justice? Or just ...

While looking for a case indicating the liability specifically of the individual owner/operator, rather than the corporate entity, I thought "Grace!" I couldn't find the final court decision, only some motions regarding evidentiary matters. The media, however, carried it. They don't cite case numbers, unfortunately. One of the respondents was quoted saying something along the lines of "it's regretable that anyone was injured, but that's not what this case was about." What did he think it was about? Or was he just weasel-wording it to separate public health from environmental contamination? The U.S. lost its case. I'd really like to read the opinions to see what the justification was, for morbid curiosity, if nothing else. Especially, given that quotation, to see which law was cited as being violated.

Age

It is bizarre to find myself looking at an obituary of a classmate, who was likely 10 years my junior. Cancer is certainly an insidious disease. Yvonne looked fine a few months ago. She was so enthusiastic and passionate about her studies. I read that she had passed away and was left thinking 'that can't be the same Yvonne', since I didn't know what her family name was. Unfortunately it was the same woman. It's just strange. I know only 2 people my own age who have died. Something to come to grips with as one ages.

2008 BLS stats

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has released the official Injury and Illness statistics for the 2008 calendar year. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/osh2.nr0.htm Table 23 is usually one of particular interest to me: this breaks down the data by causation, rather than industry. Not that the social demographics aren't interesting - but I can't control the demographics of my work place. The cause (fall, exposure, etc.) are what industrial hygienists are out to control. Hopefully the fatality data will be later today.

Ammonia - again

Monday afternoon in Twin Cities: 1 trucker dies and another is seriously injured after a release of anhydrous ammonia. Wednesday afternoon on border between MN / SD: tractor-trailer accident carrying 40,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia caused evacuation of SD town. No one killed; injuries from exposure for truck drivers. "... estimated that between 500 and 1,000 pounds of chemical leaked, creating only a small cloud."

age-limited access to health care

Access to health care is usually presented as a function of income, proximity to services, or cultural dictates. Oddly, it can also be a function of age: Children also need a birth certificate to be eligible for the vaccination programme available to under five year olds. Those who are ineligible are left vulnerable to preventable diseases, a common problem in Cameroon. Given the child mortality rates (i.e. deaths under 5 yrs age) in under-developed countries, and the urgency to vaccinate as a public health measure ... I'm stunned that the gov't would refuse to vaccinate anyone under 5 just because of a birth certificate. I understand the need to control when the child gets vaccinated and make sure the child doesn't get too many. Although I'm equally sure that if the parents are well-off they could get their kid the shots.

Lego safety

Of course, you go looking for one thing on YouTube, you find zillions. This is totally awesome:

Bad engineering?

Sure, knock down the end of the shelves ... knock over all of the boxes ... but this degree of destruction? Holy cow. According to the video poster, it's in a Russian vodka warehouse. Now, lest you think we are exempt from disasters due to employee ignorance/inadequacy: WGN, a radio station in Chicago, has a video that's rather amusing, especially the last 20 seconds of their commentary.

Making up for lost time?

No. However, it is nice to see OSHA trying to look scary. The explosion at Imperial Sugar in Georgia has the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board report released earlier this week. The 3rd paragraph of the story in the NYTimes has a link to the document. Lots of pretty good photographs, with diagrams, etc. I haven't read one of their reports before. 89 pages of reading for a chilly Autumn evening. The Times article reports the proposed $8.7 million fines. This popped up on my radar right after the news today brought up the fines announced against BP following their explosion in Texas a few years ago. In both cases, I'm far more curious about how much these companies will actually pay. We all know that "proposed fines" bears no semblance to "actual fines". The Times article about BP included: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has repeatedly said that “there’s a new sheriff in town,” signaling that she would take a more aggressive approach in enforcing wage and labor laws, after what she said was lax enforcement under President George W. Bush. This might be more plausible, if OSHA hadn't been so lax for the past 39 years. How often do they prosecute anyone for anything? BP is cited for 439 willful and egregious violations. This is finally the trigger to request the Attorney General to prosecute criminal charges. Are they going to? If 15 deaths & 439 willful violations don't do it .... what will? The Strib also reported (the only point in their article which wasn't in the Times): Since the 2005 accident, four additional people have died at the Texas refinery, including one employee and three contractors. BP was fined $50m by the Department of Justice in 2007 to settle criminal charges stemming from the Texas explosion. Reports the BBC News. This subtly gets to the point most in the US miss. These criminal charges are from failure to comply with the Clean Air Act. In other words, the EPA had them prosecuted. These people likely won't be criminally prosecuted from OSHA. Like everything else with the gov't: wait and see ... wait and see ...

Air Quality Index - AIQ

This is posted on the MPCA website for Twin Cities Minnesota .

Colt v. US

COLT INDUSTRIES, INC., Plaintiff/Cross-Appellant, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee No. 89-1165 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT 880 F.2d 1311; 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 10672; 89-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) P9450; 64 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5231; 30 ERC (BNA) 1179; 19 ELR 21450 July 24, 1989, Decided Taxpayer was assessed civil penalties in a consent decree because it failed to eliminate violations of the Clean Air Act. In satisfaction of the civil penalties imposed by the consent decree, the taxpayer remitted payment. The taxpayer then claimed the payment as an ordinary business deduction under I.R.C. § 162(a). Does anything more clearly demonstrate the fact businesses see non-compliance fines as just an ordinary business cost?

