Terrorism in the American Workplace

I received this note from Michelle Marts, mother of Patrick Walters, who was killed in 2002 in an uprotected 10-foot deep trench. OSHA had cited the company, Moeves Plumbing Inc., only a couple of weeks before Walters' death for sending workers into unprotected 15-foot deep trench. Walters'case was reported by David Barstow in his three part New York Times series about how the federal government fails to prosecute most employers who willfully kill their workers.

I met her at a hearing last week.

In recent headlines in response to Americans torturing foreign prisoners, President Bush is quoted as saying he is "disgusted", "angered" and "Will hunt down the terrorist that beheaded Berg", etc... What would Mr. Bush have to say about Moeves Plumbing Inc, an American Company, if a copy of Patrick's body being recovered from the 10 feet of saturated mud, by the Montgomery County Rescue Workers, was televised to show America just how concerned Mr. Bush is with what is going on RIGHT HERE- RIGHT NOW for the AMERICAN WORKER.

Anything else I can do to further this necessary action, let me know.

Michelle Marts

CA Hospital Penalized by CalOSHA for Doctor's Murder

I have written several times about federal OSHA's failure to cite employers for workplace violence, the second leading cause of death in the workplace. CalOSHA seems to take a different point of view, even under Governor Schwarzenegger.

CalOSHA yesterday cited the John George Psychiatric Pavilion and levied $54,000 in penalties for the murder of Erlinda Ursua by a mental health patient last December.

In a report sent to the hospital this week, Cal/OSHA found that the examination room was too isolated from other employees who could have been alerted in case of trouble.

"The exam room was behind locked doors and physically separated from the work areas where other employees were located," the report said. A "panic alarm" on the wall of the room was functional but too far away for Ursua to reach, officials concluded.

Hospital staff also failed to follow an unwritten policy that doctors were never to be left alone with "potentially violent patients," the report said.

Employees also failed to follow a policy that staff members were not supposed to wear scarves or jewelry, the report said. Ursua apparently wore a scarf that could have been used to strangle her, authorities said.

John George staff also failed to determine why Pavon was in possession of medical paperwork after she allegedly killed the doctor, the report said.

Prior to Ursua's murder, the hospital had received $30,000 in penalties for failure to correction workplace violence-related hazards. Ursua's family is suing the hospital for failure to heed the earlier warnings.

More here.

Good News

Feeling down lately? Depressed, pessimistic, no energy. Read this and the ones before.

Charging My Batteries

Had drinks last night with New York Times reporter David Barstow (and his trusty sidekick Robin Stein), who wrote the Pulitzer prize winning series on the McWane corporation who willfully killed nine workers, injured scores and had been cited for more than 400 federal health and safety violations. Barstow's descriptions of working conditions at McWane, the plight of its workers and the failure of OSHA to bring criminal prosecutions down on a clear corporate criminal sum up this country's failure to ensure every worker a safe and health workplace as the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires.

In the last decade, many American corporations have embraced such a vision of capitalism — cutting costs, laying off workers and pressing those who remain to labor harder, longer and more efficiently. But top federal and state regulators say McWane has taken this idea to the extreme. Describing the company's business, they use the words "lawless" and "rogue."

The company's managers call it "the McWane way."

***

Employees describe simply stepping inside as an overwhelming experience. First is the heat, wave upon wave of it, sometimes in excess of 130 degrees. Then there is the noise — of pipe slamming into pipe, of pneumatic tools that grind and cut, of massive machines that shudder and shake, of honking forklifts and roaring exhaust systems. Dust and fumes choke the lungs and coat the lights, leaving the plant floor a spectral labyrinth of glowing pipes and blackened machinery.

Barstow went on to write another three-part series last December (which I covered here, here and here) about the failure of OSHA and the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal prosecutions down on all but a tiny number of employers who willfully kill their employees.

If you haven't read the series, you can find them here. If you read the stories when they came out, it's about time to read them again -- and pass them on to someone who hasn't read them yet. (Preferably someone who is looking for a reason to vote for political leaders that see the need for government to take a strong role in forcing employers to provide safe workplaces.)

David and I lamented the sparse media coverage of the deaths of thousands of workers in this country every year -- a few formulaic paragraphs (at most) in the local newspaper, sometimes not even noting the worker's name. Most reporters never realize that there are gripping stories behind these deaths involving failures to take basic precautions, life and death, good vs. evil, employers' failure to take responsibility for actions or omissions that result in the preventable deaths of people whose only mistake was going to work that morning. And stories of children growing up without parents, and parents burying their young children. And most tragically, the missed opportunity to channel to sorrow and rage of the families into action that could literally save thousands of lives every year.

The first story of Barstow's second series began with the death of Patrick M. Walters, killed in an uprotected 10-foot deep trench, only a couple of weeks after OSHA had cited the same company for sending workers into unprotected 15-foot deep trench. Walters' parents were in Washington D.C. last week for a "hearing" organized by New York Congressman Major Owens. Michelle Marts and Jeff Walters testified in favor of legislation introduced by Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) that would increase the penalties for employers found guilty of willfully killing a worker. They were accompanied by the families of other workers killed on the job, including Jeff Davis Jr., whose father was killed in the explosion of a sulfuric acid tank after the Delaware company, Motiva Enterprises, had been warned that the tank was leaking. All that was left of Jeff Davis's father were a couple of pieces of his workboots.

I've been to a lot of hearings in Washington over the past 20 years and I've never been so moved -- or seen an audience so moved to tears at the tragic stories of the preventable deaths of these husbands, fathers and children. Although they all died in different ways, the stories their families had to tell had one thing in common: the employers all knew that what they were doing was life threatening. Nothing was done to prevent these tragedies, their loved ones died, and no serious action was taken to punish the companies beyond a meaningless -- and often insultingly low -- fine.

A second panel at the "hearing" addressed the plight of immigrant workers in this country and OSHA's failure to seriously address the issue by hiring enough non-English speaking staff and supporting effective training and enforcement programs.

Note in the previous paragraphs I've put the word "hearing" in quotations. That's because this wasn't an "official" hearing. Instead of being held in a Congressional hearing room, this "hearing" was held in a cramped basement room of the U.S. Capitol building. Why? Because the Republicans in control of Congress won't let the Democrats hold their own hearings. Why? Because they don't want to hear about workers dying on the job. They don't want to hear about the failure of this government -- all three branches of which are controlled by their party -- to comply with the mandates of the OSHAct. They'd rather put their heads in the sand, listen only to their contributors whining about the abuse of big government and pass bills that further weaken OSHA.

We need to be rid of them.

One of the witnesses at the hearing was SEIU Immigration Campaign coordinator Omar Henriquez. Omar, along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, AFSCME DC 37 health and safety staffer Guilermina Mejia, Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint and the World Trade Center Worker and Vounteer Medical Screening Program were the recipients of awards at the NYCOSH Annual Awards Celebration.

If I was a real reporter, I would have taken careful notes about all that was said at the event and report them back to you. But at the event with me were 500 of my best friends -- brothers and sister -- many of whom I have worked with for the past twenty years and continue to go to work every day -- for unions, COSH groups, universities, law firms and government agencies -- with one mission in mind -- to help workers access the knowledge, tools and support they need to protect themselves when they go to work every day. None are well paid, all work far too hard against huge obstacles that shouldn't exist in a country as rich and "civilized" as ours. And as inspiring as the speakers were, it was the crowd that was most energizing.

We're living through one of the most difficult and terrible times in our nation's history -- beset by terrorism and faced with an administration that instead of building on the world-wide good will that resulted from the events of 9/11, has alienated the entire world and irretrievably damaged the image of America and Americans. At home, their arrogance, their mendacity, their blatent pettyness and cruelty have cast a pall over progressive people who are fighting every day to improve the lives of those who have been stepped on and left behind.

