Facility Safety

RSS

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reports it has thus far found no record of a formal, industry approved inspection performed on any of the chemical storage tanks at Freedom Industries prior to the massive leak which occurred on January 9, 2014.

A final report from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) about the December 9, 2010 combustible dust explosion at the AL Solutions metal recycling facility in New Cumberland, West Virginia comes with a familiar recommendation: that OSHA promulgate a general industry combustible dust standard.

Are we sure that radon is a health risk? EPA already has a wealth of scientific data on the relationship between radon exposure and the development of lung cancer. The scientific experts agree that the occupational miner data is a very solid base from which to estimate risk of lung cancer deaths annually.

The head of the U.S. Senate's workplace safety subcommittee has asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to explain its handling of the death a temp worker who suffocated under a pile of sugar at a Pennsylvania plant. The details of OSHA's investigation were reported Sunday by ProPublica and Univision.

OSHA has cited Sterilite Corp., doing business as Sterilite of Alabama LLC, and Marathon Staffing Corp. Inc., for 13 safety and health violations. OSHA initiated the January 2013 inspection at Sterilite's plastics manufacturing facility in Birmingham as part of its National Emphasis Program on Amputations and regional emphasis program to limit worker exposure to high noise levels. Proposed penalties total $49,000.

An impact inspection at the Rhino Eastern LLC's Eagle Mine 3 in Wyoming County, West Virginia, found conditions that put miners at risk of developing black lung disease and that increased the potential for deadly explosions, underscoring the importance of mine safety vigilance and the need for continued improvements in controlling coal dust.

Evaluate exposure to know whether H2S gas is present and at what levels. Eliminate the source of hydrogen sulfide whenever possible. If the source cannot be eliminated, control exposures by:

DRPGMs are designed to alert workers to toxic gases, as well as oxygen-deficient and combustible atmospheres that may exist in their workplace environments, such as permit-required confined spaces, manholes, and other enclosed spaces. Several OSHA standards require the use of gas monitors.

TOM FRIEDEN: First, we had the potential exposure to anthrax at CDC’s laboratory. Second, earlier this week, we learned about an incident in CDC’s influenza laboratory. And third, we had the discovery of vials labeled as smallpox in a storage room on the NIH campus and CDC’s work to secure and to characterize these materials.