Hazmat Hounds

Now this is the sort of thing that is just tooo strange to make up: What do you do with dog vomit after Fido eats the rat poison you stupidly left lying around? Question from health official: We have had two cases in the state recently where a dog has eaten zinc phosphide rat poison. The dog is rushed to the vet, they make it vomit and are overcome by the phosphine. We are going to send out an advisory suggesting that this procedure be performed outside of the facility, think behind the building, so we can get adequate ventilation. The issue then becomes what to do with the dog barf? Do we have them direct the dog to a plastic garbage bag and seal it up? Since we have had two cases of this there must have been others somewhere in the US, do you know of anyone who has an experience with it? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Response from EPA: Inducing vomiting is the right treatment. But acid or water causes decomposition and release of phosphine gas. Recommendation is to flood away barf with copious water, while wearing respirator. (Look up respirator in NIOSH) They recommend disposal in a DRY soil pit, but you have to get it there. Level B, or at least supplied air, is my best guess. What about Baking Soda, the all-purpose solution? At least it's not an acid. The following is from Google search on decontaminating sodium phosphide: SYNOPSIS A rodenticide of high mammalian toxicity which in the presence of dilute acid will decompose to liberate phosphine. It is not cumulative in body tissues. SELECTED PROPERTIES Physical characteristics: A grey powder of high melting point which sublimes when heated in the absence of oxygen. Solubility: Practically insoluble in water and ethanol. Soluble in benzene and carbon disulfide. Stability: Stable when dry but decomposes slowly in moist air. It reacts violently with acids with decomposition to the spontaneously inflammable phosphine gas. Vapour pressure: Very low. Phosphine odour detectable at 1.5-3.0 ml/m3 of air, depending on its purity.

Weekly Fatalities

It's sad that they can actually report this by week. The U.S. Department of Labor has a Weekly Reports of Fatalities, Catastrophes, and Other Events. I wish there was a note as to which ones were fatalities. Especially since a few of the entries read:

• Victim was cleaning out a pit at a grain elevator. He was walking near the unguarded opening and fell through, 15-20 feet, to the bottom of the pit. - now this I assume is a fatality
• Victim fell from a 3-step ladder. -- how is this on the list at all, unless it was a fatality?

There is a note: There are 26 OSHA State Plan States. Since there is no reporting requirement, a number of states have elected not to report their fatalities to OSHA. .

Old OSHA Videos

Well, thank goodness for YouTube. The following 3 videos are all dated from 1980 (according to the info on YouTube). All three are produced for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promote itself and workers' rights regarding occupational safety. There are a couple scenes in the history of OSHA video which I just cannot imagine being included in a video today. According to the notes on all 3, the videos were banned & destroyed by the incoming OSHA Secretary in '81 (read: Bush I). They are all about 30 minutes. If they were produced for the government, they are in the public domain.

History of OSHA

Unfortunately, the beginning of this will not trigger the emotional response it did in 1980. The comparison of the death toll of the Vietnam War to the fatality rate here in the US during the same year was a great point. But, then again, I remember the end of the war. We can't provide the same statistics (thank God) about either Gulf War.

Can't Take No More

history of worker safety movement

Worker to Worker

I like the opening tune: Take This Job & Shove It. A look at the different kinds of hazards one can find at work.

a

that's all, folks

Title 29 - Labor Chapter 15 - Occupational Safety & Health Sec. 666 - Civil and criminal penalties (e) Willful violation causing death to employee Any employer who willfully violates any standard, rule, or order promulgated pursuant to section 655 of this title, or of any regulations prescribed pursuant to this chapter, and that violation caused death to any employee, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for no more than six months, or by both; except that if the conviction is for a violation committed after a first conviction of such person, punishment shall be by a fine of not more than $20,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both. Now, here we go: > "civil and criminal penalties" gives a first impression that the plural applies to criminal, as well as civil. Nope. There's only one criminal provision under the federal (and Minnesota) Occupational Safety & Health Act. It's here. You need to actually achieve killing your employee. Not only that, but it also needs to meet the legal definition of "willful", which isn't the same as used in normal conversation. There's one of those op-ed pieces on a blog bemoaning the state of affairs when killing your worker carries a lower penalty than assaulting a burro on federal property. A claim I've read before. The author, however, failed to provide a bibliography along with the word 'bibliography'. So, I'm not sure how valid his numbers are, or where they're from. Which is sad, because I would like to use some of them & would have been happier if I didn't need to go looking for the information from primary sources. Like the burro. Or ... "By comparison with other federal agencies, OSHA is hardly the big bully it is often painted as. For example, the penalty for killing a burro on federal land is one year in jail, and the penalty for mail fraud is up to 30 years behind bars. The Environmental Protection Agency [in the course of] one year obtained prison sentences totaling 256 years." e.g. I'd like to know which year that was & where the burro law is. He also stated: "... there are fewer OSHA compliance officers than there are U.S. fish and game wardens. In other words, the large mouth bass and the wild turkey are afforded better [protection] than U.S. workers."

Myth (the myth of objective educated opinions)

Myths pervade even public health. Yesterday's Midmorning program had as guests professors of

infectious diseases @ Mayo

public health professor @ Pitt, and

pediatrics @ Indiana U.

Public health officials are trying to figure out why a majority of Americans, including many public health nurses and doctors, have told pollsters recently they are wary of the H1N1 vaccine. Wary to the point that they're not sure they will get the shot against H1N1 flu. A look at medical myths and what fuels the fear of vaccines.

This I need to hear. My opinion, prior to doing so, is that medical & public health officials are

a) inadequately educated about vaccines & how they are made

b) subject to the ignorance of peer-education. Rather than peer pressure, this is peer pressure exerting influence about facts. If all of my patients/clients believe it, it must be true.

Behind stupid executive decisions

Wow - the EPA actually thought greenhouse gases are bad.

Wow - the Bush II administration refused to accept science.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a long-secret document last week that reveals the agency's conclusions on global warming while President Bush was in office. The December 2007 document says greenhouse gases are dangerous and need to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

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1st Time Ever - follow up

I passed by the site two days later. The only thing which had changed was a thin little red plastic fence around the biggest pit. The kind of thing that's intended to be a visual "don't enter", and has not real ability to keep anything out. Fair enough. But ...

Still no sign. Still nothing to keep kids out of the other pits.

A couple days later I drove by again (it's actually on my way to 95% of the city). Nothing new. However, they were digging a trench - oh, about 5-6 feet deep (1.75 m). The worker is standing in the trench watching the excavator's shovel come down right in front of his face.