From the Washington perspective it's even more frustrating. In the heart of the beast we are cursed with the ability to see not only the obvious effect of the war, the tax cuts, and the rollbacks in environmental and workplace protections, but we are also "lucky" enough to witness the smaller crimes that never make the newspapers outside of Washington or New York-- the drip, drip, drip of small, almost unseen regulatory changes that favor some of the administration's friends, slices out of an agency's budget that the President has just publicly praised, favors that administration officials perform for the industries that employed them not long ago. We can clearly see that the Emperor has no clothes while too much of the rest of the country sees the canned, distorted, "fair and balanced" version of reality. While the media and pollsters are finally reporting the astonishing news that Bush and Kerry are roughtly tied right now, I can't believe that support for the joker living in Al Gore's house exceeds 12%. It's so completely clear that the guy lies every time he moves his lips, yet few are able (or willing) to look at what's behind the curtain.

But coming home from the celebration tonight, spending time with so many people fighting the good fight, it's possible to believe that we have the energy and ability to change things in this country -- in ways small and large. We're saving lives and we're making the world better. To quote that mighty activist Dan Aykroyd, "We're on a mission from God."

Let's do it.

Someone at Air America Has Good Taste

So, Majority Report Radio Blog, the blog for Janeane Garafolo's Majority Report show on Air America reports that Confined Space is one of the "Hot Blog Picks" of guest Bill Scher, author of the blog Liberal Oasis.

I didn't listen tonight. Does this mean he mentioned Confined Space on the show, or just on the blog? Did anyone out there listen? Leave a comment below.

Gap Shocked That Overseas Workers Making Their Clothes are Mistreated

In what the Associated Press calls "In an unusual display of corporate candor," clothing retailer Gap Inc. has announced that it has found that many of its overseas workers are mistreated and vowed to crack down on its suppliers. Gap is the largest U.S. clothing chain.

As the company strives to hold its overseas suppliers more accountable, Gap is uncovering thousands of violations at 3,009 factories scattered across roughly 50 countries. "Few factories, if any, are in full compliance all of the time," the report said.

Workplace activists who long have chided Gap for making its clothes at "sweatshops" praised the merchant for shedding light on abuses that have been haunting the clothing industry for years.

Gap's commitment is particularly significant because the factories supplying the merchant may employ 300,000 workers combined, estimated Bruce Raynor, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

Gap's report provides a geographic breakdown on the workplace violations uncovered by more than 90 inspectors. The most frequent problems cropped up in China. Troubles included psychological or verbal abuse -- something that Gap said occurred at 10 percent to 25 percent of the China factories that supply the company.

Unacceptably low pay is an especially widespread problem, according to the Gap's statistics. U.S. labor and political leaders argue the country is losing thousands of jobs as cost-conscious companies export work to take advantage of cheaper wages.

Also of interest are implications for Wal-Mart

Discussions about the report put the spotlight on No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., commonly cited as leading the global cost-cutting trends blamed for many labor abuses.

"It does sound like more information is being released by Gap than we have released," Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz said. "The question about what we should report, and how much we should report, is under review here at Wal-Mart."

Full report here.

Workers Afraid to Report Injuries?

Workers Comp Insider reports that The National Council on Compensation Insurance has announced 2003 workers' compensation results.

The find the results "both interesting and confounding."

For the sixth straight year, claim frequency, the total number of claims, has declined. Many industry people take great comfort in this. Safety efforts seem to be bearing real fruit. However, the declines in the past few years have mostly been in the less severe injury types. Moreover, BLS data show that frequency has declined in 6 of the last 7 recessions. Perhaps there's more going on here than successful safety. Maybe more workers than usual who suffer minor injuries are choosing to tough it out in the workplace, rather than go out on workers' compensation and risk being replaced. Something to think about.

What Money Buys

I continue to find it amazing that people can read things like this and still even consider voting to bring these guys back for another four years:

The 30 companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country, and their trade association, have raised $6.6 million for President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars, according to a new analysis.

***

Collectively these 10 people have raised more than $1.5 million since 1999.

"It is no coincidence that a wholesale assault on the Clean Air Act is taking place today," said Environmental Integrity Project Director Eric Schaeffer.

Schaeffer was head of enforcement at EPA before he resigned in protest in 2002.

Priorities

There are many reasons to criticize the war in Iraq, but that's not what this Blog is for. (For that, check out the list of labor and political blogs on the left)

One aspect of the war that I do want to write about is how it's distorting our economy, or more precisely, what the United States government thinks is important. Daily Kos helps put spending on the war in perspective

If Congress appropriates the $25 billion requested by the White House, the cost of the Iraq war will reach $174 billion. Compare that figure with another figure discussed this week:

The cost of fighting crime in the United States, for police, prisons and courts, rose to a record $167 billion in 2001, the latest year for which figures are available, according to a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics...

In total, the criminal justice system accounted for 7 percent of all state and local government spending in 2001, roughly equal to the amount spent on health and hospitals, the report found. The criminal justice system employed 2.3 million people in 2001, 747,000 of them as jail or prison guards.

The next time Bush talks about the war in Iraq being the necessary cost of keeping us safe from Saddam Hussein, somebody should ask him what he thinks about the fact that it's cost more money to conquer and occupy Iraq than the yearly cost to police all the streets, administer the criminal laws, prosecutions and appeals, and incarcerate the prisoners in every jurisdiction--municipal, county, state and federal--in the entire United States. And the follow-up question, at a time when state and local governments are pleading with the federal government for sufficient resources to train and equip our first responders for dealing with emergencies, preparing our public health system to cope with epidemics or health crises, and patrolling our points of entry and securing vulnerable sites like chemical and utility plants from attack, should be, "Mr. President, can you explain how we've benefited from your war against Iraq, and why we're paying more for those paltry benefits than we pay to maintain civil order here in the United States?"

Oh, and one more detail. 5,500 Americans were killed in the workplace in 2002 and an estimated 50,000–60,000 died from occupational diseases.

The entire OSHA budget? About $461 million in FY 2004.

Asbestos Compensation Bill Crashes, Burns

Asbestos compensation legislation seems to be dead for this year, although Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist and Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said they would keep working on it.

Last month both sides invited federal appeals judge Edward Becker, to mediate talks between asbestos companies, insurers and labor to help find package that all sides -- labor, business and insurance -- could agree on. Those talks broke down last Thursday.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stated

The AFL-CIO is deeply disappointed that after more than a year of intensive efforts we have been unable to reach an agreement with asbestos defendants and insurers on legislation to establish a no-fault National Trust Fund to compensate victims of asbestos disease. Throughout this process we have made our position clear that legislation had to provide victims fair compensation and be adequately funded.

Unfortunately, the level of funding which business and insurers were willing to support was inadequate to fund fair compensation values for victims. Moreover, given the current and future extent of the asbestos disease crisis and likely claims, , we believe the fund could face financial insolvency and collapse within a few years at the levels of funding proposed by business. Such a result is clearly in no one’s interest.

There were several outstanding issues:

Sources said last week that business groups during the talks proposed an asbestos compensation fund of $116 billion, plus an additional $12 billion contingency fund in case the money ran out.

Labor officials, meanwhile, were urging a larger fund of $134 billion, plus a $15 billion contingency, said the sources, who were familiar with the discussions, but asked not to be named.

Asbestos: Back In The Workplace

"You know what I want? I want my husband back," Cheryl Blevins said. "I just want us to grow old and enjoy our grandkids. I want him back the way he was before he got sick. But I don't see that happening."

Meanwhile, away from the court rooms and the halls of Congress, a school maintenance worker in Texas is paying the ultimate price of the industry's criminal negligence:

The telltale white patches covered his left lung.

As Randall Blevins was recovering from surgery, doctors told his wife that the patches indicated exposure to significant amounts of asbestos. Presumably, they said, the right lung was the same.

That was May 2002, 25 years after Blevins began working as a heating and air-conditioning technician for the Fort Worth school district. He fixed boilers and repaired pipes -- products often encased in asbestos.

Blevins, 50, believes that his lung disease stemmed from his work for the district because he knows of no other contact with asbestos dust.

From 1977, when he was hired, until about 1982, when the district stepped up its precautions, he handled asbestos without thinking. Blevins said he and the district's other boiler-room workers hit it with their wrenches and ripped it off pipes with their bare hands while crawling under buildings. Each time, the white shards cascaded into their hair, eyes, noses and mouths.

