This photo shows part of the 2008 ceremony, held April 25. The annual event honors 56 Washington State Department of Transportation workers who have died in work zones since 1950. On May 4, WSDOT will again deploy an automated camera to catch work zone speeders.
"Keeping sediment from polluting rivers and streams isn't just a good idea, it's the law," said Jim Werntz, EPA's Idaho state office director.
Two of the four former employees received 70 and 41 months for their roles in impeding OSHA and EPA investigations, maintaining a dangerous workplace, and environmental crimes. The other two will be sentenced today and tomorrow in Trenton, N.J.
"There is no excuse for the lack of fall protection, and it's outrageous to think that employers still allow employees to be exposed to fall hazards without ensuring fall protection is in use," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo.
OSHA has cited Brady Enterprises Inc. of Weymouth, Mass., for alleged, willful, repeat, and serious violations of safety and health standards at its 45 Finnell Drive plant. The food products packager faces $66,500 in proposed fines, following a Nov. 14 accident in which an employee was caught in a labeling machine while cleaning it.
OSHA recently announced that it has notified more than 13,500 employers nationwide that their injury and illness rates are considerably higher than the national average.
According to the study, the release of mercury vapors, which can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, presents an environmental and occupational hazard for workers involved with handling and transport of the products.
Panelists invited to the April 22 meeting--which is open for public observation--will address the importance of caregiver-friendly workplace policies in economic hard times.
A federal judge has ordered a Southern California cleaning service and its owners to pay $227,791 in post-judgment interest plus $2,400 in daily fines for failing to follow a 2007 order to pay nearly $3.5 million in back wages plus more than $1 million in liquidated damages to 385 workers.
Texas Oil and Gathering Inc., its owner John Kessel, and its operations manager Edgar Pettijohn pleaded guilty on April 16, 2009, in U.S. District Court in Houston to criminal violations related to the disposal of refinery wastes at an underground injection well in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Justice Department announced.
Consumers are willing to pay extra for food processed using new technology once they understand how it works and what it does, according to a study presented in the Journal of Food Science Education, published by the Institute of Food Technologists.
OSHA is proposing 22 safety and health violations with fines of $73,275 against Fieldale Farms Poultry LLC. A January inspection of the company's processing plant in Gainesville, Ga., has resulted in the agency proposing two repeat violations with $27,500 in proposed penalties, 18 serious violations with $45,775 in proposed penalties, and two other-than-serious violations with no monetary penalties.
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and its subsidiary, Nichols Institute Diagnostics (NID), have entered into a global settlement with the United States to resolve criminal and civil claims concerning various types of diagnostic test kits that NID manufactured, marketed, and sold to laboratories throughout the country until 2006, the Justice Department announced on April 15, 2009.
Announcing the appointment of both a chief performance officer and a chief technology officer, President Obama said Saturday in his weekly address that Monday, "at my first, full Cabinet meeting, I will ask all of my department and agency heads for specific proposals for cutting their budgets."
ION Labs Inc. of Clearwater, Fla. is voluntarily recalling all of the Influend Cough and Cold products sold on or after May 30, 2008, due to the products not being tested in conformance with the specifications of the lab, therefore, the products may have a possibility to be super potent.
Three items alleging the employer failed to provide guardrails on painters' scaffolds are now back for an administrative law judge's consideration. They've been litigated for years.
Until April 15, 2011, no state may enforce a law or regulation that conflicts with the exemption, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The California Highway Patrol had commented that the proposal does conflict with its regulations.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced recently that Mega Brands America Inc., of Livingston, N.J., formerly Rose Art Industries Inc., has agreed to pay a $1.1 million civil penalty. The penalty, which CPSC has provisionally accepted, settles allegations that Mega Brands America and Rose Art failed to provide the government with timely information about dangers to children with Magnetix magnetic building sets, as required under federal law.
"An unguarded excavation can collapse in seconds, crushing and burying workers beneath soil and debris before they have a chance to react or escape," said said Brenda Gordon, OSHA's area director for Boston and southeastern Massachusetts.
The agency yesterday asked coal mine companies to offer help in the research, which will examine methane accumulation in sealed areas like the one that exploded in the Sago Mine, depicted here, in January 2006.