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Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health announced Dec. 29 that it was investigating two suspected cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) affecting a nine-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister.

In an OSHA hazard alert, “Hydraulic Fracturing and Flowback Hazards Other than Respirable Silica,” (issued in late 2014), the agency states that more workers are potentially exposed to the hazards created by hydraulic fracturing and flowback operations due to the large increase in the number of these operations in the past decade.

According to an exclusive Industrial Safety & Hygiene News magazine subscriber survey, the overwhelming majority of safety and industrial hygiene personnel use OSHA’s permissible exposure limits (PELs) to monitor hazardous substances and as part of their overall employee respiratory protection efforts (85 percent).

A New York artist who is well-known in the street art community had the hand he draws with amputated Dec. 31st after it was injured on his “day job” with the city’s Sanitation Department.

After a Graphic Packaging International Inc. employee suffered a severe injury in June 2014 when the worker's hand was caught in a moving printing press, OSHA cited the West Monroe, Louisiana company for 28 safety violations. Proposed penalties total $129,000.

During the past two years, two prisoners on a work-release program suffered permanent lung damage while other employees at the Fiberdome Inc.’s Lake Mills fiberglass manufacturing plant in Lake Mills, WI, plant were exposed to harmful levels of chemicals, dust and noise, according to reports released by OSHA.

While renovating an Evanston, Ill. Middle school, workers from six separate companies were exposed to asbestos, lead and electrical hazards, according to OSHA, which inspected the site after receiving a complaint. Staff and students were on summer break during the July 2014 inspection..

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) says that the annual minimum random controlled substances testing rates for employees in safety sensitive positions, including tractor-trailer and bus drivers, will remain at 50 percent through 2015.

The beginning of a new year often prompts positive lifestyle changes, and the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) is encouraging people to keep electrical safety in mind while they strive for improvement in 2015.