The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously to approve new mandatory standards for full-size and non-full-size baby cribs as mandated by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). The federal crib standards had not been updated in nearly 30 years and these new rules are expected to usher in a safer generation of cribs.
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, has appointed Jim Maddux as the new director of the agency's Directorate of Construction, effective Monday, Dec. 20, 2010.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced recently that it successfully obtained a court order that imposes a number of requirements on Sullivan Granite Co. LLC, which operates Brown's Meadow Quarry in Franklin, Maine.
Illinois law states that when hospitals need to transfer trauma patients to centers with higher levels of trauma care, such transfers should be made within two hours. A new study, published in the December issue of the Archives of Surgery, concludes that the two-hour mandate isn't cost-efficient because it does not lead to better patient outcomes.
Yudel Cayro, owner and operator of Courtesy Medical Group Inc., a medical clinic in Miami, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his role in a wide-ranging Medicare fraud scheme involving Miami-area home health agencies, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced.
The Food and Drug Administration, in cooperation with other state and local public health agencies, is warning consumers not to eat any Sally Jackson cheeses. The products were processed under conditions that create a significant risk of contamination of the unpasteurized raw milk and finished cheese, and Sally Jackson cheeses have been identified as one possible source of eight cases of E. coli O157 infections in an ongoing investigation.
Several enforcement actions been filed this month, including one against a Houston contractor in connection with a job site in Hamburg, Pa.
Recommended by the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association, this change took effect immediately. Its enforcement effective date is June 16, 2011.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is deciding how much operators of coal mines and other types of mines must disclose when they report health and safety violations and mining-related fatalities.
The health reform law added a break time requirement to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the DOL unit is still working out final guidance for employers.
OSHA began its inspection on Oct. 21 at the company's facility, which found employees working at an elevation of approximately 14 feet without wearing fall protection.
"We want to ensure that miners are protected from overexposure to harmful contaminants and mine operators have required safety and health programs in place to meet that objective," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
The added amount raises its civil penalties this year from two investigations to $48.8 million.
The new enforcement policy is not yet in effect, but some groups are attacking it as an expensive, unnecessary change. The National Hearing Conservation Association supports it, however.
The company was prosecuted after an employee suffered fatal head injuries in October 2006 when he fell from a wooden ladder.
OSHA has proposed $91,000 in fines against the company for one alleged willful, two alleged serious, and one other-than-serious violation.
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis recently announced appointment of five new members to the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. The new appointees will serve two-year terms and are leaders in the fields of medicine, academia and safety program development.
An employee was performing welding on a pontoon boat when the hot work ignited vapors from within the boat's interior. OSHA found that the boat had not been adequately ventilated to ensure the escape of flammable gasses before welding.
The owner and the vice president of a Detroit-area physical therapy clinic were sentenced to 151 months and 108 months in prison, respectively, for their leading roles in a $23 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced.
No evidence of external corrosion, no physical indications of excavation damage, and no physical evidence suggesting a pre-existing leak has been found so far on the damaged pipe.