The revised ANSI/ASSE A10.32 Standard ‘Personal Fall Protection for Use in Construction and Demolition Operations’ released last week contains new equipment criteria, providing minimum guidelines for fall protection equipment, to establish performance criteria for this equipment in construction and demolition and to make recommendations for use and inspection.
The Safety Equipment Institute (SEI) has announced that the first certifications have been issued to the new NFPA criteria for fire service Thermal Imagers, NFPA 1801, Standard on Thermal Imagers for the Fire Service, 2013 Edition. The revised NFPA 1801 standard was issued by the NFPA Standards Council on May 29, 2012, with an effective date of June18, 2012.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said an explosion and fire that killed five workers during a fireworks disposal operation in Hawaii in 2011 resulted from unsafe disposal practices; insufficient safety requirements for government contractor selection and oversight; and an absence of national guidelines, standards, and regulations for fireworks disposal.
Updated rule provides extensive public health protections, slashes costs of compliance
January 15, 2013
Today, in compliance with settlement agreements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized revisions to standards to reduce air pollution from stationary engines that generate electricity and power equipment at industrial, agricultural, oil and gas production, power generation and other facilities.
One objection of mine to adding more OSHA standards is that the standards cited frequently (top ten in frequency) remain generally the same year to year. Sometimes they shift position in frequency order. Sometimes the numbers of citations trend up or down, but generally it all remains in a controlled range.
A new compilation, ASTM Standards for Accident and Disaster Control, is now available on CD-ROM from ASTM International. The compilation includes 185 of the latest ASTM standards for accident and emergency management from ASTM Committees E54 on Homeland Security; F12 on Security Systems; F32 on Search and Rescue; and F30 on Emergency Medical Services.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is throwing its support behind the EPA’s bid for a tough new air quality standard that the organization says will protect the health of all Americans by curbing harmful emissions of fine particulate matter, also known as soot. On the other side of the issue, manufacturers are predicting that it will “crush” growth.
From a toxic gas release caused by a worker's inability to understand English language labels to OSHA's update of the General Industry Digest, here are the top stories of the week from ISHN.com:
On December 14th the EPA finalized a rule updating the standards for fine particulates, including soot, setting the annual health standard to 12 micrograms per cubic meter, down from the current level of 15. EPA’s proposed rule issued in June, 2012 generated more than 230,000 public comments.