You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2007.
By David Michaels
The Center for Public Integrity has launched an exciting project examining the work of the federal advisory committees. It’s been named “The Shadow Government,” and it is directed by veteran journalist Jim Morris. The project’s first report focuses on the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, a panel that provides advice related to the program that compensates civilian nuclear weapons workers who developed occupational illnesses following exposure to radiation, beryllium and other toxic materials encountered in the production and clean up of nuclear weapons. (I’ll come back to that report in a later post.)
Since the beginning of the Bush Administration, federal advisory panels have been the subject of a great deal of controversy. These panels, set up under the “Federal Advisory Committee Act” (FACA), play a vitally important role in assisting federal decision-makers grapple with complex and difficult policy issues, especially in science policy. Since the first reports of the Bush Administration stacking advisory committees (one early outcry was an editorial in Science Magazine which I wrote with several colleagues associated with the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, or SKAPP), scientists and science organizations have been have been outspoken in their objections to appointments of individuals selected for their allegiance to special interests rather than for their scientific qualifications.
For those who’ve been following the investigations into how the Bush Administration interfered with government climate science, the news about political interference into Interior Department science had a familiar ring.
Chris Mooney sums it up well: “Substitute for Philip Cooney an Interior Department official named Julie MacDonald, and it’s basically the same story as it was with climate change: A political appointee, friendly with industry, overruling the determinations of agency scientists.” (Cooney was chief of staff on the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality – previously with the American Petroleum Institute – who altered government climate science reports.)
Viewed next to the details that came out of the latest hearing into the politicization of climate science, though, MacDonald’s misdeeds are less appalling.
U.S. environmental regulations were on several bloggers’ minds this week. Frank O’Donnell at Blog for Clean Air explains that EPA’s new rule on particle soot is terrible, while Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority warns that Bush administration is about to release a set of administrative rules changes that would completely eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. At least The Olive Ridley Crawl has some good news: the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing stronger regulations to reduce sea turtle bycatch.
Infectious diseases were a hot topic, too. Tara C. Smith at Aetiology observed World TB Day with a post on the global tuberculosis situation; Mike the Mad Biologist reminds us that annual flu deaths are preventable; and Revere at Effect Measure delves into a paper that uses a mathematical model to investigate the spread of antiviral resistance in the control of pandemic influenza (the first post at the series is here; find links to all of the previous installments at the end of the most recent post).
In fact, this week brought blog posts galore on environmental and medical topics, including:
By David Michaels
Every month, more workers exposed to artificial butter flavor are being diagnosed with lung disease. Last July, two unions, with the help of the Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy Project, petitioned OSHA for an Emergency Temporary Standards to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl, a flavoring chemical that causes bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Nine months have passed, several workers have died, and, as far as I can tell, OSHA has done NOTHING. This continues to be a case study in regulatory failure.
Meanwhile, things are heating up in California. Earlier this week, at an Assembly hearing on a bill to ban diacetyl from workplaces in the state by 2010, legislators were informed that 22 more young workers employed in the California flavoring industry have been diagnosed with decreased lung capacity. Yesterday, the bill, proposed by California Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Sally Leiber, passed out of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee. It now moves to the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials.
Read the rest of this entry »
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced a record $1.5 million penalty against Massey Energy Company for violations related to the January 19, 2006 deaths of Ellery Hatfield, 46 and Don Bragg, 33 at the Aracoma Alma #1 Mine in Stollings, WV. The investigators, led by MSHA district manager Kenny Murray of Pikeville, KY, found more than two dozen violations of MSHA standards. Twenty-one of the 25 violations were classified as ”reckless disregard,” the most severe category of negligence under MSHA’s penalty structure. In a prepared statement, the company said that it “respects the views of MSHA and will fully consider the agency’s findings as part of the Company’s own investigation of the incident.” Recall, this is the same company that obstructed MSHA’s investigation of the disaster by failing to provide documents requested by the investigators. Read the rest of this entry »
Hearings, proposed legislation, and lawsuits have followed the the Chemical Safety Board’s release of its 2005 Texas City refinery blast report, which faulted BP’s broken safety culture and criticized OSHA for lax inspections and enforcement:
Houston Chronicle: At a House of Representatives hearing on the disaster, lawmakers blasted OSHA for its lax enforcement of safety rules.