***

Blevins' situation is dire. He has lost his school district insurance. He has been unable to find a doctor who will take workers compensation insurance and provide the long-term monitoring that he needs.

On April 21, Blevins filed a lawsuit in state district court against a long list of asbestos-product manufacturers in a last-ditch effort to find some way to pay his escalating medical bills.

Blevins' body and spirit are broken. Once a 250-pound man who could perform one-arm pushups, he can no longer lift his 17-pound grandson.

Uh Oh, Watch Out Georgie

And speaking of politics, George Bush may really in trouble now. Washington Post political columnist David Broder notes that

On Wednesday I was having breakfast with some business people who are leaders in an industry strongly supportive of the administration's regulatory and environmental policies. Many at the table had just watched Rumsfeld do a round of interviews on the morning TV shows.

They were, to use the president's word, "appalled."

Well, if he's losing the support of the anti-regulatory, anti-labor, environment, workplace safety crowd, he's really in trouble.

Next thing you know, he'll start losing the conservatives columnists, and then his poll numbers are going to go through the basement floor.

Read Much?

Do Washington Post writers ever actually read the Washington Post? Apparently Howard Kurtz doesn’t. In a dissection of political commercials by the two Presidential candidates, Kurtz discusses the negativity of the Bush campaign and then goes on to blast Kerry for being negative as well.

Kerry has aired a handful of ads painting Bush as a corporate toady who wants to foul the air and water, outlaw abortion, and export U.S. jobs overseas. These spots, which also [like Bush’s] contain exaggerations...

The interesting thing is one of the examples that Kurtz highlights. Kerry’s ads, says Kurtz, argue that Bush:

"Let corporate polluters rewrite our environmental laws. He wants to roll back the Clean Air and Clean Water acts."

Yeah, and so what's your point?

Kurtz explains that

An administration task force met privately with energy industry executives, but there is no evidence they rewrote pollution laws. And while Bush's proposed changes in air and water laws have drawn criticism from environmentalists, they hardly amount to a rollback.

Come again?

Oh really? I hardly know where to start. How about the January 1, 2004 Washington Post? Readers of Confined Space may remember this :

The Republicans may have stumbled upon an excellent way to cut government spending -- just eliminate the middleman -- e.g. bureaucrats, or maybe entire government agencies. The Washington Post reports today that

The Bush administration proposed new rules yesterday regulating power plants' mercury pollution, and some of the language is similar to recommendations from two memos sent to federal officials by a law firm representing the utility industry.

"Similar," hell:

A side-by-side comparison of one of the three proposed rules and the memorandums prepared by Latham & Watkins -- one of Washington's premier corporate environmental law firms -- shows that at least a dozen paragraphs were lifted, sometimes verbatim, from the industry suggestions.

No rollbacks, you say? What about this from the August 28, 2003 Washington Post?

The Bush administration yesterday approved a major rollback of clean air enforcement rules for the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants in a move hailed by industry leaders but bitterly criticized by environmentalists and some lawmakers.

What an idiot.

It's Spring, and a Boy's Fancy Turns To...

Kevin Drum reminds me of what’s really impotant in life: the Dodgers are in first place with the best record in the National League.

And serendipitously, ESPN the other night showed the best game in the history of baseball -- the first game of the 1988 World Series – The over-achieving Dodgers versus the mighty Oakland A’s -- where a crippled Kirk Gibson (hero of the improbable Dodger playoff win over the much stronger Mets) limped improbably to the plate and -- even more improbably -- hit the bottom of the ninth, two out, full count home run sending him hobbling around the bases and the Dodgers to an improbable 4 games to 1 World Series victory. 16 years later it still gives me shivers.

I taped it to show to my son.

Election Year Goal: Get Beyond The Media

In case you haven't noticed, this is an election year, a time for all Americans to consider all of the important issues facing our country: war and peace, terrorism, jobs, the economy, and, of course, workplace safety.

So what are political reporter writing about? Where the candidates stand on the issues, or so-called "character issues: who's a "regulary guy," and who's a flip-flopper.

For much more on the subject of the media's failure to seriously cover political debate in this country, check out this essay in Orcinus, a small part of which is excerpted here:

The obvious aspect of this discussion is the way the entire framing of the debate -- as a question of "character" as opposed to such boring details as policy -- heavily favors the party that relies more on imagery and jingoism, wrapping itself in the flag and pounding its chest about moral superiority: in other words, conservatives.

But even beyond the bias is the way this framing really corrupts and trivializes the national debate, so that we find ourselves constantly arguing about the "morality" or "character" of politicians, an issue that is by nature a product of spin and propagandizing. This has never been more clear than in the current election, when the "character" of a pampered fraternity party boy who couldn't be bothered to serve out his term in the National Guard and who went on to fail miserably at every business venture he touched is successfully depicted as that of a sincere and patriotic regular guy, while that of a three-time Purple Heart winner who voluntarily left Yale to serve in Vietnam, and whose ensuing three decades of public service have been a model of principle and consistency, is somehow depicted as belonging to a spineless elitist.

If the press were properly reporting on this election, the public would have a clearer picture of how John Kerry's economic, environmental and education policies would affect their lives differently than those purveyed by the Bush administration. It would understand the significant differences in their approaches to national security, and it would be far clearer just who in fact has more serious and credible credentials when it comes to the "war on terror" and keeping the nation safe, particularly when it comes to matters of basic competence and knowledge. These are issues that affect us in concrete ways.

Coverage of the 2004 election has already begun to resemble the travesty of 2000, focusing on trivial (and mostly concocted) personality traits: Howard Dean is grotesquely portrayed as a maniacal and out-of-control Howard Bealesque loose cannon; John Edwards as a callow pretty boy; Wesley Clark as an egotistical martinet; and Dennis Kucinich as a whiny, limp-wristed socialist. Once he became the de facto nominee, the "French-like" John Kerry was given both barrels of this treatment, as his status as a war hero came under fire without any grounds whatsoever, while other reports focused on his being served peanut-butter sandwiches by a personal assistant. Meanwhile, patrician fraternity brother George W. Bush is depicted as a man of the people, clearing brush on his Texas ranch. Matters of substantive policy that actually affect voters' lives -- the administration's floundering in Iraq; an economic policy that deprived over 2 million Americans of employment and destroyed the nation's job-creation capacity; an environmental policy that ensured more polluted air and water and diminished wildlife, as well as the more rapid approach of global warming; an energy policy that ensured $2-a-gallon-and-worse gasoline and increasing dependence on oil; an agricultural policy that dooms forever the small family farm -- have not even crossed the media's radar

It is up to you, dear readers, to help others see through the media's obsessions to the real issues. You've got about six months. Get going.

REACH: What Happened and Why

I have written about the new European toxic chemical proposal and the strong opposition by the U.S. chemical industry and the Bush administration. Linked here is a new book (all of which is on-line), REACH: What Happened and Why: The Only Planet Guide to the Secrets of Chemicals Policy in the EU.

When raindrops, breast milk and human blood as a rule contain hazardous chemicals, something has gone wrong. Since 1998 the EU has been developing a chemicals policy to increase the safety of human health and the environment. However,he new policy is increasingly focusing on protection of the chemicals industry. How did this happen? Who made it happen? And most of all, why did it happen?

I haven't read it yet, but if anyone would like to write a book report, I'd be glad to publish it.

The Weekly Toll

Worker dies in fall; concert canceled

MIAMI · Rock star David Bowie's Reality Tour was cut short by a jolt of real drama Thursday night after a worker fell off a wire ladder above the stage at the James L. Knight Center, plunging about 50 feet to his death.

The worker, identified by a fellow stagehand as Wally Thomas, of Pembroke Pines, fell on the right side of the stage around 8:30 p.m., Miami Fire-Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll said.

Man electrocuted in work accident

MARBLETON, MT - A worker died when a metal pole he was using during a concrete job touched a power line, police said.

William Blair, 31, of Marbleton, was pronounced dead at a local clinic from accidental electrocution, according to Sublette County Sheriff Hank Ruland.

Third worker dies at McIntosh site

The first death at Southern Company's Plant McIntosh on Feb. 24 should have grabbed attention of safety inspectors for general contractor W.G. Yates and Sons Construction.

