The OSHA Combustible Dust Team's web chat with more than 400 stakeholders also gave some idea of the timetable for the combustible dust standard that will be developed.
“Industries that fail to properly manage their hazardous wastes can pose serious risks to the health and safety of their employees because improper disposal of those wastes can cause serious harm to the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks.
The GISHD inspection identified numerous violations of the following MIOSHA standards: hexavalent chromium, dipping and coating operations, asbestos, formaldehyde, and noise. The most serious violations involved employee overexposures to highly hazardous air contaminants.
The agency determined the state's 16-year-old plan allows companies to avoid certain federal clean air requirements by lumping emissions from multiple units under a single "cap" rather than setting specific emission limits for individual pollution sources at their plants.
When you see a person down in a car, not breathing, your first instinct is to get him or her out of there. That instinct can prove deadly if followed, especially by someone who doesn't know how to protect himself.
A 4-1 vote Monday night at a public meeting of the board in Portland, Conn., adopted 18 urgent recommendations, including prohibiting the practices that resulted in the explosion at Kleen Energy's plant.
Visualizations highlight important aspects of America's 95,000 miles of coastline, such as anticipated changes in coastal population from 1970 to 2040, the impact coastal areas have on the U.S. economy, the overall health of the U.S. coasts, and coastal areas' vulnerability to long-term sea level rise.
Lodged in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee since March, S. 2996 sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is expected to be marked up in July, said SOCMA Government Relations VP Bill Allmond.
The biggest society of occupational hygienists in Europe now offers a news scroller and more resources online.
"A system that is based on inconsistent data and a flawed scoring methodology will not achieve its objectives," said Transportation Corporation of America CEO Keith Klein, in his testimony Wednesday before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
Remodeling contractors need certification to meet new EPA lead requirements for exposure protection during renovations, repair, and painting. They'll also need PPE.
An inspection found that machine guarding was inadequate for dumpers or packing machines and that, in general, mechanical integrity throughout the plant’s refrigeration system was not sufficient to prevent equipment malfunctions.
"Employees exposed to methylene chloride are at increased risk of developing cancer, adverse effects on the heart, central nervous system, and liver, and skin or eye irritation,” said OSHA’s Arthur Dube. “Effective safeguards are vital to the health and well-being of the workers."
The penalty against B&W Nuclear Operations Group of Lynchburg, Va., is based on its alleged failure to have adequate instructions telling workers how to neutralize acid spills.
All five companies prosecuted for the Dec. 11, 2005, explosion and fire at an oil storage depot in Hertfordshire, England, either pleaded guilty or were found guilty by a jury. Sentencing is set for July 16.
A live webcast is available of the event Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hotel Monteleone in Hew Orleans. Numerous experts are participating, including the current director of NIOSH, a former director, and the U.S. surgeon general.
After top officials met today at the White House with the president, the company announced it will inject $5 billion this year and $1.25 billion quarterly thereafter until the full amount is reached.
“NPDES permits are an integral part of the nation’s system to protect rivers and lakes from pollution, and mercury is a dangerous pollutant, especially for children and pregnant women,” said Stan Meiburg, EPA Region 4 acting regional administrator.
“It’s an unfortunate fact that monetary penalties just aren’t enough,” said OSHA chief David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH. “We believe that nothing focuses the mind like the threat of doing time in prison, which is why we need criminal penalties for employers who are determined to gamble with their workers’ lives and consider it merely a cost of doing business when a worker dies on the job.”
According to DOJ, on some of their asbestos projects, the hazardous material was removed in violation of EPA and OSHA regulations and then illegally dumped on unwitting landowners’ properties in Poland, N.Y.