Molly Ivins: Bush -- Bad Taste, Full of It

Remember the 9/11 Firefighters

Molly Ivins takes the Democrats to task for accusing Bush only of "bad taste" for including 9/11 scenes in his campaign commercials:

Dammit, the problem is not that the ad is in bad taste, the problem is that Bush screwed the firefighters in a famous case of his favorite bait-and-switch tactic, and now he has the chutzpah to exploit them anyway -- and that, my friends, is gall. Bait, switch and then claim credit anyway.

For those of you who have forgotten what happened (apparently including the entire Bush campaign) shortly after the 9-11 attacks, President Bush promised a $3.5 billion aid package to provide equipment and training in dealing with such attacks to local police and fire departments. For over 18 months, no money appeared, and when money finally did appear, it was nowhere near the promised levels (hey, he had to cut those taxes for the richest 1 percent of Americans).

Furthermore, the New York City firefighters who worked Ground Zero were specifically screwed. They were promised $90 million to monitor the long-term health effects of breathing in all that ash for months while they cleaned up. The money was to have been included in the overall post 9-11 aid package for New York City, but it got shifted to another bill that Bush rejected the following August. About half the workers screened before the money ran out suffered from respiratory problems.

George Bush: Absolutely, irrefutably true.

This is one of the most honest anti-Bush ads I've seen. Unfortunately, you won't be seeing it on T.V.

Warnings:

1. Do not attempt to watch this while eating or drinking any liquids.

2. If you're watching this at the office (and everyone doesn't necessarily share your political persuasion) close your door and/or turn down the sound.

Check it out.

And Speaking of Regulations....

Businesses Just Want to Have Fun

It's amazing how their arguments are all the same, no matter what the crimes, or what the regulations. They just want to be left alone to rape and pillage.

Steven Pearlstein has an interesting column in the Washington Post today about business resistance to reform of accounting and corporate governance practices -- in the face of a new round of corporate indictments. It's interesting how similar their arguments are to their arguments against any kind of health adn safety or environmental regulations:

This is the same crowd, you'll remember, that once argued that the problem was only "a few bad apples." Now they are making the rounds in Washington peddling the nonsense that reform has gone too far, costs too much and even jeopardizes the risk-taking that gives the U.S. economy its competitive edge.

Let's start with the hokum about runaway compliance costs.

A survey by Financial Executive International found that the first-year costs to comply with new regulations ranged from roughly $280,000 for companies with up to $25 million in sales to $4.7 million for companies with more than $5 billion in revenue. By my calculation that works out to be somewhere between 0.1 percent and 1 percent of sales -- hardly an excessive fee for restoring investor confidence and reducing the cost of capital.

Much of the cost of compliance has to do with beefing up internal controls. Companies used to argue that they already had them. Now they argue that they are too expensive. It's hard to see how they could be both....

It is a tad disingenuous for corporate directors to say they knew nothing about the skulduggery that went on during their watch, as many have, and then turn around and argue there's no need for better internal controls.

And then there's the evil labor unions and other "public interests" who are seeking to undermine capitalism as we know it:

Nothing has the corporate class more riled up, however, than the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to allow shareholders to nominate competing directors if more than 35 percent withhold their votes for the company slate. In lobbying against the idea, the Business Roundtable sheds crocodile tears over the erosion of states' rights and raises the specter that labor unions and other "narrow" interest groups will turn corporations away from their only legitimate purpose, which is to meet the next quarter's profit number. What the Business Roundtable really means, but doesn't have the guts to say, is that corporate democracy is a sham and if investors don't like the way a company is run, they can sell their shares and put their money elsewhere.

Regulations: Bush Doesn't Get It

This is from a speech that President Bush made today at the Women's Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century Forum, in Cleveland, Ohio.

There needs to be fewer regulations on business owners in America. (Applause.) I bet you spend a lot of time filling out paperwork. (Laughter.) I bet not much of your paperwork is ever read. (Laughter.) The government needs to let you focus on your business, on developing goods and services. It needs to let you focus on hiring people, rather than spending hours filling out paperwork. In order for us to keep jobs here at home and expand the job base, we need better regulatory policy at the federal, state, and local level. (Applause.)

Let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that OSHA regulations are meant to protect workers, instead of being meant to harass business owners. Then listen to the translation:

The government needs to let you focus on your business, on developing goods and services. It needs to let you focus on hiring people, rather than spending hours filling out paperwork protecting your employees.

Has a bit of a different ring to it.

More on Popcorn Lung Trial

The Eternal Song of the Canary

I've been closely following the lawsuit filed by a worker against a company that made microwave popcorn incredient that disintegrated his lungs. Eric Peoples, 32 and father of a 10 year old daughter needs a double lung transplant and is not expected to live past 50. Thirty of Peoples' former co-workers experiencing similar degenerative conditions

Why am I so interested in this trial? Maybe it's this:

In 1999, workers at the Jasper plant developed rashes and respiratory problems. A year later, Kansas City, Mo., occupational physician [Allen] Parmet, hired by workers' attorneys, isolated the problem by comparing records of eight victims.

"I said, `My gosh, they all work at the same plant. Holy smokes, they've all got bronchiolitis obliterans,'" Parmet testified last week. He was referring to a rare lung disorder that attacks roughly 1 in 40,000 Americans and causes breathing problems and airway obstructions.

Anyone remember the 1978 film "Song of the Canary?" Part of it was about workers suffering from brown lung. The other part was about workers making the pesticide DBCP at Occidental Chemical in Lathrop, California. Basically, they figured out by themselves that DBCP caused sterility by putting two and two together when they realized that almost everyone working with the pesticide was having trouble conceiving children. Yes, Occidental was aware of studies that showed that DBCP caused "testicular atrophy" in rats, but no one bothered to tell the workers or provide protection. They had to figure it out for themselves after it was too late.

I think most people are under the impression that there are lots of well funded, objective scientists out there whose mission in life is to make sure that chemicals don't harm people, and if they do, ban them or make sure they're strictly controlled.

Actually, however, no one's really looking out for the welfare of American workers, except for American workers, they're unions and far too few workplace health and safety activists and professionals. Today, as in the 1970's, 1950's and back into time, workers are like the canaries in the mines who were the first to keel over from bad air, warning the miners to get out.

Because no one else is doing it.

Under cross-examination, Peoples said no one at the popcorn plant ever suggested that he or other workers should wear a respirator and acknowledged that he did not know whether the company had a hazardous-materials plan.

Jeff Hollyhead, corporate vice president for occupational health and safety at International Flavors and Fragrances, said in a videotaped deposition that he was aware of the NIOSH report that concluded that his company's butter flavoring likely made the workers at the Jasper plant ill. He said he scanned the report and passed it on to a company industrial hygienist.

"We frankly did not believe it," Hollyhead said

Meanwhile, we have chemical laws that essentially consider chemicals to be innocent until proven guilty. And even when proven guilty, it's almost impossible to ban them. (We can't even seem to ban asbestos in this country). OSHA regulates fewer than 600 chemicals and most of those are based on standards that are almost 40 years old.

An effort is currently underway in Europe called the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) that is intended to address both workplace exposures and environmental pollution in the European Union.

Under REACH, chemical manufacturers and importers would be required to gather and report the quantity, uses and potential health effects of approximately 30,000 chemicals. About 1,400 of these chemicals are known or suspected to be carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, persist in the environment or to accumulate in body tissues. The initiative would subject these 1,400 chemicals to an authorization review similar to that used in the regulation of pharmaceuticals. Approval of any use that could result in human exposures would be predicated on a thorough assessment of safety considerations and alternative products.

The European chemical industry is furiously fighting this proposal. And the U.S. government and chemical industry are fighting at their side. Their great fear is that if something like that gets passed in Europe, not only won't American companies be able to sell many of their dangerous chemicals over there, but someone might get the same idea over here.

Meanwhile,

Each morning, Peoples takes at least five pills to help him breathe, according to medical testimony. He then breathes into a device for at least 15 minutes to clear his lungs of mucous that builds up overnight.

Peoples' father, David, fought back tears as he told the jury of his son's travails: his marriage nearly breaking up, debts and declining health. Sitting at the attorneys' table, Peoples' wife, Candy, sobbed.