The second death, March 10, should have made prevention efforts the top priority at the Effingham County work site.

Glenn Bethany says he doesn't know what to make of the death of a third man Tuesday at the same location, where Mississippi-based Yates is overseeing the construction of two natural gas-powered electric generating units.

"There's got to be something wrong out there," said Bethany, whose brother, Joe Lynn Bethany, died in February after falling through an uncovered hole from an elevated construction platform. "I don't know what it is, but something needs to be done.

"I hate to hear about this. I hate it for the family that's now going through the same thing we did. You'd think after the second one they would have shut the job down. Maybe this one will do it."

Ryan Mackenzie, 21, of Newport, Maine, fell about 75 feet from scaffolding around 9:30 a.m., Effingham sheriff's Capt. Mike Bohannon said.

More here.

90-foot fall kills worker in Shelby Township

A 34-year-old Ohio man was killed Wednesday when he fell more than 90 feet to the ground from a power line tower he was painting in Shelby Township, authorities said.

Officials identified the man as Joseph Allen "Joey" Spahr, a resident of Kensington, Ohio. Kensington is located about 40 miles southwest of Youngstown, Ohio.

Spahr is the seventh person to die in Michigan in work-related accidents this year. Four of those fatalities happened in Macomb County.

Two Upstate workers die in separate incidents

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Two workers have been killed in separate incidents in Greenville County in less than 12 hours.

Gary William Elliott, 48, of Greer died Wednesday morning when his company's dump truck rolled back over him, crushing him, the Highway Patrol said.

The brake was set incorrectly, said Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Dan Marsceau.

Tuesday night, Ronald Magnani, 59, of Greenville, died after he became trapped in a piece of machinery while working at Sealed Air Cryovac in Simpsonville, said Ken Coppins, Greenville County deputy coroner.

Worker dies after steel beam strikes his head

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A worker at a Hamilton Township steel plant died yesterday morning after being hit in the head with a steel beam.

Wayne Austin, 47, of Trenton, was struck shortly before 11 a.m. while working on the floor of a beam warehouse at a Certified Steel plant, according to township police. Cranes move beams at the plant, and Austin was in the way of a load, Lt. James Kostoplis said. Austin was wearing a helmet, authorities said. More here.

Worker Dies in Industrial Accident at S.L. Airport

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A construction worker at Salt Lake City International Airport died Monday after falling off a paving machine, officials said.

The Granite Construction Company employee was working on a runway resurfacing project when it happened. Airport officials say the worker, whose name was not immediately released, was run over by another vehicle.

U.S. House Speaker's Cousin Killed In Construction Accident

CHICAGO -- Federal safety officials on Tuesday were investigating the death of U.S House Speaker Dennis Hastert's second cousin, who was injured in a construction accident in Plano.

Dennis Dale Hastert Sr., 62, was on a job site at 18 W. Main St. in Plano when he was apparently run over by a piece of equipment around 2 p.m. Monday, according to a news release from the DuPage County Coroner's Office.

Worker Killed At New Haven Construction Site
Car Rolls Into Hole

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Authorities are investigating a deadly construction accident Monday morning on Prospect Street in New Haven.

Police said Thomas Dardis, 63, was working inside a hole in the ground when a car rolled into the hole. The accident occurred near a school. More here.

Man crushed to death at paper plant

SOUTH GLENS FALLS -- A village man was killed Monday afternoon while repairing a paper machine at the SCA Tissue plant on River Street.

Francis P. McNaughton, 48, of 39 Saratoga Ave., worked for contractor Haanen Packard Machinery of Hudson Falls, South Glens Falls Police Chief Kevin Judd said.

McNaughton and a co-worker from Haanen Packard were repairing a hydraulic line on one of the paper machines at about 2 p.m. Judd said a paper reel spool weighing around 1,800 pounds fell on McNaughton, crushing him.

Worker falls from Fresh Kills Bridge

Statan Island, NY -- A 24-year-old construction worker was killed when he slipped and fell while removing panels from a platform under the Fresh Kills Bridge on Staten Island.

Police identified the worker as Bruno Diaz; the state Department of Transportation said he was an employee of RML Construction Inc. of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., a subcontractor painting the bridge for the DOT.

Diaz fell while removing aluminum deck panels from the platform below the bridge at about 1:15 p.m. Friday when the last panel slipped out from the cable beneath it, causing him to fall into the water below, the DOT said.

Crew members said he had been wearing a safety harness; whether the harness was hooked onto a safety cable was under investigation, the DOT said. More here.

Officer Killed in Moving Van Wreck

Henry County, GA -- A Henry County police officer was killed Sunday morning when he crashed his car into the back of a moving van parked on the shoulder of Interstate 75 in Jonesboro, Ga.

Henry County police Sgt. James Gilbert, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:05 a.m. Police say Gilbert never hit the brakes before running into and under the Allied moving van parked just off the interstate in the emergency lane.

Deputy Killed In Overnight Crash

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- A St. Johns County Sheriff's Officer was killed in the line of duty early Sunday morning.

20-year old deputy Joshua E. Blyler was responding to a 911 hang-up call just after 3 a.m. He lost control of his patrol car on a rain swept curve on Palm Valley Road, spinning sideways before sliding and rolling into a draining canal. The roof of his patrol car slammed into a utility pole.

Worker killed at I-84 construction site

PLAINVILLE -- An industrial accident Friday morning claimed the life of a Kensington construction worker.

Scott Grajewski, 32, died at approximately 7:31 a.m. soon after being hit by a street sweeper at a closed section of the Interstate 84 ramp at Crooked Street, Connecticut state police said.

Grajewski was one of about 20 employees from Manafort Bros. Construction working at the site Friday morning, preparing the area for paving, saidcompany president James Manafort

State police said Grajewski was moving construction supplies across the closed roadway when the street sweeper backed up and hit him.

Ranch worker dies in fall from horse

Salinas, CA -- A 57-year-old King City man was killed Thursday when he was thrown from his horse at the Topo Ranch in Greenfield, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office said.

About 1:30 p.m., deputies responded to the ranch, where workers had found Heriberto Mendoza's body atop a canyon. Without checking whether he was alive, the workers sought help, Sgt. Kevin Oakley said.

Rock Springs construction worker killed

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) -- A construction worker run over by a forklift last week has died from his injuries.

Howard Lee Sikes, 59, died at a Salt Lake City hospital over the weekend, officials said. He was foreman of the Texas-based Sikes and Sons construction company.

According to police, Sikes was installing masonry at an Applebee's restaurant April 23 when he was run over by a 2,400-pound forklift.

The forklift was backing up. It was not immediately clear why Sikes did not hear its backing siren, police Sgt. Clark Robinson said.

Market Death Remains Under Investigation

GAHANNA, Ohio -- The investigation continues into the shooting death of a man whose body was found last week in the freezer of a local outdoor market, NewsChannel 4's John Ivanic reported.


Investigators said John Pauley, 66, was killed in an apparent robbery April 22 at Better Images Farms market in the Hunter's Ridge Shopping Center at the intersection of Hamilton and Morrison roads. The coroner said Pauley, a market employee, was shot three times. A customer found his body in a freezer.

State investigating fatal hangar accident

The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the hangar door accident that killed a 19-year-old Burlington man.

Martin Prince died in the hospital Wednesday where he was taken after being hit by the door at the Burlington International Airport.

Tennille welder killed in accident

TEXAS CITY — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a death of Tennille Inc. worker who was killed Wednesday while on a job in Galveston.

Earl Johnny “Cowboy” Warren, 54, of Santa Fe died Wednesday at a work site on the Island. Warren was a welder for the Texas City metal fabrication company.

Ironically the accident occurred on the very day set aside to observe workers killed on the job. A worker’s memorial ceremony was held Wednesday in Texas City.

Accidents kill, hurt workers for Southwest Ambulance

Phoenix One Southwest Ambulance employee was killed and another hurt Wednesday afternoon in separate traffic accidents.

Tammy Mundell, 29, an emergency medical technician for the privately owned ambulance company, died from injuries sustained in a collision with three other vehicles including a gravel truck in Coolidge, said Josh Weiss, a spokesman for Southwest Ambulance.

