On a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has approved urgent safety recommendations on gas purging safety at a public meeting in Raleigh, following extensive testimony and public comment. The draft recommendations, which were approved as presented by the staff without amendment, urged the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), American Gas Association (AGA), and the International Code Council (ICC) to strengthen the national fuel gas code provisions on purging. Board Chairman John Bresland and Member William Wark voted to approve; Board Member William Wright voted to disapprove.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released action plans developed by 22 electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments safer. The action plans are a response to EPA’s assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that the agency made public last September. Coal ash was brought prominently to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment holding disposed ash waste generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority broke open, creating a massive spill in Kingston, TN, that covered millions of cubic yards of land and river and is regarded as one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in history. Shortly afterwards, EPA began overseeing the cleanup, as well as investigating the structural integrity of impoundments where ash waste is stored.
OSHA has cited O.S. Interior Systems Inc. for alleged workplace safety violations following a fatality at the company's worksite at 20555 State Highway 249 in Houston, says an agency press release. Proposed penalties total $112,000.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has launched a new outreach and enforcement program designed to strengthen efforts to prevent mining fatalities, an agency press release states.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced that a request for information on proximity detection systems for underground mines was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 1. Proximity detection is an existing technology that uses electronic sensors to detect motion or the locations of objects and persons but its use on mobile equipment in underground mines is a fairly new concept.
President Barack Obama has announced a series of steps his Administration is taking as part of its comprehensive strategy to enhance American energy independence while building a foundation for a new clean energy economy, and its promise of new industries and millions of jobs, according to a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to executive department heads and agencies on Jan. 30, 2009, calling for a revision to the principles guiding the federal regulatory process. The memo required agencies to submit within 100 days recommendations for a new executive order. The memo also precipitated a call for public comments by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to gather the public's ideas for reforming the regulatory process. At the one-year mark of his administration, OMB Watch in a press statement called on the president to complete this process by issuing a revised executive order.
Economy Cash & Carry Inc., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, to a criminal violation of the Plant Protection Act related to the falsification of a required certificate stamp, the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced.
The Obama administration has proposed a fiscal year 2011 budget of $573 million for OSHA, part of the Department of Labor’s overall $117 billion proposed budget.
Mental health problems affect many working people, according to the February 2010 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter . Yet they often escape notice because these disorders tend to be hidden on the job. Mood symptoms, for example, can masquerade as physical problems such as irritability and sleep disturbances. Efforts to identify and treat mental health problems not only improve employee health, but also increase workplace productivity.
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