The Dec. 1 meeting will be held via conference call, but the Dec. 10 meeting will be held at the Department of Transportation Media Center in Washington, D.C.
"OSHA relies on this committee to provide a real-world perspective to our work," said Thomas M. Stohler, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA.
Sediment-laden storm water was repeatedly observed discharging from the construction site to nearby Chaffins Brook, which is ranked as a "Class A" waterway by Massachusetts.
"Because exposure to high levels of nitrates causes a wide range of illnesses and environmental damage, communities need to know when these chemicals have been released," said Enrique Manzanilla, Communities and Ecosystems Division director for EPA's Pacific Southwest region.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration recently announced the formation of a health and safety alliance with the Portland Cement Association (PCA), a membership association consisting of 30 companies operating 115 plants in 36 states.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration also said it will conduct a workshop about risks and mitigation in the first quarter of 2009.
The Dec. 9 webcast will focus on possible new directions for OSHA under the new administration and the potential impacts on the practice of SH&E professionals.
Families, and individuals traveling with medically necessary liquids this holiday season will be able to take advantage of the Transportation Security Administration's family lanes, regardless of which airport they use.
Two requests for comments by Jan. 15 or 16 are important to users of SCBAs and other protective respirators, and to the manufacturers. NIOSH may create a new subpart to the 42 CFR Part 84 standard for the suits.
Meanwhile, fall protection in construction accrued the highest total penalty amounts of all the categories in FY 2008.
Mining company CEOs labeled the bill "too punitive" and called it unconstitutional. It subjects company executives to five years in prison or a $300,000 fine if a worker dies.
"A great deal of technical development and capabilities have evolved since the 1982 edition of the standard," said Jeff Fryman, Z244 Committee vice chairman. "These new technologies make the control of hazardous energy both more complex and easier to achieve.
Aircraft parachutes carried for emergency use now must have been packed no more than 120 days previously, but after Dec. 19, 180 days will be permissible.
EPA's notice seeks comments by Jan. 20 on the petition, which requests a ban on sale of products containing it, pesticide registration of all such products, and analysis of potential human health and environmental risks.
U.S. Rep. George Miller was re-elected today to chair the House Education and Labor Committee, and Sen. Ted Kennedy returns as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman.
Public Citizen, an opponent that helped defeat the rule in federal court last year, says the rule "ignores mountains of safety research" and "will continue to force truck drivers to continue enduring sweatshop-like working conditions."
"At an age when teenage drivers use GPS systems in their cars, air traffic controllers still use World War II-era radar to guide modern jumbo jets. That doesn't seem to make any sense to me, and I know it doesn't make sense to the Secretary and a lot of folks in this audience," the president said in a speech this morning at DOT headquarters.
The meeting also will include comments from the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Thomas M. Stohler, who was named the acting assistant secretary on Nov. 10 when the previous OSHA chief Edwin Foulke Jr. left the agency to join the Atlanta office of law firm Fisher & Phillips.
At 762 pages, today's final rule is a monster. The Labor Department fielded more than 19,600 comments in 2006 and 2008 when it asked for suggested changes in the law.