Worker Dies at Gardens Park Site

WINTER HAVEN, FL -- A migrant worker died Thursday while doing construction work at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, about 6:30 p.m. on April 21, Gerson Garcia Gomez, 20, of Veracruz, Mexico, was doing roofing repairs on a building at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park when he tripped and fell through a plexiglas skylight on the roof of the former Village Fair restaurant

House Republicans Pass OSHA Weakening Bills in Committee

Full Speed Backwards

The House Education and the Workforce Committee passed four bills last week authored by Republicans to further weaken the OSH Act. All of the bills were introduced last year by Georgia Congressman Charlie Norwood, who has made a career out of terrorizing school children with tales of how OSHA's bloodborne disease standard killed the tooth fairy.

In summary, the bills are:

• HR 2728, Contesting Citations, would extend the time period allowed to challenge a citation if an employer accidentally misplaces the citation or his dog eats it. (I'm suggesting that they also pass a bill allowing me extra time when I forget to pay my parking tickets or taxes).
  
  
• HR 2729--OSHA Commission, which would stack expand the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). OSHRC, you may remember is the same commission that just told OSHA it could no longer issue egregious citations
  
  
• HR 2731, Attorney Fees, which would require OSHA to pay all court costs when it loses a case against a small business. The bill encourages the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to better assess cases before bringing "unnecessary enforcement actions to court against small businesses," according to a committee summary.
  
  "Unnecessary" enforcement actions are not exactly the problem that OSHA is having, according to everyone except the businesses that get caught endangering workers (and, of course, the associations that represent them.) The idea behind this gem is to assure that small businesses are “not forced into settlement when they believe OSHA is wrong, just because it is the most cost-effective option available.”
  
  As I've mentioned before, while I was at OSHA, there were numerous times when OSHA was reluctant to cite an employer – especially for poor ergonomic conditions – because the business – with the help of the Chamber of Commerce and other business associations – had much more money to spend on appealing the case than OSHA had to defend it.
  
  
• HR 2730, Independent Review which clarifies that the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission is an independent judicial entity and makes clear that the commission, and not OSHA (which it said is the prosecutor in certain disputes), would be the party that interprets the law and provides an independent review of OSHA citations.

Because of the predictable straight party line vote the only "excitement" came from a pair of amendments offered by Democrats, one which would have raised the minimum wage, and the other that would have attached the Corzine bill. The Republicans declared them both "non-germane" and everyone went home.

Ultimately, the whole thing was just an exercise in legislative masturbation. Even if the whole House or Representatives passes the bills, no similar bills have been introduced in the Senate.

Willful, Schmillful: Michigan Republicans Take the Sting Out of Killing Workers

After the New York Times series showing that almost no employer who willfully causes a worker's death ever gets jailtime, the "buzz" around the country (at least those concerned with worker safety -- or common human decency) seems to be in the direction of how we can make it easier to punish the worst employers. But not in Michigan.

Right now, a willful citation -- and a maximum $70,000 fine (on the federal level) is the most severe civil penalty that OSHA can issue against an employer. Federal OSHA handed down less than 400 willful citations in Fiscal Year 2003. Despite that low number, the Michigan legislature has decided that life is far to hard on employers who willfully kill or injure their employees. The Republican-controlled Michigan House of Representatives has passed Senate Bill 647 making it almost impossible to ever again issue a willful citation.

A little background. The federal OSHA directive states that "intentional violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements" can justify a willful citation. An employer needs to know that that an OSHA standard is being violated and intentionally do nothing about it. But "plain indifference" can apply even if the employer did not know about a specific legal requirement

but was aware that a condition or practice was hazardous to the safety or health of employees and made little or no effort to determine the extent of the problem or to take the corrective action. Knowledge of a hazard may be gained from such means as insurance company reports, safety committee or other internal reports, the occurrence of illnesses or injuries, media coverage, or, in some cases, complaints of employees or their representatives.

According to the Michigan Senate Bill 647, the employer would have to have knowledge of the hazardous condition and act with "a knowing and purposeful intentional disregard of the law." There would have to be a "factual demonstration" that the employer had intentionally and deliberately disregarded his or her responsibilities under a specific provision of the law or a standard.

In other words, in addition to the smoking gun, you would need a signed, notarized statement from the employer stating that he knew he was violating a specific standard (paragraph and subparagraph would probably be helpful as well).

A few House Democrats and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm argued that the bill would make it more difficult to create safe work environments.

"It would define willful violation in such a way that it would be almost impossible to find a willful violation," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. "We could be out of compliance with federal law if we adopted that weak standard."

Oh, and for good measure, the Republican also passed a resolution that directs Governor Granholm not to issue an ergonomics standard.

Supporters of the resolution said Michigan can't afford to put new standards on businesses at a time they're taking jobs out of the state to save money. New requirements will drive away companies in Michigan and prevent others from locating in the state, they said.

"We don't need no stinkin' need to get rid of regulations," said Rep. Clark Bisbee, a Republican from Jackson who introduced the resolution.

Bad Luck or Good Luck?

I'm not sure if this guy has incredibly bad luck or incredibly good luck. You judge:

A construction worker had six nails driven into his head in an accident with a high-powered nail gun, but doctors said Wednesday they expect him to make a full recovery.

Isidro Mejia made his first public appearance Wednesday since the April 19 accident that left him with 3 1/2-inch nails embedded in his face, neck and skull. He told reporters in Spanish from his wheelchair that he does not remember much about the accident, but is grateful to be alive.

"He says that he's very happy to be alive," said Dr. Rafael Quinonez, a neurosurgeon who removed the nails at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. "And he told me this morning that he thought he was going to die. He was happy when he opened his eyes, and he saw that he's still with us."

Mejia, 39, was atop an unfinished home when he fell from the roof onto a co-worker who was using the nail gun, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Mark Newlands said.

The two men tried to grab each to keep from falling, but both tumbled to the ground. At some point, the nail gun discharged and drove the nails into Mejia's head.

"They're extremely powerful," Newlands said. "They've got to drive through three-quarter-inch plywood."

Quinonez said Mejia told authorities he remembered a "shock" to the back of his neck and little else before passing out.

Three nails penetrated Mejia's brain, and one entered his spine below the base of his skull. Doctors said the nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord, preventing paralysis or death.

"We did not have too much hope that he would survive, but we did it and he survived," Quinonez said, calling the recovery "close to a miracle."

POPCORN LUNG INDEX

"Is butter flavoring ruining popcorn workers' lungs?" USA Today, June 19, 2002

Confined Space Articles

• Lungs of the Living Dead, March 1, 2004
• Popcorn Workers Lung Trial Begins
• Better Late Than Never: EPA Tests Microwave Popcorn
• More on Popcorn Lung Trial, March 9, 2004
• Popcorn Lung Trial Update 3, March 10, 2004
• Popcorn Lung Trial Update 4 , March 11, 2004
• Jury Awards Popcorn Lung Victim $20 million: What Have We Learned? March 15, 2004
• Let No Rat Die In Vain, March 16, 2004
• Interview With Eric Peoples, March 17, 2004
• "Astonishingly Grotesque" Popcorn Lung Shows Failure of Regulatory System, April 4, 2004
• Popcorn Lung on NPR, April 20, 2004
• Second Popcorn Lung Trial Ends, May 2, 2004
• Second Popcorn Lung Suit Settled
• Third Popcorn Lung Trial Ends In Victory For Worker
• Manufactured Uncertainty Kills Workers, April 17, 2005
• Take four bulldozers and put them on your chest. Then put an elephant on top of those bulldozers. November 25, 2005
• Can We Still Trust Popcorn? Maybe Not If These Guys Say It's OK, April 27, 2006
• Government To Workers: Cough Your Lungs Out And Drop Dead, April 24, 2006
• Popcorn Lung Victim Dies: "Knowing That It Could Have been Avoided", May 3, 2006
• NIOSH, Congress Investigate Popcorn Lung, June 6, 2006
• Popcorn Lung: Unions Petition OSHA To Deal With Slow-Motion Chemical Disaster, July 26, 2006
• Popcorn Workers Lung: OSHA's Strange Definition of "Emergency"July 27, 2006
• Popcorn Lung: The Tragedy Continues, August 1, 2006
• Your Job Or Your Life: Popcorn Lung Comes To Wisconsin, October 22, 2006
• Are Respirators Enough To Protect Workers Against Popcorn Lung?, December 6, 2006
• CalOSHA Standards Board Chickens Out of Issuing Emergency Temporary Standard for Popcorn Lung, January 20, 2007
  

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What's 'Freak' Got To Do With It?

