“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends and loved ones of those workers killed and injured in Sunday’s explosion in Middletown,” said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, in a press statement issued in the aftermath of Sunday’s explosion at the Kleen Energy Plant in Middletown, Connecticut that left five workers dead and at least 12 injured. “The safety and health of workers is of paramount importance to me and to the U.S. Department of Labor. Inspectors from OSHA arrived on site Sunday afternoon to conduct a comprehensive investigation and are working in cooperation with other agencies.”
Airgas, Inc., one of the nation’s largest distributors of safety products and the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases, has confirmed that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD) (“Air Products”) to acquire the company for $60.00 per share.
The American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Management Practice Specialty and Service Branch Groups today congratulated the CEOs for taking the initiative to learn more about their company employees, vendors and customers by going undercover and behind the scenes in the new CBS show ‘Undercover Boss’. For future ‘Undercover Bosses’, ASSE has a couple of suggestions aimed at keeping them safe on the job.
The “OSHA Listens” national hearing to solicit public input on the agency’s future agenda, scheduled for Wednesday, February 10, has been postponed due to this past weekend’s blizzard that buried DC in more than two feet of snow, and forecasts for more snow this week. The agency said a new date will be set.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying a seven-person team to the site of a fatal explosion at the Kleen Energy Plant in Middletown, Connecticut, according to an agency press release. The team is expected on site today.
Low-wage, low-skilled, and immigrant workers face disproportionately high risks for work-related injuries and illnesses in comparison with the U.S. workforce in general, according to a recent update from the National Institute for Occupation Health and Safety (NIOSH). They also encounter significant barriers in accessing training and education programs, health care systems, and legal protections that are critical for mitigating those risks.
According to a press release from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the group has joined with the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) in urging that a commitment to safe work be a focus in the Congressional Jobs Bill, HR 2847, now under consideration.
Anna Burger, chairperson of Change to Win, a partnership of five unions representing American workers, issued the following statement regarding the confirmation of Patricia Smith as the Labor Department’s Solicitor General.
To better understand if occupational health and safety training and education programs have a beneficial effect on workers and businesses, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in collaboration with the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), Ontario, Canada, conducted a review of some of the recent research in this area. Earlier this month NIOSH and IWH released "A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Training & Education for the Protection of Workers."
Home healthcare workers are frequently exposed to a variety of potentially serious or even life-threatening hazards, according to a new NIOSH Hazard Review: Occupational Hazards in Home Healthcare (Publication No. 2010-125). These dangers include overexertion; stress; guns and other weapons; illegal drugs; verbal abuse and other forms of violence in the home or community; bloodborne pathogens; needlesticks; latex sensitivity; temperature extremes; unhygienic conditions, including lack of water, unclean or hostile animals, and animal waste. Long commutes from worksite to worksite also expose the home healthcare worker to transportation- related risks
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