Work continues on new approval criteria for various respiratory categories, and the branch chief at NPPTL asks whether users have additional needs that NIOSH could address.
"OSHA has inspected this company on five occasions going back to 1997, resulting in numerous violations, including many we found again on this most recent inspection," said OSHA Area Director Kathy Webb, North Aurora, Ill.
The most recent charge—with a proposed penalty of $153,057--is in addition to a penalty of $1.025 million the company paid in May for similar violations of the Clean Water Act.
DOJ notes the plea is related to felony guilty pleas already entered by the company and its president, who pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for disposing pesticide waste down the sewers of the city of St. Joseph, Mo.
The Georgia-based company has been cited for having no written procedures for formaldehyde process equipment, engineering controls not implemented for overexposure to dust, and exposing employees to dust two-and-a-half to 20 times the permissible exposure limit, among other violations.
The agency's inspection found that the facility, which uses large amounts of anhydrous ammonia in its refrigeration system, had not conducted a proper evaluation of hazards and that standard operating procedures were either incomplete or had not been developed for all system activities, among other things.
The February 2008 explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Georgia sparked attention and concern about combustible dusts. The company's computer-based training teaches workers about dust, food safety, emergency preparedness, and heat stress.
The next decade of NIOSH's research for the fastest-growing, most diverse sector of the U.S. economy should tackle big, persistent hazards: lifting, chemicals, diseases, stress, and violence in facilities and nonhospital settings, including home care.
"The sizable fines proposed here reflect the gravity of this employer's ongoing failure to correct clear and recognized hazards that could result in burns, crushing injuries, or death for its employees," said Arthur Dube, OSHA's area director in Buffalo, N.Y.
Better packaging standards would provide protection from mercury vapor emissions from this source.
Heberle Disposal Service Inc., a Rochester, N.Y., solid waste collection company, faces an additional $304,200 in fines from OSHA for failing to correct hazards cited during a 2008 inspection and for new and recurring safety hazards at its Alvanar Road worksite.
One of the best options for effective emergency communications is a multi-modal notification system that incorporates an institution's existing modes of communications with newer technologies, such as mobile phones.
Scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that one gram of a lattice structure of copper oxide and benzene stores as much acetylene as today's high-pressure cylinder can hold.
A chemical emitted from an individual site and the effect of that release — on not only the emitting site, but also on neighboring sites and nearby communities — are of concern to plant personnel, community leaders, and regulators.
"We believe that this agreement represents a fair and just resolution of this matter and, hopefully, will serve as a warning to all businesses that generate wastewater that they must abide by all requirements of their discharge permits," said U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy.
OSHA issued about $1 million in fines against two of the companies that were charged in the Aug. 27 indictment, which was announced the following day by U.S. Attorney David Gaouette, shown here.
The greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank is that the petroleum or other hazardous substances might seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly one-third of all Americans, the agency noted.
"It's critical that companies report the storage and release of toxic chemicals--if they don't, public safety is jeopardized in an emergency," said Edward Kowalski, EPA's Director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle.
Company officials announced Aug. 26 that the Institute, W.Va., plant will reduce its average inventory of highly toxic methyl isocyanate by 80 percent.
In 1992, with the Joint Commission first requiring accredited hospitals to prohibit smoking within the hospital, only 3 percent did, but 15 percent said they were pursuing a smoke-free campus policy.