Today's Safety News

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In addition Workers Memorial Day in many countries and Workers’ Day of Mourning in Canada, April 28^th has also been designated World Day for Safety and Health at Work. The focus this year is on the prevention of occupational diseases.

Approximately eight million U.S. health care workers are year are potentially exposed to hazardous drugs used to treat patients. “It seems counter-intuitive that the health care industry, whose mission is the care of the sick, is itself a "high-hazard" industry for the workers it employs,” notes a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage on the subject.

OSHA has cited food giant Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. with eight safety violations following the death of a worker who became caught in an unguarded hopper while attempting to remove a piece of cardboard at the company's facility in Canton, Ga.

An explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas last night powerful enough to cause a magnitude 2.1 earthquake has killed up to 15 people – and possibly more. Waco, Texas police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said he expects the casualty rate to rise. A number of firefighters are among those still missing after the blast. (Firefighters – including volunteers – were at the plant fighting the blaze when the explosion occurred.)

It’s official: Americans are ignoring the warnings about the dangers of distracted driving and continuing to use their cell phones while behind the wheel. A new survey by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) -- released in conjunction with National Distracted Driving Awareness Month -- shows that at any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving.

A proposal to introduce new sustainability reporting requirements across the European Union (EU) could open the door for a quantum leap in transparency and accountability among European companies, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) said recently.

OSHA has cited an Illinois contractor for seven safety violations, including three willful, for failing to protect workers from cave-ins and moving soil and chunks of asphalt during trenching operations. The inspection was initiated under OSHA's national emphasis program for trenching and excavation after an OSHA inspector witnessed apparent cave-in hazards while traveling past a construction site in Des Plaines on Oct. 3, 2012.

A new study finds that 71 percent of Americans now consider the environment when making purchasing decisions. This is up from 66 percent in 2008. The Cone Communications study also found that a majority of Americans (71 percent) regularly read and follow instructions on how to use the “green” products they select, while 66 percent also indicated that they follow instructions on how to dispose of products properly.

President Obama’s recently released budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 fails to adequately fund key health programs, according to Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.