In an unusual agreement for trial litigation, attorneys agreed to let Peoples testify sporadically because of his failing health. Last week, his attorneys showed the jury pictures of Peoples' family while he took the stand for 25 minutes.

Taking in air from a respirator, Peoples talked not of the best-paying job he ever had but of his family. Looking at a photo of his 10-year-old daughter, Audrianna, Peoples said softly: "Every father looks forward to giving away his daughter when it's time for her to start a family."

Woman Fights to Gain Compensation for Cold War Victims

Denise Brock's father worked at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. plant in St. Louis from 1945 to 1960. The plant produced uranium dioxide for the Manhattan Project, exposing its workers to large doses of radiation. Brock's father died of lung cancer in 1978.

A law passed by Congress three years ago, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) was supposed to compensate these hidden victims of the Cold War. But for many, the law requires identification of the names and doses of the chemicals that these workers were exposed to, a task that is difficult to impossible for many.

Luckily for the victims who are still alive, and their families, Denise Brock is fighting to get them compensated.

At Brock's urging, a federal advisory board that oversees the compensation program had a public hearing where a report on Mallinckrodt was unveiled by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It found workers were exposed to radiation up to 2,400 times greater than doses acceptable by modern standards. It referred to conditions at Mallinckrodt's uranium-processing plant as routinely dusty and hazardous.

In some cases, evidence of radiation exposure at Mallinckrodt was so overwhelming that the institute could bypass an individual determination of workplace exposure.

But for other Mallinckrodt workers, not all the proof is available, the report said. From 1942 to 1948, no one monitored workers' health.

Read more here.

Around the Blogs

Workers Comp Insider has a rather disturbing story about how more large firms are dropping health coverage for their employees, which is burdening workers compensation because problems that should be covered by regular insurance are getting dumped onto workers comp by uninsured workers. (The article doesn't cover the reverse problem: the cases that should be covered by workers comp, but get covered by regular health insurance because getting workers comp for many work-related illnesses is so difficult.)

Respectful of Otters has an interesting story of how a drug company press release spins the suspension of a drug study covering up the fact that the reasons the study was stopped was that it increased the risk of stroke and offered no protection against heart disease.

Chris Mooney, who wrote the article about Bush's Attack on science in the Washington Post last week responds to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's response to his article.

MiniSuperfund

So, let me get this straight.

Billions to find phantom weapons of mass destruction, billions in tax cuts to create millions of phantom jobs, but no money left to clean up very real toxic waste sites?

And this joker still has the support of 50% of the country?

Hard to believe.

Asbestos Hazards? -- Nevermind

We here at Confined Space are man enough to admit when we're wrong.

You know all that crap we've been writing about asbestos being so dangerous, how it will kill 10,000 Americans every year over the next decade, how it's destroyed the lives of millions over the past decades, what it did to the town of Libby, Montana, how Brazilian activist Fernanda Giannasi is being harassed for trying to protect workers, and on and on?

Nevermind.

Turns out it's perfectly fine, you can even make paper out of it, as the Canada-based Asbestos Institute proved by issuing a press release made out of chrysotile asbestos. The Asbestos Institute is a lobbying organization that is part of an effort by the asbestos industry to convince the Canadian federal government and the Quebec government to rehabilitate asbestos by demonstrating it can be used safely, according to an extensive report in Hazards Magazine.

It's actually true that a chrysotile press release was issued, but it's not true that chrysotile asbestos is innocent. There are many different forms of asbestos and the asbestos industry in Canada and elsewhere have been trying to convince the world for years that one of the most common types, chrysotile, is not harmful. Unfortunately, Canada, Russia, Zimbabwe and other pro-asbestos countries have had some recent success blocking increased restrictions on the selling of chrysotile asbestos.

The asbestos industry has argued that because chrysotile fibers are a different shape than other asbestos fibers, it's not harmful. How do they explain the cancers associated with exposure to chrysotile? It must be that the fibers have been contaminated with something else that causes cancer. Despite the fact that these theories have been disproven by David Egilman and others in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine,

The Canadian asbestos mining industry has a long history of manipulating scientific data to generate results that support claims that their product is 'innocuous'

"Researchers complicit in this manipulation seem to be motivated by a variety of interests, including a desire to support an important national industry and a pre-existing ideological commitment to support corporate interests over worker or community interests.

"Conducting industry-friendly research can also anchor an academic career by guaranteeing the steady stream of funding necessary to stay afloat in the 'publish or perish' environment of the university."

The report comes on the heels of a paper in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (IJOEH) that concluded the continued use of asbestos "is testament to the effectiveness of a campaign, spearheaded by Canadian interests, to promote a product already banned in many developed countries."

Check out Hazards for the rest of the whole sordid story.

Oh, and the funny press release? According to Laurie Allen, editor of the British Asbestos Newsletter, the paper was found to have a surprisingly high asbestos content. It "would, upon tearing or rough handling be almost certain to liberate fibres into the atmosphere," according to Allen.

Better Late Than Never

EPA Tests Microwave Popcorn

As you are aware, a popcorn butter flavor manufacturer is being sued by workers who accuse the company of supplying a chemical, diactyl, that has destroyed their lungs. What about microwave popcorn consumers.

These workers are exposed to large quantities of the chemical on a daily basis, so us average popcorn consumers have nothing to worry about. Right?

Federal officials have said there is no evidence that consumers face a health risk from microwave popcorn. Until now, no one has directly studied the issue.

Oops.

Well, that's about to change. The Environmental Protection Agency has decided to do a study to determine what chemical are released when someone microwaves a bag of popcorn.

The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association says that flavors do not pose a risk to consumers."We are confident that flavored microwave popcorn is safe for all of us to enjoy."

And the Popcorn Board agrees. Popcorn is "one of the most wholesome and economical foods available....'Popcorn is the type of thing that always evokes smiles,' Popcorn Board executive director Deirdre Flynn said. "That's why you've seen the industry rally as much as it has."

I feel better now. I'm definitely smiling.

Here are a couple of interesting factoids for your next boring dinner party: The average American eats 59 quarts of popcorn a year, according to the Popcorn Board. Consumers bought $1.33 billion worth of microwave popcorn in the United States in 2002, according to the Snack Food Association.

The EPA study is expected to be finished this Fall.

OSHA Alliances: Meaningless Media or Bureaucratic Incest?

I admit to being rather skeptical of OSHA's frenzy to form "alliances" with everything that moves.

Over the past three years, OSHA has formed over 140 alliances with "organizations committed to workplace safety and health to collaborate with OSHA to prevent injuries and illnesses in the workplace." (Virtually none of OSHA's alliances are with labor unions, which is perfectly understandable as one of the goals of alliances is to "build trusting, cooperative relationships with the Agency.")

Not that it's bad to work with other organizations, share information, provide assistance, go to each others' conferences, etc. Those are good things. But these are not activities that Republicans invented over the past couple of years; OSHA has always done these things. It used to just be called "outreach," and OSHA used to be able to perform these outreach activities at the same timethat they worked on issuing new standards and enforcing the law. Now it seems like it's either one or the other.

With OSHA sunk into a state of suspended animation (some would call it a coma) and closing down its standard making operation, the agency apparently needed to find a way to justify its increasingly irrelevant existence in this anti-regulatory, anti-enforcement, business-controlled Republican administration. The answer was to issue a steady stream of press releases announcing new alliances whenever some industry association wiggles its butt in OSHA's direction.

But now OSHA has gone from the silly to the absurd: The agency has just announced an alliance with the New York State Safety Council and the New York State Department of Labor's Consultation Program.

So what's wrong with that?

Well, OSHA has always worked with the National Safety Council and their state affiliates. Every Fall for decades half of OSHA's staff troops merrily (or dutifully) to the National Safety Council's annual conference. And until recently, they did it without forming an Alliance or issuing a single press release.

And the NY State Consultation Program? Consultation programs are basically an extension of OSHA's compliance assistance programs: they are authorized under the OSHA Act and funded out of OSHA's budget. Forming an alliance between OSHA and a state consultation program is like me issuing a press release announcing that I was forming an alliance with my daughter to help with her homework.

So what's the deal? Is OSHA running out of industry associations to form alliances with? I mean what are they going to do if (God, please don't strike me dead for even thinking this) they somehow get re-elected? and have to find alliance partners for four more years? Clearly alliances with unions are out of the picture.

