Good News and Bad. And good.

[Jordan Barab]

First, the good. Turns out elections matter. Today we've seen proof as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis withdraws a time-wasting Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking  (ANPR) on diacetyl, the chemical that causes "popcorn lung." The ANPR had been announced by the Bush administration the day before Barack Obama's inauguration. (It was actually published in the Federal Register on January 21st.) OSHA will now proceed with getting a proposal out, followed by hearings.

 

News Release: U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis takes action to prevent workers’ exposure to food flavorings chemical

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/osha20090227.htm

 

 

This probably would have been good news for Ronald Kuiper, as would the $7.5 million awarded to him by a jury for destruction of his lungs by diacetyl -- except that Mr. Kuiper died of lung disease the day before the jury's decision. You can read all about it in Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist Andrew Schneider's blog:

 

Popcorn flavoring victim dies as jury awards $7.5 million, but government does little to prevent future diacetyl exposure

http://blog.seattlepi.com/secretingredients/archives/164220.asp

 

 

Kuiper probably would have liked the Schneider's Seattle P-I article, except that it now turns out that the P-I's print edition is following Kuiper into the grave. Tomorrow is the Seattle P-I's last print edition. http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

 

But the good news is that crusading investigative (soon to be ex-Seattle P-I) journalist Andrew Schneider (see above) doesn't need no stinkin' job to keep on doing the invaluable work he does. Schneider will continue to monitor the great Libby, Montana asbestos trial (and other investigations) at his new site, Andrew Schneider Investigates: http://andrewschneiderinvestigates.com/

 

And finally, if you just can't get enough coverage of the Libby asbestos trial, a group of University of Montana Journalism and Law department students are also following the trial at a site called GraceCase: http://blog.umt.edu/gracecase/.   Of course, if they really want to see how it's done, I hope they're reading and talking to Schneider.

 

 

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Jordan Barab