaw card checks. His bill has 81 co-sponsors.

"Union thugs are allowed to confront individual workers on the job and at their homes, and demand the worker sign a card giving the union exclusive rights to representation," Mr. Norwood wrote in an op-ed article in The Washington Times.

Union leaders say that coercion is rare.

The National Labor Relations Act gives private-sector workers the right to unionize through card checks or secret-ballot elections. But the act also gives employers the right to insist on elections.

Labor is running its own campaigns -- in the legislative arena, in the boardrooms and in the streets.

Labor unions are backing a bill that would give unions the right to use card checks while taking away the right of companies to insist on secret-ballot elections.

The bill has 210 co-sponsors in the House and 42 in the Senate. But even supporters say it will probably not pass in this Congress because President Bush is likely to veto it.

Meanwhile, unions are using various tactics to persuade companies to accept card checks and are also increasingly pressing employers to pledge not to fight unionization efforts.

Sometimes unions use contract negotiations at one operation — perhaps agreeing to productivity measures — to get a company to agree to card checks at its other sites. More often, unions undertake confrontational campaigns to squeeze employers to agree to card checks.

To pressure Cintas, the giant uniform and laundry company, Unite Here has encouraged workers to bring lawsuits alleging pay violations and racial and sexual discrimination. Cintas has not given in, insisting that secret-ballot elections are fairer.

Because shit like this shouldn't be happening, not in the United States in 2006:

At the Consolidated Biscuit bakery in McComb, Ohio, Bill Lawhorn said more than 70 percent of the workers had signed cards in favor of joining the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union when he led efforts to form a union in 2002.

Nonetheless, the union lost a secret-ballot election, 485 to 286, after Consolidated Biscuit conducted a vigorous anti-union campaign. Two years later a National Labor Relations Board judge found that managers had illegally spied on union supporters and had warned them that the bakery would go bankrupt if a union was voted in.

Mr. Lawhorn was fired the day after the unionization vote. The labor board judge ordered him and six other workers reinstated, ruling that they were illegally fired for supporting a union.

The bakery has appealed. Mr. Lawhorn remains unemployed, hoping the appeal process will uphold his reinstatement.

Related Articles

• Anti-Union Forces Running Ads, Running Scared, February 14, 2006
• Organizing Victory in Houston (Texas?), December 4, 2005
• Card Check Works, June 30, 2005

Labels: Charlie Norwood

When I reported last week about the about Congressman Charlie Norwood shutting off a hearing on mine safety before a second round of questions, I somehow missed the link to a video of the hearing on Mine Safety Watch

It's an epic battle between one of the best Congressmen (George Miller D-CA) vs. one of the worst, (Charlie Norwood R-GA).

Excerpt:

Miller, after Norwood told him there would be no second round of questions: "This is bullshit!"

Norwood's response: "When you get in charge, you get to run the damn thing."

List to the whole thing if you have time. But if you just want the fireworks, fast-forward to 1:22:40.

Labels: Charlie Norwood, George Miller

Peter Rousmaniere at Working Immigrants reviews a Monthly Labor Review report about Asian work fatalities in the United States:

There is a one in four chance that a victim of grocery store robbery-related murder will be Asian, and a foreign born Asian at that.

In her report on Asian worker fatalities in the October 2005 issue of the Monthly Labor Review, Jessica Sincavage notes that between 1999 and 2003, 775 workers of Asian descent suffered fatal work fatalities, which equals 3 percent of all work fataltites in the given time frame. More than half of Asian worker fatalities were the result of an assault or violent act, far higher than for all fatalities (10%).

Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton resigns. The Daily Grist, sums her legacy up best:

Gale Norton, secretary of the Department of Interior, announced today that she will resign her position, effective at the end of the month. "Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb," she wrote in her resignation letter to President Bush, "catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector."

The private sector should welcome her with open arms: In her tendentious career at Interior, Norton stripped protection from wilderness areas, pushed for more logging, advocated increased oil and gas drilling, and proclaimed a love of snowmobiles that bordered on the erotic. Beltway speculation is swirling that Norton's departure is related to her possible connection to the ongoing scandals surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

And Good Riddance...

The normally high-brow New Yorker magazine has gone somewhat lower brow this week with two worker-oriented stories. The first is a book review (Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America , by James Green) dealing with the 1886 Haymarket bombing and the subsequent sham trial of eight anarchists for murder:

The prosecution never proved that any of the eight had planned, committed, or even known in advance about the Haymarket bombing. Instead, it relied on their words. All of them had praised violence in the cause of socioeconomic justice. “If we would achieve our liberation,” Parsons had told a crowd of protesters in April of 1885, “every man must lay by a part of his wages, buy a Colt’s navy revolver, a Winchester rifle, and learn how to make and use dynamite.” The prosecution argued that anarchism itself constituted a conspiracy to commit murder, and the jurors agreed, sentencing all but one of the defendants to death. The person who actually threw the bomb was never identified.

Three were eventually hanged.

The second is a short story by Italian author Erri De Luca called "The Trench." It's about an Italian immigrant laborer who's spends days digging a 20-foot deep unprotected trench in France -- knowing that it could collapse on top of him any moment.

The two of us dug in that narrow trench for several days, each day darker than the one before. We put the dirt in containers that were hoisted up from above with a pulley. We entered at dawn; we came out for the midday break, then again at five. Even those who don’t do this kind of work know that a trench like that should be reinforced on both sides, with vertical beams wedged in by perpendicular struts. Otherwise, there’s the risk of collapse. But our boss didn’t want to bother with all that. So the two of us dug, face to face, knowing that we were caught in one hell of a trap. Who were we and why had we accepted this risk?

Who were they? An Italian and Algerian who needed jobs and knew they'd be fired if they protested.

I needed the job. I had found it with difficulty after weeks of pounding pavements on the outskirts of Paris. I had got it, and I wanted to hold on to it, and no damn boss was going to stop me. If he wanted an excuse to get rid of me I wasn’t going to give him one—I would descend to the depths of hell, but I wouldn’t retreat.

That was why, for those few days, two men who didn’t know each other and couldn’t even have addressed each other by name stood face to face in a trench, risking their lives in search of a sewage pipe. With every foot we advanced, the sky narrowed; soon it was just a strip the size of the hole we were standing in. With every foot we advanced, we were waiting for that trench to collapse on us, burying us alive.

A familiar story on both sides of the Atlantic.

Labels: Trench Hazards

Signaling that they think everything's just fine in America's mines and other workplaces, Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted today to confirm Richard Stickler as Assistant Secretary of Labor for MSHA, and Edwin Foulke as Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA.

I'm don't know what the vote-count was on Foulke, but Stickler's confirmation was approved along party lines, with all of the Republicans voting in favor, and the Democrats voting against. The United Mineworkers, the AFL-CIO and the Charleston Gazette all opposed Stickler's confirmation.

The Mineworkers called the vote a "huge disappointment for all miners in America who are looking to their government to stand up for them instead of the coal companies."

"Since 2001, the coal operators have been in charge at MSHA," Roberts said, referring to Dave Lauriski, a coal company executive who was the Bush administration's first appointment to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). "Mr. Stickler would just be another fox guarding the henhouse.

"Career coal company managers and executives like Mr. Stickler spend their time figuring out how to get around safety rules and regulations in order to increase production," Robert said. "That's the last kind of person American coal miners need as our nation's top watchdog for safety."

Meanwhile, with Foulke at OSHA, we can expect more of the same -- emphasis on voluntary programs and not much else. Foulke is a labor relations and OSHA attorney at the Greenville, South Carolina union busting law-firm Jackson, Lewis LLP.

Inside OSHA (paid subscription) kindly provided Foulke's responses to the Democrats' written questions submitted after the hearing. (The Republicans refused to provide their questions.) Here's a sampling:

Senator Kennedy asked whether Foulke would support legislation to increase OSHA criminal penalties.

If confirmed, I would work with the DOL Solicitor to refer particularly egregious cases for criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice. I would have to review the current cases to see if the current criminal penalties need to be increased.

Translation: "When pigs fly."

Asked about steps he'll take to protect workers against the Avian Flu, Foulke responded that he'd "consult with the Centers for Disease Control, and recommend whatever actions are necessary to protect workers."

Well, considering the complicated issues involved in protecting workers, and the union petition to OSHA for a standard to protect health care workers against pandemic flu.taking "whatever actions are necessary," doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

When asked his opinion on using the General Duty Clause (Section 5(a)(1)) for ergonomics problems, considering that OSHA has only issued 17 ergonomics citations since the administration repealed the ergonomics standard in 2001, Foulke explained that he "will continue to cite employers for ergonomic hazards where action is warranted and the OSH Act Section 5(a)(1) criteria can be met." (emphasis added)

Senator Bingaman asked if there were any legislative reforms he would like to pursue that would help to improve OSHA’s enforcement record? In your dreams: "I believe OSHA’s legal authority is adequate to fulfill its mission of protecting the health and safety of American workers."

How's this for wishy, washy? Asked by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) whether he would "support the release of a Personal Protective Equipment rule that says employers should pay for protective clothing for their workers while on the job?"

If I am confirmed, I will examine the agency’s efforts to protect Hispanic workers, and make any changes I feel are needed. I would also note that OSHA regulations in general require employers to ensure that employers assess the nature of hazards their employees face and ensure their employees are using appropriate PPE to protect them from those hazards. Many OSHA standards require the use of specific PPE in specific situations.

I am aware that OSHA is considering a PPE requirement. If I am confirmed,
I will review the rulemaking record on this proposal.

And finally, Senator Patty Murray asked him if he thought that perhaps increased inspections or enforcement were called for to address the $1 billion a week that we are spending as a nation on workplace deaths and injuries.

Not exactly,

We must vigorously enforce the law. We must inculcate a “culture of safety” among employers through outreach, education, and technical assistance efforts. In addition, we must continue to reach out to workers themselves.

Yeah, culture of safety and a maybe a little jail time....

In his defense, Foulke did commit to "do everything in my power to prevent the use of safety-related 'sting' operations" support the updating of OSHA's antiquated chemical permissible exposure limits, and that he would continue to use OSHA's egregious policy to generate high fines "when appropriate." OSHA's "egregious policy" had come under attack by the OSHA Review Commission and the business community.

The full Senate must now vote on the two nominations. The vote has not been scheduled.

Labels: Ed Foulke, Foxes Guarding The Chickencoop, Richard Stickler

Slowly, but sure, local prosecutors are figuring out that killing a worker in a trench or other obviously hazardous worksite is not just an "accident," it's murder -- or at least manslaughter:

A Bridgeport masonry firm owner faces a manslaughter charge in connection with the trench collapse that killed a worker last summer.

Marcio Lira, 36, of Woodside Avenue, was charged Thursday with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Ademilson Vieira, 37, of Bridgeport. Vieira, an illegal alien, was working last June 11 in an unprotected 11-foot trench at a home on Bruce Drive when a section collapsed, burying him. Fellow workers unsuccessfully tried to dig Vieira out from the rubble.

Lira was released on $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear March 13 in Derby Superior Court.

Lira is a co-owner of Edwardo Osello Masonry and Painting in Bridgeport, the firm that was repairing a retaining wall in the back yard of the Bruce Drive home.

"By definition, manslaughter is when a person's recklessness causes the death of another," said Detective Robert Kozlowsky, Shelton Police Department spokesman.

OSHA issued seven serious citations and fined the company $20,100 for the violations last November, although the company appealed and penalty for the case, which has still not been finally closed, was reduced to $14,700.

OSHA has a detailed trenching standard, which among other things, requires trenches more than five feet deep to be protected against collapse with a trench box or shoring.

My question, as usual, is: The OSHA standard is well known, so why were there no willful citations, and why not criminal prosecution by OSHA? According to OSHA, a willful citation means that there was "intentional disregard or plain indifference to the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act."

So come on OSHA, what am I missing here?

(More on Vieira's death here.)



Far West Fined $1.77 Million for Confined Space

Meanwhile, you may remember last November, the Arizona Attorney General's office convinced a jury to find the Far West Water and Sewer Company guilty on five of the six felony charges filed against it for 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 January, a Yuma judge imposed $1.77 million in criminal fines against the company for negligent homicide, aggravated assault, violating a safety standard.

The fine was broken down to $500,000 for the three convictions resulting from Mr. Gamble's death and $500,000 for the two convictions resulting from Mr. Garrett's injuries, plus a surcharge of $770,000. The judge also awarded over $150,000 in restitution to Mr. Garrett and Mr. Gamble's family, which will be paid from the fine.

***

Witnesses for the State testified the air in the sewer tank had not been tested during the day, the workers were not properly trained, safety equipment was not available or used, and required safety and rescue procedures were not followed.

Labels: Criminal Prosecution, Trench Hazards

Revere at Effect Measure has a long discussion about the debate going about what kind of respiratory protection will be needed to protect health care workers (as well as citizens) from the avian flu, should a pandemic break out.

The controversy is over whether plain old surgical masks are adequate, whether N-95 respirators are sufficiently protective, and if they are, whether they can be re-used, or whether better respiratory protection needs to be considered.

Labor unions representing health care workers have been quite concerned about conflicting guidance by federal agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s main Web site for pandemic flu preparedness features the Department of Health and Human Services’ recommends using surgical masks, while the CDC's Interim Recommendations For Infection Control In Health-Care Facilities Caring For Patients With Known Or Suspected Avian Influenza, May 21, 2004, and OSHA’s Guidance For Protecting Workers Against Avian Flu recommend, at a minimum, NIOSH approved N95 filtering facepiece respirators, and that OSHA’s respirator standard (1910.134) be followed.

A number of unions petitioned OSHA in January for an emergency temporary standard to protect health care workers against pandemic flu.

Meanwhile, to complicate matters, the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Association of Infection Control Practitioners (ACIP) are once again expected to gang up with Congressman Wicker (R-MS) to pass language in OSHA budget bills that prohibits enforcement of annual fit-testing for health care workers who wear respirators to protect themselves from tuberculosis, leaving health care workers highly vulnerable to air-borne diseases if the hospital chooses not to fit test employees to ensure a tight-fitting respirator.

PS: While you're over at Effect Measure, check out this posting about how to begin thinking constructively about what measures your workplace would need to take to deal with the pandemic flu, particularly if large number of critical functions couldn't be performed because the staff responsible is out sick for weeks, or worse.

Good news for the backs of Washington State health care workers:

Washington’s major nursing, hospital, and health worker groups today joined in celebrating the passage of a law to promote safer moving and lifting of patients in the state’s hospitals.

The Washington Senate voted 48-0 today to approve the bill. Yesterday, the Washington House of Representatives voted 85-13 in favor of the legislation.

The bill requires hospitals to:

• Establish Safe Patient Handling Committees.


• Create safe patient handling policies.


• Conduct patient handling assessments.


• Provide annual staff training.


• Conduct annual performance evaluations.

The bill also provides a tax credit to hospitals to encourage expanded use of mechanical lift equipment.

The bill was supported by the Service Employees International Union District 1199NW, the United Staff Nurses Union/UFCW Local 141, the Washington State Hospital Association, and the Washington State Nurses Association.

In 1993, Washington voters repealed the state's ergonomics standard after a million-dollar distortion-filled campaign led by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW).

Labels: Ergonomics

Well, the Academy Awards may be over, but don't let it get you down. It's time to vote for the more exciting Koufax Awards, given to the best "lefty" blogger.

This year, I have once again been nominated in two categories: Best Single Issue Blog and Best Expert blog.

Discover

The best thing about the Koufax awards isn't that I have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but they provide the chance to read the best writing out there in the blogosphere. In addition to checking out the categories in which I've been nominated, take a day off of actually working (or a night off of TV) and check out the blogs in these other categories as well:

Best Blog (non-professional)
Best Blog -- Sponsored or Professional
Best Blog Community
Best Writing
Best New Blog
Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
Best Post
Best Series
Best Group Blog
Most Humorous Blog
Most Humorous Post
Best State or Local Blog
Best Commenter

Vote

As for me, if you like what you read here, go ahead and vote for me -- in both categories if you have time, or only in Best Single Issue Blog, if you don't. Again, I most likely won't win, but I will know that someone out there likes me (in addition to Mom), and strangers who see all the votes I'm getting will come calling to find out what this Confined Space thing is.

How To Vote

Just to to the Best Single Issue Blog and/or Best Expert blog page, scroll all the way down the page to the bottom of the comments and leave a comment with the following words: "Confined Space." Feel free to embellish with kind words as well.

Or if you'd rather not leave an identifiable public comment you can also just send an e-mail to Mary Beth or Dwight.

Be Appreciative

Oh, and by the way, this is all brought to you by the kind folks at Wampum, who, like me, are crazy enough to kill themselves just for the betterment of personkind. But it also costs them a bit of money (bandwidth and other such stuff that us smaller bloggers don't have to worry about). So if you discover any new blogs that change you life, consider donating a bit of loose change (upper left of their site).

Thank you Elaine Chao, John Henshaw and Jonathan Snare for the fine legacy you have left American workers. You've managed to issue only one major standard in the past five years (under court order) and you managed to screw it up, from top to bottom. Way to go.

Almost all of the focus on OSHA's recent hexavalent chromium standard was on the agency's failure to set the safest Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for the cancer-causing chemical. OSHA set the limit at 5 micrograms of chromium per cubic meter of air, instead of the 1 microgram limit that OSHA had originally proposed in 2004, or the lower limit advocated by Public Citizen, the organization that sued OSHA for failure to issue the standard.

But it turns out that the PEL controversy is not the only place that workers are getting screwed by the new standard. In fact, even ignoring for a moment the PEL problem, OSHA's hexavalent chromium standard sets back the cause of workplace safety by decades.

When OSHA was created in 1971, about 600 chemicals were regulated and given "permissible exposure limits" -- the amount of the chemical workers could be exposed to over a workday. OSHA has updated a few of these standard over the past 35 years. But the new OSHA chemical standards contain more than just a PEL. They also include long sections that address air monitoring, methods of compliance, medical monitoring, communication and training, and other items – in other words a complete health and safety program for the chemical.

The Bush administration's new hexavalent chromium standard breaks now ground in this area -- and not in a good way. Let's take a look at training and communication, for example.

While most previous chemical standards have training and communication sections, the HexChrome standard has only a “Communication” section which is composed of three main requirements: 1) that the employer must comply with the Hazard Communication (Right to Know) Standard which requires training about chemicals, labeling and provision of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), 2) that the employer ensure that employees "demonstrate knowledge" of the contents of the HexChrome standard; and 3) that the employer ensure that employees understand the purpose and a description of the medical surveillance program required by the standard.

Previous OSHA chemical standards, on the other hand, contained a number of additional requirements addressing such items as the timing of initial training, when employees must be retrained, worker literacy and specific hazards to be stressed in the training. When OSHA first proposed the HexChrome standard in 2004, it contained many of these items, but when the final standard appeared two weeks ago, almost everything was dropped.

Why?

"Consistency" and "streamlining," says OSHA in the preamble to the standard. Almost all of the omitted items already appear in other OSHA standards, so why repeat them in the HC standard?

But instead of "streamlining" the standard and making it simpler, OSHA has actually made the standard much more complicated, increasing the likelihood that workers will not understand their rights, or how to take full advantage of the standard to ensure they are protected.

For example, unlike most previous chemical standards and unlike the 2004 proposal, OSHA has decided that there is no need to explicitly require the employer provide training that is "understandable to the employee." In the past, this wording was considered to be important to ensure that training would be conducted at a level and in a language understandable to employees.

So what happened? OSHA decided that because the Hazard Communication Standard already states that training must be "comprehensible," the HexChrome standard doesn't need to repeat it. But actually, the Hazard Communication Standard doesn't say anything about training being comprehensible or needing to be done in the worker's language if the worker doesn't understand English. To figure that out, you'd have to go to the OSHA interpretation letter of April 4, 1988. Sounds pretty "streamlined," doesn't it? Any immigrant worker who doesn't understand English should be able to figure that out. Duh!

Similarly, OSHA decided not to mention in the HexChrome standard that employees have the right to obtain their exposure records because.