What possesses people to stand in a trench/pit while it is being excavated, with the bucket coming down right in front of their face? In all seriousness, is this just a macho-thing? At my 'field experience' last Summer, I ran into this, too. Luckily, the IH who was a real employee pulled a "get out of there now". It was like watching someone deal with my 5 year old.

I haven't had a chance to ask MN-OSHA if they made a site visit?

Hidden in Statistics

Since I've had children, I have repeatedly heard mothers demonized for letting their baby sleep in bed with mom. After a few months of insanity with child #1, I seriously thought I was coming down the post partum depression. The shrink said, "you're not depressed, you're sleep deprived."

I let my baby sleep with me. Nurse him every 2 hours by getting out of bed? When he would sometimes nurse for half an hour? Are you kidding me? No. Let Jr. sleep next to me: he nursed, I slept. This is not something which requires me to be awake. Of course, I'll probably be demonized for not looking adoringly on as my baby validated my womanhood and bonding with my child.

So - what do the statistics actually tell us?

Study says: Increased risk of crib death by 50%.

Oh, my god, get the baby out of the bed!!

But ... What are those risk factors?

Drinking and taking sedating drugs.

What if we only look at mothers who don't have those risk factors?

Wow - there is no increased risk of crib death.

Handwashing factors

A study in the UK indicates that shame is a greater motivating factor than previously anticipated. The rates of handwashing cited, however, are rather gross.

1st Time Ever

I've never filed a complaint with OSHA before. 877-470-6742 The response was professionally satisfying. I plan to call tomorrow to see what happened. It was nice being able to finally use my professional knowledge again for something other than homework. It was also gratifying to hear the response after describing the problem when I used the phrase "I'm an industrial hygienist". The city building inspector was my 2nd call. 612-685-8505. A thoroughly dissatisfying call. I got an answering machine(that's not a problem). What annoyed me was the lack of any option for "immediately dangerous situation". Not even "if this is urgent, please call 911". The voice mail indicates they will try to be out within 24 hours, maybe 48. They probably won't be out until Monday. There's a gas station going in on the corner of 36th St. & Cedar Ave. I stopped by the site last night on the way home after looking a the gargantuan pit as I drove by. The place occupies about 2 or 3 lots along Cedar. There is a pit the size of a standard swimming pool. (presumably for the UST for gas) Several other trenches and pits are present. There are no fences to keep kids out. There aren't even any signs saying "keep out". The soil is soft. One of the large excavators is parked right next to the large big pit. Trenching without shoring. Two of the walls are sloped shallow enough that they might not need reinforcement. But the side with the 20 foot (6.5 m) pile of dirt?

There is a large excavator parked between two pits. It's been raining quite a bit. The soil is pretty soft. I am quite certain that someone standing at the edge of the pit would have an imminent risk of slipping in. Followed by an imminent risk of quite a lot of soil falling in after her.

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OHS prosecution in UK

Apparently we aren't the only ones who complain about the lack of prosecution for occupational safety failure.

The Guardian is pro-labor, left-leaning paper (left in the sense the the US uses it).

Business OHS references

OSHA & other occ. health info. Links to news sources, presented from the business point of view

I often find it interesting reading the pro-business articles. Mostly what is left out or how the pro-IH position is presented. Now, mind you, the same goes for reading my own profession's publications.

Fire in the Hole!

Now this makes me wonder if they need a stationary source permit for discharging so much combustion by-products. I think I might drive by this evening with the kids. Big fire - might have the Minneapolis F.D. on hand.

Fatality: cage washer

I've never seen a walk-in version of these. This is - like just about any other occupational cause - a gruesome way to die. The story isn't new; it was brought up in my law course discussing torts. In short, a worker became trapped in a cage washer (like a giant dishwasher for animal cages) and was fatally scalded. Steam burns are horrid, horrid things. Minnesota's Dept. Labor states: "Because there's a fatality here that caused or contributed to, there's a non-negotiable penalty of $25,000 per penalty." The article cited an average of 72 occupational deaths per year in Minnesota. Details of the inspections were not made public, but each [Minnesota] OSHA citation pointed to a specific safety rule involving equipment safety: ...employees must be able to open an exit route door from the inside at all times without special knowledge or tools ... the guarding device... shall be designed and constructed as to prevent the operator from placing any part of his body in danger zone during the operation cycle. ... each machine shall be equipped so it is possible for the operator to cut off the power without leaving the position at the point of operation. I'm not clear on how that would have mitigated this specific incident. The hospital planed to contest the findings and the fines. How is it possible that fines be "non-negotiable" and yet "contestable"? My understanding has always been that 'contesting' fines generally means "pleading them to a lower amount". .

[resource] Topics in German

From the Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizine (BAuA) - Topics from A to Z. This is the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, like our NIOSH. There's a version in English. .

Pilgrimage & Polio

Saudi Arabia: Pilgrims Who Travel to Mecca This Fall Will Get an Oral Polio Vaccine on Arrival By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: September 28, 2009 New York Times Saudi Arabia has announced that everyone arriving for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in November will have to swallow a dose of oral polio vaccine under the eyes of health officials. The kingdom has become more and more aggressive in its fight against polio, which has hovered on the brink of eradication for years. Until recently, the Saudi authorities asked for proof of vaccination when pilgrims applied for visas and forcibly vaccinated only those arriving from countries where polio was endemic. In New York last week, the country’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and Ted Turner, the cable television billionaire and chairman of the United Nations Foundation, announced that Saudi Arabia would donate $30 million toward global polio eradication. While that is only a small contribution to the $6.1 billion spent over the last 20 years, it is symbolically important. Polio is endemic in only four countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and regions of Nigeria and India with a Muslim majority. It persists largely because of a persistent rumor that the vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslim girls. Each year, travelers from endemic countries seed outbreaks in other poor countries, where vaccination drives had been dropped when the disease was thought to have been eliminated. In some years, it has reached Saudi Arabia, where millions of pilgrims live close together in tent cities for the holy week.