Hmmm.... I can just imagine.........

March 8, 2007

Washington -- Improving workplace health and safety by enhancing the efficiency of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA is the goal of a new alliance between the left hand and the right hand of Assistant Secretary of Labor, John Henshaw.

OSHA alliances are part of U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's ongoing efforts to improve the health and safety of workers through cooperative partnerships.

Henshaw's arms and fingers will also take part in the alliance. The purpose of the alliance is to provide Henshaw's hands with information, guidance and access to resources he needs to be able to type, write, gesticulate and scratch his nose.

This Alliance follows last week's successful Alliance between Henshaw's brain and his mouth. Two weeks ago, OSHA announced the formation of 134 new Alliances when each of OSHA's ten regions formed alliances with every other region.

OSHA also announced today that it will rescind its plan to order all OSHA employees to form alliances with other OSHA employees. After careful consideration, the Solicitor of Labor determined that such alliances could be interpreted as violating employees' marriage vows and could, in some circumstances, also be in conflict with the new constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage.

Since 2001, the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has created more than 32 million alliances with organizations, companies, hot dog stands, contributors to the Republican party, Mrs. Sewel's third grade class, various stray cats, dogs and large insects who are committed to fostering safety and health in the workplace. OSHA is dedicated to saving lives, preventing injuries, regulations and illnesses and protecting the health and safety of American workers. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

Update: There is apparently NO truth to the rumor that OSHA was in the process forming an alliance with Martha Stewart prior to her unfortunate conviction. In response to a question, a high-ranking OSHA official is reported to have replied: "I did not form an alliance with that women!"

No Comment

Worker Dies in Trench Collapse

By Rick Hightower, WISH TV, Indianapolis

A plumbing sub-contractor was buried alive while working in a trench at a northeast side subdivision in the Geist area Monday afternoon. There was no escape for the man who experts say was working in the trench that may not have been properly shored up.

The victim, an Hispanic male in his 30's, had been working with another man in the trench when one man went on a break. When he came back he saw the 12-foot deep dirt walls collapse on his co-worker.

It took a team from the fishers rescue task force assisted by a Pike Township rescue team over two hours to find the body.

The two men had been laying sewer pipe in what authorities say is a trench between 12 and 15 feet deep.

“We noticed there's no box in this trench. That's what shores up so if the walls do come in the box holds the walls from collapsing,” said Ron Lipps of the Fishers Fire Department. “And unfortunately since those weren't there, there was nothing to keep the dirt from falling on this gentlemen."

***

UPDATE: The victim's name was Javier Marquez, age 33.

And the company's defense?

"We take our safety training pretty seriously," [R.T. Moore Company Vice President John] Bennett said. "We comply with all the safety guidelines we're expected to." Bennett disputed the size of the trench as reported by fire officials, claiming it was 11 feet deep.

Nice try John, but the OSHA regulation states that the trench has to be supported if it's more than 5 feet deep. I'm putting you in the running for the "Stupidist Statement Following a Fatality" contest.

More information here.

See the World, Travel to Exotic Lands, Get Sprayed With Pesticides

All buckeled in next to child and your pregnant wife, ready for your exotic trip to far away lands when you wife and kid starts getting violently ill. What's going on. "Oh," the flight attendant tells you, "There are other getting sick too. It may be the pesticides they sprayed on the plane."

Yes, believe it or not, several countries still require all incoming aircraft to be sprayed for pesticides. The Association of Flight attendants, whose members endure repeated exposure, is distributing an on-line petition to show the airlines and the Department of Transportation (DOT) that passengers and crew do not want to be sprayed with pesticides when they fly. For more information on aircraft pesticide spraying, check out the AFA webpage.

The AFA is trying to show that there is strong public support for a change to the current practice of spraying people with pesticides on planes.

Please do just take a moment and sign the on-line petition with your mouse. Just click on "sign petition."

If you are not comfortable sending your signature on-line, just use your mouse to print your name. And then forward this message to one and all...

The Weekly Toll

Worker killed by forklift at job

CANAL WINCHESTER, OH -- A Stoutsville man was killed when he became pinned between two large concrete septic tanks while at work at the E.C. Babbert Co. in Canal Winchester.

G. Bryan Hart, 38, died shortly before 7 a.m., according to Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen.

"Hart was moving a concrete septic tank with a forklift to set next to another septic tank. He apparently had gotten off of it to readjust several two-by-fours to set it up off the ground," Phalen said. "He had left the forklift in neutral. Because it was also on a slight incline, the forklift rolled forward and pinned him between the two large concrete septic tanks."

Construction worker killed after truck backs over him

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - A construction worker was killed when a truck backed over him at a site where sound walls are being installed along Interstate 95.

Maxime Cheriscat, 30, of Boynton Beach, was killed in the accident, the Florida Highway Patrol reported. Cheriscat had worked for Hubbard Construction of Orlando for the past five years.

Cheriscat was apparently standing behind a large tractor-trailer that is used to store fluids for the heavy equipment used on the project. The truck backed up and ran over him Thursday morning, troopers said. More here.

Construction Collapse Traps Worker

DALLAS -- A 60-year-old construction worker was in critical condition Friday after being trapped in a building collapse.

The accident happened at about 11:30 a.m. at 4122 Avondale Ave. in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas when a parking garage under construction caved in.

Fire rescue officials said the man was pinned under heavy wooden beams and a wet cement mix.

NY Worker Crushed, Killed by SUV

A KeySpan worker died yesterday after losing both legs in a grisly crash in Brooklyn, moments after he fixed the boiler at a home-nursing office.

Alfonse Ferrandino, 41, was loading his tools into a company van double-parked in front of the Midwood building when an SUV rammed into his vehicle, first pinning him, then sending him flying into the air, according to witnesses. More here.

Trash hauler killed on job

SALEM, CT -- A 43-year-old Lisbon man and father of three was killed at work Wednesday after he was pinned and crushed between two garbage trucks.

William Tracy of 110 Rimek Road was driving a recycling truck in a neighborhood off Route 85 in Salem. He was followed by another unidentified worker driving a refuse truck.

Both men, who work for Sterling Superior Services of Bozrah, had stopped in the area of 16 Skyline Drive to pick up garbage at about 8:18 a.m., police said.

Tracy was standing between the two vehicles, at the back of his own truck, when the refuse truck started to roll forward, pinning him between the two, police said. More here.

One worker dead, 1 hurt in SWFIA construction accident

NAPLES, FL -- A construction worker was killed and another injured Tuesday morning when a form broke loose from its concrete column at a construction site at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

Jebel Polanco Zuniga, 22, was killed in the accident. Gustavo Facio Orosco, 20, was airlifted from the scene to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers. Orosco was listed in serious condition Monday night.

The two men were employed by D.H. Griffin Construction, a Raleigh, N.C., firm.

Construction worker killed

HILO, Hawai'i — A 48-year-old construction worker was killed yesterday morning when he was run over by a grader on a South Kohala construction site.

Fire officials were called to the Kolea condominium construction site on Waikoloa Beach Road at 8:20 a.m. and found that Gordon Cagampang of Kailua, Kona, had died at the scene. Cagampang apparently was lying on the ground and reaching into a manhole to work when he was run over by the grader and suffered head injuries, police said.

Franklin worker killed in Elkton plant accident

ELKTON -- A Franklin, Ky., man working on the roof of Elkton Die Casting in the Industrial Park fell to his death early Saturday morning.

Todd County Coroner Jimmy Shemwell said George T. Shelton, 50, of Franklin, was employed by DCD Inc., of Franklin. He was cleaning air ducts on the roof at the die casting plant at the time of his accident.

Worker Killed in U of U Industrial Accident

Salt Lake City -- A construction worker is dead after an industrial accident on the University of Utah campus. 42-year-old Michael Begay and three other men were working for a re-bar subcontractor.

They were putting up a foundation wall on an addition to the health-science building yesterday afternoon.

The two-and-a-half ton wall toppled over, killing Begay. The other men were not seriously injured.

OSHA looks into Brownsville mill worker's death

BROWNSVILLE, OR - Officials are investigating the Jan. 28 death of a worker at the Bear Mountain pellet mill.