Such information on employees' rights is already required to be transmitted to employees under paragraph (g)(1) of OSHA's Access to Employee Medical and Exposure Records standard, 29 CFR 1910.1020. Therefore, OSHA sees no need to duplicate that requirement in the final Cr(VI) standard.

No, indeedy. Why duplicate a employee's right to get his or her exposure information, when all he or she has to do is run home, fire up the computer and search to see if maybe there's already a standard that provides those rights. What could be simpler? Or more streamlined?

OSHA also sees no need to specify when the employee must be retrained, a requirement that appears in every other chemical standard. The 1997 Methylene Chloride standard, for example, states that employees must be retrained whenever changes in procedures might increase employee exposures to the point where they may exceed the chemical's "action level" which triggers monitoring and medical surveillance.

So why was it left out of the HexChrome standard? Because OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard already requires re-training under certain circumstances. Well, not really. Actually, to understand that retraining is sometimes required, you'd have to read OSHA Compliance Directive, CPL 2-2.38D, Inspection Procedures for the Hazard Communication Standard (and who hasn't?)

Workers would then understand, as the HexChrome standard's preamble clearly explains, that the Hazard Communication Standard has been interpreted to mean that employees must be retrained under certain circumstances:

since employees are required to be aware of the hazards to which they are exposed, this would mandate that as new exposures occur because of changes in the workplace employees must be made aware of them. Similarly, it would mandate additional training as necessary to maintain employees' understanding of the safe use and handling of Cr(VI) as this is critically linked to their awareness of hazards to which they are exposed.

Crystal clear?

Although the Hazard Communication Standard requires that workers be trained about the health effects of all chemicals they are exposed to, OSHA decided in previous standards to require the employer to emphasize certain serious health effects of the regulated chemical as well as information about the quantity, location, manner of use, release, and storage of the chemical and the specific operations in the workplace that could result in exposure.

In the current HexChrome standard, however, OSHA decided that such information would be needlessly redundant. But that wasn't an issue in 1997 when OSHA issued the Methylene Chloride (MC) standard:

While the HCS [Hazard Communication Standard] addresses training about the hazards of a chemical and appropriate precautionary measures, there are other items of training that are specific to the MC standard requirements and the determinations made in this rulemaking regarding MC. As such, it is important to ensure that the already-required HCS training is supplemented with information and training specific to MC.

As a matter of fact, for the first time in any of its full chemical program standards, OSHA doesn’t really even require training at all, only that the employer ensure that workers "demonstrate knowledge" of the standard, and particularly the medical surveillance section.

Anyone involved in worker training over the past decade knows the enormous advances that have been made in applying adult learning techniques to workplace safety training, resulting in effective training programs where workers are actually able to retain and use the material they've learned in their training classes. The programs funded under the NIEHS Worker Education and Training (WETP) program have led the way in developing innovative training techniques and sophisticated methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the training.

Not that OSHA's noticed, apparently. With this standard, OSHA has taken a major step back into the past. As far as OSHA's concerned, there is no difference between "communication" and "training" all forms of communication are equal. This is what's known as a "performance-oriented" requirement that allows employers full power to figure out what works best for his or her employees.

According to the HexChrome preamble:

Hands-on training, videotapes, slide presentations, classroom instruction, informal discussions during safety meetings, written materials, or any combination of these methods may be appropriate .

Slap in a short video tape and give the workers a 10-question true and false test? Sounds good. A fifteen minute “informal discussion” in the lunch room? Whatever.

Contrast this with the preamble of OSHA's Methylene Chloride standard:

It should be noted that the information and training requirements in the final rule have been separated from each other rather than being addressed together, because they deal with different ways of conveying information. "Information" transmittal is simply that -- a passive process of making information available to employees should they choose to use it. In some cases, this may be done in writing or some other simple manner of information transfer.

"Training," on the other hand, is not a passive process. The information provided to employees in training requires them to comprehend it and subsequently to use it in the performance of their duties in the workplace. There are many different ways to accomplish training effectively, but it cannot be a simple transfer of information such as handing someone a written document

Who needs the benefit of decades of years of study, investigation and experience in how adults best learn about workplace safety hazards, programs and procedures when every employer can figure it all out for himself?

Back in the pre-Bush days when training was still required in OSHA standards, the training had to be done on work time. But with no training requirement, there doesn't seem to be anything preventing the employer from handing a worker a CD or video to take home at the end of the shift to study for the test the next day.

And of course, with no training, you don’t need that old burdensome requirement that employers keep training records, despite OSHA’s previous advice that

“Records can provide evidence of the employer’s good faith and compliance with OSHA standards. Documentation can also supply an answer to one of the first questions and accident investigator will ask: “Was the injured employee trained to do the job?”

How ironic. We've been plagued for the past five years with an administration that has made a high art of whining about how complicated OSHA standards are for small businesses, and how their most important priority is making these regulations clear and understandable for employers -- while making their only chemical standard impossibly complicated for workers.

We have a Secretary of Labor who told the National Federation of Independent Business that it is unfair to expect small businesses, trapped in the "regulatory jungle," to understand and comply with complicated OSHA regulations:

It’s not fair that you are expected to know every rule and regulation without any decent help from the people who write them, promulgate them, and penalize you if you aren’t abiding by them!

It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the American worker.

But I guess it is somehow fair to force American workers to research interpretive letters, locate compliance directives, and track down several different OSHA regulations in order to be able to effectively protect themselves from a cancer-causing chemical -- instead of just putting it all under one umbrella as all previous administrations (Democratic and Republican) have done with their regulatory protections.

And the result, to again quote the Steelworkers' Mike Wright: "Workers will die."

Thanks guys. You should all be impeached.

You need to read this devastating op-ed in the Louisville Courier Journal by Tony Oppegard, who you've seen quoted in many of the stories I've written about recent mine disasters. Tony should know. He's worked the

past 26 years as a mine safety advocate -- as a public interest lawyer, as a federal (MSHA) mining official, as Kentucky's prosecutor of mine safety violators, and now as a private attorney handling wrongful death and accident cases.

The OpEd targets Kentucky state legislators who are currently considering mine safety legislation, which the mine industry and their lobbyists are trying to kill.

Oppegard first notifies them that conditions in the mines are horrific:

Right now, as you read this, in many underground coal mines in Kentucky, miners are working without sufficient ventilation, and thus are exposed both to the danger of explosions and the horror of black lung disease. Miners are working with electrical equipment whose safety features have been "bridged out" (bypassed), and are therefore exposed to electrocution. Miners are being required to take "deep cuts" with the continuous mining machine -- in violation of the mine's roof control plan -- thus exposing the mining crew to the devastating hazards of roof falls.

Many mines are not adequately performing crucial preshift examinations for hazardous conditions, thus exposing miners going underground to unforeseen dangers. Miners performing "retreat mining" are extracting coal pillars in violation of the stringent requirements of the mine's "pillar plan." Indeed, many of those miners have not been thoroughly trained by their employer regarding the correct sequence of cutting the pillars and setting support timbers. And too many of our miners are working while impaired by drugs, sometimes with the knowledge or approval of mine foremen or operators.

And the reason: "the greed or indifference of mine operators."

Then there are the lobbyists:

Make no mistake: The handsomely paid lobbyists for the Kentucky coal industry have bitterly and callously opposed every single piece of mine safety legislation that has ever been proposed in the commonwealth, no matter how basic and necessary. That's why effective mine safety legislation has been written only after mining disasters. Most Kentucky coal miners die one at a time, and their deaths receive scant public attention. Unfortunately, however, it takes tragedies such as Scotia, Pyro or Sago -- coal mine names that are well known in our mining communities -- to focus public attention on mine safety and to spur legislative action.

And the mine owners:

The industry talks a good game; it regularly tells the media it is "committed to safety" and that it will spare no expense to protect its miners. But, in fact, that's just a public relations gimmick. Those of us who deal with Big Coal's lobbyists know that out of the spotlight, the industry fights intensely -- and almost always behind closed doors -- to kill any meaningful legislation that will protect miners' health and safety. Its greed for profits trumps safety every time.

Go read the whole thing.

Labels: Coal Mining, Sago

I have written quite a bit about Unicco Service company, which employees window washers in Boston (who seem to have a bad habit of falling to their deaths), and janitors, like those who clean offices at the University of Miami who have major health and safety and wage issues.

Well, the University of Miami Unicco workers (represented by SEIU) went on strike against the University last week to demand a decent wage for their families. The University is vigorously resisting.

And who is the President of the University of Miami?

Former Clinton Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala.

Nathan Newman has more here and Majikthise has more here and an update here. And check out Wonkette, for a full serving of snarkiness.

The official strike website is here.

A partial list of workers killed on the job over the past two weeks. I have more than eighty names this time, which I believe is more than any previous "Weekly Toll." So are more people dying or are we picking up more? I also notice a number of double fatalities this time.

-- JB

Two dead in chemical leak

Corpus Christi, TX -- Two men (Wendell C. Brown, 40, and Joel Camponovo, 51)died after a chemical spill at a local hazardous waste management plant Saturday, and fire officials worked into the night to contain the chemical.

A tank at Texas Molecular L.L.C. leaked some time before 2 p.m., according to Capt. Dave Cook of the Corpus Christi Police Department. The two employees working at the time were killed.

By late Saturday night, the city’s fire department had not determined what the chemical was. Cook said the chemical was being cleaned up and was not a danger to the public.

While police did not release the names of the two men killed to the public, officers confirmed to family members at the scene that Wendell C. Brown had been killed.


N.Y. Trooper Shot to Death in Gun Battle

BIG FLATS, N.Y -- A state trooper was shot and killed Wednesday in a gun battle with two suspected bank robbers, authorities said. Both were wounded and later captured.

Trooper Andrew Sperr, a 10-year veteran, came upon the men about an hour after the midday bank robbery, Major Steven White said.

When Sperr approached their truck, the men opened fire and Sperr managed to shoot both of them before dying of multiple gunshot wounds, White said.

Sperr, 33, "did his job but it cost him his life," he said.

