OSHA recently announced a final rule on improving the safety of longshoring employees who work with vertical tandem lifts (VTLs). The final rule will reduce hazards related to lifting two containers at a time using cranes by ensuring that safe work practices are followed. The rule was published in the December 10 Federal Register.
The new permit incorporates the Coast Guard’s mandatory ballast water management and exchange standards, and provides technology-based and water-quality-based effluent limits for other types of discharges.
"Given the current economy, now is not the time to add more bureaucracy and billions of dollars in compliance costs to America's businesses," the chamber's VP for labor issues said.
The Transportation Security Administration extended the effective date of part of its Rail Transportation Security rule to April 1, 2009, to give freight railroads, shippers, and hazmat recipients time to prepare.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is joining Target, of Minneapolis, Minn., in announcing a new notification system for communicating product recalls in Target stores nationwide. Target's safety and recall notification program involves posting signs throughout its stores that direct guests to gift registry kiosks near the Guest Service desk to learn about recalled products.
As director of NIOSH from July 2002 to July 2008, Dr. John Howard's accomplishments were numerous, noted GCAC Chair John T. Steele in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Designate Rep. Hilda Solis.
The agency's recent residual risk assessment found that after application of the MACT standards the chronic cancer risks are below 1-in-1 million, and no further cancer risk reduction is required. The analysis also found that non-cancer and acute risks to humans, as well as ecological risks from these facilities are low and that no further controls are warranted.
An ALJ assessed a total civil penalty of $11,090 last April after rejecting the mine operator's claim that its foremen were rank-and-file miners with no real supervisory control.
James Purnell, Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, said he commissioned the inquiry because some 2,800 people have died from injuries in construction work in the past 25 years, and "no one can find it acceptable that this number of people have died directly as a cause of their work and we are not making sufficient progress on preventing this total of human misery."
Fully wireless communications technology won't be ready or technologically feasible by June 15, 2009, when the MINER Act requires operators of those mines to have submitted a plan to use it, so MSHA's letter explains what will work.
"The fact that the trend persists even as gas prices are dropping confirms that America's travel habits are fundamentally changing," said DOT Secretary Mary E. Peters.
"These employees were just one misstep or tumble away from a fatal or disabling plunge," said Arthur Dube, OSHA's area director in Buffalo, N.Y.
The company also agreed to provide anti-discrimination training for the owner, managers, supervisors, and employees and allow EEOC to monitor the work site for the next two years.
Subcommittee F20.11 on Control, part of ASTM International Committee F20 on Hazardous Substances and Oil Spill Response, recently developed F2709, Test Method for Determining Nameplate Recovery Rate of Stationary Oil Skimmer Systems.
The International Code Council's full board of directors, meeting in Las Vegas today, denied the appeal from the National Association of Home Builders. The board confirmed the ICC Appeals Board's unanimous Dec. 11 rejection of the appeal.
The 2005 settlement and today’s penalty settlement with ExxonMobil were reached as part of a broader EPA initiative to reduce air pollution from refineries nationwide. To date, 95 refineries located in 28 states, representing more than 86 percent of the nation’s refining capacity, have been required to install new controls to significantly reduce emissions.
U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, 51, represents part of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. She is vice chair of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment and Hazardous Materials.
Nancy Nord, CPSC acting chairman, said enforcement of the new law will focus on sites "where the greatest risk of drain entrapment to children exists, such as wading pools, pools designed specifically for toddlers and young children, and in-ground spas, particularly where these types of pools and spas have flat drain grates and single main drain systems."
NIOSH has engaged The National Academies' Institute of Medicine to review the draft NIOSH Current Intelligence Bulletin: "Asbestos Fibers and other Elongated Mineral Particles: State of the Science and Roadmap for Research."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced it will require the manufacturers of antiepileptic drugs to add to these products' prescribing information, or labeling, a warning that their use increases risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (suicidality). The action includes all antiepileptic drugs including those used to treat psychiatric disorders, migraine headaches, and other conditions, as well as epilepsy.