January 2010 - The Pump Handle - The Network of Care

Bargaining Away Worker Safety?

“Is the state agency charged with enforcing job safety failing to do its job?” is the question posed by KCET’s (Los Angeles) SoCal Connected in a special investigation airing on Thursday, January 14. The full program will be posted on...

Published Wed, Jan 13 2010 12:23 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Regulation, Safety, OSHA

WHO prepares to don a hair shirt

by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure The finger pointing and the told-you-so-ers are out in force these days and WHO seems to be one of their targets. In the face of wealthy European countries cutting their swine flu vaccine orders because of limited...

Published Wed, Jan 13 2010 6:48 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Influenza, Preparedness

Rita Arditti – Remembering an inspiring cancer activist

By Richard Clapp and Genevieve Howe The women’s movement and the environmental movement lost a champion on Christmas Day, 2009. Rita Arditti of Cambridge, MA died, at age 75, after a phenomenally productive and inspiring life and a decades-long battle...

Published Tue, Jan 12 2010 6:36 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Health, Cancer

EPA Takes on Chemical Confidentiality

Although the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act requires chemical manufacturers to alert the government about new chemicals they plan to market, companies can keep that information a secret from the public by claiming that disclosure could harm their business...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 6:57 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Protection Agency, Chemicals Policy

Mountain top removal impacts ‘pervasive and irreversible’

by Ken Ward, Jr. cross-posted from Coal Tattoo [or as Grist reports: Science confirms that blowing up mountains harms mountains] “Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible...

Published Fri, Jan 08 2010 8:06 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Regulation, Mining, Environmental Health, Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Fights Smog

Back in 2008, the EPA went against the advice of its Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and set the limit for ground-level ozone at 75ppb. Today, the agency has announced it will set the primary standard at between 60 and 70 ppb measured over eight...

Published Thu, Jan 07 2010 2:36 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Health, Environmental Protection Agency

FDA’s Joshua Sharfstein to Speak at GW

Our DC-area readers interested in food and drug safety may want to attend this event. Next Tuesday (1/12) at noon, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner for the FDA, will present, “Public Health and the FDA” here at the GW...

Published Wed, Jan 06 2010 11:23 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Food, Drug Safety

Perils of butter flavorings, diacetyl substitutes

The sentinel cases of the debilitating lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans were among workers at a microwave popcorn facility. It wasn’t too long before NIOSH researchers suspected the illnesses were related to workers’ exposure to the butter...

Published Tue, Jan 05 2010 11:06 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Food, Research, Regulation, Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)

Empty chairs at Chemical Safety Board

When the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) was authorized by Congress in 1990 under the Clean Air Act amendments, it stipulated a five-person Board. For most of the last two years, the CSB has been operating at less than full capacity...

Published Mon, Jan 04 2010 1:25 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Environmental Health, Safety

Families and worker safety: in for the long haul

In a just few weeks, on January 29, the family of Robert Fitch, 51, will mark the one year anniversary of his fatal fall at an Archer Daniels Midland grain-milling plant in Lincoln, NE. His daughter, sister, neice and other relatives have dedicated themselves...

Published Mon, Jan 04 2010 10:51 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Mining, Safety

January 2010 - The Pump Handle

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