The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding three new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites, according to an EPA press release. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is expected to introduce legislation today that will provide economic opportunities for voluntary greenhouse gas reductions especially in the agriculture, forestry and manufacturing sectors, according to a press release from the conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy.
Chronobiology International — Informa Healthcare’s journal on how biological rhythms affect the systems of living things — has published a new study which shows that the use of blue light blocking eyeglasses can help facilitate daytime sleep for shiftworkers.
OSHA has cited Columbus Steel Castings Co. in Columbus with proposed penalties totaling $102,000 for alleged serious and repeat violations of federal workplace safety and health standards, according to an agency press release.
Lowell Weicker, Jr., former three-term U.S. Senator and Governor of Connecticut and president of the Board of the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), delivered an address on health reform before The Muslim Coalition of Connecticut. A TFAH press release published the following excerpts from his speech:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward to implement the agency’s May 2009 final rule revoking tolerances, or residue limits, for the pesticide carbofuran, according to an EPA press release. EPA continues to find that dietary exposures to carbofuran from all sources combined are not safe.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that injury and illness rates among private industry employers are down from a total case rate of 4.2 in 2007 to 3.9 in 2008. BLS also reported a decline in non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses from 4 million cases in 2007 to 3.7 million cases in 2008. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement:
Nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among private industry employers in 2008 occurred at a rate of 3.9 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers — a decline from 4.2 cases in 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Oct. 29th. Similarly, the number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses reported in 2008 declined to 3.7 million cases, compared to 4 million cases in 2007. The total recordable case (TRC) injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employers has declined significantly each year since 2003, when estimates from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) were first published using the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). (See
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm for links to news releases and tables for prior years.)
OSHA has issued $87,430,000 in proposed penalties to BP Products North America Inc. for the company’s failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees, the agency announced in a press release. The fine is the largest in OSHA’s history. The prior largest total penalty, $21 million, was issued in 2005, also against BP.
Citing the fact that nearly 22 million American workers are exposed to hazardous noise on a daily basis and that occupational hearing loss continues to plague industry, the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) has made a request to the OHSA to reduce the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for noise exposures, according to an NHCA press release.
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