Those of you who read this Blog know that there are a few things that really irritate me. (Actually, there a more than a few, but...): trench collapses and stupid articles or headlines about how a "freak" accident killed a worker.

As far as I'm concerned, a "freak accident" is when you're sitting at your desk, minding your own business and a runaway satellite crashes through the roof over your head.

This, on the other hand, is not a "freak accident:"

Freak accident kills local steel worker

TRYMAINE D. LEE, Staff Writer 05/05/2004

A 47-year-old Trenton man was killed yesterday morning in a freak industrial accident at the Certified Steel processing facility in Hamilton.

According to police, Wayne Austin, a six-year employee of the company, received a fatal blow to the head when he was struck by a load of hanging steel.

"He was struck in the head by material being suspended by a crane," Certified Steel spokesman Bob Kramer confirmed yesterday.

The accident occurred at 10:42 a.m. in the "angle iron storage area."

Police said the steel, which was suspended by a crane operating through mobile tracks along the ceiling, killed Austin almost immediately.

***

The L-shaped pieces of steel that struck the laborer likely weighed "hundreds of pounds, possibly thousands," Kramer said.

Officials from Certified Steel said Austin was wearing the proper head gear at the time of the accident. But the sheer impact of the blow was tremendous, Kramer said.

"It was certainly enough to ... kill," he added.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "freak" as "a seemingly capricious (unpredictable) action or event."

So how capricious or unpredictable was this incident? I'm not too sure about the exact details, but it couldn't be too unpredictable if OSHA has two standards dealing with overhead cranes (Overhead and gantry cranes, 1910.179 and Crawler locomotive and truck cranes, 1910.180), both of which state "The employer shall require that the operator avoid carrying loads over people."

And generally, one thinks of "freak," as more or less unique -- as in, you've never heard of such a thing, and never will again.

In this case, however, according to the article,

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site indicates that in all of 2002 only four fabricated structural metal industry workers died as a result of being struck by objects at the workplace. Since 1996, 25 such workers have been killed, the site reports.

Certified Steel management may have been "freaked out," but that doesn't make this a "freak accident."

Accidents like this one are extremely rare," Kramer said, within a few hours of the fatal accident. "It has never happened before. Not to us."

In fact, most workplace fatalities have "never happened before" in any given workplace ... until they do. That's why we have OSHA standards -- to prevent the incidents that "never happened before" from ever happening the first time. This fatality may have been Certified's first, but the company was not exactly a virgin. Certified Steel has received a dozen OSHA citations over the past five years.

So what's the problem with labeling something like this a "freak accident?" Well, as I wrote in my incredibly inciteful article, "Acts of God, Acts of Man,"

Unfortunately, blaming a workplace fatality on God, freak occurrences, or a careless worker is a way of thinking that the media often falls into and that some employers encourage. After all, if a workplace fatality is unpredictable and unpreventable, then no great public outcry is warranted. If someone's inattentiveness or stupidity or laziness (or drug problem) or God's will led to the death, then it's a tragedy for the family and friends, but no real investigation is needed, no lessons are to be learned, no changes in the workplace are demanded, no new OSHA regulations are needed, no enforcement is appropriate and no wider social problems need to be addressed.

And employers often get away with blaming deaths and injuries on "freak" accidents and other "excuses" -- at least in the public eye. They are typically quoted about the "freak" accident in a short one-day story in the local newspaper and by the time experts are found (if anyone bothers) or the OSHA report comes out explaining the employer's failure to provide a safe workplace, the local media has often lost interest.

So what is to be done? As I suggested in a previous rant about this same subject,

Don't let the media or employers ever get away with dismissing a preventable workplace tragedy as "freak." Don't let them leave the impression that there was nothing that could have been done, or the worker's luck had just run out. What to do? Reporters need to be educated about how such tragedies can be prevented. And employers need to be challenged when they assert that no one cforeseenve forseen what happened. That's almost never the case and it certainly wasn't the case in the incident mentioned above. Don't let them get away with it.

Polar Bears, Unicorns and Babies: REACH and the Precautionary Principle

Speech by Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for the Environment Action on Environment and Health, Harvard Medical School, USA 27 April 2004

I have written quite often about the "Precautionary Principle" and the European Union's REACH proposal that would treat chemicals as guilty until proven innocent. (Most recently here.) Most Americans have never heard of REACH, and many of those who are aware of it get their "information" from decidedly unfriendly sources like the American Chemistry Council which is successfully lobbying the U.S. government to oppose the European proposal.

To set the record straight, Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for the Environment Action on Environment and Health gave a speech at Harvard Medical School last week to explain the European Union's proposal.

And this brings me to the unicorn.

In all the debate in the USA about our chemicals legislation, one US official seemed mystified by the precautionary principle. "The Europeans talk about it all the time", he said, "but I have never seen it in the flesh. It seems to hold some strange, mystical properties for Europeans. It is a bit like the unicorn though, as nobody knows if it ever really existed".

We do indeed have a legitimate tool at our disposal in the form of the precautionary principle. Article 174 of the EU Treaty clearly states that action in the environmental field "shall be based on the precautionary principle."

However our use of the precautionary principle is not always understood.

Some of our trading partners seem to think that we apply it at the slightest hint of theoretical risk. I would categorically deny that this is the case.

The precautionary principle is available to decision makers when we are faced with potentially harmful effects on the environment or health, in other words when there are reasonable grounds for concern. In fact precaution equals common sense.

The measures taken on the basis of the precautionary principle are science-based. Of course, it is not our intention that such precautionary measures should necessarily be in place long-term. Once the scientific evidence becomes firmer these measures are re-visited and, if justified, they are withdrawn.

With our approach to Environment and Health we are therefore taking the precautionary road, believing that this is the sensible way forward. In some cases the risk of damage is such that we simply cannot wait until all the science is there.

This last paragraph would send the American advocates of "sound science" running for the hills, screaming about socialism and enviro extremism. But the ultimate question is what we put first: people or profits. This is not an either/or proposition. The goal is to find a way to make a profit in a way that is not harmful to people or the earth.

And why did Ms Wallström venture into hostile territory to give this speech?

In concluding, it would give me great pleasure to be able to say that the EU and the USA are coming together rather than growing apart when it comes to regulating the nexus between environment and health.

As I say, it would give me great pleasure, and that is why I am looking for some evidence of convergence during this visit.

Good luck. Stay away from Washington D.C.

CDC: Trench Collapse Still a Major Problem

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a report on trenching fatalities that concludes that deaths from trench cave-ins are still a serious problem despite the fact that compliance with OSHA's standard would prevent these deaths.

• Of the fatalities, 256 (47%) occurred among employees of companies with less than 10 workers, and 381 (70%) occurred in companies with less than 50 workers.
  
  
• The industries most frequently reporting fatalities were those involved in "excavation work," followed by "water, sewer, pipeline, and communications and power-line construction."
  
  
• A total of 507 (94%) workers killed were employed in private industry, 31 (5%) decedents were local government workers, and the remaining four (1%) were employed elsewhere.
  
  
• Although excavation and trenching fatalities occurred in various occupations (Table 2), the largest proportion of deaths occurred among construction laborers. Cave-ins accounted for 76% of fatalities

Two case-studies were used as examples:

Case 1. In January 2003, two Hispanic construction laborers (brothers aged 15 and 16 years), who were employed by a company with 65 employees, died when the trench in which they were working caved in (4). The laborers were installing conduit in a trench 8 feet deep and 2 feet wide. When work started, the jobsite foreman instructed the crew leader to operate a backhoe to dig the trench and then left the site to check on another job. Approximately 1 hour later, the trench collapsed, burying the two laborers. Co-workers uncovered the two workers and removed them from the trench as the rescue squad arrived. The workers could not be revived. The FACE investigation indicated an absence of protective equipment or precautions (e.g., no trench box, benching, sloping, or shoring) that could have prevented the collapse of the trench.

