For many employees, a safety manager’s harping about rules and procedures may go in one ear and out the other. As a safety consultant for Becker Iron and Metal, an Illinois metal scrap company, Lisa Dunn knew that in order to improve safety she would need to find a way to involve employees in developing a more collaborative safety culture.
OHSA’s Hazard Alert discusses the health hazards associated with hydraulic fracturing and focuses on worker exposures to silica in the air. It covers the health effects of breathing silica, recommends ways to protect workers, and describes how OSHA and NIOSH can help. Workers and employers need to be aware of the hazard that silica dust poses.
Last week, Farid Fata, a Michigan doctor, was sentenced to 45 years in jail for subjecting more than 500 patients to cancer treatments they did not need so he could collect millions in insurance payments. According to CBS News, he told healthy patients they were sick, he told sick patients they were dying, and he told dying patients he was their only hope. All in order to file insurance claims.
In November 2014, a worker was overcome at a DuPont chemical manufacturing facility when a supply line unexpectedly released more than 20,000 lbs. of methyl mercaptan, a deadly chemical. Three co-workers came to the worker's aid in an attempted rescue, but all four were asphyxiated fatally by the colorless, flammable, and highly toxic gas.
Following a series of gas leaks that killed and injured workers, the world’s second largest maker of DRAM computer chips says it will beef up safety at its facilities.
More than 40 trade unionists from 14 European countries attended the ETUI’s annual seminar on chemical substances held in Dublin on June 25th and 26th. An important focus of this 11th edition of the event was the risks linked to exposure to pesticides in the agriculture sector.
Calif. worker fatality shows need for confined space in construction rule
June 26, 2015
A crew foreman – the person responsible for safety at his job site – died as a result of exposure to toxic fumes, an accident that was investigated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Division of Safety Research (DSR), through its Fatal Accident Circumstances and Epidemiology (FACE) Project.
Recent NIOSH research has shed some light on the topic of the safety of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) use by pregnant workers. Women make up approximately one-half of the US work force. At any given time, about 10% of those female workers of child-bearing age (15–44 years of age) will be pregnant.
Four flight attendants are suing Boeing for allegedly exposing them to toxic air aboard a commercial flight from Boston to San Diego. The 2013 flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Chicago after three of the four flight attendants on board lost consciousness and had to be rushed to a hospital.
U.S. finalizes settlement with Georgia-based Millard Refrigerated Services over ammonia release
June 22, 2015
The EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have announced a final settlement with Millard Refrigerated Services that resolves alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act for an airborne release of ammonia from Millard’s Theodore, Alabama, facility in 2010.