The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the United States Fire Administration are urging consumers to play it safe as winter weather blankets the United States. According to USFA, home fires spike in winter months. Cooking and home heating are the leading causes of residential building fires during the winter. The risk of fires also increases with the use of supplemental heating, such as space heaters. CPSC estimates that home heating was associated with an average of 33,300 fires and 180 fire deaths per year from 2005 to 2007.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association, in collaboration with American National Standards Institute, has released two new fundamental consensus standards which promote conformity among assessment systems. As an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, AIHA serves as the secretariat for three ANSI committees that develop occupational safety and health related standards.
There is little published information about air quality and ventilation rates in retail spaces, and ventilation requirements for retail have been set largely by data for commercial office buildings.
The first of the public hearings will be in West Virginia on Dec. 7. The hearings are about the proposed rule published Oct. 19.
About $2.4 million is being awarded by the Indoor Environments Division to organizations that will educate the public on how to reduce pollutants inside schools, commercial buildings, and homes.
Are sulfide gases produced by the corrosive drywall's reaction with metal surfaces a health hazard? We don't know yet.
Better air = better performance.
A new study by two Albanian researchers has found prevalence varying between 19.2 percent and 25.7 percent among workers in the metallurgical industry.
The half-day event will focus specifically on damage to building contents that can result from airborne contaminants and the ramifications to contractors of EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule.
Specifically, the facility failed to adequately train workers on respirator selection, use, storage, and maintenance; did not supply positive-pressure filtered air to all work cabs; did not label containers of coke-contaminated clothing; allowed food and beverages to be consumed in an area with visible accumulations of coke-oven emissions; and more, according to investigators.
You can sign up by May 14 for the best deal on a full day of live sessions from AIHce 2010 on Wednesday, May 26, and never have to leave your office.
"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.
Agency inspectors found that combustible particulate solids, which were generated during trimming and repair operations, were not collected into an adequately designed dust collection system, were allowed to accumulate on machinery and surfaces, and were not adequately cleaned up to prevent such buildup.
The agency is conducting the two meetings in Atlanta to make it easier for families of those who perished in the 2008 Imperial Sugar Co. explosion in Port Wentworth, Ga., to attend.
The company offers in vitro diagnostic kits, and analyte-specific, general purpose, and research-use-only reagents for nucleic acid analysis. EPA said the company failed to obtain a hazardous waste storage license, among other things.
"Unfortunately, this incident was a classic example of a multiple-fatality event where would-be rescuers are themselves overcome in their attempt to save the initial victim," said Kay Gee, OSHA's area director for Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.
The colorless, odorless, tasteless gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, behind cigarette smoking, the agency notes.
There are no products registered by EPA for use in residential settings that will disinfect or sterilize the air or a room by fogging. Claims for disinfecting carpeting, drapes, and other porous surfaces are also false, the agency says.
"This study raises the question: Is there a safe level for BPA exposure, and what is that level? More studies like this, which examine the effect of BPA on humans, are critically needed to help establish prevention strategies and regulatory policies," said lead author De-Kun Li, M.D., Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.
Damp environments, poorly maintained heating and air conditioning systems, and carpeting may contribute to poor indoor air quality, according to experts at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Miami Beach, Fla. Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, where they are repeatedly exposed to indoor allergens and airborne particles that can lead to respiratory symptoms and conditions.