Xcel & others prosecuted

People say the strangest things: It was just an accident. Xcel Energy is being prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department (upon the request of OSHA) for the deaths of 5 people a couple years ago. More interesting to me is that individual people are being prosecuted as well, not just the corporation. Two people from the sub-contractor doing the work. The original story from 2007 in the NY Times has a nice photo showing the exterior of the worksite. Minneapolis-based Xcel issued a statement Friday that said the fire was an accident, not a criminal act. Do these people actually think the two are mutually contradictory? Well, I guess they do. Or at least, they want you to. ... occurred during the renovation of a large empty metal pipe down which water normally flowed to create hydroelectric power. Five employees of RPI Coating were trapped in the pipe when chemicals being used in the renovation caught fire and blocked their only exit. well, since Xcel is here and the fatalities were there, the Denver paper has a better article. workers were in a drained water tunnel, known as a penstock, connected to the plant, cleaning a sprayer with a flammable solvent. Vapor from the solvent ignited, causing the fire ... There is a link at the bottom of this article to a .pdf copy of the Federal Indictment. I suppose there should be a standard disclaimer: this is my personal opinion, blah blah, based upon information available at the time blah blah.

environmental clean up

Clean up of PFCs in Woodbury starts next week. .

Just gross

Photographs of the 'shroom infestation in the yard. Two close-ups for ID. One wider-angle to see extent of problem. Fungi gross me out. Ever since I saw a photo of an aspergillis infection on someone's leg ... eww... Of course, it was one of those high-quality, high-resolution medical photographs. I was very glad the lecture was just before lunch. I spent half an hour last week trying not to puke simply from the psychological effort of picking them. The top photograph is the yard after being left for 3 days without eradication. This is posted for the benefit of the Extension Officer I contacted for assistance. If anyone else, however, has suggestions short of a nuclear device, please let me know.

[resource] NIOSH science blog

NIOSH has a science blog here. Finally a blog that has intelligent comments. Well, compared to the drivel I find on my local newspaper after something "scientific". An interesting collection of different topics. And, the posts are long, designed to be educational and informative to the occupational health & safety professional. Some of the last posts:

• horse racing safety & health
• second hand smoke and casino dealers
• no-nose bicycle saddles
• firing range exposures

There are only one or two posts per month.

[resource] MCOHS training list

Training programs from the Midwest Center of Occupational Health & Safety. MCOHS also has a monthly seminar on campus at Mayo Hall, usually 1-125.

Build it, and they will ... dump?

The MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) is excavating the landfill in Washington County to install a modern containment system. As the Strib dubbed it, an "history-making landfill do-over". 33 acres of garbage. $20,000,000. wow. ever notice that people write $20M or $20 million? It doesn't seem so impressive without all the zeros. That has led to one of the biggest attempts to go back and undo decades-old environmental practices that the metro area has ever seen. At the bottom of the 90-foot pit, four dozers were spreading clay that will form the base of the landfill. Compactors with huge spiked rollers were smoothing it. ... The landfill will have three layers of heavy plastic liner, separated by layers of geosynthetic material. Lewis said the new landfill will hold mainly old garbage but is designed with a higher level of protection often used to handle hazardous wastes. It will have three distinct layers to prevent any contaminated water in the landfill from reaching ground water: two feet of compacted clay at the bottom, three layers of heavy plastic above that, and two feet of sand and a collection and drainage system above the liners. an MPCA senior engineer, said no surprises have come to light so far in the nearly 300,000 cubic yards of waste removed. -- now, that in itself is a surprise The state has received some complaints about construction noise since work began in early June, he said, and one call about odor. The contractor is spraying the waste with a slurry of cement and cardboard paper to reduce odors, ... What kind of precedent is being set? Can I complain about the landfill in my part of town (hypothetically) and have the MPCA bring it up to modern standards? Does this remove any grandfather compliance clause about environmental protection? And really, what's the difference - ethically or scientifically - between cleaning up 3M (and other people's) waste and cleaning up the arsenic floating around the Philips Neighborhood over here? Oh, I know the difference. 3M has tons of money and can afford to spend $8,000,000 to help cleanup. The pesticide company which operated in Philips doesn't exist anymore. and, of course: NIMBY "I don't understand how this could have been a viable solution -- to dig this up, put in a liner, and then put it all back into the ground," said ---, who lives a half-mile east of the landfill. She and others at public meetings advised MPCA officials to truck the trash away to be burned or buried elsewhere. "I don't understand" = MPCA didn't do a good enough job communicating the risk management -- or the person quoted represents people who aren't willing to expend the energy to understand. "I don't understand" just isn't the same as "I don't agree with" or "I do understand and I still think this is a poor choice". I do sympathize with people who don't understand it, and don't have the scientific knowledge to know which questions to ask. If someone doesn't understand, and they're not an environmental toxicologist or hazardous waste controller ... how do we expect them to even be able to question our decisions? Ah, back to my criticism of modern American educational system. Although, I would likely have supported hauling it off to incinerate it. Still, this "make this someone else's problem" just aggravates me. I don't like the fact there's arsenic in the neighborhood near mine - but it's not like the MPCA or EPA is going to pull up the top soil for an entire neighborhood and bury it somewhere else. Until someone figures out how to make money at it. .

Less = more?

Fewer mosquitos!!!! Yea!!! Lower risk of bug-borne infectious diseases? uh, probably No risk? unfortunately, no. I have taken advantage of the opportunity to sit in the front yard in the evenings and simply enjoy the utterly delightful weather we've been having this Summer. It is, quite honestly, the nicest Summer weather I can recall in my adult life; it's definitely the nicest since we've moved here to the Mosquito State.

