Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This award recognizes a younger activist for their sustained and outstanding efforts and dedication to improve the lives of workers. Deborah Weinstock has spent more than 25 years working to ensure that American workers are safe on the job through advocacy, consulting, and program management. Her long history in coordinating worker education projects, demonstrate her ability to collaborate with community-based organizations, labor unions, advocacy groups, and other front-line and first responder organizations. Additionally, as the Director of the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training since 2005, she has extensive experience working with government, academia, and the private sector. The Clearinghouse provides resources and support to nonprofit organizations to deliver training to a variety of workers who may face hazardous work environments. The National Institutes of Health honored her with a Merit Award for her leadership and management of multiple disaster response and recovery efforts. Deborah was first introduced to the NIEHS Worker Training Program in 1993 while working at the Department of Energy. The protection of workers in the nuclear weapons complex has since been a focus for her worker health advocacy. She continued learning about unions working for Ruth Ruttenberg & Associates, where she became Executive Director of the NIEHS National Clearinghouse and learned to evaluate safety and health training programs. In 1998, Deborah began work as the OSH Specialist for the AFL-CIO where she continued her advocacy efforts. Deborah is a member of MDB, Inc.’s Senior
Leadership Group based in Washington, DC. She leads MDB’s Occupational Safety and Health practice and is the company’s Director of Corporate Operations. Deborah has a Master of Science, Applied Behavioral Science/Organization Development from Johns Hopkins University and she has been an active contributing member of the Occupational Health and Safety Section since 1998 serving as Section Councilor, Secretary, Governing Councilor, and Treasurer. This award is named for Lorin Kerr (1909 -1991, a life-long activist and served for over 40 years as a
physician for the United Mine Workers. He was dedicated to improving access to health care for coal miners and other workers and to obtaining compensation for and preventing black lung disease.
This award recognizes a younger activist for their sustained and outstanding efforts and dedication to improve the lives of workers. Deborah Weinstock has spent more than 25 years working to ensure that American workers are safe on the job through advocacy, consulting, and program management. Her long history in coordinating worker education projects, demonstrate her ability to collaborate with community-based organizations, labor unions, advocacy groups, and other front-line and first responder organizations. Additionally, as the Director of the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training since 2005, she has extensive experience working with government, academia, and the private sector. The Clearinghouse provides resources and support to nonprofit organizations to deliver training to a variety of workers who may face hazardous work environments. The National Institutes of Health honored her with a Merit Award for her leadership and management of multiple disaster response and recovery efforts. Deborah was first introduced to the NIEHS Worker Training Program in 1993 while working at the Department of Energy. The protection of workers in the nuclear weapons complex has since been a focus for her worker health advocacy. She continued learning about unions working for Ruth Ruttenberg & Associates, where she became Executive Director of the NIEHS National Clearinghouse and learned to evaluate safety and health training programs. In 1998, Deborah began work as the OSH Specialist for the AFL-CIO where she continued her advocacy efforts. Deborah is a member of MDB, Inc.’s Senior
Leadership Group based in Washington, DC. She leads MDB’s Occupational Safety and Health practice and is the company’s Director of Corporate Operations. Deborah has a Master of Science, Applied Behavioral Science/Organization Development from Johns Hopkins University and she has been an active contributing member of the Occupational Health and Safety Section since 1998 serving as Section Councilor, Secretary, Governing Councilor, and Treasurer. This award is named for Lorin Kerr (1909 -1991, a life-long activist and served for over 40 years as a
physician for the United Mine Workers. He was dedicated to improving access to health care for coal miners and other workers and to obtaining compensation for and preventing black lung disease.



![Grain Elevator Dust Explosions c1980 OSHA
This was clipped from the video, Safety and Health Hazards in Grain Elevators, produced by OSHA about 1980, to help train OSHA inspectors investigating grain elevators. The entire video is posted to my YouTube channel. Catastrophic grain explosions in the late 1970s killing more than 60 workers and Federal USDA grain inspectors, focused national attention on hazards associated with the grain handling industry. This increased attention by the government, the grain industry and labor unions representing grain workers, led to safety improvements in the industry. The four factors that must be present in any explosive situation are well known and provide a useful framework for thinking about ways to eliminate explosions in grain elevators. The four factors are: fuel source in this case, grain dust. oxygen. ignition source. confinement (a condition that contributes to turning a fire into an explosion). Any measure proposed to reduce the incidence of grain dust explosions must effect changes in at least one of these four factors. In 1979, a General Accounting Office (GAO) report, Grain Dust Explosions An Unsolved Problem (http://www.gao.gov/products/HRD-79-1 ), investigated the grain dust explosion disasters of December 1977 and January 1978 and potential ways to prevent similar disasters. In this report, the GAO recommended that the U.S. Department of Labor evaluate the adequacy of its regulations to prevent grain elevators explosions. In 1987, OSHA issued its Grain Handling Facilities Standard (29 CFR 1910.272), which set mandatory minimum safety standards which maintains these improvements resulting in a 70% decrease in fatalities from grain explosions. On average, the Grain Handling Facilities Standard has prevented 5 deaths from explosions each year, according to the 2003 Regulatory Review of OSHAS Grain Handling Facilities Standard [29 CFR 1910.272] (https://www.osha.gov/dea/lookback/grainhandlingfinalreport.html ). The video was copied from the U.S. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. Grain Elevator Dust Explosions c1980 OSHA](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bRstLU9v3gg/mqdefault.jpg)






