Recently, the Federal powers that be have taken steps to expand the scope and sharpen the focus of the National Nanotechnology Initiative.  This is certainly good news, as one of the main criticisms of the US NNI grant process is that it lacks specific focus in narrowing its scope and definition of research initiatives. This is especially true with regard to how nanoparticles and nanoproducts may interact with molecular biology and the environment. However, industry is already taking products to market at an alarming pace, and I dare say that due diligence has largely been cast by the wayside in efforts to externalize costs.

So, lets talk about risk shall we?

(Crossposted at CtW Connect)

When the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia exploded on February 8, killing thirteen workers and starting a fire that blazed for a week, it brought national attention to a workplace safety issue that most people had never heard of before: "combustible dust" -- flammable particles that can build up inside a building, turning it into a ticking time bomb.  (Here's some more background if you need it.)

Well, there's been some activity on this front in the last few days -- including some heartening good news from Congress and some bad news from President Bush.

Learn the good news and the bad news after the jump...

crossposted from unbossed

A couple months ago, we reported that the Bush Administration had fudged the figures on mining injuries in order to claim that they were far worse under Bill Clinton. Untrue, of course. February 06, 2008 Mining Disasters - Whose Fault? MSHA's Stickler Blames Bill Clinton. Now a new report shows that on the job deaths for 2006 were worse than claimed.

  Like a lot of workers, construction workers aren't seen by most people going to and from work, home or whatever else they happen to be doing--until a construction worker dies some horrible death. Their deaths are, I think, shrugged off as the inevitable cost of "progress" and "economic activity". But, these deaths do not have to be inevitable--even as they appear to be increasing in numbers, according to data just made available. Yesterday, another construction worker lost his life--for progress.

I don't know where it started, but it has become quite clear that the Bush administration has done nothing to protect the US consumer and worker.  Nothing, zilch, nada.  If this is "compassionate conservatism", well, it's not so let's lose that label.

Some new interesting stuff

Yesterday I spent an hour speaking with David, a former meatpacker at a Tyson hog plant in Iowa. The conversation left me near tears, and I wonder at how David has been able to pick himself up and move on - or for that matter, do anything other than curl up in a fetal position and cry.

Please read and rec this diary for David. He wants people to know what happened to him. If you are reading this and you are a member of the media, contact me and I will put you in touch with David if you'd like to cover his story too.

(Thanks to One Brave Kossack for first diarying this here.)

Cross-posted at my blog and BlueNC

Today's Charlotte Observer includes the first of a potentially devastating six-part series on poultry-plant safety.  

The first part focuses on House of Raeford, one of the ten largest poultry producers in the country.  It's based in Hoke County, half an hour south of Fayetteville and operates plants in North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana.  It supplies deli turkey and chicken products to companies such as Blimpie, Golden Corral and Food Lion.  It also counts several school systems among its customers--including my hometown system, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.  It claims to have one of the best safety records in the industry--but the Observer amply demonstrates that this record is a mirage.  

Like other federal agencies under the Bush administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has abandoned its traditional role of setting and enforcing regulations in favor of industry partnerships and voluntary programs.

OSHA’s complete failure to do its job became painfully apparent earlier this week, when the House of Representatives voted 260 to 154 to require the agency to respond to a serious workplace hazard that was first brought to its attention seven years ago.

Don't hear too many folk comin' to old man Murray's defense round these parts.  Funny, that.  Woulda seemed like a perfect time for them righty folks to finally explain once n' fer all what they're on about.

crossposted from unbossed

It only took two years, a FOIA request, one fired whistleblower, and a court battle for the agency charged with ensuring that "every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources" to provide documents on toxic exposures of its own workplace inspectors.

crossposted from unbossed

OSHA was enacted with the stated purpose of assuring "so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions".  On April 27, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission took a step in the direction of undermining this goal and, in the process, overturned 30 years of precedent.