Safety assays for vaccines

FDA struggles how to verify vaccine safety with such a high-pressure rush to produce? [radio story]

Chrality & smell

D-form amino acids tend to taste sweet, whereas L-forms are usually tasteless. Spearmint leaves and caraway seeds, respectively, contain L-carvone and D-carvone - enantiomers of carvone. These smell different to most people because our olfactory receptors also contain chiral molecules that behave differently in the presence of different enantiomers. how odd - I really like spearmint, and I absolutely loathe the taste and smell of caraway seeds. This applies to chemical enantiomers, as well. Hence the stark difference between n-butanol and t-butanol. I recall seeing some chiral compounds being sold as "artificial" sweeteners. Whatever the compound was, it tasted sweet, but it was the wrong handedness to be metabolized. I wondered why that didn't take the place of aspartame (which was at the time the big new 'sweetener' in the wake of sacchrine's PR downfall).

PTFE Exposure

PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) is Teflon(TM), which people will tell you causes cancer or whatever. It might. If you ever get exposed to it. The science is absolutely clear: Teflon-coated pans are safe up to about 780F, a temperature at which anything in the pan will have caught fire. So, as a rule of thumb, you should be careful when flames start shooting out of your nonstick pan. Soon it might get hot enough to emit toxic Teflon particles. People scream about "Risk!" without comprehending what it really means, even qualitatively. Risk = exposure * hazard. therefore .... No exposure = no risk. No doubt this is one of the most difficult problems to overcome, psychologically. Even if the worker intellectually knows this ... their definition of "no exposure" is rarely the same as mine. Well, I suppose "no exposure" is the same. It's the "acceptable exposure" whichis the sticking point ... unfortunately, Teflon doesn't help with this no-stick problem. .

HSE chair Judith Hackitt said children needed to learn how to manage risk. [HSE = Health & Safety Executive - the English sort-of cognate to OSHA] Wow - what a concept! Nearly half of teachers believe the health and safety culture in schools is damaging children's learning and development, a survey suggests. When questioned by Teachers TV, teachers complained about a five-page briefing on using glue sticks and being told to wear goggles to put up posters. I am curious about whether the 'five page briefing' was actually an MSDS...

The plague all over again

BBC is reporting an outbreak of bubonic plague in Lybia. I'm in the midst of reading Camus' The Plague. I was inspired to read it by the conspiracy idiots (read: FBI) reports after the anthrax-letters in '01. The reports stated one of the suspects was extra suspicious due to his collection of books in his office. Quite a few of which are sitting on my shelf. The Plague, however, I hadn't read. Maybe it will make me suspicious (since in 2001 I had access to lots of anthrax)? The book is well written and interesting so far.

MDR Malaria?

An on-going concern about long-term disease control or eradication is the development of resistance to various control mechanisms, such as antibiotics Malaysia is reporting malarial parasites developing resistance to antibiotics.

And in those earlier cases, resistance also started in Western Cambodia, and in a similar way.

No-one is sure why this area seems to have become a nursery for anti-malaria drug resistance.

One factor could be the inappropriate use of drugs, related to a lack of medical supervision.

The public health system is weak. Government clinics often run out of drugs or may be closed when patients want access to them.

Sure, I'm biased after working for an American pharmaceutical firm and dealing with the obsessive compulsive regieme of the FDA. [after being in the hospital and staring at a bag of solution being pumped straight into my body - that will make you change your mind about how good it is for document control and quality assurance.] But really - this is beyond the pale of people here:

All pharmacies are supposed to be licensed. But the stallholder told me he didn't have a licence. He'd applied for one, he said, but the paperwork had never been processed.

Many others running pharmacies, he said, were in the same position.

I watched him and his wife make up their own packets of drugs on the glass-topped counter, shaking a variety of coloured tablets into unlabelled plastic bags.

Employment in Urals

New jobs for IH/evironmental in the Urals in Russia, decommissioning weapons of mass destruction.

Bed Bugs

The Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009 seriously ... that's what it's called. Where do these people get the names for their bills? There are times when I think they must have hired the Schoolhouse Rock staff for writing the names I'm just a bill / yes I'm only a bill / and I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill ... The EPA held its first-ever bedbug summit last month. Did the attendees stay in a hotel room for the conference? The biggest bedbug outbreak since World War II

holy cow ...

So, we all have our opinions about PPE. We express them to our employers / employees. Most likely repeatedly. In detail. We wonder at times (or at least I do), where all this information goes. Does an employee take this to another job? Does my colleague tell his kid to be safe? Well, I just had the most amazing thing happen. I got quoted on Minnesota Public Radio's Marketplace website. I have never had my professional opinion put forth in such a public manner. Of course, what happens? My husband then starts arguing about whether this statement is actually 100% true. Well, what if Respirator A is actually a bit more effective than Respirator B, although both are marketed as N-95? If A is more expensive than B, then my statement to MPR is invalid ... I suppose I should have argued in that case, if B is more expensive than A, then I could equally have said cheaper is better, and been equally wrong. As if anything in the world is ever 100% exactly the same 100% of the time ...

Libby, part 2

earlier in the saga, the EPA posted Q&A about the earlier suit: Q : Can Grace sue me to recover money it is required to pay EPA for cleanup of my property?

A : Yes. Grace has the right to sue you, but the court must first decide to what extent you may be held responsible. EPA provided No Action Assurances to owners of residential and business properties in Libby. These assurances indicate that EPA will not seek the cost of cleanup from you. The No Action Assurance will tell the court that EPA does not believe you should be held responsible for those costs.

So, the EPA won't screw you out of money to pay for this??? What in god's name do they think funds the EPA? My taxes. Oh, okay - so EPA won't see restitution from the residents - they get it from me! Grace being able to sue a homeowner to recoup money they need to spend to cover their illegal/unethical activities which caused the homeowner to get asbestosis(read: lung cancer)? How much more obscene can you get?