GUARD DIES AFTER BEING HIT BY CAR

LAKELAND, FL -- A Rooms To Go security guard was killed Thursday when she was struck by a car while picking up debris from a previous car accident, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Gail Payne, 56, of Lakeland, was on Airport Road north of Gay Road at 6:40 p.m. when the accident happened, said FHP spokesman Larry Coggins. She was in front of the Rooms To Go warehouse.

The road was dark, and when Payne bent over to pick up debris, she was hit by a 1998 Cadillac sedan.


Heroic' rescue for 3 from burning smokestack

Moundsville, WV - A construction worker died in a smokestack fire at a West Virginia power plant on Saturday and three others were plucked by helicopter from the 900-foot (275 meter) structure while it still burned, authorities said.

The three rescued workers were in stable condition when they were transferred to medical helicopters and flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, Gruzinskas told Reuters. The body of the fourth worker had not yet been recovered because the fire was still burning, he said.

The coal-fired plant near Moundsville, West Virginia, is owned by American Electric Power. The smokestack was still under construction at the time and the plant remained operating throughout the incident, Gruzinskas said.

The workers were at the top of the stack and coating the inside of it with fiberglass resin when the fire erupted, possibly caused by a space heater, he said.


Work accident kills 52-year-old man

WALKER, MI -- A local Boys Scouts leader and longtime employee of Betz Industries is being remembered for his commitment to his family and area children after he died of injuries following an on-the-job accident this week.

Terry Peters, 52, of Plainfield Township, suffered crushing injuries about 2 a.m. Wednesday as he was handling a load with an overhead crane at the company's Walker plant, state investigators said. He was taken to Spectrum Butterworth Campus, where he died several hours later.


Worker dies at Anthem construction site

Broomfield, CO -- A 53-year-old construction worker died at about 3 p.m. Wednesday after he was run over by a road grader at Anthem Colorado at Broomfield.

The man was working on the Anthem Colorado project, at the southwest corner of Colo. 7 and Interstate 25, when he suffered traumatic injuries to his chest, neck and extremities.

The name of the man, from Greeley, has not been released.


Man dies at docks as ship hits crane

Mobile, AL -- An electrician was killed Thursday after a ship struck the Alabama state docks' largest container crane, causing it to collapse, authorities and eyewitnesses said.

The ZIM Mexico III, chartered by Israel-based ZIM Lines, hit the crane at about 11:30 a.m., authorities and eyewitnesses said. The 534-foot-long ship was turning in the river when its bow struck the crane, which was not in use at the time, Smitty Thorne, the state docks' vice president of operations, said Thursday afternoon during an emergency Alabama State Port Authority board conference call.

Two electricians, both employees of Gulf Electric Co. Inc. of Mobile, were installing a device on the crane when it was hit, Thorne said. The electrician who died, identified by police as 46-year-old Shawn David Jacobs of Mobile, could not immediately be retrieved from the wreckage. Rescue workers removed the body about 5 p.m.


Deputy killed while on drug detail

NAPOLEONVILLE La. -- An Assumption Parish sheriff's deputy was fatally shot while trying to arrest a man suspected of dealing drugs, authorities said.

Sgt. Jeremy Newchurch, 31, was working with a narcotics task force when the shooting occurred about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sheriff Mike Waguespack said.

As officers approached a car, the driver tried to get away, but crashed into a ditch, the sheriff said. In an ensuing struggle with officers, the man went for the deputy's gun. Newchurch was hit in the chest above his bulletproof vest, but it was unclear by whose gun.


TRUCK DRIVER KILLED IN ROLLOVER ON ROUTE 3;

Duxbury, MA -- A 10-wheel truck with a boom arm struck an overpass and overturned on Route 3 south in Duxbury yesterday afternoon, killing the driver and shutting down the highway for several hours, which tied up South Shore commuters during the evening rush hour, State Police said.

The 1998 Mack 600 hit the North Street overpass in Duxbury at about 2:20 p.m., causing extensive damage to the truck, which rolled over in the middle of the highway.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical workers, police said. State Police identified him as Daniel E. Reddington, 35, of Plymouth. The cement block transport truck Reddington was driving is owned by Kingston Block Co.


Two employees of mini-casino killed

BAYOU BLUE, La. -- An unarmed security guard and a manager were killed by gunshots to the head at a video poker casino early Friday, authorities said.Brenda B. Roberson, 63, of Houma, and Francis C. Schaeffer, 29, of Chauvin, were found dead inside Lucky's Casino just after 5 a.m., said Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter.Investigators did not believe robbery was the motive since accessible money was left behind, but casino managers were doing an accounting to see if any cash was missing, Larpenter said.

PSE contract worker electrocuted in vault

RENTON, WA -- A 24-year-old contract worker for Puget Sound Energy died Wednesday night after being electrocuted, the Renton Fire Department reported Thursday. The death is being classified as an industrial accident, and an investigation is under way, Lt. Larry Welch said.

"We don't see this very often," he said. "Those guys are pretty safe."

The accident occurred about 11:30 p.m. in the 600 to 700 block of Rainier Avenue South. The worker was in an underground power vault when he made contact with a wire or something else, according to Welch.

Federal Ag Dept. worker dies when boat capsizes

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. -- A small boat carrying two U.S. Agriculture Department workers and a dog capsized Thursday on Clear Lake and one of the men drowned, the Skagit County sheriff's office said.

The 37-year-old victim, from Maryland, was not immediately identified. A search team recovered the man's body in about 14 feet of water, about 50 feet from shore.

SUV Crash Into Chicago Train Station Kills Worker

CHICAGO, IL -- A female railroad worker was killed when a car crashed into Chicago train station platform and the driver fled the scene, according to a Metra rail service spokesman Friday.

The early morning crash "did a significant amount of damage" to the south platform of the Berwyn station, but no debris landed on the tracks, said Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet. Train service on Metra's Burlington Northern Santa Fe was not affected.

The unidentified victim was an employee of the BNSF Railway, a subsidiary of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, spokesman Steve Forsberg said. Authorities were not releasing the name of the victim pending family notification, Forsberg said.


Forklift accident kills plant worker

LUMBERTON, NC - An employee with Buckeye Lumberton Inc. was killed in an accident at the plant on Monday.

Charles McNeill was killed when a forklift he was operating overturned and pinned him beneath it, Plant Manager Andy Bethea said late Monday.

Bethea said the accident occurred Monday morning in the warehouse. No other employees were injured.


Store Employee Killed

Binghampton, TN -- A store clerk is dead. He was shot and killed after a fight with armed crooks.

The shooing happened around 9 on Tuesday night at DJ’s grocery in Binghampton.

Two men walked in a pulled a gun on the clerk behind the counter. Anther clerk walked out from the back of the store and started fighting with the gunmen. That clerk was shot and later died.


Employee killed in Chapman Highway wreck

Knoxville, TN -- Charges are pending in the traffic death Wednesday of a 32-year-old Knoxville delivery man killed when another driver pulled into his path on Chapman Highway, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Melvin Glass of Knoxville died in the 1:20 p.m. crash on Chapman Highway near the intersection with Hendrons Chapel Drive, said THP Trooper Randall Massengill.

Glass was driving a 1994 Nissan Sentra owned by his boss while making a delivery for his employer, Kustom Auto Kolors, 6220 Chapman Highway, Massengill said.


CONSTRUCTION WORKER KILLED AT MERIDIAN JOB SITE

MERIDIAN, Idaho -- A construction worker was killed at a job site this morning when a pallet of lumber fell on him.

Police have not identified the man -- who died at the scene from his injuries.

But they say he was working at the Meadow Lakes Retirement Community in Meridian. They estimated the lumber weighed as much as three thousand pounds.

They say the lumber was being lifted off a truck when it slid off the forklift.


Death of accident victim is mourned

Grass Valley, CA -- An occupational safety inspector is investigating the accidental death of 23-year-old Russell Jeffers while his family and friends plan to attend a memorial service for the young construction worker today at Condon Park.

Jeffers died of blunt force trauma to his upper body when he became pinned in the mechanisms of a backhoe at a residential construction site Feb. 24 on the 15000 block of McCourtney Road.

"It's a tragedy," said Dan Kemp, Jeffers' former agricultural mechanics teacher at Bear River High School. "Everybody feels so bad over this. He will surely be missed."

Jeffers was reportedly digging a leach line approximately 1,200 feet from a newly constructed residence in a small valley, alone and out of sight of other workers.

According to the sheriff's investigation report, Jeffers' employer John Fischer - owner of Norcal Construction - went to check on Jeffers at approximately 4:30 p.m. to see if he had finished the job.


Two killed in Jacksonville high-rise fall

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Two construction workers -- one from Dallas -- fell 22 stories to their deaths when their work platform on a high-rise condo project fell in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the collapse that killed Miguel Lopez of Dallas and Genaro Garcia-Rivera of Atlanta.

Police say the men were getting ready to pour concrete for the 22nd floor when the platform on which they were standing buckled.

Both worked for subcontractor Total Concrete Structures of Atlanta.


Man dies at job after 7-foot fall in Garden City

Garden City Beach, SC -- A Myrtle Beach man died after he fell from a roof Tuesday afternoon near Garden City Beach.

Patrick Dunn, 47, was working on the roof of a new home at Wood Lakes subdivision around 5:20 p.m. when he slipped and fell about 7 feet, said Horry County Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard.

Dunn landed on his upper back and shoulder and died from spinal cord and neck injuries, Willard said.

His death was the first fatal construction accident this year in Horry County, Willard said.

There have been two work-related deaths in the Grand Strand so far in 2006 including Dunn.

A man died in Georgetown County in January after being pinned between two pieces of machinery at International Paper's Sampit Lumber Mill.

James Merritt, 52, a maintenance worker at the Sampit mill, died in the final minutes of his shift Jan. 17.


One dead in port explosion

Brownsville, TX - An 18-wheeler tanker truck filled with motor oil exploded Monday at the Port of Brownsville, killing one man.

The yet unidentified victim was an employee at RTW Terminals, a port lessee, Fire Chief Lenny Perez said. Officials would not release the name of the man killed in the blast, pending notification of family members Monday evening.

Perez said the “accident” occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Shortly after, crews were working to secure the scene and investigate the cause of the explosion.


