In case you thought all the world's problems were solved....

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Jordan Barab

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Jul 10, 2008, 6:36:13 PM7/10/08
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It's not clear that Iowa OSHA has the umph, will or capacity to actually enforce health and safety laws in a way that might change a company's behavior:
 
Agriprocessors escapes big fines for violations
 
Carlos Torrez was in the middle of a 60-hour workweek at the Agriprocessors Inc. meat-processing plant in Postville when the mechanical saw he was using to separate chicken parts severed one of his fingers.
 
It was July 2005, and Torrez had been working in the plant for three years. He was 26 years old, had four children at home and had logged 67 hours the week before the accident happened. His take-home pay, even with 27 hours of overtime, totaled $509.
Torrez staggered to "the laundry room" - an area where workers went for first-aid. A co-worker retrieved the severed finger from the floor.
 
Five weeks later, the state investigated the accident. By then, however, two more workers had lost parts of their hands in Agriprocessors' machinery.
 
Climbing cell phone towers is deadly business. Wouldn't be so bad if those damn workers would just use their equipment. Others aren't so sure. Maybe we should get to the root of the problem and focus on lack of OSHA standards, unrealistic deadlines, lack of unions and the use of small contractors. 
 
Nah.
Tower climbing: deadliest job in U.S.
Tie or die, OSHA head says
 
Despite ongoing government and industry efforts to improve safety, maintenance of mobile-phone and other communications towers continues to be the most hazardous work around. And because of the relatively small number of employees in the business compared to other industry sectors, tower climbing — which suffered five fatalities during a 12-day span this spring and seven deaths overall this year so far — may also be the most overlooked, deadly job in the country.
The recent spike in tower fall fatalities follows a reprieve in deaths between early December and April. It was a very bad year in 2006, when 18 tower workers lost their lives. The tower fatalities come during continued growth and expansion in the wireless industry, which is in the midst of another phase of infrastructure construction with the infusion into the market of more spectrum for 3G, WiMAX and other wireless services. 
 
And then there are all of those "new" hazards that OSHA just hasn't gotten around to establishing standards for. Like heat, for example. Who would of suspected that it gets really hot in the summer, hot enough to kill workers?  California has a standard, although workers keep dying. Is it possible that workers are dying from heat elsewhere as well, but no one's looking or counting? Nah.
 
Teen Farmworker's Heat Death Sparks Outcry
All Things Considered, June 6, 2008 · A group of California farmworkers who walked 50 miles carrying two wooden coffins arrived in Sacramento this week.
 
Their journey began near the vineyards where a 17-year-old undocumented farmworker died of heat exhaustion last month. Her death raises questions about how effectively California's heat-safety regulations work in the fields.
 
 
 
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Jordan Barab
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