Occupational exposure and pregnancy, mine dust levels go down and a fatal trench collapse were among the week’s top EHHS-related stories posted on ISHN.com.
NTSB calls for better ways to find aircraft accident sites and retrieve critical flight data
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday issued a series of safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration calling for improvements in locating downed aircraft and ways to obtain critical flight data faster and without the need for immediate underwater retrieval.
EU-OSHA offers guidance on nanomaterial safety for workers
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), has published an overview of the issues surrounding the safe use of nanomaterials in the workplace.
Ohio foundry workers exposed to dangerous noise levels
While operating an industrial machine, a worker at MCM Precision Castings Inc. was exposed to noise levels that averaged 97 decibels, equal to the noise of a jackhammer, over his eight-hour shift. Employees of the Weston, Ohio-based company were also exposed to dangerously high noise levels and crystalline silica dust, a cause of chronic lung disease, OSHA has found.
Winder Power celebrates two years incident free
Winder Power, a leading UK manufacturer of power and distribution transformers and generator equipment, is celebrating 800 days without a reportable incident -- a record that extends across the company’s projects in the UK and worldwide, as well as within its own state-of-the-art factory in Leeds, England.
ASSE adds second India chapter
January 22, 2015
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has added a second chapter in Maharashtra, India further establishing a strong occupational safety and health foothold in a country poised for explosive economic growth.
New study fires up e-cigarette debate
Dangerous levels of formaldehyde? Or poor testing methods?
The controversy over the potential health benefits of e-cigarettes has ramped up with the publication of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that people who use the devices on a high-voltage setting could be inhaling large amounts of formaldehyde.
Happy childhoods = better heart health in adulthood
Children with favorable psychosocial experiences may have better cardiovascular health in adulthood, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Positive psychosocial factors include growing up in a family that practices healthy habits, is financially secured, is a stable emotional environment, and where children learn to control aggressiveness and impulsiveness and fit in socially.
Public health
Fewer Americans exposed to aviation noise
Abatement measures, sound insulation have helped
The number of people exposed to significant airport noise in the United States has decreased from 7 million people in 1975 to approximately 309,000 people in 2012, according to the Federal Aviation Industry (FAA), which cites an initiative to improve aircraft engine and airframe technology to reduce noise, fuel burn, and emissions as one of the factors in the change.
MSHA’s Main: 'Proximity detection final rule will save miners’ lives'
Wielding a large rotating steel drum equipped with sharp tungsten carbide teeth, a continuous mining machine scrapes coal from the mine’s seams and drops it onto conveyor belts or into shuttle cars for transport to the surface.
A NIOSH Science Blog post
Can workplace exposures increase risks of birth defects?
Epidemiology in action
Pregnant and breastfeeding women get a lot of advice from just about everyone on just about everything– what to eat, medications to avoid, how much exercise they should do. When it comes to their jobs, though, the advice seems to dry up.
40 foot fall hazards at Mass. renovation project
Employers face more than $110K in fines for failing to provide fall protection
Workers doing renovation at the former Dye Works in Easthampton faced potentially fatal falls of up to 40 feet because their employers failed to provide proper protection, OSHA has found. Agency inspectors visited the work site on July 11, 2014, in response to a complaint about fall hazards there.
Dust levels in underground coal mines continue downward trend
Chester Fike was just in his 30s when he was diagnosed with black lung. As the disease progressed, the West Virginia coal miner was eventually so incapacitated that a simple walk with his family was impossible. In the summer of 2012, four months after a double lung transplant raised hopes for a second chance, Fike lost his fight for life at 60.
CSB releases safety bulletin on anhydrous ammonia incident near Mobile, Alabama
Safety bulletin notes five key lessons to prevent hydraulic shock
Today the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released a safety bulletin intended to inform industries that utilize anhydrous ammonia in bulk refrigeration operations on how to avoid a hazard referred to as hydraulic shock.
CSB: Poor design, failure to test dust collection system caused 2012 U.S. Ink flash fire
Seven workers were burned
The flash fire that burned seven workers, one seriously, at a U.S. Ink plant in New Jersey in 2012 resulted from the accumulation of combustible dust inside a poorly designed dust collection system that had been put into operation only four days before the accident, an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has found.
EPA urges home radon testing
Exposure to naturally occurring gas can cause lung cancer
In recognizing January as National Radon Action Month, EPA encourages Americans around the country to test their homes for this naturally occurring radioactive gas and make 2015 a healthier, safer new year.
Deadline is Feb. 1
Only two weeks left to enter EHS products in two top contests
ISHN Reader’s Choice & Safety 2015 Attendee Choice Awards submissions window closing soon
The deadline for entering EHS-related products in the ISHN 2015 Readers' Choice Awards and the ASSE Safety 2015 Attendee Choice Awards is fast approaching. Now in their third year, both awards programs are gaining momentum and have earned a reputation as an effective way for winning companies to boost their industry profiles.
ANSI, ISEA release revised workplace first aid kit standard
Changes include more supplies, two classes of first aid kits
The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has received American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval for ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2014, American National Standard-Minimum Requirements for Workplace First Aid Kits and Supplies.
Heroin-related deaths on the rise
Heroin overdose deaths in the U.S. have increased for the third year in a row, according to 2013 drug overdose mortality data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Drug deaths related to prescription opioids have remained stable since 2012.
North Carolina contractor's disregard of safety standards leads to fatal trench collapse
Clyde Nettles Jr. was in an unprotected trench reconnecting drainpipes at Fort Bragg on July 24, 2014, when, without warning, the walls collapsed around him and another worker. The other worker was able to escape uninjured, but 22-year-old Nettles was not.