All in a day's work for the Bush Administration.

crossposted from unbossed

This is a revisit to a troubling story from a year ago - worth a revisit inlight of Izzy's post a few days ago. As reported last year:

Bureau of Prisons whistleblower Leroy A. Smith Jr. has been pushing the government to stop endangering the health of prison workers since 2004. He has charged that prisoners at the Atwater, CA prison facility have been exposed to highly toxic materials while recycling materials from outdated and broken computers, televisions, and other electronic devices for federal, state, and county agencies.

What did he get for his efforts?

This is the fourth "Top Ten" list I’ve compiled. It’s always an educational experience for me because I get to look back at everything that’s happened over the past year. But something struck me this year: for thousands of people there was really only one top story of the year – the senseless loss of a husband or wife, daughter, son, father or mother, brother or sister, friend or co-worker. (See number 6 below). The rest is just commentary.

Nevertheless, as we here at Confined Space never tire of saying, workplace tragedies occur not as isolated, random incidents, but in a political and historical context. And if we’re going to change things, we need to understand those relationships.

So here goes...

Background:
I was programming Fortran and Cobalt in my early teens at RPI (1978-82), my mother worked there for many years as a secretary and the school encouraged employees to allow their children to explore the campus and learn whatever possible.  My ex-neighbors were professors there and the person that ended up buying my family home was also a professor at RPI.

I just learned that my ex-neighbor has Parkinson's, the man that bought my house had Parkinson's and died from it, and the husband of my first art teacher also died from Parkinson's and was a professor for RPI.

An estimated 60,000 workers die every year of occupationally-related disease, many of which are due to exposure to asbestos. And if the asbestos industry and its friends in government get their way, the bodies will keep piling up.

Baltimore Sun journalist Andrew Schneider has uncovered evidence that OSHA has threatened to fire an agency scientist for not softening warnings to auto mechinics about the dangers of cancer-causing asbestos in brake linings.

The problem of asbestos in brake linings is so little known that when Washington Senator Patty Murray asked OSHA nominee Ed Foulke at his confirmation hearing last January whether he thought it would be a good idea to ban asbestos, Foulke replied that he wasn't aware that the cancer-causing product was used anymore in the United States. Murray sharply corrected him, listing automobile brake pads as one of the many products in which asbestos can still be found.

Need help convincing people to vote for Democrats?

My personal "Litmus Test" for politicians is Workplace Safety because I was disabled by what should have been a preventable injury. Bush's first official act was to tear up the new standards that would help prevent injuries like mine.
 The Dems have a good track record on protecting people in their workplaces; the GOP has been hostile and harmful.

Below, Today and tomorrow's helpful TV and radio segments, plus links about Jewish Democrats and Republicans (Theme: compassion and conscience):

#1. Must-See TV, Sunday, October 29 - Execs Knew of Refinery Safety Issues: 60 Minutes Reviews Corporate Negligence Preceding 2005 Explosion in Texas

#2. Radio, Monday, October 30 - Does World Trade Center Dust Cause Disease?

#3. Jewish Democrats, FYI  http://njdc.org/

#4. Jewish Republicans. Outspending. Blackmail? And Minnesota Event tonight. http://www.rjchq.org/

Details follow. . . . .

Some companies really just have no shame.

The big bad Occupational Safety and Health Administration is back to acting like the Gestapo again, according to the Macsteel Service Center USA which is SHOCKED and OUTRAGED that Indiana OSHA fined them the outrageous sum of $2,500 for crushing David Pineda to death under a load of steel beams last July.

IOSHA issued the $2,500 fine for what it called a "serious" violation to a safety order in connection with Pineda's death.

The agency states: "The company did not establish and maintain conditions of work which were reasonably safe and healthful for employees and free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees, in that the employees were exposed to: falling steel beams."

Plus, after a September inspection, the agency found that although the company had a written crane training program is in place, the program hadn't been implemented.