Dean Corliss, 34, was an employee of the Bear Mountain Forest Products Golden Fire Wood Pellets Plant on Lake Creek Drive southwest of Brownsville.

Medics were called to the mill at 6:01 p.m. Jan. 28 for a report of an employee who had passed out. Corliss was taken to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, where he later died.

"It was initially reported as a heart attack, but there were enough circumstances surrounding the death that it warranted opening up an investigation," said Kevin Weeks of Oregon OSHA.

Sgt. Art Sprague of the sheriff's office said that while Corliss had some health problems, the medical examiner also found burn marks on the body consistent with an electrocution.

2 TA bosses slain, ex-worker quizzed

Two Transit Authority supervisors were shot and killed execution-style in a Coney Island train yard yesterday, and police were questioning a recently fired employee.

A security guard on patrol discovered the bodies of Luigi Sedita, 61, of Staten Island, and Clive Patterson, 46, of Queens, at 5:30 a.m. They were lying in pools of blood in a work trailer at the southern edge of the sprawling Coney Island Rapid Transit Car Overhaul Yard, police said.

Man killed in wall collapse

The man killed while working at a house in Bethesda Tuesday afternoon has been identified as Juan Vasquez Izara.

Izara, 36, of the 8000 block of 14th Street in Hyattsville, was using a jackhammer to break up concrete at 8315 Woodhaven Boulevard in Bethesda on Tuesday when a 14 feet high and 5 feet wide section of the brick siding fell outward onto him, according to a release from Montgomery County police. He was killed instantly.

Izara, along with two other individuals, had been hired as day laborers to build an addition to the left side of the Bethesda home.

Worker Dies On Construction Site

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The Forsyth County Sheriff's Department is investigating the death of a construction worker.

Investigators said 41-year-old Jose Cristino Berrios died when he fell from a scaffold. It happened around 7:30 a.m. at a construction site of the future Ronald W. Reagan High School on Transou Road in Pfafftown.

Officials said Berrios fell 31 feet.

KIN RIP DRIVER AS CON ED WORKER DIES

February 25, 2004 -- The Con Ed worker run down while checking an electrical hot spot at a Queens intersection has died of his injuries, and his relatives are furious.

"I want that kid to know that he destroyed a family" by running down Thomas Verderosa, 35, said family spokesman John Cahill. "There are three boys out there who had a very loving father taken away from them."

Verderosa was crossing a street last Thursday night to test a manhole cover for stray voltage at Sutphin and Fochs boulevards in South Jamaica, when he was hit head-on by Andre Mattis, 21, in a 2003 Nissan, cops said.

Tire explosion kills airport employee

A Toledo Express Airport employee was killed early yesterday when a tire he was repairing exploded, and he was struck by the tire’s rim.

Brian J. Bergeon, 34, of Whitehouse had removed a tire from a jetway - used by airplane passengers to connect an airplane to the terminal - and taken it into a maintenance building.

The force sent the heavy rim upward, striking Mr. Bergeon and knocking him 10 feet backward. He was hit in the neck by the rim. The rim and tire continued upward, striking the garage door 20 feet overhead, according to Dr. Diane Barnett, Lucas County deputy coroner.

Wickliffe paper mill worker dies in accident

WICKLIFFE, Ky. — A Western Kentucky paper mill worker was killed on the job, state police said yesterday.

Kenneth Jones, 27, of Wickliffe, was working in the finishing area of the MeadeWestvaco paper mill on Saturday night when he was fatally struck in the head by the arm of a machine as he bent down to pick something up, Kentucky State Police said.

Classic Employer Misconduct

I wrote an article in December about the death of William Steadman in a trench collapse. At the time, Baruch Fellner, the attorney representing Steadman's employer, American Contracting Inc., claimed that Steadman's death was likely due to "classic employee misconduct." According to Fellner, Steadman had allegedly been told by his supervisor not to go into the trench.

But OSHA wasn't buying it. The safety agency fined American Contracting $20,000 for Steadman's death. Not much for a man's life, or for the five children he left behind. But it's good to see that his employer didn't get away with blaming Steadman for his own death.

Wow. This is Surprising: Energy Industry Buys Bush Environmental Policy

The New York Times has a long article on how energy industry lobbyists won the battle to weaken EPA's pollution control policies. It's a story that's gotten so common in this administration, it's almost getting boring.

But this one has a few twists: the energy industry's usual lobby, the Edison Electric Institute wasn't radical enough for the power plant owners -- EEI only wanted to weaken clean air regulations, the energy companies wanted to kill them. So Republican lobbyists Haley Barbour (now an Alabama Senator) and Marc Racicot (currently heading up the Campaign to Re-elect the President), formed their own lobbying group dedicated to eradicating the regulations. By lobbying the White House (Cheney) and the Energy Department, topped off with lots of campaign cash, by changing regulations out of the public eye, instead of debating the issues in Congress -- guess who won? The regs have been emasculated. Lawsuits brought during the Clinton Administration have been dropped, scores of top enforcement officials at EPA have resigned.

Ho, hum. Just another day of work in the Bush Administration.

Asbestos Companies Gag, Threaten Workplace Health Activist

Join the Campaign to Help Fernanda Giannasi

In the United States, fighting for workers’ health and safety can be a frustrating experience. In Brazil, it can bring criminal prosecution and death threats.

Brazilian safety inspector Fernanda Giannasi, known around the world for her struggle to protect Brazilian asbestos workers, is facing trial for offending the honor of a former Brazilian government minister and death threats for fighting to protect Brazilian asbestos workers. A worldwide campaign is being organized to assist her.

Fernanda Giannasi has been a Labor Inspector in Sao Paulo State for more than 20 years. She is a founding member of ABREA, the Association of Asbestos-Exposed Workers in Brazil, a member of the prestigious Collegium Ramazzini and received the International Award from the Occupational Safety and Health Section of the American Public Health Association in 1999.

Her crime: helping asbestos workers protect themselves, get information, get medical checks and learn about the deaths of their co-workers from asbestos-related disease. For this, she has earned the wrath of the multinational asbestos industry.

When Giannasi came across her first cases of asbestos poisoning, the workers were reluctant to take on their employers. 'They were scared to death of losing their jobs. It wasn't until a number of companies had shut down that they came to us. All of them were very ill. Nobody had ever told them that asbestos was dangerous. If it was brought up at all, they were told "it was safe because it's white."' She rolls her eyes and raises her fists: 'Can you believe it!' Today, wherever she goes Giannasi imposes strict security measures, including industrial masks, exhaust and climate control installations and launderettes, to prevent the workers from carrying the asbestos particles home with them. If necessary she personally shuts down an operation. She resolutely points at a picture: 'I closed that factory.'

But just cleaning up the workplaces wasn't good enough. She tried to pass a national law to ban asbestos in Brazil. When that effort failed,

She changed tactics and began fighting for local bans in the cities and states instead. At the moment there are 70 bills for a ban on Brazilian asbestos being discussed. As for Giannasi, someone is always fighting her in court somewhere. When she finally managed to get the hazardous mineral banned in four states, one of the companies complained it was being discriminated against, since asbestos is legal in the rest of Brazil. It would have to fire 400 employees. The judge allowed the appeal, and Giannasi had to start all over again. 'The industry always manages to find some other loophole. Their crimes are either ignored or trivialized.

For this work, Giannasi became a familiar face on TV, in magazines and at public meetings. But she also made powerful enemies. In 1998, she was sued for defamation by Eternit S.A., a leading Brazilian asbestos manufacturer, for articles she wrote about the fate of Brazilian asbestos workers and her public condemnation of hundreds of “highly questionable” extra-judicial agreements with former asbestos employees. The charges were dismissed the next year and the company chose not to appeal.

Despite this attack, Giannasi refused to be intimidated. She continued to travel to asbestos mining communities throughout Brazil and has publicized the plight of the asbestos workers and their communities.

Asbestos is a big – and deadly -- business in Brazil.

Brazil is now the fifth largest producer in the world. But unlike Canada, for example, which exports 98% of its asbestos, 70% of Brazilian asbestos is used on the national market. Of those 70 - 90% goes to the building industry. Over half the production is controlled by two companies, Saint Gobain (French) and Eternit (Swiss), both of whom would face charges if they were to take their Brazilian operations home.

