Protect Missouri Workers

08/27/2026

The House Education and Workforce Committee voted 18-15 along party lines to block the Department of Labor from finalizing any heat protections for workers. The rule it targets would require employers to provide water and a cool place to rest when heat and humidity hit 80 degrees.

The vote came during a Midwest heat wave, weeks after a heat dome may have killed 29 people in New Jersey. Workers who load trucks, roof houses, and work fields do not get to wait out the heat.

The House Education and Workforce Committee approved the legislation along party lines.

08/25/2026

University of Vermont researchers reported phase one trial results for a new mesothelioma drug in Nature Communications. The drug controlled disease progression in 67 percent of patients with relapsed mesothelioma, and those patients lived longer than they would have on standard treatment.

Mesothelioma comes from asbestos, and it typically shows up in men who worked in shipbuilding, oil refining, and manufacturing. Median survival is about 12 months. Workers exposed decades ago are the ones living with this diagnosis now.

Mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer, usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Inhaled asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, causing inflammation that can lead to tumor formation decades later. Worldwide, about 30,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.

08/20/2026

The Chemical Safety Board found the deaths of two young engineers at Woodland Pulp in Baileyville were preventable.

The mill had no hydrogen sulfide detectors in the building where the gas was released, and neither worker was given a personal monitor. The company also had no system tracking who was inside during the shutdown. Ten other employees were exposed.

Workers cannot protect themselves from a gas they cannot see or smell without detection equipment.

https://www.mainepublic.org/health/2026-07-14/investigation-finds-woodland-pulp-mill-deaths-from-toxic-gas-exposure-were-preventable

08/18/2026

An employee at a Corpus Christi truck parts facility asphyxiated while inspecting a tanker trailer in January. OSHA found the company had no confined space program and an incomplete respiratory protection program. The agency cited 16 serious violations and proposed $264,380 in penalties.

Confined space and respirator programs exist because workers die without them. This one was in place too late.

https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/dallas/20260715

08/13/2026

The GAO reviewed a decade of Black Lung Benefits Program claims and talked with 64 miners in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. It found that Labor is not collecting enough information or monitoring whether mine operators actually cover the medical care miners are owed. Processing delays and legal challenges from operators were common obstacles.

Miners who already have black lung should not have to fight for the benefits they earned underground.

The move was prompted by a recent Government Accountability Office report.

08/11/2026

EPA determined in December 2024 that legacy asbestos in buildings poses unreasonable risk when disturbed during renovation, demolition, and repair. That finding legally required the agency to propose protective rules by December 2025. EPA missed the deadline, and has now pushed the timeline to June 2027. ADAO sued over the delay and called the latest extension unacceptable.

Workers are the ones disturbing this material on the job while the rulemaking stalls. Comments are open through August 24.

The EPA is asking workers, contractors and building owners for exposure and air-sampling data ahead of its Aug. 24, 2026 comment deadline.

08/10/2026

A University of Montana facilities technician found white powder while making routine repairs in McGill Hall in December 2018. A second employee confirmed it was asbestos. Testing in the daycare later found levels more than 20 times the EPA cleanup benchmark from Libby, Montana, where asbestos from a vermiculite mine killed hundreds of workers and their families.

The state settled with 17 families for $850,000. Workers should not be the ones discovering asbestos on the job, and they deserve to know what they were exposed to.

The parents of children exposed to asbestos at the University of Montana daycare have settled their lawsuit for $850,000. Learn more about the case here.

08/07/2026

Asbestos exposure, complaints stop work at downtown hotel project.

South Dakota regulators say uncertified workers tore out asbestos-containing walls, drilled through asbestos fireproofing, and mixed asbestos waste with other debris during renovations at a Sioux Falls high-rise. State law requires certified contractors for work at that scale. The developer told regulators no disturbance had occurred, but inspectors found the building had never been cleared.

Workers handling asbestos deserve to know it is there and to have the training the law requires.

🔗 https://siouxfalls.business/asbestos-exposure-complaints-stop-work-at-downtown-hotel-project/

07/29/2026

Lead poisoning was the first occupational disease ever recorded, documented in a metalworker more than 2,000 years ago.

It is still a threat today.

Construction workers face exposure when removing or renovating structures painted with lead, while workers in battery manufacturing and recycling are exposed to lead dust and fumes on the job. Lead builds up in the blood, bones, and organs over time, and can cause kidney disease, cognitive decline, and fertility problems long before workers notice symptoms.

🔗https://www.osha.gov/lead

07/23/2026

Mesothelioma is often called a disease of the past, but a new national study shows deaths and diagnoses are still climbing in the United States. Researchers tracked all 50 states from 1990 to 2023 and found that while rates have fallen, the actual number of people getting sick has risen nearly 30%, with little improvement in survival.

The burden is hitting women and Midwest and Appalachian states harder, pointing to exposure that reaches beyond the factory floor into homes, schools, and public buildings. The cancer is almost entirely preventable, which makes its persistence a continuing failure to protect workers and their families.

Mesothelioma deaths and diagnoses continue to rise in the United States despite decades of asbestos regulation and reduced industrial use, according to a new national analysis from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.