On July 14, 2009, representatives from the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association, Inc. (VPPPA) met with the Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab to discuss how the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report would affect the future of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), according to an association press release. Representatives from the VPPPA National Board of Directors, as well as several Union and employer representatives, provided Barab with insight into the benefits that VPP brings to their sites.
BOHS announced in a recent press release that its latest Bedford Prize has been awarded to a team from the University of Leuven in Belgium for a paper about the protection of pharmaceutical production workers from the potential harmful effects of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The “Thomas Bedford Memorial Prize” is BOHS’s oldest award, presented to lead authors of the most outstanding paper published in the Society’s journal, Annals of Occupational Hygiene. Sadly, the lead author of this paper, Nadine Van Nimmen, died of cancer at the age of 42, and was awarded her Ph.D. posthumously. The paper was based on part of this work; the Bedford Prize, which would have been presented to her at the BOHS Annual Conference in 2009, was sent to her family, also posthumously.
According to a recent press release from The National Office of Citizen Corps, FEMA Community Preparedness Division, the Obama Administration has sent a strong message to the nation that it is time to start planning and preparing for the fall flu season and the ongoing H1N1 flu outbreak and that the federal government is prepared to commit resources, training, and new tools to help state and local governments and America’s families get ready.
OSHA has come down hard on Metro North Railroad (which provides daily rail service between New York City and points in Connecticut) with a proposed $300,000 punitive damages following whistleblower investigations that found the railroad retaliated against four workers for reporting injuries on the job, according to the agency.
ASTM International Committee F32 on Search and Rescue is currently developing a number of proposed new standards. Two of the proposed standards under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F32.02 on Management and Operations are WK23984, Guide for Level 1 (Basic) Mounted Search and Rescue (MSAR) Responder, and WK24699, Guide for Training for Land SAR as a Level 1 Out of Area Disaster Responder. Interested parties are welcome to join in the standards developing activities of Committee F32.
For her continued support of the occupational safety and health profession and her ongoing effort to protect people, property and the environment, Christine Sullivan, ARM, CSP, of Littleton, CO recently received the prestigious Council on Practices and Standards (CoPS) Safety Professional of the Year (SPY) Award from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is deploying an investigation team to the site of an anhydrous ammonia release that occurred earlier this week at Tanner Industries, located south of Swansea, South Carolina, the agency announced.
An employee of a Sewell, N.J., sub-contractor that provided temporary electrical services was sentenced today to serve 20 months in jail for his role in a kickback and fraud scheme at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site in New Jersey, the Department of Justice announced. The sub-contractor was also ordered to pay $154,597 in restitution to the EPA, jointly and severally with his co-conspirators.
As part of a multi-site settlement, G-I Holdings Inc. has agreed to address asbestos contamination caused by its past operation of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine and mill in the country, the United States and the state of Vermont have announced.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) recently provided comments to Hon. John Conyers Jr. on HR 2381, “Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2009,” a bill amending the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970. This legislation is being co-sponsored by Hon. Lynn C. Woolsey.
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