"OSHA is putting a special emphasis on reducing the number of trenching and excavation injuries through increased inspections of construction sites," said Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA's area director in Mobile, Ala., in an agency press release.
OSHA has cited Miranda Roofing in Omaha, Neb., for alleged violations of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act and has proposed $148,400 in penalties against the company, according to an agency press release.
“Lasting economic recovery will come only when the federal government looks beyond the quick fix and invests in building the advanced energy industries that will help restore America’s economic health over the long term,” EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce at a hearing this week on a draft of the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” legislation.
For decades workplace safety and health experts have shaken their heads over the vast resource gap and penalty powers separating the Environmental Protection Agency (staff of approximately 18,000; fiscal year 2010 budget request of approximately $10 billion; noncompliance penalties commonly in the millions of dollars) from the threadbare staffing and funding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (staff of approximately 2,150; fiscal year 2009 budget of $513 million; enforcement penalties rarely in the millions.)
EPA is proposing to significantly reduce mercury emissions from Portland cement kilns, the fourth-largest source of mercury air emissions in the U.S., according to an agency press release. The proposal would set the nation’s first limits on mercury emissions from existing Portland cement kilns and would strengthen the limits for new kilns.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson signed a final rule to reinstate stricter reporting requirements for industrial and federal facilities that release toxic substances that threaten human health and the environment, according to an EPA press release.
The Bayer CropScience chemical facility explosion and fire that fatally injured two plant operators and potentially threatened plant neighbors likely resulted from a series of process safety management deficiencies that led to a runaway chemical reaction, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairman John Bresland told a House committee investigating the matter, according to a CSB press release.
Despite the recession and recent cutbacks in some benefit programs, companies continue to add wellness and health management programs to promote healthier behaviors among their workers, according to a new survey by Watson Wyatt, a global consulting firm, and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), an association of more than 300 mostly large employers.
DuPont and Lucite International Inc. have agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations at a sulfuric acid plant in Belle, W. Va., EPA, the U.S. Justice Department, and the state of West Virginia announced yesterday.
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