OSHA has cited Dehler Manufacturing Co. Inc. with 24 serious, four repeat, and six other-than-serious violations of federal workplace health standards and has proposed $85,360 in penalties.
The president's nominee to lead MSHA spent years advocating for stronger health protection for miners and more enforcement. The OSHA choice, Dr. David Michaels (shown here), studied the illnesses suffered by nuclear weapons industry workers and is credited with starting the program to compensate them.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a final regulation classifying dental amalgam and its component parts--elemental mercury and a powder alloy--used in dental fillings. While elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients.
A newly posted Letter of Interpretation says the employer must provide it at no cost to employees who work with flammable liquids and products because the footwear provides additional protection and is designed for special use on the job.
Facilities that could potentially release highly hazardous chemicals resulting in toxic fire or explosion hazards are the focus of a national emphasis program (NEP) developed by OSHA. The program establishes policies and procedures for inspecting workplaces that are covered by OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standard.
Real-time injury reporting, greatly increased OSHA training grants, and a "sophisticated public campaign" by OSHA officials in mainstream media to change how Americans think about workplace safety are goals he listed last winter.
The government's report on the May 2004 explosion and collapse of the ICL Plastics factory in Glasgow, caused by a gas leak, was released this month. A timetable to replace 210,000 commercial and home installations has been agreed to, and a push is on to hire and train gas engineers.
The results, reported Monday afternoon by The New York Times, dispel the belief that truly hands-free phones are just as dangerous as driving drunk but pinpoint texting as highly dangerous.
The settlement will result in operational improvements that are expected to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants by more than 48,000 pounds per year and nitrogen oxides by 313,000 pounds per year, EPA said.
In a separate but related matter, in November 2008 the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges of improperly repackaging, redistributing, and selling more than two million pounds of unwanted pesticides it had received in broken bags from Wal-Mart stores throughout the United States.
"Disasters and emergencies know no boundaries," said Kim Fontes, division manager, Product Development and Production. "With the help of the latest technology, we are able to use another communication channel to put tools and resources directly into the hands of people who count on them."
“The illegal export of e-waste to other countries is a big problem,” said Ed Kowalski, director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement in EPA’s Seattle office. Color computer monitors contain an average of four pounds of lead. CRTs may also contain mercury, cadmium, and arsenic.
Ethylene oxide exposure levels and monitoring requirements are addressed in OSHA's recently published Small Business Guide for Ethylene Oxide. The guidance document helps employers understand the ethylene oxide (EtO) standard and explains how to monitor the air quality in workplaces where EtO is processed, used, or handled.
The current rule requires air quality monitoring in areas where any industry emits at least one ton of lead to the air each year, and in the 101 urban areas with populations of 500,000 or more.
U.S. Rep. George Miller, who chairs the Education and Labor Committee, welcomed his fellow Californian to the panel today and announced a bill has been filed to ensure workers don't lose back pay if wage and hour investigations are delayed.
The Federal Railroad Administration is implementing a requirement of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and will hear from stakeholders in the all-day meeting Aug. 13 in Washington, D.C.
The Health and Safety Executive seeks comments at a stakeholder forum this week in London as it reviews the issue and IOSH queries its 35,000 members.
Three more standards have won ANSI approval, including 12, about connecting components, and 13, about energy-absorbing lanyards.
Chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants deplete the stratospheric, or "good" ozone layer, allowing dangerous amounts of cancer-causing ultraviolet rays from the sun to strike the earth, EPA notes. Production of some of these chemicals was stopped in 1995, and federal law strictly controls their use and handling.
ACCSH advises the secretary of labor and the assistant secretary of labor for OSHA in the formulation of standards affecting the construction industry and on policy matters arising in the administration of the safety and health provisions of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the OSH Act of 1970.