AP: OSHA announced that it will nearly double the number of workers trained to perform the advanced inspections called for in the CSB report.
Houston Chronicle: On the anniversary of the blast, families of the 15 refinery workers who died gathered to remember their loved ones and to call for stronger safety legislation. The Remember the 15 campaign has details on the legislation and a page for emailing lawmakers.
AP: A timeline details major events from the blast to the CSB’s report.
Galveston County Daily News: An estimated 600 new legal claims have been filed in relation to the blast over the past two weeks.
LA Times: Refinery accidents are up nationwide, largely due to “the hard use of aging equipment, a shortage of trained workers, corporate cost cutting and ownership changes.”
In other news:
By Eula Bingham
It was 30 years ago this month that I was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. I vividly remember my visits to Capitol Hill and the questions of lawmakers regarding my vision for worker health and safety. Perhaps it was because I had been a teacher for 20 years; or had accompanied members of the United Auto Workers to Sweden to witness first-hand a model worker training program; or perhaps it was the influence of Selikoff, Mazzocchi and Samuels (who all knew the value of providing workers with information) that caused me to respond: ”Worker education is my highest priority.” Read the rest of this entry »
OMB Watch is reporting that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Chaired by Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) will soon hold a confirmation hearing on Susan E. Dudley. nominated to be Administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The office, part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), oversees all of the Administration’s regulatory (or anti-regulatory) activities.
There’s lot’s more information on Ms. Dudley, and on OMB’s latest shenanigans, at OMB Watch’s website Dudley Watch. Genevieve Smith, at the American Prospect Online, dubbed Ms. Dudley “The Anti-Regulator,” in a profile you had better read if the rumors are true:
Dudley’s public comments written during her time at Mercatus [a free market policy advocacy group] reveal a hostility towards environmental, health, and safety regulations that is ideological and virtually total. As Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Action has said, “Susan Dudley makes John Graham [previous head of OIRA] look like Ralph Nader.” Laura MacCleery of Public Citizen’s CongressWatch, who helped spearhead the campaign against Graham’s nomination, put the matter even more bluntly: “John Graham has an anti-regulatory bias, but Susan Dudley is an anti-regulatory crusader. This is like trading in a scalpel for a sledge hammer.”
A few weeks ago, we detailed some of the concerns about the review of the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) coordinated by the contractor Sciences International for the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR). The story broke shortly before an expert panel on BPA was scheduled to meet, when Environmental Working Group reported that Sciences International has worked closely with tobacco and chemical companies – including Dow Chemical, a BPA manufacturer. We noted that these were evidently previous clients of Sciences International, which is under new management and no longer works for the tobacco industry or BPA manufacturers, but that the NTP does not have an adequate process in place to identify and deal with such potential conflicts among its contractors.
After hearing from public health advocates about their concerns, the NTP announced that it would postpone the BPA decision and review the ties between CERHR and Sciences International. On Saturday, the News & Observer (NC) reported that NTP has suspended its work with Sciences International:
Al Gore’s appearance on Capitol Hill prompted several blog posts. David Roberts at Gristmill liveblogged Gore’s testimony in both the House and the Senate; he and Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority both devoted blog posts to a memorable encounter between Gore and Senator Inhofe, too. Kevin Vranes at Prometheus weighed in on Gore’s specific proposals and summarized exchanges between Gore and various Senators.
When the sad news about Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer was reported, Orac at Respectful Insolence and Craig Hildreth at The Cheerful Oncologist were quick to provide additional medical context.
In addition:
