Overcoming resistance to near-miss reporting: Easily ignored incidents can be key to improving safety performance. Even though a near-miss incident on a job site may cause no injuries or property or equipment damage, it can give a company a heads’ up about a need for early intervention, thereby enabling it to improve its safety performance.

“Working Safely with Nanomaterials” is a new four-page PDF fact sheet published by OSHA. According to the fact sheet: “Workers who use nanotechnology in research or production processes may be exposed to nanomaterials through inhalation, skin contact, or ingestion.

China should carry out more-extensive safety studies and improve regulatory oversight of synthetic nanomaterials, leading Chinese researchers said at the 6th International Conference on Nanotoxicology in Beijing this month.

While many people are still trying to wrap their heads around the idea of nanoparticles – subatomic particles that may behave differently than larger particles of the same composition – the field of nanotechnology has moved ahead to include advanced nanomaterials, which could expose the workers who handle them to serious health risks.

A report from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) warns of a lack of awareness about occupational exposure to nanomaterials.

The U.S. has revised its National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Research Strategy to reflect advances in nanotechnology and serve as a guide to developing nanotechnology environmental health research programs.

Workplace safety programs haven’t yet caught up to the nanotechnology age, if results of a recent University of California-Santa Barbara study are any indication.