Today's Safety News

RSS

“When I grow up, I want to be an industrial hygienist.” Hearing a ten-year-old girl say those words would probably warrant a double take. While there might be some little girls out there dreaming about one day conducting research and working in a laboratory, studies suggest that more often, it’s a ten-year-old boy who will have the dream and will realize it when he grows up.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has approved a baseline groundwater testing rule that many claim is the best in the country. The five-member commission, which includes Gov. Matt Mead, unanimously passed the final rule today in Casper.

Pancreatic cancer death rates in whites and blacks have gone in opposite directions over the past several decades in the United States, with the direction reversing in each ethnicity during those years. The finding comes from a new study by American Cancer Society researchers, who say the rising and falling rates are largely unexplainable by known risk factors, and who call for urgent action for a better understanding of the disease in order to curb increasing death rates.

An OSHA investigation at Crane Army Ammunitions Activity in Indiana following an explosion and fire that sent five workers to the hospital has resulted in 36 notices of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions at the company.

OSHA’s proposal to require the electronic submission of workplace injury and illness data – and to make that data publicly available online – has predictably inspired a range of opinions.

An Arkansas trucking company has been cited for asphyxiation hazards by OSHA following the death of a temporary employee in April. The worker, who was cleaning the inside of a tanker trailer without proper training, was found unconscious and later died from an oxygen-deficient atmosphere.

Ron Spataro, Director of Marketing, and Steve Foutch, Vice President sales and Operations, both of AVO Training Institute, Dallas, TX (www.avotraining.com) (877-594-3156; 214-330-3522) answer questions from ISHN magazine about electrical safety training.

Why should you be concerned about electrical hazards? Electricity has long been recognized as a serious workplace hazard, exposing employees to electric shock, electrocution, burns, fires, and explosions. In 1999, for example, 278 workers died from electrocutions at work, accounting for almost 5 percent of all on-the-job fatalities that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Recent high-profile incidents of workplace violence have helped confirm its status as a significant hazard, one that can take its place among others that can threaten worker safety, such as vapor releases and fires.

United Ethanol LLC has been cited for 15 health and safety violations by OSHA after a worker was fatally engulfed in corn inside a grain storage bin on April 19 at the company’s Milton, Wisc. ethanol manufacturing facility.