OSHA's next action on the rule, which several groups urged the agency to write back in 1999 and 2001, is the March 2009 completion of a peer review of health effects and risk assessment.
The Labor Department's semiannual regulatory agenda says the required review of the standard's potential impact on small businesses will be finished in February 2009.
An international consortium of researchers has begun an effort to sequence the genome of the domesticated turkey, Meleagris gallopavo.
Organic food is all the rage, but, according to a team of food and poultry scientists, despite popular opinion it's not automatically safer than conventionally grown foods.
The Dec. 1 meeting will be held via conference call, but the Dec. 10 meeting will be held at the Department of Transportation Media Center in Washington, D.C.
"OSHA relies on this committee to provide a real-world perspective to our work," said Thomas M. Stohler, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA.
Sediment-laden storm water was repeatedly observed discharging from the construction site to nearby Chaffins Brook, which is ranked as a "Class A" waterway by Massachusetts.
"Because exposure to high levels of nitrates causes a wide range of illnesses and environmental damage, communities need to know when these chemicals have been released," said Enrique Manzanilla, Communities and Ecosystems Division director for EPA's Pacific Southwest region.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration recently announced the formation of a health and safety alliance with the Portland Cement Association (PCA), a membership association consisting of 30 companies operating 115 plants in 36 states.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration also said it will conduct a workshop about risks and mitigation in the first quarter of 2009.
The Dec. 9 webcast will focus on possible new directions for OSHA under the new administration and the potential impacts on the practice of SH&E professionals.
Families, and individuals traveling with medically necessary liquids this holiday season will be able to take advantage of the Transportation Security Administration's family lanes, regardless of which airport they use.
Two requests for comments by Jan. 15 or 16 are important to users of SCBAs and other protective respirators, and to the manufacturers. NIOSH may create a new subpart to the 42 CFR Part 84 standard for the suits.
Meanwhile, fall protection in construction accrued the highest total penalty amounts of all the categories in FY 2008.
Mining company CEOs labeled the bill "too punitive" and called it unconstitutional. It subjects company executives to five years in prison or a $300,000 fine if a worker dies.
"A great deal of technical development and capabilities have evolved since the 1982 edition of the standard," said Jeff Fryman, Z244 Committee vice chairman. "These new technologies make the control of hazardous energy both more complex and easier to achieve.
Aircraft parachutes carried for emergency use now must have been packed no more than 120 days previously, but after Dec. 19, 180 days will be permissible.
EPA's notice seeks comments by Jan. 20 on the petition, which requests a ban on sale of products containing it, pesticide registration of all such products, and analysis of potential human health and environmental risks.
U.S. Rep. George Miller was re-elected today to chair the House Education and Labor Committee, and Sen. Ted Kennedy returns as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman.