The agency has developed a searchable database that pulls together publicly available information from various sources to help identify consumer and commercial products that contain mercury and their possible non-mercury alternatives.
The publication notes that every product has an impact on the environment during all stages of its life-cycle, from extraction of resources to end-of-life treatment, and the need to reduce the potential adverse impacts on the environment of a product is recognized around the world.
Combining efforts of materials scientists and measurement laboratories with those of biological and medical researchers, a new Internet-linked "community of interest" will exploit Web 2.0-style social networking technologies to enable creating and sharing information, as well as deliberating over technical details of in-process standards.
3M recently started a giveaway promotion to coincide with the launch of its new Lexa™ MinimIzeR™ safety glasses. The eyewear is designed for welders, helpers, and other personnel around the immediate welding site, such as supervisors or engineers, to minimize their chances of accidental exposure to "flash burn."
The holidays are here and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)--joined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Safe Kids Worldwide--has issued its annual holiday safety messages to remind parents to be diligent when making holiday shopping choices.
The agency has determined that, for both substances, use without impervious gloves or a NIOSH-approved respirator with an APF of at least 10 may cause serious health effects.
"Because exposure to high levels of copper, lead, and zinc compounds causes a wide range of illnesses and environmental damage, communities need to know if and when these chemicals have been released," said Enrique Manzanilla, Communities and Ecosystems Division director for EPA's Pacific Southwest region.
"They multiply quickly, and people should have wild bee hives removed by an authorized pest control vendor or risk injury," said ASSE President Warren K. Brown, CSP, ARM, CSHM.
A Monsanto facility will receive the Star Award, the state's highest workplace safety and health award, on Friday.
In other international news, France reported fatal accidents rose by 16 percent in 2007, and 3M bought a small food safety company in Norway.
Also, the International Organization for Standardization, which is the world's largest developer of consensus standards, will have a new secretary-general beginning Jan. 1: New Zealand accountant Robert Steele, shown here.
The combination of health risks known as metabolic syndrome affects slightly less than a quarter of the U.S. workforce and is linked to increased absenteeism and poorer health status, reports a study in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Bright white light therapy has been used to treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD) for more than 20 years. Although it remains a mainstay of treatment, in the past few years researchers have investigated ways to improve and refine light therapy, reports the November 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is notifying health care professionals and patients that Tyco Healthcare Group LP (Covidien) is recalling one lot of ReliOn sterile, single-use, disposable, hypodermic syringes with permanently affixed hypodermic needles due to possible mislabeling.
A Dec. 11 event at the University of Washington will include a WHO/UNICEF report on ways to prevent injuries such as burns, drownings, traffic crashes, and poisonings. Injury is the leading cause of death worldwide for children under 18.
Severe or very severe impairment in role functioning was reported by 55.4 percent of these veterans for home management, 41.3 percent for ability to work, 50.4 percent for close relationships with others, and 57.7 percent for social life.
As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ongoing efforts to ensure that heparin for patients remains safe, the government seized 11 lots of heparin from Celsus Laboratories Inc. in Cincinnati.
Employees, employers, and their families from the Hudson Valley and greater New York City area are invited to attend the second Hudson Valley Safety and Health Fair taking place today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, N.Y.
The inclusion of hazardous pharmaceutical wastes in the rule is expected to provide relief in the management of P-listed pharmaceuticals by simplifying current requirements of large quantity generators.