Fernanda Giannasi: 'The big boom was in the 70s, when there was large-scale construction of cheap housing made from un-isolated asbestos. It's insane, especially if you realize that the material is unsuitable for Brazil's hot and humid climate. It's even worse in the North, where there's a lot of poverty. The fibres begin to disintegrate after five years. Moreover, until a few years ago at least 90% of all houses had asbestos rooftop water tanks, and 60% of all houses are still fitted with asbestos tiles. Asbestos is also widely used in the car industry, for roofing and isolation purposes, for pots and pans, even for children's toys!'

Under pressure from the asbestos industr, Giannasi was informed by her employer last November that she was no longer no longer authorized to carry out inspections or mobilize workers and was being restricted to the Brasilia office. According to Hazards Magazine

The latest charges say Giannasi insulted an ex-Labour minister who supported a "yellow" trade union created by asbestos multinational Saint Gobain. In 1985, the company union illegally replaced an independent union which had organized a strike at the company's biggest factory.

The trial has been postponed until Fall because the presiding judge has been jailed on corruption charges.

This action came not-so-coincidentally a few weeks after the breakdown of negotiations between ABREA and Brazil's major asbestos companies over how to provide compensation and medical care for 2,500 affected asbestos workers. The discussion had been going on for three years and Giannasi had played a major role She characterized the final offer made by the companies as "derisory and insulting."

Declining demand due to rising public awareness of the hazards of asbestos has hit the Brazilian asbestos industry hard. Yet the industry blames Giannasi and ABREA for the dramatic decline in the fortunes of the Brazilian asbestos industry.

Giannasi has also received death threats which are to be taken seriously in Brazil.

The use of physical violence is not unusual. It is widely believed that the execution-style murder of Labor Inspectors Nelson Jose da Silva, Eratostenes de Almeida Gonsalves and Joao Batista Soares Lage on January 28, 2004 was related to a raid on a soybean plantation which was, it is alleged, using illegal slave labor. According to Reuters, “Labor Ministry inspectors travel around Brazil’s interior, usually accompanied by armed federal police officers.” The lack of protection which enabled the assassins to attack the inspectors on a public highway illustrates how cut-backs are compromising both the physical safety of Labor Inspectors and their ability to protect Brazil’s workers.

Jim Mowatt, National Secretary of the British Asbestos Workers Union has written to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva:

We are profoundly disturbed to learn of the predicament confront Labour Inspector, Fernanda Giannasi. From reports we have received from all around the World, it would appear that there have been serious attempts in Brazil to silence Ms Giannasi. We understand that criminal charges have been taken out against Ms Giannasi and that she has had her Inspector's right to inspect workplaces withdrawn.

An international campaign is being organized to help Giannasi. You can help by writing to the Brazilian president Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva and to the Labour and Justice ministries asking them to assist Giannasi.

Check out the Hazards site for addresses and sample letters.

10,000 Deaths American Asbestos Deaths a Year

"Ten thousand Americans die each year -- a rate approaching 30 deaths per day -- from diseases caused by asbestos," according to a report issued today by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund." The report finds that over 100,000 people will die of asbestos-related disease over the next decade.

This report comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to rejoin the debate over asbestos compensation legislation

that would nullify tens of thousands of asbestos lawsuits and transfer all pending and future claims to a newly created $108 billion victims compensation fund financed by manufacturers and insurance companies.

The Senate is expected to take up this bill at the end of this month or in early April. The measure is backed by the business community, which is seeking to cap its liability and get out from under a flood of lawsuits, but it faces opposition from organized labor and trial lawyers who argue the fund will shortchange victims.

The EWG report calls for two measures:

• Any solution to the asbestos epidemic, be it litigation, a trust fund, or a combination of the two, must help everyone hurt by asbestos. The current proposal by Senators Frist and Hatch does not come close to this goal.
  
  
• All uses of asbestos must be banned immediately. This is the only way to put an end to the ongoing tragedy of asbestos illness and death.

The site also contains extensive documentary proof of the asbestos industy's cover-up of the hazards of asbestos that lead to the massive death rate

These papers, just a handful of which we present here, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the companies and their insurers knew the hazards of asbestos and concealed this information from workers for decades. More than any other piece of evidence, it is the companies' own internal papers that have convinced juries of citizens across the country that workers and their families deserve compensation to help them manage the severe and often fatal health consequences of working with asbestos.

More here.

Schwarzenegger Tackles Workers Compensation

There's one thing almost everyone in California can agree with: The workers compensation system is a mess.

The central problem in California now is that the costs paid by employers are the highest in the country, while the benefits received by workers are about average - in part because many cases are disputed, which wastes resources.

Total costs for California employers increased to $29 billion in 2003 - eight times the gross domestic product of Haiti - from $11 billion in 1998. By one estimate, the average employer in California pays 5.2 percent of payroll for workers' compensation insurance, more than twice the average of other states. Rates are much higher in hazardous occupations: 43 percent for loggers, 33 percent for roofers, 22 percent for carpenters and 18 percent for truck drivers.

And Arnold has pledged to do something about it.

The problems include too many disputes between workers and employers, too much litigation, rising medical costs, overly complex system for determining permanent partial disabilities, and dueling doctors among other things.

What to do? No one agrees.

Many of Arnold's suggestions would be a disaster for ailing workers:

A draft ballot initiative by Mr. Schwarzenegger would raise the burden of proof for workers to receive benefits; require physicians to use objective, observable medical evidence to assess injuries; restrict an employee's choice of doctor to those agreed to by his or her employer; deny compensation for impairments that result from cumulative activities, like back sprains, unless they are proved to be "predominantly caused by actual activities of employment"; and deny compensation for other impairments unless a single work-related incident caused at least 10 percent of the disability.

In fact, according to workers compensation expert John Burton, some of these suggestions would be counterproductive

not compensating employees for injuries that arise from work but cannot be pinpointed to a particular event could have a major unintended consequence: employers could possibly be sued for large damages outside the workers' compensation system.

This type of collateral damage would set workers' compensation insurance back a century.

Airport Screeners Suffer Highest Government Injury Rate

Next time you're in an airport take a look at how much how much awkward lifting and twisting these workers do, especially those who are x-raying the heavy checked bags. It hurts just to watch.

According to a new OSHA report, airport baggage screeners suffer an injury rate 3-1/2 times higher than the average federal government workers. Most of the injuries are back injuries and other strains and sprains from lifting and twisting with heavy bags. Other injuries include cuts from reaching blindly into bags and even broken bones when bags fall.

"That’s extraordinarily high,” said Dr. Laura Welch, medical director for the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, a Silver Spring, Md., organization that tries to improve safety for construction workers. “It suggests there’s a really big problem and they’d better figure out what it is.”

The main problem seems to be design of the workplace. Neither airports nor the machinery used by the workers were built with ergonomics in mind.

“We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the physical systems, the mechanical systems,” Hatfield said, explaining the problem is due partly to lack of time to prepare work areas.

The TSA had only a year to recruit and train tens of thousands of people to screen passengers and baggage at 429 commercial airports. Airports couldn’t be renovated fast enough to properly install new security equipment, so the large machines that screen luggage for explosives were hastily placed in many airport lobbies, requiring screeners to lift heavy bags from the floor onto conveyor belts.

“It’s a very physical and tough job, and in many situations we are still operating under less-than-ideal conditions,” Hatfield said.

For more information, check out the OSHA webpage on Airline industry hazards.

Bush Haiku

Far too much seriousness. Things start to get depressing. The center cannot hold.

We need to take some time to clear our minds and refresh our spirits. And what better way to cleanse our souls and set ourselves afloat on a cloud of tranquility than by reading a bit of haiku, using the lines of our esteemed fearless leader, none other than George the W.

Verily, these are actual quotations by George W. Bush, arranged, only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson.

Take a deep breath....

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

Popcorn Workers Lung Trial Begins

The trial of the first worker affected by "popcorn workers lung" began today.

Former microwave popcorn factory worker Eric Peoples told jurors this morning that the biggest loss in his life since being diagnosed with an irreversible lung disease is not being able to "rough house" with his two young children.

"In my home, if you were on the floor, you were fair game," Peoples said.

