Environmental Health and Safety - Articles - Page 214

Manager fired for reporting e-cigarette environmental concerns will get $110K

April 23, 2018

E-cigarettes are at the heart of a recent whistleblower retaliation case, but this time, the devices’ effects on environmental health rather than human health was at issue. OSHA has ordered Mr. Good Vape LLC of Chino, California, to reinstate a former manager and pay him $110,000 in compensation after he was fired for claiming the company’s production of flavored liquids for e-cigarette vapor inhalers violated federal environmental law.

From NIOSH:

Obesity, physical inactivity, or short sleep affect 1 in 5 workers

April 23, 2018

Short sleep, obesity, and physical inactivity occur frequently among workers, affecting more than one in five, according to a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. These modifiable risk factors can lead to serious illnesses, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Weekly news round-up

April 21, 2018

Climate change is increasing lung disease in the U.S.; a Southwest passenger plane avoids a catastrophe (but not a fatality) and garbage collectors want protection from careless motorists. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

A FairWarning story

High-stakes pesticide battle pits farmer against farmer

Paul Feldman

April 20, 2018

Dicamba, an herbicide sold by agribusiness giants Monsanto, BASF and DowDupont, doesn’t just kill weeds. Last year, according to a University of Missouri survey, dicamba damaged an estimated 3.6 million acres of soybeans across 25 states when it drifted from farms planted with seeds genetically engineered to resist the chemical onto regular soybean fields.

From NIOSH:

Obesity, physical inactivity, or short sleep affect 1 in 5 workers

April 20, 2018

Short sleep, obesity, and physical inactivity occur frequently among workers, affecting more than one in five, according to a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. These modifiable risk factors can lead to serious illnesses, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Positive & negative workplace safety vibes

Does your presence make workers smile or feel squeamish?

Timothy Ludwig Ph.D.

April 20, 2018

How do people get to a point where they fear safety? How can something like a checklist or an SOP or a safety manager create fear? Our body is equipped with automatic protective wiring that reacts to scary stimuli with a fear response.

ACGIH® Presents Occupational Aspects of New Lighting Technologies Webinar

April 19, 2018

In 2018, ACGIH® published on the Notice of Intended Changes, a statement on the occupational health aspects of new lighting technologies. It describes the circadian, neuroendocrine and neurobehavioral effects of light. Over the past decade a revolution in indoor lighting has been underway, fueled partly by the new technologies of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and solid-state, light-emitting-diode (LED) lamps, and partly by efforts to reduce the consumption of electrical energy.

ASSE announces Outstanding Safety Educator of the year

April 19, 2018

A professor of safety management at West Virginia University has been named William E. Tarrants Outstanding Safety Educator by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Gary Winn, Ph.D., CHST, who teaches in the school’s Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, heads up the school’s safety management master’s degree program and occupational safety and health doctorate.

American Lung Association: Climate change is making our air more unhealthy

Report comes as Trump administration weakens Clean Air Act enforcement

April 18, 2018

A new report from the American Lung Association (ALA) finds 133.9 million Americans at risk from air pollution – much of it ozone pollution that is worsening significantly due to warmer temperatures. The ALA’s 2018 "State of the Air" report found that the four in ten Americans (41.4 percent) who live in counties with unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution are at greater risk for premature death and other serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.

Kentucky lawmakers didn’t consult with feds about limiting black lung claims reviewers

April 17, 2018

The federal agency that trains, tests and certifies the physicians who read X-rays and diagnose the deadly coal miners’ disease black lung said it was not consulted by Kentucky lawmakers in the 14 months they considered a new law that mostly limits diagnoses to pulmonologists working for coal companies.