The laboratory's report contains results of the NIOSH Chemical Warfare Agent Simulant Project to identify chemical simulants that simulate the permeation of Sarin (GB) and sulfur mustard (HD) through elastomeric barrier materials that are commonly used in respirators.
The agency implements the recommendations of a technical panel that did not urge ending the practice of ventilating sections of underground coal mines via the entries through which conveyors move coal to the surface, although UMWA wanted the practice banned. MSHA also published a final rule today allowing two types of underground coal mine refuges.
A proposal out for comments will allow for the enforcement of the European Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures, which adopts the internationally agreed Global Harmonized System on the classification and labeling of chemicals.
The General Services Administration today published Federal Management Regulation Bulletin 2009-B1, which eliminates the exemption that designated smoking areas inside federal workplaces.
NIOSH has engaged The National Academies' Institute of Medicine to review the draft NIOSH Current Intelligence Bulletin: "Asbestos Fibers and other Elongated Mineral Particles: State of the Science and Roadmap for Research."
After a follow-up inspection, OSHA issued the company seven failure to abate notices carrying $168,000 in proposed fines and then further issued the company one serious citation with a $1,500 fine for not medically evaluating employees' fitness to wear respirators.
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is urging health care workers and their employers to follow three basic steps this flu season to help prevent influenza infections in the health care workforce.
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.
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.
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.
"Employees who were removing asbestos-containing materials at this site lacked basic safeguards that must be in place before performing such work," said Robert Kowalski, OSHA's area director in Bridgeport, Conn.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and WebMD have announced a collaboration that expands consumers' access to the agency's timely and reliable important health information. This joint effort reflects FDA's emphasis on using innovative, technology-based strategies to carry out its foremost mission, which is to promote and to protect the public health.
The Labor Department's semiannual regulatory agenda says the required review of the standard's potential impact on small businesses will be finished in February 2009.
Today is Public Health Thank You Day, a day to thank friends and colleagues working in public health for all they do.
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.
The company, formerly named CairnsAir Inc. or Neoterik, stopped producing respirators in April 2008 and has ceased doing business, the agency said.
Covering material handling, reconstruction exposures, and wellness programs, the publications illuminate industrial hygienists' many roles.
"Helping employees quit smoking is a win/win proposition for employers and employees, as well as their families," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health.
OSHA's Dallas Area Office began its investigation following the May 13 incident that took place at a water treatment facility in Paris, Texas, where a diver's lifeline became entangled in the water pump of a 500,000-gallon in-ground water tank.