Peoples used a portable oxygen tank to ease his breathing as he testified in his lawsuit against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and a subsidiary. His suit claims his lungs were ruined after months of mixing their butter flavoring oils at a popcorn factory in southwest Missouri.

Attorneys on both sides agreed to break up Peoples' testimony into short segments because his lung capacity is severely diminished and he tires easily.

More here.

Unions Ask OSHA To Prevent Further Weakening of TB Protections

Several labor unions concerned about workplace tuberculosis exposure are meeting Assistant Secretary for OSHA, John Henshaw, to request that the agency not weaken current respiratory protections for workers exposed to tuberculosis or other airborne pathogens.

You may recall that on New Years Eve, OSHA officially withdrew its tuberculosis proposal. At the same time, OSHA announced that health care workers potentially exposed to TB would now be covered by the revised 1998 respiratory protection standard, instead of the old 1974 standard. Respiratory protection for workers exposed to TB was originally going to be addressed in the TB standard instead of the new respiratory protection standard because in 1998 there were still outstanding TB-related respirator issues and release of the TB standard was thought to be imminent. So, instead of bringing these workers into the new standard, they were to be covered "temporarily" under the old respirator standard. Once the TB standard was deep-sixed, OSHA brought health care workers under the new standard.

Fresh from their victory in killing the TB standard, however, the health care industry is having fits because the new standard requires that workers who wear respirators must be medically examined and fit-tested. The Association of Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) and the American Hospital Association wrote to OSHA protesting OSHA's decision. The AHA made the rather curious argument that "The dynamics of exposure and transmission for biologic agents contrast dramatically with the airborne chemical contaminants or particulate matter (e.g., asbestos) for which the General Industry Respiratory Protection Standard was developed."

In a letter to OSHA responding to the AHA letter, Marc Nicas, Adjunct Associate Professor at U.C. Berkeley, responded that

With regard to technical applicability, the standard does apply, because M. tb bacilli are carried on airborne particles that behave aerodynamically just like other airborne particles of comparable size, and although health care facilities cannot yet measure airborne M. tb concentrations, they can assess exposure potential.

The Coalition to Fight TB in the Workplace, wrote to OSHA pointing out that

As you know, proper and regular fit testing at least on an annual basis as is required by 1910.134 has proven crucial to protect workers from airborne hazards. The quality of the face seal that provides workers with protection has nothing to do with the airborne hazard confronted, but everything to do with how the respirator is designed to perform. As was reported by the CDC from the SARS experience in Toronto, a number of workers supplied with respirators, but who were not fit tested, ended up contracting SARS (MMWR May 16, 2003). Finally regular fit testing is particularly important when you are dealing with an airborne agent such as TB that does not possess any warning properties, and where no safe level of exposure has been established.

The Coalition, which includes more than a dozen unions, petitioned OSHA for a TB standard almost ten years ago.

Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, also wrote OSHA, noting a study that highlighted the lack of understanding on the part of many healthcare facilities about the components of effective respiratory protection programs.

Ergo Battle in Michigan

You think gay marriage, weapons of mass destruction, and massive budget deficits are problems? Wait until you hear this one. Michigan OSHA may be considering an ergonomics standard!! Are you still on your feet?

In 2002, Michigan OSHA formed a steering committee to develop a framework for addressing an ergonomics rule and appointed members to the Ergonomics Standard Advisory Committee from management, labor and the public. Around half of the states run their own OSHA program and are able to issue their own workplace safety standard. Currently, California is the only state with an ergonomics standard. Washington state's was repealed last year.

After three meetings, Charles Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business resigned from the Ergonomics Standard Advisory Committee because, he said, he realized that the mission of the committee was to develop a standard. Owens said that he had been under the impression that the purpose of the committee was to determine if a standard was needed. National NFIB was one of the most active business associations behind the repeal of the federal ergonomics standard in 2001.

"At a time when Michigan is shedding manufacturing jobs by the thousands, I find it incredible that we are about to become only the second state in the country, besides California, to have our own state-specific ergonomics standard replete with fines, penalties and compliance enforcement. Certainly this does not seem to indicate that we are serious about saving and creating jobs in Michigan," Owens wrote in his resignation letter to Doug Kalinowski, director of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In testimony before the House Commerce Committee in Lansing, Owens predicted the cost to taxpayers of administering new ergonomics rules could reach millions of dollars a year.

Meanwhile, a Detroit Free Press columnist, Tom Walsh, echoing the business community's tiresome "sky is falling" threats warns that

This fixation on jobs is understandable in a state with a jobless rate of 7.2 percent, or 1.6 percentage points higher than the national rate. Each point of unemployment translates to more than 50,000 Michigan friends and neighbors without work.

But along with mulling big ideas about the jobs dilemma, it's also important to remain vigilant in the bureaucratic trenches about new rules and red tape that can dump job-killing extra costs upon Michigan business. In that spirit, let's hear a little applause for Charlie Owens.

Let's not.

I've never been very confident that the Michigan ergo standard was gong to get anywhere, despite their best intentions. The business community has long ago declared a nation-wide jihad against any ergonomics standard anywhere, and has been willing to spend any amount of money and tell any lie to stop or repeal any standards.

The Michigan NFIB webpage doesn't exactly hold out any hope that it representatives will be open minded:

MIOSHA is currently being directed to promulgate a state-based ergonomics standard for Michigan business. NFIB was successful in urging the Bush administration to rescind the Clinton administration's Executive Order that would have created a mandatory federal ergonomics standard. Now Michigan is seeking to move forward on a state ergonomics mandate on business. NFIB supports voluntary ergonomics best practices guidelines, but we will oppose a state mandated program that will cost small business millions of dollars and result in more enforcement and fines from MIOSHA.

"Voluntary ergonomics best practices guidelines?" That wouldn't be like the ANSI standard that the business community also managed to scuttle, would it?

UPS Cited For Tampering With Evidence

Utah OSHA has fined UPS $71,000 for tampering with evidence following the electocution of an employee last August.

Mark D. Hills was electrocuted while working at UPS, 2040 W. Parkway Blvd. (2600 South) on Aug. 19. Hills was trying to get a package that had fallen under a conveyor chute. He touched a large piece of machinery called a Mobile Distribution Unit (MDU) while lying on the ground to retrieve the package.

The MDU's grounding system was not working, and Hills' body provided the path to ground for the energized MDU, according to the UOSHA report.

But before UOSHA investigators could properly investigate the accident, UPS "deliberately and knowingly removed and/or altered equipment, materials or other evidence" related to the accident, according to the report.

The report further stated that after the equipment was removed, "such information was withheld from Utah OSHA personnel" by UPS management. It wasn't until the second day of UOSHA's investigation that UPS disclosed it had removed key evidence, according to the report.

UPS denies that it tried to hide anything and is appealing the citation, claiming it was a misunderstanding.

B.S., says OSHA. "UPS has a documented history of dealings with OSHA (both federal and state), and to claim unawareness was not understandable or a feasible excuse."

IBM Settles Birth Defect Lawsuit

After winning a lawsuit brought by two workers who alleged that on-the-job chemical exposures had caused their cancers, IBM settled a lawsuit today brought by a former worker who had blamed her daughter's birth defects on exposure to chemicals at an IBM plant in New York.

IBM spokesman Chris Andrews said the maintained that it held no responsibility for the birth defects of the daughter of Heather Curtis, who took a job at an IBM computer chip plant in Fishkill, New York in 1980.

Curtis' daughter, Candace, who is 23, was born with a rare brain disorder and severe physical deformities.

"The Curtis case has been concluded and dismissed," Andrews said. "IBM firmly believes, based on facts and evidence, that it had no liability in this case and its workplace did not cause the plaintiff's injuries."

This was not the first birth defect lawsuit that IBM has settled

Three years ago, IBM settled a $40 million lawsuit brought by the parents of a boy who was born blind and with physical deformities that prevent him from breathing through his nose or his mouth.

Attorneys who have followed the IBM cases said lawsuits involving injured children are far more difficult to defend than cases of sick adults.

"IBM does not want its name associated with severe birth defects caused to innocent children of its employees, and as such it risked severe reputational damage if the case went to trial, even if it came out in their favor," said Scott Ferrell, a defense attorney at Call, Jensen & Ferrell, whose firm has not been involved in the IBM cases.