Construction Worker Dies After Dump Truck Crashes Into Him

DESTIN, Fla. -- A construction worker died after a dump truck backed over him at a Panhandle construction site.

Fifty-five-year-old Eugene Gilbert Timmer died at the scene, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Timmer stepped into the path of the truck driven by Joey Moore. No charges were filed against Moore, who was delivering sand.


Man killed in corn chopper accident

WESTERN, N.Y.-- A central New York man died in a farm accident Saturday involving a corn chopper.

Oneida County sheriff's deputies said 21-year-old Jason Southwick of Western was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials said Southwick was feeding hay into a corn chopper when the accident happened.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.


Leak likely led to blast, investigators say

MORGANTON, NC -- A leak of flammable chemical vapor during a manufacturing process was the most likely cause of the January plant explosion that killed one man and injured several others, federal investigators said yesterday.

Employees at the Synthron Inc. plant were making a paint additive when vapor escaped just before the explosion, said Jim Lay, lead investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The process uses flammable chemicals including butyl acrylate and solvents, and generates significant amounts of heat.

The explosion leveled much of the plant, blew out windows up to a third of a mile away and injured all 12 employees on duty and some passers-by. Curtis "Butch" Brackett, the plant's facilities maintenance head, died after suffering severe burns.

Pressure within the reactor increased before the leak, but investigators aren't certain why, Lay said. The plant made the paint additive only about once or twice a year, he said.


Worker killed in mishap at Hynundai supplier in Greenville

GREENVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Authorities are investigating last night's death of a worker at a Hyundai-supplier in Greenville. Mayor Dexter McClendon says the accident happened shortly after 7 p.m. at the Hwashin (Wash-en) America Plant. He said the male employee, whose name was withheld, was pinned between a roll of steel and another material. McClendon said the worker died of his injuries.


Worker killed in Southeast Texas well blast

MADISONVILLE, Texas -- An oil-field worker died when a natural-gas well exploded in Southeast Texas, near Madisonville.

Madison County Sheriff Dan Douget says the man was apparently trying to relieve a pressure build-up in the well last night when it exploded.

His name is withheld pending notification of relatives. Douget says the man was the only person at the site when the blast happened.

There was no fire at the well, which is owned by ChevronTexaco's Caltex division.


Police call death of airport worker an accident

Charlotte, NC -- A woman was killed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Tuesday, investigators ruled it an accident, but don't know how it happened.

Joyce Miller, 29, worked out on the tarmac at Wilson Air. Airport officials said they believe she was driving a motorized cart early Tuesday morning and somehow got pinned underneath it.

How? That's all part of the ongoing police investigation.


Construction Worker Killed in South Walton

South Walton, FL -- The superintendent of the construction site in the Gulf Dunes community, located behind Goatfeathers Seafood Restaurant on Gulf View Heights, was struck and killed by a dump truck Tuesday morning.

The South Walton Fire District pronounced the man, simply identified as “Gene,” dead at the scene. South Walton Fire Chief Les Hallman stated that the time of death was not yet known and that the Florida Highway Patrol would be investigating the incident.

Gene, 55, was in the direct path of the dump truck when it backed out.

Gene worked for the "Just Building Specialists, LLC."


Coroner identifies construction worker

San Bernardino, CA -- A man who died after he was buried under several feet of dirt while working on construction of the Interstate 210 extension has been identified as 32-year-old Leo Gaona-Telles of Moreno Valley.

About 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Gaona-Telles and an unidentified worker were installing trench boxes inside a 30-foot-deep hole near the intersection of State Street and Highland Avenue when the north side of the hole collapsed.

Gaona-Telles was knocked down and trapped under four feet of dirt. The second worker was buried only up to his waist, San Bernardino Fire Department officials said.

Coroner's officials have listed Gaona-Telles' cause of death as traumatic asphyxia, said Lead Supervising Deputy Robert Shaw.


Woman surrenders on manslaughter charge in Dothan worker's death

Dothan, AL -- A woman accused of striking and killing a Dothan city worker with her car has surrendered to face manslaughter charges, police said.

Tammy Melinda Devane, 43, of Ashford, surrendered Thursday. Bond has been set at $40,000.

According to police, Devane was driving a blue Nissan car Feb. 23, when she ran into the back of a city traffic engineering bucket truck that had stopped in the road while performing maintenance on a roadside sign.

City worker Johnny White, 57, was standing behind the truck filling out paperwork when he was hit by Devane's car and died at the scene.


Rancho station officer sixth killed in five months

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA - The commissioner of the California Highway Patrol on Sunday ordered a statewide internal CHP review in response to Saturday night's death of a Rancho Cucamonga station officer, the sixth death of an on-duty CHP officer in the past five months.

CHP Commissioner Mike L. Brown flew in from Sacramento for a press conference Sunday after word reached him that the department had lost yet another on-duty officer.

A suspected drunken driver crashed into Gregory John Bailey, 36, at 10:30 p.m. after Bailey pulled over a pickup on the 15 Freeway north of Oak Hills Road at the top of the Cajon Pass. Bailey, who had recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, was flown to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he died.


Officer dies after being shot chasing robbery suspect

KIRKLAND, N.Y. - A decorated police officer was shot and killed while pursuing suspected jewel thieves, and police in New York and Pennsylvania on Tuesday searched for one of the suspects.

"We're all very shaken, but we're all professionals and we have a job to do," said police Lt. Timothy O'Neill in announcing Monday night's shooting death of 30-year-old officer Joseph Corr, a six-year veteran of the New Hartford Town Police Department.


Accident that killed car wash worker to be reviewed

WAUWAUTOSA, Wis. - A car wash worker was killed when a co-worker went to move a vehicle and it lurched ahead, hitting and dragging the teen, police said.

The sport utility vehicle dragged the victim, 17-year-old Alex Kroll, to the street before it crashed into a nearby building, said police Lt. Dominic Leone.

He said the incident Saturday appeared to be an accident, but the case would be turned over to the Milwaukee County district attorney to review for possible charges.


B'klyn Home Depot worker knifed to death

Brooklyn, NY -- A Brooklyn Home Depot employee was stabbed to death yesterday by a hooded assailant who then calmly strode out of the store, police said.

Tunde Alonge, 25, was knifed in the chest just before 9 a.m. in an empty aisle at the Flatlands store. He then stumbled to the row of cash registers, and a worker called 911, cops said.

The hooded attacker, described as a man in his 20s, went unnoticed by other employees as he strolled out of the Avenue U store minutes after walking in through the main entrance doors, cops said.


Construction worker dies after trench wall caves in

San Bernardino, CA -- A construction worker died Saturday after a trench he was in collapsed, trapping him under as much as six feet of dirt, authorities said Sunday.

The worker was helping install a storm drain on Highland Avenue and State Street in San Bernardino as part of the 210 freeway extension, said Jason Serrano, a San Bernardino Fire Department public information officer.

The accident took place shortly after 7 p.m. and within 30 minutes of arriving on scene, fire rescue crews uncovered the man and transported him to Community Hospital of San Bernardino where he died, Serrano said. The man's identity has not been released.

The man, along with another worker, were in the trench guiding shoring boxes into place when one of the sidewalls collapsed, Serrano said.

One of the two workers escaped but the other was buried under four to six feet of dirt, Serrano said.

Serrano said a person buried under one foot of dirt feels the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of pressure.

The man was a worker for Atkinson Construction Inc., a Broomfield, Colo.-based company with extensive contracts to work on the 210 freeway extension through Rialto and San Bernardino.


GSA Worker Electrocuted

Washington, D.C. (AP) - A General Services Administration worker is dead after an apparent accident on the job.

D.C. police say officers and firefighters found the 46-year-old man unconscious this morning in the basement of a building in the 300 block of Seventh Street Southwest. Investigators believe he was electrocuted.


Worker dies after mishap at Bay View

Toledo, OH -- A Port Clinton man died yesterday from severe injuries he suffered after he and a co-worker were run over by an all-terrain forklift at Toledo's Bay View Wastewater Treatment Plant.

John Franks, 45, a carpentry foreman for Rudolph/Libbe Inc., the contractor at the city's sewer expansion site at the plant at Summit Street and Manhattan Boulevard, was taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center about 9:20 a.m. and died later in the morning.

The other construction worker, Joel Sandwisch, 67, of Millbury, was treated at St. Vincent.

Gary Haas, manager of contracts and administration for the Walbridge-based Rudolph/Libbe said a forklift truck driver was backing up at the site of the expansion sewer hole when one of the truck's wheels hit and ran over Mr. Franks and Mr. Sandwisch.


Art dealer fatally shot in Chinatown; Community leader slain in his shop -- killer at large

San Francisco, CA -- A community leader in Chinatown was gunned down inside his shop Monday afternoon, authorities said.

Allen Leung, 56, was shot multiple times inside the Wonkow Art Centres at 603 Jackson Street between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street.

Leung, an art dealer, was the president of the Chinese Community Cultural Association, a community group that has organized events in Chinatown.

Leung's wife, Jenny Leung, called police shortly before 4 p.m. and said her husband had been shot inside the business, police said.


Padnos worker dies from injuries on job

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 15-year veteran of recycling operations at Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co.'s Turner Street facility has died from injuries he suffered while working last week.

State officials say John Janosky, 42, of Bangor, suffered a serious head injury when something struck him while he was changing the grates of a scrapping machine on Feb. 16.


Student Driver, Instructor Killed in Crash

ELMIRA TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A car driven by a 15-year-old student driver turned into oncoming traffic and was broadsided by a van, killing the student and his instructor, police said.

Zachary Stevens, of Gaylord, and Valentine Kapture, 52, of Lewiston, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash Saturday.

"The driver's ed student, for whatever reason, turned into the westbound lane," State Police Sgt. Greg Gendregske said.


Man crushed at job site

ACCORD, N.Y. -- A construction worker in Ulster County was killed when the excavator he was operating pinned him to a tree. Another man who tried to save him was injured, police said. Jeffrey Lawrence, 47, of Accord, accidentally hit a lever while he exited the cab of an excavator at the building site in Accord. The cab began to rotate, trapping Lawrence between the cab and a tree, according to State Police. He died at the scene. Donald Hasenflue Sr., 46, suffered several broken ribs after being pinned against the tree. Police said Hasenflue owns DHL Excavating in Rosendale, the company that had employed Lawrence and was developing the four-home subdivision.Investigator Stanley O'Dell said no criminal charges will be filed.