Libby, part 1

Well, a bit delayed with posting ... From February... W.R. Grace was back in the news with a new lawsuit. This is the owner of the vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. The stupendous point of this is that the defendants in the suit are the Grace executives, not the company. This is the first time the EPA has tried this. They - unlike OSHA - are allowed to directly bring suit against individuals. Actually, I’m not sure OSHA is even allowed to sue anyone, just implement fines. I’m sure the rest of the legal community is waiting with baited breath (assuming we don’t have asbestosis, of course). The company did ban smoking at the mine in 1978 — smoking compounds the dangers of asbestos, doctors say — and also issued respirator masks to workers. But showers that the miners could have used at the end of their shifts before heading home were ruled out, because they might have overly worried people. In the largest judgment after trial (in 2003) in the history of the federal Superfund law, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that the District Court of Montana has ordered W.R. Grace & Co. to pay over $54.5 million to reimburse the federal government for the costs of investigation and cleanup of asbestos contamination in Libby, Montana. There is asbestos all over the entire town. Usually asbestos abatement brings an image of workers in Tyvek suits & respirators working behind plastic sheeting. This abatement is somehow supposed to be the entire city of Libby.

Bitrex

Good heavens, this stuff tastes gross! Last night's class on respirators ended with a call for volunteers to go through a qualitative fit-test with a filtering face-piece respirator. How do you know if it's a respirator or a dust mask? If it says NIOSH, it's a respirator. There being only 6 people in the class, it's not as though one can hide in the back of the room. No one seemed to be leaping at the opportunity, so I volunteered. I guess there's benefits of being the oldest student - I'm pretty immune to most things that embarrass my younger classmates. I've never done qualitative fit testing before, only the quantitative method. They used bitrex as the sensory stimulus. They asked if I knew what it tasted like, simply to avoid having to check. I got a whiff of it once, being in close proximity to someone getting this done. Blech. Since we weren't waiting 1 minute for each of these activities (reading, turning head, lifting chin, etc), I was getting one whopping huge amount of bitrex pumped into the Bag On Head. They're looking kind of curious - I'm not sure why. The whole point is to demonstrate that even an N95 (read: not an N100) is perfectly capable of protecting against this stuff. Then ... wham. The standard bug-eyed, open mouth, sounds of disgust and grabbing for the hood. An hour later walking through campus with some classmates, I licked my lips only to realize it was still there. I think recommending employees rinse their face should be required, whether or not they fail. I failed on the step requiring someone to bend over. I'm not toooo surprised. It wasn't fitting really well under my chin. I was actually surprised it fit as well as it did. I'm curious about what size I was wearing - despite being a woman, I have a fairly broad face. I wear a size Large for full-face respirators, and depending on the manufacturer either Medium or Large for the half-face fitted ones. Yet another reason to offer multiple sizes to employees and make them try on more than one size. Of course you have them, because you're required to (1910.134 Apdx A - first point made) - but you should make them try more than one. Curiously, a rep from 3M told me that different chemicals are used in different countries. Not a surprising statement, eh? But ... apparently there is a distinct difference in sensitivity to some of the compounds. Americans have a lower sensitivity to one of the sweet-smelling chemicals, presumably due to the high sugar content of our regular diets.

Process Man (a.k.a. Chemical Worker's Song)

Well, if you're from Newfoundland, you've likely heard of these men: Great Big Sea. I've loved their music since I saw them on some Canadian channel playing outdoors at a ski resort in shorts in the Winter while it was snowing. This is also one of my favorite of their songs. The original version on Up (and that I heard live, about 12 feet from the stage in Ann Arbor) was powerful in the way that a capella music can be. This recording has either poor audio detail, or the lead singer was having vocal problems & slurring a bit, just a bit. I mention this only in that - if you like this - the standard studio recording is even better for the clarity (as is often the case). Process Man - the ballad of a fellow stuck in the chemical manufacturing world. work & breathe among the fumes that trail across the sky... and it's go boys, go, they'll time your every breath ... 'cause every day you're in this place you're 2 days nearer death ...

[chem free] Makeup

This is the cosmetic "makeup"; not the "amount needed to equalize something (e.g. make up air); and not emotional reattachment (e.g. make up with my girl friend). So, I'm curious ... from a stealth-ad: Mineral makeup is make-up that's made of all natural, finely ground minerals from the earth, without any of the chemicals, dyes, and preservatives found in traditional makeup. It gives you a light, natural, long-lasting glow that simply can't be duplicated by other types of makeup. One of my favorite phrases is "chemical free". I've seen it on food, on coffee, and now on (of all things) make up. What do these people think is in this stuff, if not chemicals? Because the way it's written certainly implies it's chemical free. Note the prepositional phrase (in traditional makeup) is waaaaaay down the long sentence. What you read is without any chemical, dyes or blah blah blah. If these are so wonderfully healthy for you, and are great for sensitive skin - what kind of exposure control systems do they have in the manufacturing plant? I can pretty much guarantee there's an amazing amount of ventilation to cope with the really fine powder. I'd also bet dermal PPE is required to avoid getting this stuff on your skin because it's irritating. (of course, this is sold as a mixture direct-to-customer-not-hazardous product, so there's no MSDS for it). Did they mention that asbestos is a very nice, naturally occurring "chemical free" and "dye free" mineral? Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with these product. I've got a bottle of eye shadow powder that I like. But I bought it because I liked the color; I have no delusions that any of my cosmetics are actually good for me.

HF leak on highway

The picture is far more impressive than the text: managed to stop the slowly dripping liquid . Of course, I'm curious: How slow is 'slowly dripping' compared to 16 tons [just over 14,500 kg] ?

Cutting off the nose to save the penis

what a title! Definitely not the ordinary work hazard. One expects reproductive hazards from radiation or chemical exposure. I never would have thought of bicycle riding. NIOSH bicycle saddles and reproductive health prolonged riding with certain types of bicycle saddles (the seat) results in higher pressure to the urogenital area (crotch) for male cyclists, reducing male reproductive function. These studies focused on police departments with a bicycle patrol as part of the force. Changing the style of seat for 6 months improved the man's function. The title is from the "nose-less" bicycle seats which were studied.

