An arc flash is distinctly different from the arc blast. It is part of an arc fault, a type of electrical explosion that results from a low-impedance connection to ground or another voltage phase in an electrical system.

Barbara J. Dawson, CIH, CSP, began her year-long term as president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) at the group’s just-concluded AIHce 2013. Dawson will head up the international society, which represents 10,000 occupational and environmental health and safety professionals, until AIHce 2013, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas.

After a flurry of legal activity, a miner who was fired from a California rare earth minerals operation after complaining about unsafe working conditions has been reinstated – temporarily. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says the employee, who spoke out about various safety issues at the mine, had refused to work on a sodium carbonate tank until the operator provided him with a material safety data sheet so he would know what to do in the event of overexposure.

The White House should move forward immediately on OSHA’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) rulemaking, said Rick Pollock, president of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), in a May 16 letter to President Obama.

Check out these safety-related educational topics being presented at the AIHce: Predict the shortcut before it results in an employee injury; Building a safety culture at the world’s largest airline; Safety eyewear and ANSI standards.

OSHA has cited A & B Foundry & Machining LLC with 33 health and safety violations, including four repeat. The Nov. 15, 2012, inspection was initiated under the national emphasis program targeting the primary metals industry. Proposed fines total $170,107.

AIHA calls its members “occupational and environmental health and safety professionals.” That about covers it all. The organization says “members play a crucial role on the front line of worker health and safety every day.” Note the inclusion of safety.

Employers and workers who need information about the health risks of chromium can find numerous resources on a new page on OSHA’s website that’s dedicated to the topic. The Chromium Safety and Health Topics Page provides details about the health risks of various forms of chromium.

For reasons that have not been disclosed, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has sharply reduced fines levied recently against Disneyland Resorts for health and safety violations at Disneyland.

OSHA has cited Phoenix Industrial Cleaning for 28 serious safety violations following the death of a worker who fell from ladder inside of a storage tank, apparently after being overcome by methylene chloride vapors at a chemical manufacturing facility in Wheeling, Ill. on Nov. 29, 2012.