Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s memo told agency heads that regulations not yet published should be held for review and to consider a 60-day extension of the effective date for published regulations not yet in effect. This covers at least three OSHA regulations.
Acting OSHA chief Thomas Stohler is the signer of the Jan. 9 letter, which ISEA requested on May 19, 2008. The letter's impact in courts isn't certain, but there are hundreds of thousands of pending claims, according to ISEA.
The proposal also would set a “significant harm” level, which states use in developing emergency episode plans
The Dec. 31 belt air final rule requires this training and says the air monitoring must be the sole priority during an emergency incident.
The Springdale, Ark.-based poultry and meat producer pleaded guilty today and agreed to pay the maximum criminal fine in the October 2003 death of maintenance employee Jason Kelley, according to the Justice Department.
Forklift engine tune-ups using carbon monoxide measurements reduce emissions and worker exposure.
Planners need to address the impact of these projects, which can expose workers and patients to airborne dust, bacteria, and mold spores.
AIHce 2009, taking place May 30-June 4 in Toronto, Canada, includes sessions and exhibitors across the IH spectrum. At least 11 sessions concern respiratory protection.
So what’s new with respirators? It’s true that most respirator designs do not change much from year to year. And when they do, the changes are very likely within the expected evolutionary range.Components are enhanced by technology to provide more safety for users. Cartridge designs are a little sleeker. The air for air-supplied respirators is bottled in a smaller or larger cylinder that may be made from a new material or improved by a new manufacturing process.
A Sept. 3, 2008, letter to respirator manufacturers from Jonathan V. Szalajda
chief of the NPPTL Policy and Standards Development Branch, clarifies labeling requirements for their filtering facepiece respirators and illustrates the exterior marking required.
The laboratory's report contains results of the NIOSH Chemical Warfare Agent Simulant Project to identify chemical simulants that simulate the permeation of Sarin (GB) and sulfur mustard (HD) through elastomeric barrier materials that are commonly used in respirators.
The agency implements the recommendations of a technical panel that did not urge ending the practice of ventilating sections of underground coal mines via the entries through which conveyors move coal to the surface, although UMWA wanted the practice banned. MSHA also published a final rule today allowing two types of underground coal mine refuges.
A proposal out for comments will allow for the enforcement of the European Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures, which adopts the internationally agreed Global Harmonized System on the classification and labeling of chemicals.
The General Services Administration today published Federal Management Regulation Bulletin 2009-B1, which eliminates the exemption that designated smoking areas inside federal workplaces.
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."
After a follow-up inspection, OSHA issued the company seven failure to abate notices carrying $168,000 in proposed fines and then further issued the company one serious citation with a $1,500 fine for not medically evaluating employees' fitness to wear respirators.
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is urging health care workers and their employers to follow three basic steps this flu season to help prevent influenza infections in the health care workforce.
Today's final rule, effective Jan. 12, 2009, says the agency weighed 50 comments and what was said at an Oct. 6 hearing and decided not to change the Aug. 19 proposal that explicitly states where employers may be cited on a per-employee basis for not providing PPE and/or training.
As the world is getting more mobile, with estimates of more than 250 million cell phones in use in the United States, EPA is launching one of the first government Web sites tailored specifically for cell phone users: http://m.epa.gov.
An MMWR case study and post on the NIOSH Science blog by two men in the NIOSH Education and Information Division cite potential occupational hazards associated with 1-bromopropane (1-BP), which is used in dry cleaning and as a substitute for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.