Airport worker killed on tarmac

Detroit, MI - A customer service representative for Comair who had only been on the job for about a month at Detroit Metropolitan Airport was killed Sunday. Eric Michniewicz, a Comair employee responsible for unloading and loading luggage, was struck by a beltloader at about 2:30 p.m. He was a resident of Belleville. Kate Moser, a spokeswoman for Comair, a Delta connector airline, said Monday that the accident remains under investigation. "An accident like this is extremely rare," Moser said. Michniewicz was preparing to unload luggage from an arriving plane when he was struck on the tarmac.


Colorado Springs police officer killed; man arrested by agents

COLORADO SPRINGS - A police officer was shot to death Wednesday and a man was arrested about 1 1/2 hours later after a massive search, Police Chief Luis Velez told KKTV in Colorado Springs.

The officer was identified by Velez as Jared Jensen, 30. Authorities said two shots were fired, but it was not clear whether either came from the officer's gun.


Man found shot dead at shooting range

FOREST CITY, Iowa -- Authorities are investigating the death of a man found shot yesterday afternoon at a shooting range in Forest City. Police say they aren't sure whether 47-year-old Tim Collins was shot accidentally. A passing motorist noticed Collins' body at the range and called police. The Hancock County Sheriff's Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are also investigating the case. Forest City Police Chief Dan Davis says an autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of death. Collins was an employee of Forest City's electrical plant.


Two firefighters killed after wall collapses

MOULTON, Ala. (AP) — A wall collapsed at a north Alabama business where firefighters were putting out a nighttime blaze, killing two men in the firefighting team.

Lawrence County Coroner Greg Randolph identified the victims on Wednesday as Moulton Assistant Fire Chief Lloyd McCulloch, 64, and firefighter Justin Jones, 24.

Randolph said the men died from internal injuries to the head and chest sustained when the wall fell Tuesday night. The bodies were transferred to the Department of Forensic Sciences facility in Huntsville for an autopsy.


Small plane crashes in Washington suburbs, killing two

BOWIE, Md. -- A small plane headed to Atlantic City crashed during a snow squall Wednesday in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., killing two men and critically injuring a woman. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said the single-engine Cessna 172 took off from Warrenton-Fauquier Airport in Midland, Va. It was heading for Atlantic City, but making a stop at Freeway Airport to pick up a man who was waiting in the airport office when the crash occurred.


Owner dies after shooting at store

Omaha, NE -- A 48-year-old Omaha man died Tuesday at the Nebraska Medical Center after being found injured on the floor of his business near 62nd Street and Ames Avenue.

Waddell Craig Robinson was taken to the hospital "in very critical condition," about 1 p.m., said Police Sgt. Teresa Negron.

He was alone in the French Silk Shoe Shop at 6201 Ames Ave. when a customer discovered him on the floor and called 911.


Electrical shock kills tree worker

Omaha, NE -- A 44-year-old man died Tuesday morning after being severely shocked while clearing trees from a lot at 911 S. 31st St.

The accident occurred about 11 a.m.

Tom Cappellano was operating a boom from the ground and loading tree branches onto the bed of a Heartland Tree Service truck. A long branch was being lowered onto the truck when the upper portion of the boom apparently came in contact with electrical lines. Cappellano was declared dead at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Jeff Hanson, a spokesman for Omaha Public Power District, said the power line was an 8,000-volt distribution line.


Truck driver killed in crash identified

Orlando, FL -- A truck driver who was killed Tuesday on U.S. Highway 27 has been identified as Michall Cambron, 40, of Apopka, the Florida Highway Patrol said this morning.

Investigators said Cambron and a 85-year-old man died instantly when the elderly driver turned in front of the orange-juice tanker headed north on U.S. 27.


Jupiter construction worker killed in fall

Jupiter, FL - A Hispanic man in his 40s was killed Monday morning in a construction accident in the 200 block of West Bay Cedar Circle in the Botanica development at Indian Creek Parkway and Military Trail. Marcello Hernandez, a resident from Mexico, according to Jupiter Police, was part of a crew installing roof trusses on the second story of a building under construction. He may have been reaching for a roof truss that was being raised by a nearby crane when he lost his balance and fell to the concrete walkway.


Granite Company Worker Crushed To Death

MILFORD, Conn. -- A West Haven man was crushed to death while working in Milford after slabs of granite fell on him shortly after 2 p.m. The man was working at a granite company in Milford when six or seven slabs of granite crushed him. Each slab weighs about 1,000 pounds. The man’s name has not yet been released. The Occupational Safety and Health Department was sent to the scene.


Nodaway County farmer dies when tractor rolls over him

CONCEPTION, Mo. - Jim Coulter, 63, was killed Monday in an accident on his farm near Conception, the Nodaway County Sheriff's Department said. Sgt. Steve Whittington said Coulter was putting hay out for cattle when the tractor he was using rolled over him. He said he apparently stopped on a slight slope and was getting off the tractor when it began to roll, striking him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.


Local Farmer Killed by Hay Bale

HAMBURG, PA-February 21, 2006 - A 77-year-old Berks County man suffocated yesterday when a bale of hay fell on him at his farm. State police say H. Daniel Wenger was in his barn on Old Route 22 in Upper Bern Township when a hay bale broke loose and pinned him. Police say the accident happened between noon and 4pm. Wenger's body was discovered by family members.


Farm accident in Hugo claims life

Hugo, MN - The farming community lost one of its own last week when an accident in Hugo claimed the life of a young farmer. Peter James Leroux, 27, was killed when he was caught in a corn picker while working in a field on Thursday, Feb. 16, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Leroux was found caught in the corn picker at 6:50 p.m. after a neighbor called police. The neighbor, who had seen the tractor and corn picker in the same location earlier in the day, became concerned and called police.


Campobello construction worker killed after fall from roof

Boiling Springs, SC - A 33-year-old Campobello construction worker has died after falling 16 feet from a roof at a job site in Boiling Springs. Brett Orion Glover died Monday night from injuries sustained in the fall. Glover was an employee of Action Building Company of Spartanburg. He and four other men were working on a house at the time of the Monday morning accident. Company president Jim Jones says Glover worked for the company at least 15 years and was experienced in the field. Jones says it is the company's first fatal accident.


Fall exposes job's hazards

Potosi, MN - It's dangerous working on a bridge, dozens if not hundreds of feet above water. At best, you have a rope or a net to save you. Falls are the leading cause of death for construction workers. The cause could be lost footing on a house roof or a dramatic drop from a radio tower hundreds of feet high. Bridges pose a special risk, especially if they span water waiting to swallow an ironworker or electrician or painter who missteps and perhaps gets carried off by a swift current. That danger was underscored Friday when painters tumbled from a platform that broke under the Jefferson Barracks Bridge. Safety lines snagged three of the workers. But Jimmy Belfield, 39, of Potosi, disappeared into the cold Mississippi River, about 90 feet below.


Beaumont officer dies in accident

Beaumont , TX - A 15-year veteran of the Beaumont Police Department died Sunday night in a single vehicle accident in Orange County. Detective John E. Nobles, 37, was killed around 9 p.m. on FM 1132 near FM 105 when he lost control of his car and struck a utility pole. Nobles died at the scene. Nobles was a resident of Mauriceville. He is survived by his wife, who is also a detective in the Beaumont Police Department, three children and four step-children. Police say Detective Nobles was not on duty at the time of the accident. Funeral arrangements are pending


Construction worker crushed to death

Accord, NY - A man was killed in a construction accident in Accord Tuesday, about a half-mile north of the Hudson Valley Resort on Granite Road. Stanley O'Dell, a senior investigator with state New York Ptate Police in Ellenville who was at the scene, did not identify the man, but said the accident is under investigation. O"Dell made the comments to MidHudsonNews.com around 3:15 p.m. as emergency personnel, from Accord and Kerhonkson continued working at the accident site, a new subdivision being built along Granite Road. Initial reports said the man was crushed by a piece of excavating equipment. A second person was said to have suffered head and chest trauma.


Mechanic dies of injuries from chemical plant leak

Reading, Ohio- Injuries from a gas leak last week at a suburban Cincinnati chemical plant have killed a mechanic, and authorities tried to figure out Monday how high concentrations of the compound formed because the company does not use the gas. William Cromer, 53, of Fayetteville, died Saturday at University Hospital in Cincinnati. He was one of 11 Rohm & Haas Co. workers sickened Wednesday in the gas leak. Some who inhaled the gas had severe respiratory problems, Reading Fire Chief Kevin Kaiser said.


Lansing Waste Management employee killed Monday

EATON RAPIDS - A 44-year-old Waste Management employee from Lansing was struck and killed by an automobile as he collected trash west of Eaton Rapids early Monday. The man was identified as Eric James Ely. The accident happened about 6:30 a.m. on Royston Road south of M-50 in Eaton Township, the Eaton County Sheriff's Department said. The driver of the car, a 19-year-old Charlotte man, was waiting at the scene when deputies arrived, the sheriff's department said. The accident remains under investigation.


Funeral Held For Young BSO Deputy Killed On Interstate

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Broward Sheriff's Office deputy who was killed while conducting a traffic stop on Interstate 595 last week was remembered in a memorial service Tuesday. A rider-less horse escorted the body of Ryan Seguin into the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, where a legion of law enforcement personnel gathered to pay their final respects to the 23-year-old deputy. Sheriff Ken Jenne delivered the opening remarks. "We must celebrate the life of Ryan, who was a true hometown hero," he said. Seguin stopped a car traveling westbound shortly after 9 p.m. last Wednesday and was standing outside his unmarked car when Valdo Vega's Toyota Camry drifted into the emergency lane and hit him, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said.


Worker may have been electrocuted at plant

MACOMB, MI - A Glasford man died Wednesday at the Pella Windows plant, but state and local officials are not sure what caused his death.

It appears Tyler Gardner, 22, was electrocuted while installing some lighting in one area of the factory, which is scheduled to be open for production this year.

Investigators said a number of workers in the plant heard a loud crashing sound and found Gardner having an apparent seizure on the floor.


Man who died in caved trench loved life, work, his father says

Reno, NV -- When 20-year-old Clayton Gregory left the family home in Redding, Calif. for a temporary job in Reno, he promised his father he would make him proud. "We weren't expecting to receive him in a box," Steve Gregory said Friday from his home in Redding. Gregory died Tuesday when a trench at a northwest Reno golf course collapsed, burying him under 4 feet of mud and dirt. The cave-in trapped Gregory and three other men installing a drain on the second hole of Somersett Country Club golf course. Jon Winfield, the owner of Western States Equipment and Bobcat Service, was also stuck in the cave-in but was pulled out almost immediately. A second worker, Travis Cruz, 39, of Reno, almost completely buried in the collapse, died at 10:52 a.m. Saturday at Washoe Medical Center, the Washoe County Coroner's Office said.


Worker dies in five-floor fall

Jackson, WY - A construction worker fell at least five stories to his death Saturday while working inside a downtown office building. Atlanta Fire Department officials said a construction crew was working on an interior staircase on the 5th floor of the Heanley Building, located across from the Court of Appeals. The man, whose identification was being withheld until notification of his family, was pronounced dead on the scene. ``It was an open staircase with no landings. It's pretty much open from the 5th floor all the way down to the ground floor,'' Capt. Stan Surry said Saturday. Capt. Surry said the crew was working on a loft project under renovation.

Construction worker dies in fall

SAN MARCOS, CA – A 36-year-old construction worker died Saturday when he fell off the roof of a house in San Marcos, according to a sheriff's dispatcher. Elias Tapia of Fontana was pronounced dead shortly after 9 a.m., after he fell from a third-story catwalk at a home under construction in the 1800 block of Melrose Drive, a medical examiner investigator said.


Saucier firefighter dies of infection from work injury, coroner says

GULFPORT Miss. -- A Saucier firefighter injured last month in the line of duty died of a staph infection, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove says.

Gary Kistler Sr., 65, cut a finger removing a piece of equipment from a truck Jan. 30 while responding to a fatal traffic accident on U.S. 49, Hargrove said.

Kistler died Feb. 5 after an overnight hospital stay.

The retired Seabee from Spokane, Wash., had settled in South Mississippi in 1966. He was a firefighter for 30 years and was Saucier Volunteer Fire Department's only paid firefighter.

Cuts and broken skin are common injuries among firefighters and emergency medical personnel, Hargrove said.

"He probably didn't even realize he was ill, and that was a problem. He had gone to the hospital to be checked for a possible pulled muscle after responding to a fire and a couple of days later, he got real ill and was taken by ambulance to a hospital," Hargrove said. "The infection had spread throughout his body."


Two in ambulance crew die in Ark. crash

CARTHAGE Ark. -- Two emergency medical technicians died when their ambulance went off a road and hit a tree in Dallas County as they responded to a medical emergency, state police said.

The ambulance was northbound on Arkansas 273 when it went out of control on a curve, according to the accident report.

The driver, James K. Goodman, 46, of Redfield, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 7 p.m. Wednesday accident. The passenger, Timothy H. Clowers, 31, of Sheridan, died at a hospital in Pine Bluff a few hours later, state police said.

The accident report said the men were not wearing seat belts. The ambulance rolled several times before hitting the tree and Goodman and Clowers were ejected, the report said.


Worker killed in accident at Delaware County quarry

Aston, PA -- A superintendent has been killed in an accident at the Pyramid Materials quarry in Aston, and the state said yesterday that it had ordered the company to suspend rock-crushing operations there while the death was being investigated.

Charles R. Davis 3d, 25, of Pottstown, died Monday of "blunt force chest injuries," according to the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office. He was struck by equipment being lifted by a crane while working at the crusher, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The 50-acre quarry is owned by Haines & Kibblehouse Inc., of Skippack. A company spokesman, Tony Jeremias, said it was "willing to cooperate in any way" with the state, adding that the firm was also conducting an investigation. He said Pyramid has 10 to 15 full-time employees.


Indiana wreck kills two Louisville friends; both UPS drivers

Indianapolis, IN -- Two Louisville men who were friends and frequent partners on the road as drivers for UPS died after their truck crashed Sunday night on Interstate 65 south of Indianapolis.

The wreck, just north of the Edinburgh exit, claimed the lives of Jonathan Van Rheenen, who was riding in the sleeper compartment, and Eric Everett Dickerson Sr., who was driving. Both were 34 years old, fathers of young children and active in their churches.

Van Rheenen died at the scene when the truck rear-ended another truck in slow-moving traffic in the northbound lanes, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Dickerson was flown to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and died there Monday, according to the newspaper.


Business owner killed in Oxford office shooting

OXFORD Ala. -- A Heflin man was charged with murder Wednesday after allegedly shooting his boss in the back of the head at the Oxford business where he repaired motorcycles.

Fred Allen Walker, 48, was charged with killing Jerry Wayne Harrell, 62, the co-owner of MotorCycle Sports on Alabama 21, where Walker was a longtime employee, Talladega County Sheriff Jerry Studdard said.


Electrical accident kills drilling worker Hickory Creek: Boom of rig hits power line; second man hurt

HICKORY CREEK. TX - The boom of a drilling rig struck a power line Friday afternoon, electrocuting one worker and injuring another.

The men, employees of Earth Tec, a Frisco water well driller, were working in a vacant lot where a house is being built on Brier Lane in a neighborhood off Turbeville Road.

Hickory Creek Police Chief Chad Brinlee said the surge of electricity struck the drilling rig and the two men. It blew out a front tire and ignited a fire that burned in and around the equipment.

One worker was declared dead at the scene and the other was taken by helicopter to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

Chief Brinlee did not identify the workers, and the condition of the second man was not available Friday evening.


HELICOPTER CRASHES IN SCOTTSDALE; 2 DIE;

Scottsdale, AZ -- The investigation into a fatal Scottsdale helicopter accident continues today as federal officials determine how a pilot lost control and crash-landed between two upscale homes.

The two-passenger Robinson R-22 helicopter went down southwest of Pima and Jomax roads at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. At 10:36 a.m., the pilot sent a mayday signal to Scottsdale Airport, said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

Carl Smith, 39, was identified as the pilot of the helicopter. The Mesa resident and a female passenger were found dead at the scene. The woman's name is being withheld until her family can be notified.


Md. governor to visit prison where slain officer worked

HAGERSTOWN Md. -- Gov. Robert Ehrlich was to visit the state prison where a slain correctional officer worked, intending to show support for public safety and concern for the dangers that some prison workers say have increased during his administration.

The Republican governor's scheduled visit Friday afternoon to Roxbury Correctional Institution comes four weeks after the death of Jeffery A. Wroten, 44, of Martinsburg, W.Va. Wroten was shot in the face with his own gun Jan. 26 while guarding an inmate who had been admitted to Washington County Hospital in nearby Hagerstown.


Falling clay traps, kills construction worker

OWENSBORO Ky. -- A welder was killed when ground clay fell on him as he was working to unclog a 120-ton steel tank, officials said.

Jason Crider, 30, of Owensboro, was pronounced dead at the scene Thursday afternoon. An autopsy was planned for Friday.

Coroner Bob Howe said Crider was covered and apparently suffocated.

Crider was standing on a conveyor belt below the opening of the 34-foot-tall tank, which was being installed at Owensboro Brick and Tile. The tank holds the powdery ground clay, and Crider was using a torch to cut sections of steel I-beams and channels clogging the tank opening, according to workers with Sanford, N.C.-based PD Automation Inc., who were installing the tank.

Some of the material caked on the side of the tank apparently loosened and fell on Crider. "Something caused the load above him to shift, and it buried him," said Assistant Chief Tim Roberts of the Daviess County Fire Department.


Taxi driver killed in crash with man fleeing LA police

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- An attempted kidnapping suspect fleeing Los Angeles police in a pickup truck collided with a taxi early Thursday, killing the cabbie, authorities said.

Asatur Tokatlyan, 42, died en route to the hospital, said Kevin Maiberger of the Los Angeles Police Department. Tokatlyan lived in Hollywood with his wife and two children.

Labels: taxi drivers, Weekly Toll

If you don't know what I'm talking about, read Doonesbury today (click for larger image):

Then read these:

• SHOCKED! Chromium Industry Suppresses Data, Hides Risks, February 23, 2006
  
  
• Manufactured Uncertainty Kills Workers and US Regulatory System, April 17, 2005


• Still Manufacturing Uncertainty, June 26, 2005
  
  
• Michaels Wins AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, February 15, 2006
  

But enough about workplace death, political corruption and industry callousness. Let's talk about me.

Occupational Safety has an article about workplace safety and health bloggers -- all two of us, me and John Lowe at "Impact Analysis" -- (apologies to Mine Safety Watch and Brooklyn Dodger).

Check it out for a little insight into what makes us bloggers tick -- or not (aside from the fame, fortune and endless groupies), and wherein I get to whine:

When asked about the relative dearth of safety sites, neither blogger hesitated to explain: time.

"Having a blog is time-consuming, to say the least," said Barab, who has worked in the safety industry for more than 20 years, including 16 years as the director of AFSCME's health and safety program and a stint as an OSHA official during the Clinton administration. Like most bloggers, he maintains his site during off-hours from his day job, writing sometimes hours per day. "Usually I'll take at least one day a week off, here or there," he said. "My wife calls it my second job--my second unpaid job."

I may be an old geezer, but I've got teenage kids who keep me up with the times. One thing I've learned from them is that "my computer wasn't working" has taken over for the old "my dog ate my homework" excuse.

Well, one thing you have to say for MSHA is that they're current with their excuses.

After the NY Times revealed today that MSHA had failed to refer over $16 million in outstanding delinquent fines to the Treasury Department as is supposed to occur after 180 days, David Dye, the acting director of the mine agency, said computer problems at the mine agency and Treasury were to blame.

But it seems Dye forgot to run his alibi by Treasury officials:

Martin Mills, assistant commissioner for debt management services at Treasury, said there have been instances since the spring when Treasury told other agencies not to refer debts for collection due to a switch in computer systems.