Case 2. In May 2003, a Hispanic male pipe layer aged 23 years died after being struck by the teeth of an excavator bucket while in a trench (5). The pipe layer, who worked for a company with 95 employees, was installing concrete water drainage piping along a roadway. The work process involved the excavator operator cutting a trench and lowering in a new section of pipe, while the pipe layer was in the trench connecting the pipe sections and working around the moving excavator bucket. In this operation, the walls of the trench reportedly were sloped back or benched to prevent cave-ins. A "spotter" designated to ensure that workers remained out of the way of the moving excavator and its bucket had been assigned temporarily to another task at the time of the incident. The operator was reversing the excavator to make a new soil cut when the pipe layer was struck by the bucket at the right-side chest and neck area, causing fatal injuries.

The report concludes that OSHA trenching and excavation standard is comprehensive and effective, and complying with it will save lives.

US Continues Attempt To Block Europe's REACH

The Christian Science Monitor reviews American government and chemical industry efforts to kill the European Union's plan to introduce a system where chemicals would have to be extensively tested before being used, based on the "precautionary principle:" treating chemicals as guilty until proven innocent.

I have written before about the proposal, Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH). With the U.S. not making any friends with its unilateral approach to foreign relations -- from renunciation of the Kyoto Global Warming treaty to the invasion of Iraq -- overt opposition to REACH has not been winning many friends

The US administration has lobbied hard on behalf of the US chemical industry to make REACH less troublesome for chemicals manufacturers, rallying European producers and some of their governments to its cause.

A report released earlier this month by Rep. Henry Waxman (D) of California details how the State Department and other US government agencies "planned a wide range of actions to build opposition to REACH." Among those actions were cables sent by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, drawing heavily on themes developed by industry representatives instructing US embassies to argue that REACH "appears to be a costly, burdensome, and complex regulatory system, which could prove unworkable in its implementation."

The report "raises very serious issues about the degree of balance on the part of the United States," said EU spokesman Anthony Gooch in a statement. "Important and legitimate public interest concerns about the impact of chemicals ... just don't seem to have been part of the US policy formulation mix."

The U.S. chemical industry is arguing, as usual, that if REACH takes effect, the sky will fall -- the cost is exhorbitant, jobs will be lost, innovation will be stifled.

That concern echoes arguments heard in Washington, where administration officials are skeptical about the implications of the precautionary principle. "Sometimes claims of hazard prove to be exaggerated," pointed out John Graham, head of regulatory affairs at the Office of Management and Budget, in a recent lecture at the Heritage Foundation.

"A major peril" of "an extreme approach to precaution," he argued, "is that technological innovation will be stifled. Technological innovation occurs through a process of trial-and-error and refinement, and this process could be disrupted by an inflexible version of the precautionary principle."

Europeans are not quite as vulnerable to the industry's job blackmail arguments and well-funded corporate lobbyists don't have quite the same clout as they do in the U.S. Nevertheless, our chemical industry, along with their friends in the Bush administration, are trying to teach their European counterparts how to fight off environmental extremists. It should make for an interesting battle.

The European Parliament is unlikely to begin debating the REACH legislation until this fall, after elections, and it may not be ready for final approval by EU member states until 2006. "There will be quite a lot of influencing of the legislation from all sides over the next two years," says Jensen-Korte.

"I have never seen a lobby as big as the chemical industry," says Evans. "But the public should have an equal say in laws affecting daily life. I hope that the lobbying from people will be as strong as lobbying from industry, so that we can come up with a balanced sort of law. It won't satisfy everyone, but it will be a step forward."

Tropicana Penalty: Problem With OSHA, the Law or Both?

Last week OSHA announced citations against the contractors building the Atlantic City Tropicana parking garage that collapsed last October, killing 4 workers and injuring 21 others.

Engineers who studied the event concluded that the collapse was caused by the faulty installation of concrete floors after changes were made to the design to speed the job and save money. So it was not surprising that workers and the families were upset about OSHA's paltry $98,500 fine against the main contractor, Fabi Construction. The Fabi penalty included one willful citation for the deaths of four workers. OSHA made no announcement about whether or not it would seek a criminal prosecution.

The Philadelphia Area Project for Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH) and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), called on the U.S. Labor Department to initiate the criminal prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of four construction workers in a building collapse last October 30. The groups also said that the size of the fines imposed by OSHA were unacceptably small.

"This is about as clear a case as you could imagine of a company knowingly ignoring the most basic safety rules," said Jim Moran, PhilaPOSH Executive Director. "Four workers are dead as a result, with 21 more seriously injured, some permanently disabled," he continued. "If a $70,000 fine and no criminal charges is the best that OSHA can do, it's telling us that workers are expendable, and that's just wrong."

NYCOSH and Philaposh sent a letter to OSHA last December calling for criminal prosecutions.

Meanwhile, in Atlantic City Saturday, thousands of workers, families, friends and activists marched in memory of the workers who died in the garage collapse. And they were angry:

"I call these deaths an incident, not an accident," Joseph J. Hunt, president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers union, told the crowd. "An accident implies that it was inevitable.

"This was a fatal incident that could have and should have been prevented," Hunt said.

Fresh off their shifts, workers in helmets and boots gathered on the Boardwalk near the Tropicana garage at Iowa Street. Scott Pietrosante's family and friends wore blue shirts bearing his picture. His older brother John also had been at the garage that day, but survived.

***
The culmination was the unveiling of a statue of a construction worker, helmet and work gloves in hand, pausing to look at a monument listing the names of 25 workers.

After the Tropicana accident, the statue was commissioned by the Atlantic-Cape May Counties AFL-CIO Central Labor Council to go with the memorial, which was built in 1998, and the four names were added.

The statue, sculpted by Thomas Jay Warren of Denver, was designed, cast and erected in record time - less than four months - at a cost of $155,000, which was also raised in that time.

What's The Story?

Only five months ago, David Barstow at the NY Times wrote about how over the past 20 years, the agency failed to seek criminal prosecution against 93 percent of the companies whose willful violations of safety rules caused workers to die. Legislation has been introduced by Senators Jon Corzine and Edward Kennedy that would raise the penalties for willful violations. So with the eyes of the country focused on whether or not OSHA will refer one of the biggest cases of the yaer to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, the word from OSHA in its 6 paragraph press release is .... nothing. No mention of what the agency has decided to do or not do, or whether criminal prosecution is still under consideration. (I've heard that it is still under consideration, but you wouldn't know that from the OSHA Web Page.) Prosecutors still have the option of initiating a federal criminal prosecution for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act or a state prosecution for homicide. So what's OSHA's plan? Who knows?

In addition to OSHA's failure to communicate its intentions regarding the criminal referral,

"The case shows how much damage the Bush administration has done to OSHA," said Joel Shufro, Executive Director of NYCOSH. "A year ago OSHA could have issued $280,000 in fines, $70,000 for each fatality. Now Bush's appointees have ruled that it doesn't matter how many workers are killed, one or one hundred, the maximum fine stays the same, $70,000."

Shufro is referring to OSHA's failure to impose an "egregious" (or violation-by-violation) penalty, where instead of one $70,000 willful citation against the company, the company could be fined$70,000 for each worker killed in the collapse.

From my reading of OSHA's directive (CPL 2.80) interpreting the court decisions, however, it turns out here that OSHA may be on solid ground. (Incidentally, although I play one on the web, I am not an attorney, so I would welcome any differing opinions from people with real law degrees.) Egregious citations were only permitted by the courts when the cited standard applies to individual employees. For example, if an OSHA standard says that each employee must be trained, and 27 employees were not trained, OSHA could impose 27 separate citations. Where there's a single violation that doesn't apply to workers as individuals (such as proper perimeter roof guarding, or, in this case, failure to erect, support and maintain the formwork for the garage), OSHA is prohibited from imposing egregious penalties.