Mercury increase in Great Lakes

Levels of mercury in pike and walleye increasing from: Minnesota Public Radio

February 17, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — Mercury levels are increasing in pike and walleye in Minnesota. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency scientist Bruce Monson studied data from the past 25 years.

Monson found that from the 1980s through the mid 1990s mercury levels decreased, but since then they've been on the rise. Monson says that corresponds to an increase in global mercury emissions from 1990 to 1995.

"We're affected by global emissions. 90 percent of the mercury that gets deposited is actually from outside the state." [READ: China]

Minnesota has already greatly reduced its mercury emission levels, and it will cut emissions again by 93 percent by 2025. The state is also working with other states to push the federal government into take action to cut mercury pollution globally.

100 pounds of Hg

largest mercury spill in 20 years the fact that this isn't simply the largest is scarier. Reading the idiocy posted by idiots reading the papers is even scarier. "He said he was unaware of any damage to workers' health." It's amazing what you can be unaware of, simply by not being told. No one could possibly know within 24 hours whether or not the workers' health is impaired. Still ... I had a job once where I was explicitly told to "take your time getting back here", so that the corporate president could go on TV and say "we don't have that information yet". Of course not, I had it. So, I'm not really impressed anymore with "I'm unaware of ...." He added he did not know which company employed the supervisors who gave his employees their instructions. -- this is just a prime example of failure to stay on top of your employees' safety. If anyone is giving my employees directions involving their health, I damn well want to know who they are. I might now know what was said/done, but I would at least know who ran my safety program. ...notified the state's Office of Emergency Services about a spill of one pint of mercury - equal to 14 pounds. About three weeks later, the company amended its report to 90 pounds. ... reported the [second] spill to the state as six pounds and about a week later amended that amount to 90 pounds do you think someone might have checked into this, after the first amendment? Changing it to a larger amount doesn't surprise me - once you have a better idea of what happened, I would expect the number to increase. But from 14 to 90? That's not just a little blip, that's a 500% increase. Under laws effective last year, any company failing to notify the center promptly about a reportable spill could face a fine of up to $32,500 a day, EPA officials said. come on ... does ANYONE actually think the EPA will even try to fine these people? He added that the law now requires a professional survey assuring asbestos has been removed from a site, but "there is no similar requirement to have a professional survey for mercury and other hazardous materials." I might understand this, in a general sort of way. Tearing down the Gustavus Adolphus building on 16th & Lake really wouldn't warrant one's attention for hazardous materials. But a manufacturing site, which is known to have used hazardous chemicals in large quantities? Anyone who has ever dealt with older companies and especially older facilities in disrepair knows that it is almost a sure-fire guarantee to find 'unexpected' items. (I could tell you horror stories about cleaning a deep freezer which had, at one time, belonged to an infectious disease laboratory.) Hazardous materials assessment should precede demolition or major construction activities at any facility. That could be as simple as "looked around, it was an office, no asbestos, no radon, check" - or in the case of an old pesticide plant, like the one just west of me in the Philips Neighborhood: "um, old pesticide manufacturing plant, no one owns it anymore, it's a Brownfield, there's arsenic all over the neighborhood ...".

questions for noise monitoring

As I progressed with this project, I realized that I should ask more questions. Sure, these are patently obvious, and are probably mentioned in any text on the topic. But, hey, this is why the first time doing something is educational. And of course, some of these I realized ought to have been asked after getting data I didn't want. Do you move to other tasks in the day? If so, find out which ones & how long they are at each station. How long do you stay at this work station? If the answer is less than a full shift, find out where else they are (& what they're doing). Is this a normal day for you? Do you normally run this (gizmo) more? less? Is production running faster or slower? Are you doing more tasks than usual? How long have you been doing this task, i.e., years, months, weeks You should establish how much experience the worker has with this task, which might be different than their seniority/time-in-grade might indicate. 30 years with the company might mean she's been doing this task for 6 months. Are you working overtime today? Often? Will you need to set the measuring instruments to accommodate a longer measurement? When you do calculations, you'll need to know what their normal exposure is, if today is different. Who else does this task or works at this station? Do you have someone who just helps out occasionally? This might be different than the answer you get from the supervisor. You're more interested in finding the perhaps unofficial or unknown "helpers", to make sure the helpers get included in your surveillance program. Is this task done every day? If this isn't a routine task, find out how often it is done. You might manage to catch someone doing a quarterly or annual task. And, if you miss the infrequent/irregular jobs, find out when they happen so that you can catch it next time.* As with anything else, have a pre-printed sheet with all of these questions. If you expect to have standard answers, put the standard answer with the question, so that you can easily circle it, rather than write it. E.g.: How long have you been doing this task? less than 6 months 1 year 5 years more than 10 years How long are you at this work station? 8 hours 4 hours 2 hours other ________ The easier it is for you to gather information, the more relaxed the employees will be. If it's quick and painless, it won't interrupt their work (as much). * Especially with irregular jobs, I find it much better to be able to approach the Supervisor and ask for a very specific thing: "Please contact me the next time you shut down Machine 5 for cleaning?" If you already know what you want (because you got the information from the worker), the manager will be either a) impressed that you know what you want and hopefully b) more likely to do it, because she knows what you want. This will also benefit your relationship with the worker: Asking them for information indicates your respect for their professional competence.

Porcine ebola

One doesn't normally think of infection control with slaughterhouses. And, if one does, it's more likely to be hoof & mouth or BSE, not ebola.

Jan 27, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Health officials in the Philippines recently announced that a worker who had contact with sick pigs tested positive for antibodies to the Ebola Reston virus, a pathogen that was discovered about a month ago for the first time in pigs.

Eric Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Centre, said the case represent the first known pig-to-human Ebola Reston virus transmission, If you haven't run across it, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy ( CIDRAP) has a great website. This is, of course, one of those morbidly interesting sources. As we commented, after each of our environmental health courses: "oh my god, I never want to breathe, eat, or drink again, 'cause I'm gonna die!" The Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases is also a great read Pro-Med Mail is an on-line public-input disease tracking system.

