President Obama announced today his intent to nominate Inez Moore Tenenbaum as Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Robert S. Adler as a new Commissioner of the CPSC. Furthermore, in the President’s budget, the CPSC receives $107 million, a 71 percent increase in resources since FY 2007. This is almost three quarters of the way to meeting the President’s goal of doubling CPSC’s funding.
Hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, is a legitimate medical problem. Fortunately, it responds well to treatment, reports the May 2009 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
Each year, during the first week of May, organizations involved in treating and supplying our nation’s drinking water celebrate Drinking Water Week. This year’s celebration runs from May 3rd through May 9th. NSF International, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Water and Food Safety and Indoor Environment, is offering free educational information to help consumers understand their role in protecting the nation’s water supply, according to a recent press release.
Acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab made his first trek to Capitol Hill last Thursday (April 30) to testify at a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The hearing was held to examine lapses in OSHA’s targeted inspection program for repeat penalty offenders, “the Enhanced Enforcement Program,” (EEP) as cited in a recent report by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Eric Emery, CEO of Bennett-Bowen and Lighthouse, a safety equipment distributor located in Santa Fe Springs, Calif, and the Safety Equipment Distributors Association's First Vice President, passed away on Wednesday, April 29 after a lengthy illness. He was 50 years old. Eric, a native of Iowa, is survived by his wife, Janet Emery; his sisters, Michelle Ault, Maureen Baker, Paula Purtzer, and Lisa McLarty, and his nephews and nieces.
George J. Hayward, 67, an icon in the tight-knit U.S. safety products industry, passed away on May 1, 2009, after a brief illness. George’s stature and influence extended far beyond the eight states served by the safety products manufacturers representatives of his company, United Sales Associates, founded by George in 1982 and based in Cincinnati.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu infection in the United States has reached 141 with one death attributed to the illness. Individual states report the following numbers of cases: Arizona (4), California (14), Colorado (2), Delaware (4), Illinois (3), Indiana (3), Kansas (2), Kentucky (1), Massachusetts (2), Michigan (2), Minnesota (1), Nebraska (1), Nevada (1), New Jersey (5), New York (50), Ohio (1), South Carolina (16), Texas (28), Virginia (2).
As health experts raised the threat level of the swine flu to five, indicating “a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent,” some U.S. businesses are just now beginning to look at ways to prepare for the potential health, social and economic impact of a flu pandemic, says a press release from the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA).
Witnesses who testified yesterday before the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee said that a special worker health and safety program that targets employers who repeatedly put their workers at risk is not working and needs to be refocused, according to a press release.