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Last night, the Senate confirmed David Michaels as the new Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
Congratulations, David! All of us at George Washington University and The Pump Handle will miss working with you, but we’re eager to see an OSHA where the top leadership is dedicated to realizing the vision of safe and healthy workplaces for all.
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 quickly through the densely populated city. The Indian Council on Medical Research estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 people died in the first three days after the catastrophe; another 25,000 perished later from effects of the exposure.
Thousands of survivors report respiratory, neurological, skin, and eye problems that prevent them from earning a decent living. Children born to survivors also have high rates of birth defects and developmental problems. Toxic exposures didn’t end once the released gas dissipated, either; chemicals leaking from the plant, which was closed in 1985, continue to contaminate groundwater. Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian reports on one study that found water near the facility contained pesticides at levels 40 times above that of India’s safety standard, and a second found the carcinogen carbon tetraflouride at a level 2,400 times greater than World Health Organization guidelines, along with multiple other chemicals.
In the quarter-century since this disaster, what have we done to ease victims’ suffering and prevent a similar catastrophe? Not nearly enough.
Today is World AIDS Day, and this year’s theme is Universal Access and Human Rights. MMWR offers the following statistics to illustrate the scope of the issue:
- An estimated 16.5 million women worldwide were HIV positive at the end of 2008
- Approximately 4 million people in low- and middle-income countries were getting antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2008
- Worldwide, women and girls account for almost 60% of new infections; in the US, HIV infections disproportionately affect blacks, Hispanics, and men who have sex with men
- In the US, an estimated 1.1 million people were HIV positive in 2006
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who serves as an ambassador for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is emphasizing the importance of treating all HIV-positive pregnant women to reduce the transmission of HIV between mothers and babies during birth and breastfeeding. Currently, only about one-third of pregnant women in Africa receive HIV testing, and only about 45% of those who test positive get the medication to stop HIV transmission to their children.
The treatment of HIV-positive individuals doesn’t just refer to drugs, though; discrimination against those with HIV and AIDS is also a serious problem. That’s why it was welcome news recently when President Obama announced the end to a ban on travel to the US by those infected with HIV. The ban had remained in effect even though last year Congress passed, and President Bush signed, legislation that repealed the statute on which the ban was based.
Over the weekend, an explosion ripped through the Xinxing mine in the northeastern China province of Heilongjiang. Five hundred workers were underground at the time, and 107 of them have now been declared dead. Marianne Barriaux reports for AFP:
Press reports quoted Zhao Tiechui, deputy head of the state work safety agency, as saying overcrowded shafts were among the factors in the disaster at the Xingxing mine in northeast China.
“Excessively large coal faces being mined, too many people below ground and insufficient ventilation were factors in the accident,” Zhao was quoted saying by various media. …
The state-run Global Times newspaper reported that safety authorities had recently granted the mine a clean safety record.
The head, deputy head and chief engineer of the mine have been removed from their posts, state press reports have said.
The death toll from this disaster surpasses that of the 2007 explosion at a Shanxi province mine, which killed 105.
In other news:
The title of a new report from Physicians for Social Responsibility (via the Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward) doesn’t pull any punches – it’s called Coal’s Assault on Human Health. While noting that coal mining presents risks to miners and local communities, the report focuses mostly on the health effects of coal combustion. The authors discuss the effects on humans’ respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, and then explore the more indirect health effects from global warming, to which coal-burning contributes:
Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this week, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli reported a record number of suicides in the Army: 140 active-duty soldiers and 71 not on active duty are suspected of taking their own lives. Last year’s suicide total set a record, and this year’s total is on track to surpass it. The Washington Post’s Ann Scott Tyson got Gen. Chiarelli’s perspective on the effectiveness of current suicide-prevention efforts, which include improved screening and training, and the barriers that remain:
In January and February, there were about 40 suicides, or about one-third of the active-duty total this year, and since March the general trend has been down, with the exception of a couple of months, he said. He attributed that progress primarily to a campaign to increase the involvement of Army leaders at all ranks in suicide prevention efforts. …
Substance abuse, which can be related to mental health problems and suicide, is on the rise in the Army, Chiarelli said, and he added that the force is short about 300 substance abuse counselors.
