The food manufacturing industry includes animal slaughtering as well as the processing and packaging of meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable, grain, seafood, beverages, and bakery products. The industry employs nearly 1.5 million workers.¹ Work in food manufacturing is typically fast-paced and workers can face exposure to hazards such as slips trips and falls, musculoskeletal disorders, and machine-related injuries.²

A PtD update, tree trimmer fatalities and the ASSE gets a new president. These were among the EHS-related news stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released a new report, The State of the National Initiative on Prevention through Design (PtD), describing what it calls “significant progress” in minimizing worker risks through research, practice, education and policy.

In his AIHce 2014 General Session address, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Director John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, predicted how the health effects of emerging manufacturing technologies and technological innovations in sampling practices will change the IH profession over the next 75 years.

OSHA is hoping that 25,000 employers and half a million construction workers participate in its National Safety Stand-down to Prevent Falls in Construction, which starts today and runs through Friday. Reaching that goal means reaching nearly one in ten workers in the industry.

On May 7th, representatives of the organizations listed below heard presentations from the Embassy of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Accord for Fire and Building Safety, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau on ongoing efforts to improve safety and health in the 3,600 cut-and-sew factories that make up Bangladesh’s “ready made garment” industry.

The prevalence of infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, SARS and avian flu, have raised the concern of hospital personnel over the possibility of acquiring such infections. Healthcare workers (HCWs) in or outside hospitals who have contact with patients, body fluids, or specimens may easily acquire infections from or transmit infections to patients, other personnel, or loved ones.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a lot of friends. In a recent letter, more than 150 organizations that make up the “Friends of NIOSH” urged congressional leaders to disregard President Obama’s proposed elimination (in his FY 2015 budget) of Education and Research Centers (ERCs) and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Program and maintain funding for them, as well as for NIOSH’s other programs.

ISHN posted this commentary from Dr. Howard earlier in April. Given Dr. Howard’s long tenure at NIOSH and his visionary perspectives on worker health and safety, we want to “rebroadcast’ it as an ISHN blog.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has released a final rule to lower miners' exposure to respirable coal mine dust in all underground and surface coal mines.