NHTSA had cancelled a Dec. 17 public meeting, saying it was moot because BMW is going ahead with the recall of model year 2007 and certain MY 2008 Mini Cooper S (hardtop) vehicles demanded by the agency.
With the new technology, leaks are displayed on a video screen similar to the way night vision goggles are used to show the heat signature of objects.
More commercial vessels must have the systems, and notice of arrival requirements also are being expanded to cover more vessels, the agency said in Tuesday's NPRM. Comments are due by April 15.
A final rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration raises the stakes for motor carriers that must go through the New Entrant Safety Assurance Program.
Based on proposed amendments, if a refinery relies upon flaring more than expected, the facility would be required to take corrective action.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated that this method is about 35 percent better than adding conventional fire retardants to these foams used in upholstered furniture.
The U.S. plans to reduce consumption and production of HCFCs by 75 percent in 2010 and completely eliminate the chemical by 2030.
A study examined factors contributing to occupational deaths in East Attica, Greece, in the five years preceding the 2004 Olympics. A 2002 increase to 19 deaths was linked with construction of large-scale public works projects, the investigators concluded.
ASTM International has formed a new task group on antimicrobial medical gloves and invites glove suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors; contract test labs; government agency representatives; and infection control practitioners to participate in it.
Today's final rule, effective Jan. 12, 2009, says the agency weighed 50 comments and what was said at an Oct. 6 hearing and decided not to change the Aug. 19 proposal that explicitly states where employers may be cited on a per-employee basis for not providing PPE and/or training.
Angie Shepherd, general engineer at NIOSH's National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, is one of the first two recipients of the President's Leadership Award from ASTM International.
Years of discussion, studies, and comments went into the final rule published yesterday. Taking effect April 9, 2009, it addresses maritime employers' responsibilities for providing training and designating "stand-clear zones" from vertically connected containers in motion.
The fugitives' alleged violations include smuggling of ozone-depleting substances, illegally disposing of hazardous waste, discharging pollutants into the air and water, laundering money and making criminally false statements.
Required by the Mine Act to inspect every underground mine four times a year and every surface mine twice a year, the agency added inspectors and launched a program to get them all done. Never before in MSHA's 31 years had all mandatory regular inspections been completed within the year.
"We need to be creative," said former NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard. "For instance, the new head of OSHA should meet with the head of Commerce in the next administration and say 'you need to incorporate an overall workplace safety, health, and environmental program for the proposed new infrastructure programs the President has called for'; this includes all the new highway and bridge construction projects. Start there and show them how.
As the world is getting more mobile, with estimates of more than 250 million cell phones in use in the United States, EPA is launching one of the first government Web sites tailored specifically for cell phone users: http://m.epa.gov.
To date, the U.S. and Canada have completed and made public screening assessments on hundreds of chemicals. Mexico has made progress in the design and development of its chemicals inventory.
An MMWR case study and post on the NIOSH Science blog by two men in the NIOSH Education and Information Division cite potential occupational hazards associated with 1-bromopropane (1-BP), which is used in dry cleaning and as a substitute for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.
A better understanding of smokers' "compensatory smoking behavior" is behind the change, the agency said.
"The placement of sharps containers, as well as the measures used to maintain them in an upright position during use, must be based on the site-specific hazard assessment of the area of intended use," wrote Richard E. Fairfax, director of OSHA's Enforcement Program Directorate.