Herpes exposure control

New drug may [great science word] prevent transmission of herpes virus. great for infectious disease prevention ... i'd be curious as to whether the majority of herpes cases are due to casual sex vs. long-term partner sex. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have HSV-1. okay, class - which is bigger? 1 in 5 or 100 million? I doubt they actually expect the average person reading this to know the current population. Which is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 306 million ∴ 1 in 3 have HSV-1 Why not write: An estimated one in five americans have genital herpes,..., while one in three have HSV-1. ~or~ An estimated 60 million Americans have genital herpes,..., while 100 million have HSV-1. Perhaps they (reasonably) fear Jane Doe will think 1 in 3 is smaller than 1 in 5? Maybe they don't really want me to know how many people have HSV-2? Or perhaps they just don't really want me to know anything, such as: An estimated 1 in five Americans have genital herpes,..., while the number with HSV-1 is about one and a half times higher.

War on Science

Slate.com declared the War on Science to be over. Meanwhile the Columbia Journalism Review reported: CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story. “We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand alone unit,” ... "integrate" generally doesn't mean "eliminate and leave the rest hanging". Let's just eliminate the advertising department, Joe, and let the Marketing and Sales fellows cover it as an integrated unit, but only after we fire all of the advertising guys. "integrate" should be 'reorganize and then cut jobs'. The War on Science will be over when I'm long dead and gone, if ever. The ever-increasing number of parents who reject modern medicine in toto ... ... who seek to embrace 'natural' or 'homeopathic' or 'alternative' medicine while blissfully living encapsulated from disease in a society built on what they reject ... ... who refuse to acknowledge the potential for "science" to be able to explain better than the Bible ... ... Those who refuse to acknolwedge the potential for "science" to support religion** ... ... all of this simply reinforces an undeclared and often unacknowledged War on Science. ** Of the number of people I know who are devout scientists, a significant proprotion of them are concurrently devout theists.

Not really unprecedented

Outbreaks of measles in U.K. mirrors problems we've had here. About 10 or so years ago, several universities started requiring incoming students to be vaccinated for measles.* This was at a point where the ACIP changed its recommendations for MMR vaccines (measles, mumps, and rubella/German measles). The traditional vaccination practices, they were discovering, were inadequate for long-term immunity. Fair enough; hey, this is why CDC has a reportable disease requirement. I realized that I am old enough to fall into that period. I figured I'd get vaccinated again. That's another story. I did. Not so for thousands of people who have decided to abrogate their personal & social responsibility. Yes, this is one point upon which I am both conversant and very strongly opinionated. Sure, I'm often opinionated; I try to be knowledgeable about it; I try to see other points of view. I've seen them here and they're irrational and scientifically unsubstantiated. Don't get me going on the whole thimerosal 'controversy' or 'conspiracy'. Maybe I'll make a different post on that, using the concepts of Risk Assessment to explain my opinion; it will take more time than I have right now to do this well and accurately. While I realize measles is far more common than mumps and rubella, and is therefore more immediate in people's minds, it is also the least risky of the 3 to long-term health. [I don't recall where I read this, so if it's not correct, please let me know.] It is a cogent example of ignoring a greater risk due to the fact that it's less likely to happen, and thus less likely for people to believe it has anything to do with them. Eventually the herd immunity will fall below the level necessary to effectively control these diseases. At which point, we're going to have an large outbreak, if not an epidemic. And, at which point, all of these "don't vaccinate my child; I'm the parent and know better" parents are going to line up and demand to know why the government hasn't done anything to prevent this. Failure to vaccinate your child or yourself against the major communicable vaccine-preventable diseases is inexcusable. Before you think I'm an ideologue on the point, there are other vaccine-preventable diseases for which I also consider less important. It's not an absolute yes/no question. But, it is not only the potential for disease, but also the potential consequences of communicating the disease. Polio - well, this is one where I understand a reluctance to vaccinate; however, considering the extent of global travel, it is no longer a valid argument that "we don't have it here, it's only over there [i.e., in some 3rd world country]." I understand, but do not agree with their argument. An interesting article in Minnesota Parent magazine addresses puts forth the problem in personal terms. (The stats are Minnesota-based.) There are also vaccines for rabies, anthrax, and monkey pox. I'm not about to get in line to have any of these, much less ask for them for my kids. [Although, as a point of disclosure, I have actually been vaccinated for the first two, but that was occupationally related and justified based upon a much higher risk of exposure than I have now.] Hey, cool - "Warning, some of these photos are quite graphic" notice for medical photos of these diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, polio (still & video), tetanus, diphtheria (personal note: these are the grossest) & pertussis . I bet if these were more widely available, it might change some people's choice about whether to get vaccinated, considering the current American obsession with body images. I realize there is legally an option to refuse to be vaccinated.** This in the past was generally used by some religious sects which object to any 'modern' medicine. We need to seriously and objectively assess the effectiveness and appropriateness of our current policies. The objectivity needs to be placed on all sides of the argument. * Currently, the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota (schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacology, veterinary medicine and public health) require vaccination for HepB, DTP, MMR and annual TB tests. What a pain trying to get all the documentation for this, when school started! ** Non Medical Exemptions to School Immunization Requirements, secular trends and association of state policy with pertussis incidence, Omer, Pan, Halsey, et al., J. Am. Med. Assoc., 2006;296:1757-1763 as pdf and .htm ~~ concludes that the looser exemption rules are, the higher the incidence of disease. Other information: Advisory Council of Immunization Practices has an extensive list of vaccine-preventable diseases and individual information on both the disease and vaccine. ACIP is part of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). There is a new adult schedule posted here in .pdf and .htm versions. Summary of Notifiable Diseases (several years worth) The photos linked above are on the CDC website, but are from the Public Health Image Library.