Methylene chloride kills. We wrote about 21-year old Kevin Hartley last June. He died last April 29 — Workers Memorial Day — while when he was overcome by methylene chloride while stripping a bath tub. Seventeen workers have died from over-exposure to methylene chloride between 2000 and 2015, and probably at least as many consumers. “Methylene chloride is too dangerous to keep on the store shelves,” said Dr. Robert Harrison of the University of California San Francisco. He says in a small room, just a half gallon’s worth of product containing that chemical can lead to a buildup of vapors that can prove lethal in less than an hour.
Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is usually produced by an industrial process. Cr(VI) is known to cause cancer. In addition, it targets the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes. Chromium metal is added to alloy steel to increase hardenability and corrosion resistance.
Welders are at particularly high risk for eye injuries. A Canadian study reported that welders represented 21% of all eye injury claims. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), welders, cutters, and welding machine operators held about 521 000 jobs in 2000. The welding process exposes workers to a number of sources of mechanical, radiant, thermal, or chemical energy.
What’s the best way to avoid the flu? You hate needles, so should you get that flu vaccine that comes in a nasal spray? Or how about that new kind of vaccine that may also be given without a needle?
And will the type of vaccine that’s available during the 2017-2018 flu season be effective against whatever variant of the bug makes an appearance this time around?
Fortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and OSHA have all of the information you need to protect yourself – and your workplace – from the flu.
Tree harvesters and processor attachments equipped with hydraulic bar saws cut with great power and speed.
When a chain breaks, if a resulting whipping action projects a chain shot link, the link often has a mass, velocity and resultant energy, in some cases enough to reach an operator in a cab, which has potential to cause damage, harm or severe injury.
This may be complicated by the remote nature of forestry operations.
Substandard conditions in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey have impacted workers’ health and safety on the job, as well as their wages according to a devastating new report from from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and University of Illinois Chicago that surveyed 360 workers. The report also offers recommendations for improving working conditions during post-disaster recovery operations.
Hurricanes and other disasters present a major challenge for OSHA and other local and national government agencies dedicated to protecting workers during recovery operations.
Hayden McClure didn’t know he had cancer – didn’t know he was even at risk – until he took the test offered by the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program. It saved his life.
McClure, a member of Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547, worked on a Department of Energy site at Amchitka Island that qualified him for the free medical screening.
What is systematic review?
There are many different types of occupational safety and health questions and a variety of scientific methods to answer them. Systematic review is one method for comprehensively reviewing a body of scientific literature. It is an explicit and transparent process to identify, select, synthesize, and critically appraise the scientific literature relevant to a specific question.
‘Workplaces are not merely spaces where people work – they are spaces where people live their lives. Anything which would be prohibited on grounds of consumer health or environmental protection should also be prohibited in workplaces.’ These were the words with which Laurent Vogel, a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), closed the ‘Work and Cancer’ conference organised by the ETUI in November in Brussels.
The entire 22-member Editorial Board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health resigned this morning after a months-long struggle with the Journal’s new owners who have “have acted in a profoundly unethical fashion” and have moved the worker-oriented publication to a more corporate focus.
