ESFI offers info on tornado, hurricane, flood readiness
July 17, 2013
Worried about the possibility of severe weather striking your area? Wondering how you’ll handle the consequences? The Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) has launched a new collection of severe weather safety resources that will enable people to prepare for storm-related hazards and lower the risk of deaths, injuries and property loss.
A coalition formed to improve California refinery safety in the wake of Chevron’s Richmond refinery fire last August has released a list of recommendations it wants to see enacted.
A worker at a Georgia glass company suffered a finger amputation and crushed hand while removing a glass mold from a bottle-shaping facility – leading to an OSHA inspection and citations.
Critics call it A “toothless” scheme that lacks enforcement
July 12, 2013
A proposal unveiled this week by Walmart and the Gap aimed at improving safety for garment factory workers in Bangladesh who make the goods sold by the retailers has been met with jeers by labor and safety activists, who say the plan is badly flawed and puts profits above safety.
Earlier this year I participated in the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Summit on Green Buildings and Human Health. At USGBC’s invitation, I authored a blog that appears on their website. We are co-posting the blog on the NIOSH Science Blog. The Summit was very successful, and USGBC is open to including worker issues into their initiatives. Please share your thoughts on this important issue in the comment section below.
Despite urging, agency didn’t add ammonium nitrate to its oversight list
July 10, 2013
The chair of the Senate committee that investigated the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion yesterday slammed the EPA for failing to include ammonium nitrate – the substance which caused the fatal blast – in its list of hazardous chemicals that require oversight.
Effort to improve factory safety conditions includes new safety pro
July 9, 2013
EHS professionals who are interested in a professional challenge – and living abroad – may want to send a resume to the steering committee of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a multi-national effort to bring about safer and healthier conditions for factory workers in Bangladesh.
Study finds high anxiety related to possibility of storms
July 9, 2013
Recent uneventful hurricane seasons have done little to calm Florida workers’ fear of hurricanes, according to a new study by Wayne Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Business Administration at the Florida State University College of Business.
According to OSHA, machines need to have power sources removed and be locked out, tagged out (LOTO), and isolated from the source to prevent serious injury.
The increase in grain bin deaths – despite a corresponding increase in official efforts to stop them – shows an “unconscionable” failure on the part of employers, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), a coalition dedicated to safe work conditions.