Today's Safety News

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OSHA and the Shipyard Workers Union have agreed to work together to improve workplace safety and health among shipyard workers in San Diego. The alliance formed recently between the two entities includes guidance and training programs and a awareness-raising about hazardous operations onboard ships during building and repair periods.

Figures released Wednesday by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) revealed that 2012 had the lowest fatality and injury rates in the history of U.S. mining, along with the lowest rate of contractor fatalities since the agency began calculating those rates in 1983.

It’s not news that falls from height cause the majority of work-related fatalities among residential construction workers (64 percent, according to a 2011 report by the BLS).

Workers at an Ohio electronics recycling facility were exposed to cadmium, a toxin known to cause cancer that targets the body’s cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems.

Noise exposure expert Dennis P. Driscoll, P.E. will be recognized for his contributions to noise control and hearing conservation at the AIHA Fall Conference, being held September 28 through October 2 in Miami, Fla.

OSHA has cited Caviness Beef Packing Ltd. in Hereford, Texas, with 25 safety violations. Proposed penalties total $120,000 for deficiencies in its process safety management program and various workplace hazards.

Maryland’s Court of Appeals has ruled that asbestos companies are not responsible for illnesses suffered by family members of asbestos workers who brought the substance home with them in their clothing prior to 1972.

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.

A new study has found that working the night shift long-term may double a woman’s risk of breast cancer. The association was found in women who did night shift work for 30 or more years. The researcher team led by Kristan Aronson, a professor of public health sciences at the Queen's Cancer Research Institute at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, found no increased risk among women who worked that shift fewer than 30 years.

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.