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With the oil and gas industry facing some unique safety and health challenges – such as long hours and worksites in areas at risk for vector-borne diseases -- an industry association is making available two publications to address those challenges.

An employee checking asphalt levels from the top of a tank died after falling 15 feet and hitting his head on a concrete structure supporting the tank. The September 2012 accident at Corvallis, Mont.-based M.R. Asphalt Inc. resulted in 16 safety and health violations, including one willful for failing to provide a guardrail or fall protection on the working surface.

Slips, trips, and falls constitute the majority of general industry accidents, according to federal OSHA. They cause 15% of all accidental deaths, and are second only to motor vehicles as a cause of fatalities. The OSHA standards for walking/working surfaces apply to all permanent places of employment, except where only domestic, mining, or agricultural work is performed.

OSHA has ordered the Union Pacific Railroad Co., headquartered in Omaha, Neb., to immediately reinstate an employee who was terminated in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for reporting a work-related injury. The company will pay more than $350,000 in back wages with interest, compensatory and punitive damages.

Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, is a pioneer in the study of gun violence as a public health issue. In his latest report, he argues that background checks should be required for the 40 percent of firearms sales made by private parties, rather than licensed dealers.

OSHA has cited Highway Technologies Inc. in Minneapolis for 10 safety – including six willful – violations after a worker died from injuries sustained while working with equipment that came into contact with overhead power lines on I-94 near Menomonie, Wis., on Sept. 17, 2012.

A new NIOSH-funded study on fatalities in the construction industry suggests roofers in residential construction are among those most likely to die in falls from roofs. The study, "Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers," finds that "the odds of fatal falls from roofs were higher for roofing and residential construction than any other construction sector."

Police officers and firefighters who are relatively new to the job run the risk of experiencing mental health problems from being exposed to disturbing events, a new study finds. Those with more time on the job show no such increased risk.

Rising health care and insurance costs are keeping manufacturers awake at night, according to a quarterly survey by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and IndustryWeek. Other t op concerns? Political uncertainty and the unfavorable business climate.

A recent decision by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to allow small knives on passenger planes is drawing opposition from flight attendants, airlines and politicians as well as the families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.