Even had the contractor been cited for a standard where the egregious policy applied, a recent decision by Republican members of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has, for now, eliminated OSHA's ability to impose egregious penalties.

So, regarding OSHA's failure to impose egregious penalties, what we have here seems to be more a failure of the current law -- and a failure of this administration and the Republican-controlled Congress to support strengthening the law -- than a failure of OSHA policy.

As the NYCOSH/Philaposh Press Release stated:

This case highlights the need for heavier federal penalties for willful violations of OSHA regulations," said Shufro. "Even if the contractor is prosecuted and found guilty of a criminal OSHA violation, the maximum penalty is six months in jail. There are now two bills in Congress that would increase the maximum federal penalty to 10 years for killing a worker through willful negligence. Both of the bills, the "Wrongful Death Accountability Act," (S. 1272 )sponsored by Senator Jon Corzine, and the "Protecting America's Workers Act," (S.2371) sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, would put employers on notice that negligence regarding safety is not acceptable."

Another troubling aspect of the case is the extremely light penalty OSHA imposed on the general contractor, who must have been in a position to see and understand how the concrete contractor was ignoring OSHA regulations.

The OSHA violations highlight the ineffectiveness of the OSHA law as it now stands. A total fine of $119,500 on four contractors is hardly a deterrent that would prevent any of the contractors from repeating the violations in the future. In fact, the concrete contractor was charged with a willful violation that killed a worker in 1995. The citation was later reduced to a serious violation.

Corzine's bill, introduced last June, would among other things, increase the maximum criminal penalty for a willful violation causing a death from six months to 10 years in prison.

Kennedy's bill would improve whistleblower protections, provide coverage for public employees, increase the penalty for a death caused by willful violation of an OSHA standard to $150,000, and increase the maximum penalties for a criminal conviction from 6 months to 10 years (or to 20 years in the case of a second conviction). Conviction for seriously injuring an employee due to a willful violation of an OSHA standard could bring a 5 year jail sentence. (Currently, you have to kill a worker to get jail time)

On May 12, Congressman Major Owens (D-NY), Senior Democrat on the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, will hold a hearing to examine worker deaths. The Tropicana collapse and the plight of immigrant workers will be the main focus.

And where are the Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration on the Corzine or Kennedy bills? I already reported these responses:

Commerce Secretary Donald Evans called the Corzine-Kennedy proposal "just another policy to destroy jobs.'' House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the proposal would be "the worst thing that you could do - telling a small business person that they could go to prison over an OSHA violation.''

And what does Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, John Henshaw, say? "We look forward to reviewing the legislation"

Personally, I'm not holding my breath.

Second Popcorn Lung Suit Settled

Lawyers in the second popcorn lung case announced that a settlement was reached just before the jury announced its verdict. International Flavors and Fragrance Inc. and its subsidiary, Bush Boake Allen Inc. was being sued by Linda Redman, who will need a lung transplant due to exposures to diacetyl at Jasper Popcorn Co. and Glister Mary-Lee Corp., which bought the popcorn factory in 1999. In March, a jury awarded Eric Peoples, another worker at the factory, $20 million for the damage caused to his lungs.

No details were disclosed concerning the settlement.

Slavery in the Nation's Capital -- In 2004

This is an amazing story about modern-day slavery in our nation's capitol and the heroic rescues by local non-profit organizations:

For nearly two years, she had worked 80-hour weeks cooking, cleaning and baby-sitting for an Ecuadorean official of the Organization of American States. For that, her attorneys said, she was paid little more than $2 an hour. She had worked for the same family in Ecuador, but since arriving, she said, her employer had taken her passport, she had no money and she was afraid that if she left, she would lose her visa and police would come for her.

Stories like hers are increasing among the thousands of women who are recruited every year from impoverished countries as live-in domestic help, according to law enforcement officials and advocacy groups. Now, a growing number of organizations are reaching out to mistreated domestic workers, helping them leave their employers and providing emergency housing and legal advice.

In cases like Santacruz's, the workers suffer years of exploitation. In others, they are victims of trafficking, forced to become modern-day slaves.

A 14-year-old Cameroonian girl was enslaved for three years in Silver Spring by a couple from her country. They never paid her, and the husband sexually abused her. A Bangladeshi maid for a Bahraini diplomat in New York who was never paid or allowed to leave the apartment was ultimately rescued by police, according to her lawsuit. An Indian maid for a diplomat in Potomac said she was mentally and physically abused and was paid $100 for 4,500 hours of work over 11 months.

Washington and New York are major destinations for such workers, given their large immigrant populations and because they are home to international organizations, whose foreign officials can bring in domestic servants on special visas. In many cases, the workers are hidden from public view, essentially locked behind closed doors.

"People can't conceive of the fact that modern-day slavery exists here in our own back yards, in the shadow of the nation's Capitol," said Joy Zarembka, executive director of Break the Chain Campaign, an area nonprofit group that focuses solely on domestic workers.

Second Popcorn Lung Trial Ends

The second trial of a worker whose lungs were seriously damaged by inhaling popcorn butter flavoring containing the chemical diacetyl has ended. Linda Redman, an employee at the Jasper Popcorn Co. and Glister Mary-Lee Corp., which bought the popcorn factory in 1999, is suing International Flavors and Fragrance Inc. and its subsidiary, Bush Boake Allen Inc.

In March, a jury awarded Eric Peoples, another worker at the factory, $20 million for the damage caused to his lungs. Like Peoples, Redman will soon need a lung transplant. Redman's story was detailed in an NPR story and in an earlier article:

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."

Of course, now it turns out, according to the companies that make diacetyl, that the chemical really isn't harmful

Testifying Thursday, Michael Wernke, a toxicologist with Blasland, Bouck & Lee Inc. a New York consulting company, said there is not enough scientific proof to conclude that the butter flavoring caused the lung disease in the popcorn plant workers.

He said a study just completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health on the effects of diacetyl on rats showed that it did not cause lung disease in the animals. Wernke said the study released last month showed that diacetyl had no adverse health effects on rats that received the smallest amount of exposure.

He said the two groups of rats that received the next-highest dosage showed some upper-respiratory problems but no evidence of lung disease.

Isn't that nice.

Brown University Professor David Egilman, who testified in the first popcorn lung trial, disagrees. "Egilman said the rats were exposed to diacetyl for only six hours, comparing that to having a person smoke just one cigarette and then saying the subject suffered no ill effects from smoking."

Previous postings about the popcorn lung trials can be found under Greatest Hits on the upper right column of this page. To recap, however, studies had shown since the early 1990's that diacetyl could cause severe lung damage and that information was known to the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association. Yet the Material Safety Data Sheets that the International Flavors and Glister provided to Redman's and People's employer did not adequately warn of the danger and stated that respirators "are not normally required for its butter flavoring, unless vapor concentrations were 'high.' "

Thirty people who worked at the plant have filed suit.

Workplace Safety Major Issue for May Day

May Day -- International Labor Day for most of the world -- comes just a few days after Workers Memorial Day. But for workers around the world, especially in China, workplace safety is one of the main goals that workers around the world are fighting for.

In northern China, celebrations were marred Saturday by reports that 35 coal miners had died and 16 were missing in two accidents that underscored the dismal plight of many workers on May Day.

A gas explosion ripped through a mine in northern Shanxi province on Friday leaving 35 dead and one missing, while 15 miners were feared dead from a flood in an illegally operating mine in Inner Mongolia, officials and press reports said Saturday.

***

In China the perilous situation of workers was highlighted by the two mine accidents.

Shanxi governor Zhang Baoshun oversaw was overseeing rescue operations and an investigation into the blast at the Liangjiahe state-owned mine, but hopes of saving 15 miners at the Xinyuan coal mine faded as water levels rose.

Han Dongfang, director of the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin told AFP: "In China right now the most important thing is money, it is more important than the dignity of workers, than the rights of workers, the health of workers and the safety of workers."

The focus is on making employers responsible.

March organiser Warren Smith of the Maritime Union, said workplace safety was a theme in May Day marches around the globe and called on the government to enact laws to prosecute industrial manslaughter.

"We are seeking to place demands on employers and governments to make sure workplaces are safe," Smith said.