A revision of ASTM E2148-06, Standard Guide for Using Documents Related to Metalworking or Metal Removal Fluid Health and Safety, will add a reference to the new E2693-09, Standard Practice for Prevention of Dermatitis in the Wet Metal Removal Fluid Environment.
One would treat it as non-hazardous, the other as a "special waste" -- a definition selected to encourage continued reuse. Environmental groups won't be happy, but this would be the first national rule regulating coal ash, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said today.
"Employers have a legal responsibility to protect their workers and the general public from the hazards associated with the improper removal and/or disturbance of asbestos," said MIOSHA Director Doug Kalinowski.
Pipeline owners and operators must ensure necessary steps are taken to minimize the potential of fuel spills,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz.
DOT's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration published a notice yesterday alerting operators of pipelines that carry gas and hazardous liquids to use the new online system for reporting incidents.
The Food and Drug Administration recently sent a letter to companies and a wide range of other key stakeholders detailing the agency's concern over cargo and warehouse thefts of FDA-regulated products.
The majority of employers in the United States would not argue the point that the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) has cost their company an incredible amount of time, money, and grief since its inception. Though it is a great concept, I question whether the HCS, even after more than 20 years in existence, has produced more than a few positive results in the eyes of most employers and employees.
"We believe this information, in the hands of informed, key stakeholders, will ultimately lead to a more robust and focused debate on what still needs to be done to protect workers in all sectors, especially in the chemical industry," said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor of OSHA.
Combined penalties proposed in citations against Birdair Inc. and National Wrecking Co. in Chicago total $105,000.
Today is a day to grieve for workers who have died on the job and to focus on improving conditions for workers around the world, the ILO's director-general, Juan Somavia, said.
Finland and Sweden donated the Sophisticated On-Site Nuclide Identification (SONNI) van at a cost of about $660,000 and handed it over last week to IAEA.
The latest semiannual regulatory agenda does not advance the rulemaking except to give an October 2010 date to complete analyzing comments submitted in 2008. EPA's agenda says NPRMs will be issued in July 2011 to enhance pesticide protection for applicators and agricultural workers.
An additional study on inherently safer process technology may follow this one by the National Academy of Sciences specifically looking at how to reduce the risk of methyl isocyanate at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, W.Va.
Whether cancer risk rises becasuse of their exposures to smoke, soot, and other contaminants in the line of duty is the point of the study.
"Our inspection found that the blades on this and other saws lacked the guarding designed to prevent just this type of accident," said Diana Cortez, OSHA's area director in Tarrytown, N.Y.
Cited violations against the company include failing to provide safe work practice procedures for hot work in a confined space, failing to prevent cutting operations in the presence of explosive atmospheres, and the lack of procedures for summoning resuce and emergency services.
A May 3-4 symposium at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will discuss batteries that store more energy and are safer and more stable than today's lithium-ion batteries.
The first 15 years of investigations involving 89,000 individuals in Iowa and North Carolina were completed last year.
"There is no excuse for this accident," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "This worker should not have been allowed to work in the machine without energy sources being locked out."
The COSTHA 2010 Annual Forum & Expo, a gathering of professionals who are experts in the safe movement of hazardous materials and goods around the world, begins Sunday.