A federal court yesterday upheld the legal authority of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) to investigate the April 2010 Macondo blowout and explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Federal District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal issued an Order that denied a motion by Transocean Deepwater Drilling, Inc. to block the CSB’s access to information pertinent to the CSB’s investigation.

Transocean Deepwater Inc. has pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The company was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties.

BP Exploration and Production Inc. pleaded guilty today to 14 criminal counts for its illegal conduct leading to and after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties, the largest criminal resolution in U.S. history, Attorney General Holder announced today.

The company whose rig crew ignored “clear warning signs” at the Macondo well site has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties.

Here are the week’s top occupational health and safety stories from www.ISHN.com:

The following is an editorial by Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association (LOGA): The Gulf of Mexico is the oil and gas hub for the Western Hemisphere with several thousand platforms standing at any given time. As with any industry, safety is of utmost concern.

The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is making a final call for volunteers for its study on potential health effects experienced by people who helped clean up the Gulf area after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin recently rolled out new TV and radio public service announcements that invite Gulf oil spill cleanup workers and volunteers to participate in the GuLF STUDY (Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study), a national effort to determine whether the oil spill contributed to physical or mental health problems.

BP has announced a settlement with the Plaintiff's Steering Committee that it says will resolve a number of economic loss and medical claims awsuits stemming from the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill.

A long-term study on health effects experienced by Gulf oil spill cleanup workers has reached a milestone -- 10,000 participants -- but organizers still want more.