Mills said that the longest such period lasted about a month. He said the computer system is now working and Treasury is receiving debt referrals. Mills said his agency's efforts yielded record collections of about $3.2 billion last year.

"If they had a problem, they should have been talking with us," Mills said of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. ''To my knowledge, they have not been."

Busted!

If you happened to be wandering around Capitol Hill yesterday, you could have received a first-hand, ringside view of Republican disinterest and hostility toward mine safety in this country.

After almost five years, and a record number of coal mine fatalities in the first two months of 2006, Congressman Charlie Norwood (R-GA), the chairman of the House subcommittee on Workforce Protections in the House of Representatives, finally held an MSHA oversight hearing. But apparently not liking what he was hearing, Norwood decided 90 minutes was more than enough time to take from the Representatives' busy schedules to discuss how to keep the nation's coal miners from dying.

Democratic Congressman George Miller called Norwood's action "a spectacularly undemocratic abuse of power."

"So far this year, 21 coal miners have died in the United States," said Miller. "This is a crisis. Yet Republican leaders in Congress were unwilling to devote more than a mere 90 minutes to this issue of life-and-death. Congress has a responsibility to take action to keep more people from dying in preventable mine accidents. The Republicans showed a complete lack of concern and respect for miners and their families by shutting down this hearing before all the facts could come out."

Norwood gaveled the hearing to a close shortly after 1:30 p.m., despite the fact that it was scheduled to run for two hours, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. This was the first oversight hearing on worker health and safety that House Republicans have convened in the last five years. Only Republicans can convene formal committee hearings. Republicans chose three of the four witnesses for today's hearing, while allowing Democrats to choose just one.

Miller essentially embarrassed Norwood into holding the hearing. Last month, Miller and the Democratic members of the committee held a hearing to listen to the voices of coal miners, along with the widows and children of miners killed in recent mine disasters. Actually, it wasn't really a hearing, it was a "forum," because only the subcommittee's majority Republican chairman -- Charlie Norwood -- can call a hearing. Until yesterday, Norwood had refused to hold a hearing on mine safety, stating that he wanted to wait until the investigations of the recent disasters are completed. Norwood's latest insult to the nation's miners comes just a month after acting MSHA director David Dye walked out on a Senate Hearing after Senator Arlen Specter asked him to stay for more questions.

But those who have been in Washington DC for a while aren't too surprised at the Republicans' hostility toward MSHA or the government's role in ensuring mine safety. In fact, it was just over ten years ago that former Congressman Cass Ballenger introduced the so-called Ballenger bill which called for the elimination of the Mine Safety and Health administration, merging it into OSHA which Ballenger's bill would also fatally weaken.

Ballenger's bill would have forced miners to report safety problems to their employer before being able to file a complaint with MSHA, making them vulnerable to firing and blacklisting. It would have reduced the number of mandatory inspections for underground mines from 4 per year to only 1 per year, ended mandatory Federal inspections of surface mines, dropped the prohibition of advance notice of inspections, canceled mine inspectors' right to check out mine workplaces without a warrant, and prevented MSHA inspectors from closing an unsafe mine for uncorrected hazards, extreme operator negligence, or a pattern of violations.

Following the Gingrich revolution in 1994, Ballenger loaded his committee with a group of new Republican congressman who had largely been elected on anti-regulatory platforms. In addition to eliminating MSHA, Ballenger's bill would also have eliminated NIOSH, directed one-third of the OSHA's funds for non-enforcement programs, allowed employers to fix violations before being fined, and dropped fines based on the general duty clause, which is used by OSHA when there is no specific standard.

Ballenger was so pleased with his party’s recent victory and confident of success that he boasted to the press that his committee was so solid that it could probably repeal motherhood if they so desired. What Ballenger ended up with, however, was a political and public relations nightmare.

Every time he held a hearing on his proposals, the hearing room filled early in the morning with miners, dressed in full gear, who had driven all night from the hollows of West Virginia. Miners and other workers held rallies outside and filled reporters’ notebooks with stories of co-workers and family members killed in the workplace. Stories were beamed back to the 6:00 news in hometowns across the nation. A button with a “Wanted” poster displaying Cass Ballenger’s face became the hot item in Washington.

Ballenger's bill never passed, largely due to the mass mobilization of the labor movement. But the Republicans had learned an important lesson: don't use a frontal assault to dismantle worker protection programs. Better to attack enforcement from the inside by shifting the agencies' priorities from enforcement to voluntary, cooperative activities, and weakening the agencies' ability to issue regulations through a series of small bills and other restrictions. The Congressional Review Act, for example, which was passed without hearings, attached to a larger bill in the dead of night, was the vehicle used to repeal OSHA's ergonomics standard in 2001.

Ballenger's bill, including the MSHA proposal, was the brainchild of the right-wing Heritage Foundation which argued that eliminating the agency would improve workplace health and safety by "limiting unnecessary government intervention, and reducing inefficient, wasteful government spending."

But the right-wing's desire to eliminate MSHA is still alive and well. As late as 2002, the conservative, libertarian Cato Institute again proposed the elimination of MSHA, arguing that market mechanisms were a superior incentive for employers to provide safe workplaces. And of the 152 co-sponsors of the Ballenger bill, a number are still around and now in senior positions in the House of Representatives, able to influence any legislation affecting MSHA. For example, Charlie Norwood is now Chairman of the Subcommittee of Workforce Protections of the Committee on Education and Workforce Committee. Dennis Hastert is now Speaker of the House. John Boehner is now the Majority Leader. Buck McKeon is now the Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. David Dreier is now Chairman of the Committee on Rules, which will control what legislation - and what amendments - can reach the House floor for a vote.

Meanwhile, the effect of the Administration's "cooperative" programs was revealed in a report in today's New York Times:

In its drive to foster a more cooperative relationship with mining companies, the Bush administration has decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001, and in nearly half the cases, it has not collected the fines, according to a data analysis by The New York Times.

Federal records also show that in the last two years the federal mine safety agency has failed to hand over any delinquent cases to the Treasury Department for further collection efforts, as is supposed to occur after 180 days.

With the deaths of 24 miners in accidents in 2006, the enforcement record of the Mine Safety and Health Administration has come under sharp scrutiny, and the agency is likely to face tough questions about its performance at a Senate oversight hearing on Thursday.

"The Bush administration ushered in this desire to develop cooperative ties between regulators and the mining industry," said Tony Oppegard, a top official at the agency in the Clinton administration. "Safety has certainly suffered as a result."

And what excuse did MSHA use for not handing over delinquent cases to Treasure? Computer problems. Hello? For two years? How about driving them over in a car? The Metro. Bike messengers? Hell, you could have walked them over to Treasury.

Despite Administration boasts that it has finally introduced legislation to increase the maximum penalty that MSHA can issue, the Times points out that even with the current maximums, the agency rarely issues fines at the maximum level:

In 2004, the number of major fines issued at maximum level was one in 10, down from one in 5 in 2003.

Since 2001, the median for penalties that exceed $10,000, described as "major fines," has dropped 13 percent, to $21,800 from $25,000.

Also troubling, critics say, is that fines are regularly reduced in negotiations between mine operators and the agency. From 2001 to 2003, more than two-thirds of all major fines were cut from the original amount that the agency proposed. Most of the more recent cases are enmeshed in appeals, so it is impossible to know whether that trend has continued.

"The agency keeps talking about issuing more fines, but it doesn't matter much," said Bruce Dial, a former inspector for the mine safety agency. "The number of citations means nothing when the citations are small, negotiable and most often uncollected."

And, of course, as anyone who's received a stiff traffic ticket will tell you, fines can effectivey change behavior -- but only if they're high enough:

At a House oversight hearing on Wednesday, agency officials repeatedly cited the frequency of fines against Sago in the year before the accident as proof of aggressive enforcement. Exasperated, Representative Lynn Woolsey, Democrat of California, replied that maybe those fines had little effect because many were for $60. That point set off applause from audience members.

"Most fines are so small that they are seen not as deterrents but as the cost of doing business," said Wes Addington, a lawyer with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center in Prestonsburg, Ky., which handles mine safety cases. Using federal records, Mr. Addington released a study in January indicating that since 1995 nearly a third of the active underground mines in Kentucky had failed to pay their fines.

"Operators know that it's cheaper to pay the fine than to fix the problem," Mr. Addington said. "But they also know the cheapest of all routes is to not pay at all. It's pretty galling."

But as we've learned over the past two months, the Bush administration's weakening of OSHA enforcement is only part of the problem. Over the past several years, the Bush administration had stopped work on a regulation that would have revised MSHA's 15-year old mine rescue regulation, killed a proposed regulation that would have helped prevent conveyor belt fires -- the fire that killed the Alma miners -- and adopted a change in mine ventilation rules that experts say allow such fires to spread more rapidly through the mine, cutting off miners' fresh air. MSHA refused to adopt a requirement for Personal Emergency Devices, which allow for constant contact with the miners, even those working in remote areas, and recently proposed to delay implementation for five years of a standard to reduce the risk to underground metal and nonmetal miners of lung cancer from diesel exhaust fumes.

Despite Norwood's resistance to public hearings, Republicans are finding it increasingly difficult to cover up their actions of the last five years. Today's New York Times article appeared on the front page, right hand column, indicating that the issues is not dying down. Every future mine death is guaranteed to generate headlines. What's still needed, however, is for the media and Congress to expand their attention to OSHA. Fifteen workers were killed last year in an explosion at a BP Amoco refinery in Texas, almost 6,000 workers are killed every year in workplace accidents and the numbers are going up, Congress has held virtually no oversight hearings, and Bush's nominee for OSHA director, Ed Foulke, thinks that OSHA's greatest challenge is to get information and tools to small employers.

Although there is now legislation to increase maximum MSHA penalties, there is little indication that the administration and Congress are taking seriously the need to increase OSHA's ineffective fines and penalties against employers who kill: Republicans in Congress are supporting only one piece of legislation that addresses OSHA penalties -- a bill that would fine workers for failing to wear personal protective equipment.

There is still much to be done.

More on mine safety issues here.

Labels: Charlie Norwood, Coal Mining, Sago

According to the NY Times.