The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has approved flooring certified to the GREENGUARD Children & Schools(SM) standard as an alternative pathway for achieving credit within the LEED(R) Rating System.
The British campaign to reduce slip-and-fall injuries is focused on seven sectors where they are common: food retail, catering and hospitality, food and drink manufacturing, building and plant maintenance, construction, health care, and education.
The Yakima, Wash.-based company agreed to spend more than $85,000 within the next year for safety improvements and to purchase new communications and rescue equipment for local fire departments.
The Department of Labor has announced that all former Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Laboratory (CANEL) workers have now been added to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act's (EEOICPA) Special Exposure Cohort (SEC). EEOICPA provides compensation and medical benefits to employees who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. Survivors of qualified employees may also be entitled to benefits.
Among its recommendations, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information urges all health research institutions take strong measures to safeguard the security of personal¬ly identifiable health information and advises the Department of Health and Human Services to support the development and use of new security technologies and self-evaluation standards.
The Department of Labor recently announced a $22 million grant to assist approximately 7,400 workers affected by financial industry layoffs in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey Tri-State area.
The 126-acre site in Pennsylvania will hold a 300-room hotel, 200,000 square feet of retail space, 3,000 slot machines, a meeting and convention area, and a variety of dining, shopping, and entertainment venues.
The total penalty amount is the result of citations for seven repeat violations, 19 serious violations, and 10 other-than-serious violations found during an inspection initiated by a complaint.
U.S. Reps. George Miller, D-Calif., and John Barrow, D-Ga., have reintroduced a bill to force OSHA to issue a regulation intended to prevent combustible dust explosions. U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, who chairs the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of Miller's Education and Labor Committee, joined them.
Companies will be evaluated on their ability to demonstrate that their SH&E management system led to proven success in their SH&E practices and enhanced productivity.
After failing to pay a $342,000 penalty by the Oct. 19, 2008 deadline, MSHA now seeks to collect $505,012--which includes unpaid civil penalties, additional penalties, interest, and administrative fees.
Does shift work predispose you to cancer by altering the body’s response to hormones? And if so, can a dietary supplement help? Those are the questions researchers at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ)--a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School--hope to answer through a new study, which recently received $600,000 in funding from The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Under the new model, the Health Department will increase inspections for less sanitary restaurants and require all establishments to conspicuously post letter grades.
Every leader, manager, and safety professional I know hopes to see a higher level of worker awareness. But despite these wishes, there doesn’t seem to be a bull market in “awareness.” In fact, the opposite seems to hold. As external stressors pile on, people become more distracted, oftentimes so beset by personal worries—the economy? job security? retirement? effects on family relationships?—they have difficulty focusing even on simple day-in, day-out activities. So their default automatic pilot Safety programs become glitchy. And this doesn’t even begin to account for unusual events that really require split-second scoping out, decision-making, and immediate action.
Fact: Workplace safety in industrialized nations such as the United States, Canada, and much of the European Union is more entrenched than in other regions of the world. For ease of reference, we will call these advanced safety countries.
Halfway through my bachelor’s degree in Environmental, Health, and Safety Management, I made the switch from Operations supervisor to Environmental, Health, and Safety Specialist. Through the course of the next two years, my view of the safety field as one that merely identifies hazards using OSHA and other tools made a 180-degree turn when I realized how versatile you have to be in order to be successful in safety.
How many departments in your organization have requirements for visual inspections? How many of the codes, regulations, and legislative mandates demand that visual inspections be performed on a regular, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis? Think of the requirements for slings and wire ropes, aircraft parts, hazardous waste containers, and every commercial vehicle and load—the list goes on and on. Yet how many of those same codes have a single line that requires the inspectors (your employees) to be able to see and see correctly?
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, there have been more than 150 residential fires that resulted in more than 200 deaths since Thanksgiving. These statistics have led USFA and fire chiefs to declare the holiday season and start of the new year as one of the deadliest in recent memory.
Forty-five percent of employees polled believe that because of the continuing economic conditions they face greater risk that their job will change or be eliminated, and 55 percent believe the risk that their future earnings will plateau or decline has increased.
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