"Any time you've got a young child and substantial damages, you are essentially taking a spin on the roulette wheel if you take it to a jury," he said.

IBM may have taken the best way out considering the story that the jury would have heard.

When Heather Curtis took a factory job at IBM in 1980, the pregnant, 22-year-old was assigned to dip silicon wafers into acids and solvents as part of a process used to make computer chips.

Despite complaints that fumes from the job gave her headaches and a sore throat, IBM assured Curtis her workplace was safe, according to her lawyer. Months later, Curtis gave birth to a daughter so severely deformed that she lacked knees and had a skull too small to accommodate her brain....Candace, 23, requires a tube in her throat to breathe. Her hips are deformed, giving her an exaggerated gait and a rare condition called microcephaly gave her a head too small for her brain, leaving her with a low IQ.

Another reason that IBM may have been anxious to settle without a trial is that the burden of proof was lower in this case than in the California cancer case:

In the Silicon Valley case, California's workers' compensation law required that two former IBM employees prove the computer giant fraudulently withheld information about their exposure to toxic chemicals they contend caused them to develop cancer.

The plaintiff's attorneys in the New York case do not face such a hurdle because Candace Curtis was not an IBM employee. But Curtis' attorneys still must convince a White Plains, N.Y., jury that toxic chemicals caused her birth defects and that IBM was negligent in allowing her mother to be exposed to such toxins in the workplace.

"It's a huge, huge difference,'' Curtis' attorney, Will DeProspo, said of the New York case. "There is a traditional negligence theory, such as failure to warn that chemicals used were known to cause cancer and birth defects. . . . We are very excited and optimistic about our chances in New York.''

Chinese Chastise US For Workplace Safety, Human Rights

Angered by the U.S. report on human rights in China, the Chinese government issues its own report on human rights violations in the U.S. In addition to problems with poverty, health care coverage, homelessness and womens rights, the report noted workplace safety problems:

Work safety in the U.S. was another concern of the Chinese report, which pointed to a survey of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration which said from 1982 to 2002 there were 1,242 cases involving the death of workers caused by the employers' "intended" violation of safety rules. "Yet 93 percent of the cases were not brought to court," the Chinese report noted.

I guess they've been reading the NY Times. The entire Chinese report can be found here.

And I seem to recall they've got a few workplace safety problems of their own.

Right to Organize Clear for 2004 Dem Candidates

Carter Wright at the Joe Kenehan Center has an interesting article about how all of the Democratic presidential candidate have actively embraced labor's right to organize and the problems inherent in our labor laws.

Now if we can just hold them (Kerry) to it once he's elected.... And a change in one or both houses of Congress might help matters as well.

CalOSHA Considers Lowering Glutaraldehyde Exposure Limit

SEIU Conducting A Survey

The CalOSHA Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) is considering reducing the permissible exposure limit for glutaraldehyde, also known as Cidex, from .2 parts per million (ppm) to .015 ppm. Glutaraldehyde is a widely used hospital disinfectant.

According to NIOSH, exposure to glutaraldehyde can cause throat and lung irritation, asthma, asthma-like symptoms, nose irritation, nosebleeds, burning eyes and conjunctivitis, rash—contact and/or allergic dermatitis, headaches and nausea.

Glutaraldehyde is a sensitizer. This means some workers will become very sensitive to glutaraldehyde and have strong reactions if they are exposed to even small amounts. Workers may get sudden asthma attacks with difficult breathing, wheezing, coughing, and tightness in the chest. Prolonged exposure can cause a skin allergy and chronic eczema, and afterwards, exposure to small amounts produces severe itching and skin rashes.

In preparation for the CalOSHA hearings on lowering the standard, SEIU is conducting a web survey. If you use glutaraldehyde at work, please click here and fill out the survey.

More information on glutaraldehyde can be found here.

Lungs of the Living Dead

"The only thing this group of people ever did wrong was go to work."

In a rational, responsible society, a company that invented a new chemical to add buttery flavor to popcorn (called diacetyl) would test it for health effects on humans. And if this is what you found....

After breathing diacetyl vapors for just four hours, some rats gagged and gasped for breath. Half the rats in the study died within a day.

All rats exposed to diacetyl rapidly showed signs of distress. Those exposed to medium and high levels died within seven days, according to the industry data. Of the 10 rats with highest exposure, nine died the first day.

Examination of their tissues after death showed that parts of their lungs had collapsed and filled with blood and fluid. Tissue swelled in the liver and cells in the kidney died.

Oops. Hmm. What would you do then?

a) Trash the new chemical and go back to the drawing board?

b) Put it into commerce, but with strict warnings to downstream users, NIOSH and OSHA that the most protective measures should be taken so that workers can’t inhale it.

c) Send information to the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association, a trade group based in Washington, and hope they take care of the problem.

Well, if you're BASF and the year is 1993, looks like you chose c), which (predictably) didn't work out so well because a few years later, here we are:

Former workers at a Missouri microwave popcorn plant are slowly suffocating from breathing a chemical that was known to be toxic long before most of them got sick, according to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

At least 31 people who worked at a popcorn factory in Jasper County have been diagnosed with severe lung disease linked to breathing vapors from a butter flavoring. Eight are on waiting lists for lung transplants.

One of the problems with writing Confined Space is that sometimes you feel like a broken record. How many times can you write the same story about workers getting sick or dying because they are not provided with lifesaving information or well-recognized precautions? If you published this same article, but changed the dates back 50 or 75 years, most people would have been shocked, then shaken their heads about the way things used to be, smugly thinking "Thank God, we're not doing THAT to workers any more. That was back in the old, unenlightened, uncompassionate days when we needed unions and regulatory agencies like OSHA.”

Well, wake up, it's the 21st century. We’re sending robots to explore Mars, we’re fighting wars on video screens, we have computers in our kids’ bedrooms that are thousands of times more powerful than the computers that sent men to the moon. Yet when it comes to protecting workers, we seem to be back in the smoky dawn of the industrial revolution.

Linda Redman started working as a packer at the Jasper popcorn plant in 1995, two years after the original study. Within two years, her breathing was so bad that she had to quit.

Redman used to work 12 hours a day and then come home to garden, cook dinner, and do her family's laundry. Now, she lives alone in Joplin, relying on home health nurses four days a week to help with basic chores around the house.

Redman, 55, doesn't have the stamina to change her bedsheets or cook herself dinner, unless it's something out of a can.

Only 15 percent of her lung capacity remains. Redman bides her time while waiting for a lung transplant by taking breathing treatments every four hours. She is constantly tethered to an oxygen tank, but she still gets exhausted walking from the bedroom to the couch.

"There's no amount of money that can ever buy back what we've lost - our health," Redman said of herself and the other sick workers. "There's a couple of us I don't think can make it much longer."

Eric Peoples, 31, and the father of two small children, will be the first plaintiff to have his case heard. He started work at the plant in 1995 and now is on the waiting list for a double lung transplant.

Angela Nally, 51, started working at the plant in 1993 and quit eight months later. She has 20 percent of her lung capacity left.

Dustin Smith, 24, started at the plant in 1999 and didn't quit until NIOSH told him he had lost half his lung capacity.

Thirty workers affected with “popcorn workers lung” are suing two manufacturers of the butter flavoring. A judge separated the suits into separate trials and Eric Peoples, the most seriously ill, comes up first, this week.

The health and safety information developed by BASF was passed on to the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA), although it is unclear when it was placed on FEMA's database and when members had access to it. According to FEMA's webpage, the association's "Critical Objectives" are:

To maintain a credible, globally recognized scientific program.

• Achieve and maintain a consistent, scientifically valid approach to safety evaluation of flavor ingredients.
  
  
• Continue to support the ongoing role of the FEMA Expert Panel for independent evaluation of the safety-in-use of flavor ingredients.
  
  
• Identify and address emerging issues.

well, this one apparently "emerged" when no one was looking. While most of FEMA's website is closed to non-members, its "General Information" page notes that it has approved the safety of hundreds of flavoring agents over the past ten years. The names of the agents are not listed. FEMA, which is not named in the lawsuit, had previously issued statements saying that "flavors are safe when handled properly." A January 2001 entry on their database stated that "diacetyl carries a risk of serious damage to eyes, is harmful by inhalation, and is irritating to skin."

