Assuring Worker Safety

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Settlements Reached in Crandall Canyon Civil Suits

May 13, 2009 by Rick Melberth*

The Salt Lake Tribune and the Mine Safety and Health News are reporting that families of victims in the August 2007 Crandall Canyon mine collapse have reached a settlement with the companies that owned and operated the mine and related insurance companies. The settlement involves three civil suits representing 16 groups of plaintiffs and includes seven defendants.

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How Do Regulatory Agencies Fare in Obama’s Budget?

May 8, 2009 by Matthew Madia

President Obama’s FY 2010 budget proposal, released yesterday, makes major investments in a few agencies critical to protecting the public but shortchanges others. Let’s dive in.

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Failures in OSHA Program Linked to Workplace Fatalities

A new Department of Labor report is highly critical of a Bush administration program designed to improve workplace safety. The report links poor enforcement to the deaths of workers at high-risk facilities – the specific targets of the special program. Poor quality data and inadequate training, inspections, and enforcement plagued the program.

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Wage and Child Labor Violations Often Ignored, GAO says

Mar 25, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The federal agency responsible for investigating employers who employ children, fail to pay proper wages, and violate other fair labor laws is riddled with inadequacies, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today.

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OSHA Agenda Will Include Diacetyl, Secretary Says

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) intends to limit workers' exposure to the food flavoring chemical diacetyl. Diacetyl regulation was one of the many worker protection issues left unresolved by the Bush administration.

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Labor Dept. Reviewing Bush Worker Protection Rules

Mar 17, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Labor Department today announced separately that it will review two controversial Bush administration policies.

The first is an OSHA proposal that could limit worker exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used to give food a buttery flavor. Factory workers (and possibly consumers) exposed to diacetyl are at a higher risk for developing bronchiolitis obliterans, a potentially fatal lung disease. (Background here.)

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Fixing OSHA in the Obama Administration

Feb 19, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Hard Hat Area The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) has released a report titled, “Can OSHA be fixed? What must be done.” The report consists of short articles written by dozens of occupational safety and health experts from around the country. The articles share ideas for getting the regulatory system back on a path that protects workers.

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Bush Changes to Employee Leave among First Midnight Rules

The Department of Labor has finalized a new rule that will affect the way workers take medical and family leave. It is among the first of many rules the Bush administration is expected to cement in the coming weeks.

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One Year Later, Only Blame about Crandall Canyon Disaster

One year after the deaths at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, little has been accomplished at the federal level to help prevent further mine collapse disasters. Although the House passed legislation addressing safety issues raised by this collapse and a series of other mine accidents in recent years, the Senate has not acted. Reports about the causes of the Utah mine collapse vary in assigning responsibility, which has led to different allegations about who bears the burden for the nine deaths at Crandall Canyon.

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Secret Risk Assessment Rule Aims to Halt Worker Safety Protections

The Bush administration is trying to rush through a Department of Labor (DOL) draft rule to require new worker safety standards to be based on a new risk assessment process that would potentially tie the hands of future administrations. The new rule was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review in secret, violating the process OIRA has insisted agencies use for rulemaking.

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