The four states with the next-highest rates in 2008 are Montana, Ohio, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The lowest rate, $1.08 per $100 of payroll, belongs to North Dakota.
The company has agreed to pay a $725,000 penalty for discharges of jet fuel and gasoline in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina, and for inadequate spill prevention safeguards at a Virginia facility.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently announced the winners of the Fiscal Year 2009 Intramural National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) competition. Demonstrating a high level of scientific merit and a focus on translating research into practice, awards were given to 17 projects in diverse areas covering some of the many priority needs in each of the NORA sectors.
A New York-based company that refurbishes cell phones at its factory in Long Island will pay $435,000 to settle a wage discrimination and retaliation suit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced recently.
The new pages are designed to help employers train their employees on the risk of exposure and include information on the symptoms associated with stings and bites, how workers can protect themselves, and what they should do if they are stung or bitten.
The agency's investigation followed an incident in May that killed one employee and injured 22 others.
Electronic tools helping small businesses evaluate workplace safety and health management programs was among the topics presented at a recent OSHA forum titled "Challenges Small Businesses Face in Complying with Regulations."
The study focuses on physical violence and verbal threats by patients and visitors against direct care providers -- including physicians, nurses and aides -- in adult emergency departments.
An inspection found that two of the company's oil storage facilities adjacent to Penobscot Bay had failed to maintain sufficiently impervious secondary containment for its oil tanks and one of the sites next to the harbor had inadequate containment for the loading and off-loading areas.
The academy's recommendations include both operative and non-operative treatment options as well as alternative techniques.
"It is inexcusable for employees to be situated next to the process operation and have them use equipment that could serve as an ignition source for an explosion," said Clyde Payne, director of OSHA's Area Office in Jackson, Miss.
Today is not only the day to change our clocks, it's also the day to replaced smoke alarm batteries, according to an timely reminder from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as Daylight Saving Time ends.
GlobalCynex Inc., a Sterling information technology company, has agreed to pay $1,683,584 to 343 non-immigrant workers after a U.S. Labor Department investigation found the company violated the H-1B visa provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Surveying the dismal outlook for the economy in the upcoming months (years?), many of us ol' timers know safety is often one of the first areas managers cast a "cutback" eye upon when the economy turns sour. Many industries already are seeing this, with open safety positions being left dormant or abolished. Budgets are being slashed; and the use of extra skilled and unskilled help is being reduced or eliminated.
Many organizations have encountered resistance or noncompliance trying to get plant-bound employees to work safely. This despite reminders, threats, or tomes of policies and procedures (some so ponderous they might create back problems from lifting them). So what chance do you have of inculcating safety checkoffs, judgment, and actions with people who receive minimal or no supervision, who work outside and perhaps check in only occasionally? Actually, a lot, if you approach it the right way—slim, if you don’t.
The agency's director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, told four offices to take the lead, and the efforts are working, CDC said in an article posted Oct. 29. October was National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2008.
As the weather grows cold and people start planning for the holidays, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released two new research videos that illustrate the benefit of having sprinkler systems in homes. Scientists exposed two dry Christmas trees to an open flame in a living room mock-up built inside their laboratory and recorded the results.
The Department of Labor's updates to the program lets employers use multiple training approaches, gives apprentices interim credentials and lets both use electronic media for technical instruction.
Iowa's labor commissioner announced the record $9,988,200 in civil penalties and said the Postville, Iowa, kosher meatpacking plant also owes $264,786.45 in back wages. This blow may close the plant, where 389 workers were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on May 12.
EEOC says the county transferred four individuals out of their Marine Bureau positions and into precincts that were less desirable and replaced them with younger officers.