University of Utah researchers have developed an automobile ignition key that prevents teenagers from talking on cell phones or sending text messages while driving. The university has obtained provisional patents and licensed the invention--Key2SafeDriving--to a private company that hopes to see it on the market within six months at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee.
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.
"An unguarded excavation is always an imminent danger situation since its walls can collapse suddenly and with great force, crushing or burying workers before they can react or escape," said Patrick Griffin, OSHA's area director in Providence.
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.
The fugitives' alleged violations include smuggling of ozone-depleting substances, illegally disposing of hazardous waste, discharging pollutants into the air and water, laundering money and making criminally false statements.
Required by the Mine Act to inspect every underground mine four times a year and every surface mine twice a year, the agency added inspectors and launched a program to get them all done. Never before in MSHA's 31 years had all mandatory regular inspections been completed within the year.
"We need to be creative," said former NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard. "For instance, the new head of OSHA should meet with the head of Commerce in the next administration and say 'you need to incorporate an overall workplace safety, health, and environmental program for the proposed new infrastructure programs the President has called for'; this includes all the new highway and bridge construction projects. Start there and show them how.
During the holiday season, employers and workers frequently get together to unwind and celebrate. Typically, workplace parties involve plenty of food and drinks. If the drinks include alcohol, however, there is potential for unfortunate consequences.
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.
To date, the U.S. and Canada have completed and made public screening assessments on hundreds of chemicals. Mexico has made progress in the design and development of its chemicals inventory.
The settlement announced today could cause the retailer to pay as much as $54.25 million, "including a substantial payment to the State of Minnesota," the parties said in a joint statement.
A better understanding of smokers' "compensatory smoking behavior" is behind the change, the agency said.
"The placement of sharps containers, as well as the measures used to maintain them in an upright position during use, must be based on the site-specific hazard assessment of the area of intended use," wrote Richard E. Fairfax, director of OSHA's Enforcement Program Directorate.
According to Richard E. Fairfax, director of OSHA's Enforcement Programs Directorate, the agency does not take enforcement action with regard to professional athletes in most cases.
The agency clarifies that a cylinder that contains 20.9 percent oxygen and 79.1 percent nitrogen, which is essentially compressed air, presents no greater oxidation hazard than that of the atmospheric air already present in the workplace and would therefore not be considered an oxygen cylinder or an oxidizing compressed gas for the purposes of 29 CFR 1910.101.
The United States government recently announced that there is no food or feed safety concern from an incident in which a small portion of an unauthorized genetically engineered (GE) cotton variety was harvested along with commercially available GE cotton.
"Employees who were removing asbestos-containing materials at this site lacked basic safeguards that must be in place before performing such work," said Robert Kowalski, OSHA's area director in Bridgeport, Conn.
DOL's suit was filed following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division which disclosed that the company had misclassified as exempt from FLSA's overtime requirements, four employees at its headquarters, and 969 temporary placement employees across the country.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and WebMD have announced a collaboration that expands consumers' access to the agency's timely and reliable important health information. This joint effort reflects FDA's emphasis on using innovative, technology-based strategies to carry out its foremost mission, which is to promote and to protect the public health.
As part of the plea agreement, the company was ordered to pay a $350,000 fine and issue a public apology in an appropriate trade journal regarding the conviction.