Three cabinet secretaries, including HHS' Kathleen Sebelius, urged businesses to plan for absences, encourage employees to be vaccinated, and ensure critical operations are not interrupted.
With a very challenging flu season ahead, year two of the Joint Commission Resources' Flu Vaccination Challenge has a goal of building on last year's success at raising the flu vaccination rate among U.S. health care workers.
DOJ says that once the switch is done, the R.E. Burger plant will be the largest coal-fired electric utility plant in the country to repower with renewable fuels and the first such plant at which greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced under a Clean Air Act consent decree.
Featured speakers at the IAFC event will include DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate; Ltc. Greg Gadson, a decorated Iraq war veteran and double amputee; and recently confirmed U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran.
The repeat violations contributing to the proposed penalties totaling $144,900 included failing to provide guardrails on scaffolds at different working levels, provide access ladders and toe boards, and ensure all working levels were fully planked.
The company began U.S. clinical trials Aug. 6 and plans to test the vaccine's immunogenicity and safety, with about 2,000 people getting it in the trials.
"OSHA standards require that circuits be de-energized before employees work on them and that appropriate personal protective equipment be supplied and used in those rare instances where de-energizing is not feasible," said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA's area director for Middlesex and Essex (Mass.) counties.
A new online guide from the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers' Health Committee can help to limit workers' exposures to the fluids, which can produce a variety of health effects, including contact dermatitis.
By Sept. 1, the 14-member committee will provide a letter report to CDC and OSHA addressing personal protective equipment needs for this crucial workforce.
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 2007 installment is a tough act to follow, but A+A 2009 looks ready to defend its title Nov. 3-6, 2009, as the world's largest trade show for workplace safety and health.
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.
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.
The program, which will cost as much as $28 million, is similar but smaller than the Clean Trucks Program of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
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.
The prospect of winning $2,500 and national TV exposure for a 15- or 30-second flu video in the HHS contest enticed 20 entries in its first two weeks.
Dr. Anne Schuchat today said CDC recommends about 83 percent of the U.S. population get the seasonal flu vaccine, but only 40 percent did last year. Health care workers should get it and also the H1N1 vaccine when it's ready.
Fall hazards, lack of personal protective equipment, and deficiencies in the plant's confined space, respirator, and lockout/tagout programs are among the 73 safety violations cited in an inspection conducted by OSHA's Concord Area Office.
The service, a Web site and call centers to help Britons decide whether or not they have the H1N1 flu, will be available this week, the national health secretary announced Monday.