The sad thing is, it all could have been prevented.

Dr. David Egilman, an expert on occupational lung disease at Brown University, said that all of this misery could have been avoided if the chemical and flavoring industries responsibly followed up on the 1993 rat study.

The BASF study proved that the chemical was lethal to rats at a level similar to that which could be experienced by plant workers, Egilman said.

"That's why it's so sad," said Egilman, who is scheduled to testify as an expert witness for the plaintiffs. "It wasn't hard for (the flavor manufacturer) to prevent people from dying. They had enough information to prevent people from getting sick."

Instead of warning its customers appropriately, Egilman said, International Flavors & Fragrances led its customers to believe that the product wasn't dangerous.

The company distributed a safety sheet with its butter flavoring that read, "Respiratory protection: none generally required. If desired, use NIOSH-approved respirator." The Material Safety Data Sheet is dated 1992.

A safety sheet written in 1994 by flavoring manufacturer Bush Boake Allen, another defendant in the lawsuit, said that respirators were not normally required for its butter flavoring, unless vapor concentrations were "high." The company is now a subsidiary of International Flavors & Fragrances.

Egilman is no shrinking violet. Last July, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine refused to publish a letter from him about a corporate cover-up of adverse toxicologic study results. Not to be silenced, he placed the material in a two- page advertisement in the back of the journal along with a poll coupon that sought to survey the readership on the interest that they have in this topic.

The issues we raised at that time are just as relevant now:

Most chemical testing in this country is done by the companies that manufacture the chemicals.... In an ideal world, this information will be peer-reviewed and then publicized. The regulatory authorities could then use the information to decide whether or not exposure to the substance needs to be controlled or eliminated. Even without regulation, workers and consumers could use the information to take some kind of action.

But none of this works – the regulatory process or (mythical) worker choice – if scientific information about the health effects of chemicals is covered up.

Again, I sound like a broken record, but until we have a mandatory system in this country where companies are required to test all new chemicals, and release all results to relevant government agencies and the public; until we make easier for government agencies to regulate these chemicals, and until workers have the clear right to refuse to work with chemicals unless they have been tested and the information made available, tragedies like this will keep happening.

Every couple of weeks, I publish “The Weekly Toll,” a compilation of all of the articles I run across about workers being killed on the job. But workers like Linda Redman, Eric Peoples, Angela Nally and Dustin Smith will never show up on that list. Their lungs have been shredded by the chemicals they work with and they will likely die years or even decades earlier than they should have, but they won’t even get the short article in the paper that a trench collapse victim gets. While they’re not easy to count or to see, and the exact origin is difficult to prove (as we have seen I in the recent IBM trial) experts estimate that between 50,000 and 60,000 people silently die every year from occupational illnesses, most from exposures suffered years or decades before.

Many of these cases are never recognized by knowledgable medical authorities as job-related, and even the, workers compensation is often refused unless a definite link can be made to their on-the-job exposures. Third-party lawsuits are often all workers have to fall back on to cover their medical and living expenses adquate, but even this course is often unsuccessful, despite the right-wing frenzy over runaway lawsuits.The bottom line was summed up by Ken McClain, an attorney representing the plaintiffs:

"The only thing this group of people ever did wrong," he said of the plaintiffs, "was go to work."

***

More here.

NIOSH has a webpage and documents on "Preventing Lung Disease in Workers Who Use or Make Flavorings"

Labor Arts

My buddy Saul Schneiderman, President of the AFSCME Local at the Library of Congress, sent me this link to Labor Arts, an amazing webpage and "a virtual museum; we gather, identify and display images of the cultural artifacts of working people and their organizations. Our mission is to present powerful images that help us understand the past and present lives of working people. "

The newest exhibit is "Sixteen Tons: Nuggets from the United Mine Workers" There's also an exhibit on Union Square in New York city ("one of the few national historic sites related to labor") which also contains a section on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

This is one of the most interesting and well-put-together websites I've seen. Spend some time there.

The plight of this terribly disabled mine worker is a cause of grief, love and concern for his children.© Copyright Labor Arts Inc.

A Worker Dies: Who is Ultimately to Blame?

Occupational Hazards magazine has an article by Jim Nash continuing the NY Times story that revealed that OSHA failed to seek criminal prosecution against 93 percent of the companies whose willful violations of safety rules caused workers to die. And then the Justice Department declined to prosecute most of those cases that were referred by OSHA.

One of the causes most often cited is the fact that OSHA prosecutions is that killing a worker due to a willful OSHA citation is only a misdemeanors and not a felony. For this reason, Senator Jon Corzine had introduced legislation making the death of worker due to a willful violation a felony.

But a representative of the Justice Department doesn't necessarily agree that this would solve the problem:

A Justice Department official countered that simply making these cases felonies might not lead to many more prosecutions. The problem, according to the official, is that according to the OSH Act, only employers can be charged with a crime. In large companies, the supervisor responsible for violating the OSHA rule is not the employer, while the company's owner -- the legal employer -- usually has no knowledge of the OSHA violation, making it almost impossible to prove that the violation was willful.

As a result, DOJ can usually prosecute only small companies where the employer also supervises the work, while large corporations are passed over.

"If you want to increase the number of criminal prosecutions," argued the DOJ official, "you need a 'wrong-doer provision' added to the current law that would allow us to go after the supervisor who committed the willful violation." That, along with increased penalties for willful fatality cases would lead to far more criminal prosecutions than simply making it a felony to kill a worker, the official contended.

I'm not sure I like the idea of going after the immediate supervisor in most cases. Generally, the immediate supervisor, especially in large companies, is acting within the system that is handed to him. The immediate supervisor generally doesn't set the deadlines, determine the pace of the work, the training the workers have, or even the equipment that's available. He, himself, may not have been properly trained to get the job done safely:

"I want that tank cleaned out by the end of the week. I don't care how it gets done. Oh, and by the way, don't spend any more money getting it done."

In other words, in larger companies, the responsibility for safety generally resides far higher up than the general supervisor. In the L.E. Myers case that I wrote about last week, L.E. Myers itself is being prosecuted, and there is a move to take the prosecution to the L.E. Myers' owner, MYR Group which had taken responsibility for the safety programs of its subsidiaries.. It seems to me that this makes much more sense -- if you're interested in changing the entire safety system -- than going after immediate supervisors.

Your view? Use the comment link right here:

TB Problem Solved? Ooops, Nevermind…

Those of you involved in the struggle to get OSHA to issue a tuberculosis standard before the agency trashed its proposal may recall that one of the main actors fighting the standard were homeless shelters. OSHA says the standard is no longer needed. The problem is under control.

And who should be disagreeing, but the state of Maine, which is currently dealing with a costly TB outbreak that started – guess where – in a homeless shelter in Portland.

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health, said the state has leveraged at least $1 million in existing resources to fight TB, but is $350,000 short of the total needed for screening at shelters, jails and prisons to prevent the disease from becoming entrenched. The first TB outbreak in Maine in 15 years started in Portland in the summer of 2002 at a homeless shelter.

Once TB was discovered, city and state health officials began exhaustive screening in the shelters. Over the course of last year, screening and interviews led health officials to identify about 1,000 people who had contact with eight men diagnosed with active TB. Of those people, about 100 had cases of dormant TB.

Mills said there are typically about a dozen isolated TB cases a year, but with the outbreak in Portland over the past year, the number

More Bloggers on the California Supermarket Strike Outcome

Long, depressing article at Daily Kos about the end of the southern California grocery strike.

It’s said that the supermarkets lost more than $1 billion in this dispute. Precisely the amount they claimed they needed to shave off wages and benefits to protect them from the Wal-Mart juggernaut. The losses don’t seem to bother them, nor do they seem to bother their shareholders.

That’s because this fight wasn’t about three big corporations chopping a billion dollars off labor costs associated with 70,000 workers. It was just another installment in the grand scheme that the plutocrats and their bootlicking pundithugs call “class warfare” and blame on its victims. For two decades, they’ve done their best to enlarge the income gap between not merely the top and the bottom, but between the top and everybody else, with the middle class their biggest target. One more round to their side