The Pump Handle

Earth Day 2010

In the Washington Post, David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin contrast the first Earth Day in 1970 — which led to environmental victories for clean air and water — with today’s less promising iteration: The problems [today] are more...

Published Thu, Apr 22 2010 2:28 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Health, Global warming, Chemicals Policy

Strengthening Science in Government

My colleagues and I at the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy have spent the last two years investigating the working environments of federal-agency scientists who address health and environmental issues – and today we’re finally the releasing...

Published Wed, Mar 03 2010 1:20 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Science

Open letter to OMB Reg Czar Cass Sunstein

by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPRBlog What Progressives Expect from OIRA: An Open Letter to Cass Sunstein Dear Cass: As you know, we picked a spat with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) last week over Randy Lutter’s supposedly...

Published Fri, Dec 11 2009 8:30 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Food, Regulation, Mining, Environmental Health, Safety, Environmental Protection Agency, Legal, Politics, Science

While EPA Delays Decision on Coal Ash, Industry and White House Busy With Backdoor Meetings on Issue, Documents Show

by James Goodwin, cross-posted from CPRBlog While the EPA announced Thursday that it was delaying a decision on issuing a proposed rule for coal ash, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has already hosted 10 meetings with...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 11:11 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Health, Environmental Protection Agency

Peer review needed on NIOSH firefighter reports

Jay Lowry, the editor of FirefighterHourly.com is calling on NIOSH to obtain the input of front-line firefighers before publishing its investigation of firefighter deaths. In “NIOSH Firefighter Reports Need Overhaul”, Lowry writes: While the...

Published Sat, Nov 14 2009 1:21 PM by The Pump Handle

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

Blog Action Day: Greenhouse Gases on Your Plate

Today is Blog Action Day, and bloggers around the world are posting about aspects of climate change. I’m highlighting one thing all of us can do to help the planet and our own health at the same time: eat less meat. In their report Livestock’s...

Published Thu, Oct 15 2009 12:13 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Food, Global warming

Battling for Bayer

Cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: a Gazette Watchdog Blog by Ken Ward, Jr. Bayer CropScience hasn’t said yet if it will challenge $143,000 in fines issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 13 serious and 2 repeat violations...

Published Mon, Mar 02 2009 9:12 AM by The Pump Handle

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

An Overlooked Player in the Anti-Regulatory Movement

Our regular readers are no doubt familiar with the efforts of various industries to protect their particular products from regulation. These industries (and the organizations they fund) often succeed in weakening or delaying regulations intended to protect...

Published Tue, Jun 02 2009 7:01 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Manufacturing Uncertainty

25 Years After Bhopal, Too Little Progress

Twenty-five years ago, thousands of residents of Bhopal, India awoke in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. A Union Carbide pesticide plant had leaked 40 tons of methyl isocyanate, a highly toxic substance that had escaped in gas form and spread...

Published Thu, Dec 03 2009 9:34 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Environmental Health

Introducing New Solutions: The Drawing Board

This is the first piece of a new series featured on The Pump Handle. New Solutions, A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, is taking their work from the world of print to an online medium, posting once-monthly blogs about environmental...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 10:20 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Health, Chemicals Policy, New Solutions: The Drawing Board

MSHA sets a low bar for mine operators

MSHA’s Assistant Secretary Joe Main announced at public events last week in Austin, TX and Charleston, WV his “Rules to Live By” campaign. It’s described as “a new outreach and enforcement program designed to strengthen efforts...

Published Mon, Feb 15 2010 10:21 AM by The Pump Handle

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

“Falls” lead the injury pack

by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has been conducted since 1957 and is one of the main instruments to get a glimpse at the health of the US population. The NHIS is a “multistage area probability...

Published Mon, Feb 22 2010 12:02 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Safety

Historic Healthcare Legislation

President Obama has just signed a historic piece of legislation that will bring near-universal healthcare coverage to our country within the next few years. It’s most important achievement will be to cover 32 million people are currently uninsured. In...

Published Tue, Mar 23 2010 8:57 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Healthcare

11 Workers Missing After Oil Rig Explosion

Kevin McGill of the Associated Press reports that 11 workers are missing after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig situated in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles from Venice, Louisianna. Seven workers have been critically injured, and two have...

Published Wed, Apr 21 2010 6:36 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety

One Miner Dead, Another Missing in Kentucky Mine

A roof fall at the Dotiki Mine in Hopkins County, Kentucky has killed at least one miner. A second miner is still missing, and the search for him continues. Dotiki Mine has a terrible safety record, Bloomberg News reports: Alliance’s Dotiki mine...

Published Thu, Apr 29 2010 1:41 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Mining

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