Understanding Government

Judith Graham of the Chicago Tribune reports on fatal grain bin accidents and what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is doing to stop them. “Last year, 51 men and boys were engulfed by grains stored in towering metal structures that dot rural landscapes, and 26 died,” Graham writes, “the highest number on record, according to a report issued last month by Purdue University. Illinois led the nation with 10 accidents and five deaths.” OSHA has recently increased their inspection of grain elevators, but there is a pretty big “however” here: the agency cannot regulate the activities of farmers with fewer than 10 employees.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has called for a federal investigation of air pollution from Chicago area Metra trains and other pollution sources, following a Chicago Tribune investigation. WLS radio reports that Durbin wrote letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and Federal Railroad Administration with the request that they review particulate matter in the atmosphere around Metra trains and train stations. (more…)

The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety and Administration is investigating the death of a plastics plant worker in the northern Illinois town of Rochelle.

Alex Gary of the Rockford-Register Star reports that investigators from OSHA’s Aurora, Illinois office are probing the death of Mackenzie T. Downing, a 25 year-old who was fatally caught in machinery at a TransWorld Plastic Films plant. (more…)

The Labor Dept.’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration has fined a Belvidere, Illinois crystal manufacturing plant $510,000 for seven “serious” and five “willful” safety violations. However, Ken Hennessy, the president of NDK Crystal, vowed to appeal the fine, reports the Rockford-Star Register‘s Betsey Lopez Fritscher.

The fines stem from an explosion last December at the plant that killed one worker. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal’s Melanie Trottman and Alexandra Berzon report that the Labor Dept. will step up its federal-state workplace safety programs:

The action follows calls from unions and senior congressional Democrats — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and U.S. Rep. George Miller of California — for a tough response to 12 construction deaths that occurred on the Las Vegas Strip between December 2006 and June 2008 amid a building boom. (more…)