OSHA is issuing seven serious and two repeat safety citations against Flexible Foam Products Inc. in Miami, Fla., for exposing workers to combustible foam dust and other workplace hazards. Proposed penalties total $72,000.
EPA is adding seven new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.
EPA today announced it intends to propose a rule to reduce mercury waste from dental offices. Dental amalgams, or fillings containing mercury, account for 3.7 tons of mercury discharged from dental offices each year. The mercury waste results when old mercury fillings are replaced with new ones. The mercury in dental fillings is flushed into chair-side drains and enters the wastewater systems, making its way into the environment through discharges to rivers and lakes, incineration or land application of sewage sludge. Mercury released through amalgam discharges can be easily managed and prevented.
Investigators from the California Labor Commissioner’s Office issued fines to restaurants during an enforcement sweep for violations of state labor laws addressing workers’ compensation and proper payment of wages, according to a recent press release. The statewide enforcement resulted in 88 citations being issued to 79 restaurants with total penalties of $448,950.
State and local health departments have made significant progress toward improving public health emergency preparedness and response capabilities, says a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced that an Administrative Law Judge with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has ruled in favor of MSHA in a legal challenge filed last June by Massey Energy’s Performance Coal Co, according to an MSHA press release. The company had challenged MSHA’s protocol guidelines in the underground accident investigation of the Upper Big Branch Mine, in which the agency prohibited Massey Energy investigators from using cameras, collecting evidence, mapping and conducting sampling. In her ruling, ALJ Margaret A. Miller held that MSHA did not abuse its discretion in adopting the protocols and that the protocols "are rationally connected to safely conducting the accident investigation."
The American Public Health Association (APHA) sent a letter to House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman George Miller this week urging the House to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that would bring the nation one step closer to improving nutrition and promoting physical activity and wellness for millions of children across the country, according to a press release. APHA strongly encourages the House to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act before the legislation expires on Sept. 30.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced in a recent press release that today the Federal Register is expected to publish an emergency temporary standard that revises the existing federal standard on maintenance of incombustible content of rock dust. The determination to create an ETS was based on MSHA's review of accident investigation reports of mine explosions in intake air courses that involved coal dust, as well as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s report “Recommendations for a New Rock Dusting Standard to Prevent Coal Dust Explosions in Intake Airways,” which can be viewed at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pubreference/outputid2825.htm .
OSHA has awarded $2.75 million in Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training Grants to 16 organizations, including nonprofit and community/faith-based groups, employer associations, labor unions, joint labor/management associations, and colleges and universities, an agency press release states.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration has announced in a press release that, from April through August, the agency conducted "impact inspections" at 111 coal and metal/nonmetal mines throughout the country designated by the agency as having safety or health issues. During that time, enforcement personnel issued 2,660 violations, 45 percent of which were classified as significant and substantial. These targeted inspections are part of an aggressive enforcement strategy launched in the wake of the worst mining disaster in almost 40 years.
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