OSHA has cited Columbus Steel Castings Co. in Columbus with proposed penalties totaling $102,000 for alleged serious and repeat violations of federal workplace safety and health standards, according to an agency press release.
Lowell Weicker, Jr., former three-term U.S. Senator and Governor of Connecticut and president of the Board of the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), delivered an address on health reform before The Muslim Coalition of Connecticut. A TFAH press release published the following excerpts from his speech:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward to implement the agency’s May 2009 final rule revoking tolerances, or residue limits, for the pesticide carbofuran, according to an EPA press release. EPA continues to find that dietary exposures to carbofuran from all sources combined are not safe.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that injury and illness rates among private industry employers are down from a total case rate of 4.2 in 2007 to 3.9 in 2008. BLS also reported a decline in non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses from 4 million cases in 2007 to 3.7 million cases in 2008. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement:
Nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among private industry employers in 2008 occurred at a rate of 3.9 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers — a decline from 4.2 cases in 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Oct. 29th. Similarly, the number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses reported in 2008 declined to 3.7 million cases, compared to 4 million cases in 2007. The total recordable case (TRC) injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employers has declined significantly each year since 2003, when estimates from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) were first published using the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). (See
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm for links to news releases and tables for prior years.)
OSHA has issued $87,430,000 in proposed penalties to BP Products North America Inc. for the company’s failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees, the agency announced in a press release. The fine is the largest in OSHA’s history. The prior largest total penalty, $21 million, was issued in 2005, also against BP.
Citing the fact that nearly 22 million American workers are exposed to hazardous noise on a daily basis and that occupational hearing loss continues to plague industry, the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) has made a request to the OHSA to reduce the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for noise exposures, according to an NHCA press release.
Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass. is the first grocery store in the nation to receive the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award. The advanced refrigeration technology in the new store, which is part of the Shaw’s line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket.
EPA has released a user-friendly document to help risk assessors understand how children are exposed to pollution. The document, titled “Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” serves as a quick-reference guide to the more comprehensive “Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” published by EPA in 2008. It will serve as an additional resource for those who work on children’s health issues, which the agency has been highlighting during Children’s Health Month.
EPA has issued the first test orders for pesticide chemicals to be screened for their potential effects on the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by human and animal endocrine systems, which regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction.
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