The Army is also short an estimated 800 behavioral health specialists, he said, describing prewar authorization levels for such specialists as outdated. “I have been pounding the system to . . . determine what we need after eight years of war,” Chiarelli said.
In other news:
As I mentioned in my earlier post about the OHS Section’s Award Luncheon, the section’s musical skit is one of the most eagerly anticipated events for worker health and safety advocated attending the APHA annual meeting. This year, vocal and lyrical master Luis Vazquez, accompanied by the OHS Thespian Collective, awed the audience with a new version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that invites us to envision a future of safe and healthy workplaces. He’s given us permission to post the lyrics here, and you can find an instrumental version of the song here, in case you’re moved to perform the piece for your co-workers, friends, and family members.
Imagine Health & Safety
Lyrics By Luis Vazquez, 2009, All Rights Reserved
Sung to the tune of Imagine, by John Lennon
Imagine no more injuries
Or ‘blame the worker’ schemes
No workers killed in explosions
Or mangled in machines
Imagine all the workers
Going home in one piece!
Imagine no exposures
To chemicals that kill
No more carpal tunnel
Or other ergonomic ills
Imagine all the workers
Working without pain!
There are plenty of studies about the effects of bisphenol A on animals, but it’s always challenging to study the effects of a ubiquitous chemical in humans. Findings from a new epidemiologic study helps fill in some of the gaps in understanding BPA’s effects on humans.
The NIOSH-funded study conducted by the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute followed 634 male workers who were exposed to high levels of BPA at Chinese factories, and compared their sexual health to that of male counterparts whose workplaces did not involve the chemical. The Washington Post’s Lindsey Layton describes the results:
The Occupational Health & Safety Section’s Annual Awards Luncheon is always one of the highlights of the APHA Annual Meeting, due its combination of inspiring awardees and creative musical skit.
This year’s award winners won well-deserved recognition for (among other achievements) advancing the rights of chemical workers; developing a health disparities institute; honing methods for worker training; and organizing workers exposed to harmful substances to demand justice and compensation.
It’s a tradition for APHA’s Occupational Health & Safety section to invite top officials from OSHA, MSHA, and NIOSH to a “Talking Heads” session at each APHA annual meeting. The session “The Future of Occupational Safety and Health in the Obama Administration” featured Jordan Barab, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA; John Howard, Director of NIOSH; and Gregory Wagner, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy of MSHA. The room was packed with an audience eager to hear how this new leadership plans to address worker health and safety issues that haven’t been getting enough attention in recent years.
John Howard, who was also head of NIOSH for several years during the Bush administration, characterized the change in administrations by saying that “it’s gratifying to be in the position of having your science wanted.” He emphasized that green jobs are not enough, but that “green and safe is what we need.” He also reminded the audience that there are many hurdles that have been put in place over the previous decades by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government, so progress will still take lots of time and effort.
Greg Wagner told the crowd that it’s time to put the “H” of “health” back in MSHA, and noted that part of the reason the regulatory process takes so long is that there are many opportunities for public involvement. He called for greater participation from miners and urged the audience members to get involved, too.
Jordan Barab rattled off a list of things OSHA has already done: fined BP a record $87 million, issued several egregious violations (five will be issued by the end of the month, compared to four during all of last year), and ended the quotas for alliances and voluntary protection programs, to allow the agency to focus on enforcement. He said OSHA will be hiring more staff to deal with inspections, standards, and whistleblowing; holding a conference on immigrant workers; and turning attention to the problems of violence, stress, and fatigue.
The audience had a lot of questions and comments about how the agencies should go about rulemaking, enforcement, and recruiting the next generation of occupational health and safety professionals:
