The company was cited for violating Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requirements for treating, managing, and disposing of hazardous waste, including failure to mark, label, and keep hazardous waste containers closed; and comply with training, monitoring, inspection, and recording requirements.
During a 2007 inspection, EPA staff found acetone and toluene being stored improperly at the facility. The agency noted that exposure to such solvents can affect breathing and cause vomiting.
The Food and Drug Administration has advised consumers not to use certain respiratory medications purchased after Sept. 8, 2009 and manufactured by Dey L.P., a subsidiary of Mylan Inc., because the medications might have been part of a shipment being transported on a tractor-trailer stolen in Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 8, 2009.
The serious violations OSHA unearthed related to inadequate process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals, lack of emergency preparedness and response procedures, and poor respiratory protection for workers.
The newly downloadable document addresses methods for controlling silica such as wet cutting during construction operations and using vacuum dust collection systems.
A panel presentation and discussion on "The State of the Granite Debate," focusing on the issue of radon and radioactivity from granite countertop materials, will be part of AARST's 21st International Radon Symposium next week.
With more participation this year than ever before, more than 100 radio stations in some 20 states are planning to help raise awareness of mesothelioma by playing a Warren Zevon song followed by a 20-second segment about the incurable disease on Saturday, Sept. 26.
The settlement is related to a release at the company’s ammonia and nitric acid manufacturing facility in Deer Island, Ore., on Sept. 29, 2008. EPA alleges that the company failed to notify the appropriate emergency response entities until approximately 11 hours after the release occurred.
In addition to issuing willful, repeat, and serious citations to the company, OSHA also issued it a notice of failure-to-abate citation relating to its failure to implement a respiratory program, institute a medical surveillance program for workers overexposed to chromium VI, and develop and implement a hazard communication program for workers exposed to caustics and corrosives.
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.
Preventing transmission by droplets is the key recommendation from researchers who analyzed the June 2009 outbreak among a tour group visiting southwestern China. Thermal scanning and health questionnaires at the Chinese airports did not detect symptomatic passengers.
Cook Children's Health Care System of Fort Worth, Texas, has boosted its employees' flu vaccination rates from 66 percent to 84 percent in the past two years.
“Even in these difficult economic times, cities must appropriately allocate resources to protect all employees from potential on-the-job dangers,” the group said in a statement issued to its members nationwide.
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 Institute of Medicine committee also recommended funding research to design and develop the next generation of respirators for health workers.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Howard's selection today. OSH professional societies had pushed for him to be returned to NIOSH's top post.
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 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.