Jasmine worked at a prison in central California that provided long-term housing and services for minimum, medium, and maximum custody inmates. She was 34 years old and had worked at the prison for six years. Jasmine was a correctional officer, and her job duties included security checks, patrolling the facility, and occasionally grid searches and digging for contraband in the soil.
Koch Foods of Gainesville, LLC., was cited for exposing employees to amputation hazards; and failing to provide fall protection, identify which employees were using hazardous energy control locks, and train employees exposed to noise hazards. Proposed penalties total $208,977.
In a startling new report released by the CDC, researchers identified 204–389 deaths among adults that occurred annually between 1999 and 2016 that could be attributable to occupational exposures -- and were therefore potentially preventable.
The fatality figures cited represent an estimated 11-21 percent of all adult asthma deaths.
OSHA investigators have determined that Spirit Aerosystems Inc. exposed employees to airborne concentrations of hexavalent chromium nearly double the permissible exposure limit. Hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen.
The Kansas-based aircraft manufacturer faces proposed penalties totaling $194,006 for one willful and five serious violations.
In a move that surprised and pleased food and worker safety advocates, the USDA has denied a bid by the U.S. poultry industry to allow inspection lines to speed up. It was the second defeat for the National Chicken Council (NCC), which had attempted to get the limit raised under the Obama administration.
CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES TLVs®
2018 NOTICE OF INTENDED CHANGES (NIC)
Introduction to the Chemical Substances – Threshold Limit Value-Surface Limit (TLV-SL)
New notation – Ototoxicant (OTO)
Antimony trioxide (withdrawn from Notice of Intended Changes)
Cobalt and inorganic compounds, as Co
Cumene
Cyanazine
Cyclopentadiene (withdraw adopted TLV® and Documentation; see Dicyclopentadiene, including Cyclopentadiene)
ACGIH® announced today that its Board of Directors ratified the 2018 Threshold Limit Values (TLVs®) for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs®). The Board also approved recommendations for additions to the Notice of Intended Changes (NIC).
American Airlines is changing vendors for its employee uniforms, after employees sued over health problems they allege were caused by the garments. Thousands of flight attendants and crew members complained of symptoms ranging from caused hives, swollen faces, wheezing, vertigo, headaches and severe respiratory problems. A lawsuit filed against American Airlines and Twin Hill – the manufacturer of the uniforms – was filed in federal court last fall by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union representing more than 25,000 AA flight attendants.
It has been a year since Donald Trump took office. Despite promising to be a friend of workers, Trump has spent much of his first year making our workplaces less safe.
AFL-CIO Director of Safety and Health Peg Seminario described Trump's actions:
Mayor Bill de Blasio this week signed legislation into law, authored by Council Member Ben Kallos in collaboration with DEP, aimed at reducing overnight and weekend construction noise and making New York City more livable. Intro. 1653-B allows inspectors to take noise readings from the roadway or sidewalk, rather than requiring that the reading be taken from inside of a complainant’s apartment, empowers inspectors to shut down equipment that is too loud, and calls for new rules for responding when the noise is most likely to happen again.
