The rule announced Dec. 29 by USDA will take effect Jan. 1, 2012. It means consumers will see the labels on hamburger and 39 other common products they buy.
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis was recently elected by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to lead federal efforts to end homelessness. As chair of USICH, Secretary Solis joins the newly elected vice chair, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in implementing Opening Doors, the first federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. Solis succeeds Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who has been chair since 2009.
The penalty, announced Dec. 28, stems from a July 2010 death at the North Dakota plant of the world’s leading supplier of wind turbine blades and services, LM Wind Power.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously to approve new mandatory standards for full-size and non-full-size baby cribs as mandated by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). The federal crib standards had not been updated in nearly 30 years and these new rules are expected to usher in a safer generation of cribs.
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, has appointed Jim Maddux as the new director of the agency's Directorate of Construction, effective Monday, Dec. 20, 2010.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced recently that it successfully obtained a court order that imposes a number of requirements on Sullivan Granite Co. LLC, which operates Brown's Meadow Quarry in Franklin, Maine.
Illinois law states that when hospitals need to transfer trauma patients to centers with higher levels of trauma care, such transfers should be made within two hours. A new study, published in the December issue of the Archives of Surgery, concludes that the two-hour mandate isn't cost-efficient because it does not lead to better patient outcomes.
The confidential system for employee reports of near-misses is based on NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System. It is winning praise from labor and management during its pilot phase.
The database will grow as more companies submit information electronically and as older documents are scanned into the system.
The Jan. 19-20 public meeting at the Mayflower Renaissance Washington, DC Hotel will help the agency write the regulations implementing the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010.
Yudel Cayro, owner and operator of Courtesy Medical Group Inc., a medical clinic in Miami, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his role in a wide-ranging Medicare fraud scheme involving Miami-area home health agencies, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced.
The Food and Drug Administration, in cooperation with other state and local public health agencies, is warning consumers not to eat any Sally Jackson cheeses. The products were processed under conditions that create a significant risk of contamination of the unpasteurized raw milk and finished cheese, and Sally Jackson cheeses have been identified as one possible source of eight cases of E. coli O157 infections in an ongoing investigation.
Several enforcement actions been filed this month, including one against a Houston contractor in connection with a job site in Hamburg, Pa.
This is the seventh Sims Recycling Solutions facility in North America to be certified to OHSAS 18001, the international occupational health and safety management system standard.
Pike River Coal, the company that owns the mine where 29 miners died Nov. 19, has gone into receivership. The receivers presented a draft re-entry plan Dec. 22 to local police.
The Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment/Systems Section is only the second section formed by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association in the past decade.
Recommended by the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association, this change took effect immediately. Its enforcement effective date is June 16, 2011.