Today's Safety News

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A fall from a third-story balcony killed 44-year-old Jorge Carrion Torres as he worked on the exterior of an apartment complex on May 14, 2015. Torres, who had been on the job for one month, was applying stucco underlayment to the balcony walls when the incident occurred.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the driver of a truck-tractor that struck a medium-size bus, killing four members of the North Central Texas College softball team, lost control of his vehicle due to incapacitation stemming from his likely use of a synthetic cannabinoid.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) received awards for two safety videos at the annual Television, Internet, and Video Association of DC (TIVA DC) dinner on Saturday, November 14. Award recipients included Shock to the System, a safety video detailing key lessons for preventing hydraulic shock in ammonia refrigeration systems based on the CSB’s Millard Refrigerated Services investigation, and the computer-generated animation of a massive explosion and fire at the Caribbean Petroleum terminal facility.

Lorillard Tobacco donated nearly four times as much to Republican candidates as to Democrats in the 2014 congressional elections. No surprise there — most businesses count on Republicans to hold the line on regulations and taxes.

Business Pulse: Workplace Safety and Health, launched today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, focuses on innovative employer strategies using science-based solutions from CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to address emerging worker safety and health issues and well-recognized workplace hazards and exposures.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) and the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene (SAIOH) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to lay the foundation for a cooperative partnership between the two organizations. SAIOH, the professional registration body for occupational hygiene in South Africa, strives to ensure healthy working environments in Africa through excellence in occupational hygiene.

Earlier this month, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Central Plains Cement Company and Missouri Department of Labor’s Mine Cave Safety Program joined forces to stage a mine rescue exercise at Eagle Materials Inc.’s underground mine in Sugar Creek, Mo.

A May, 2015 workplace accident brought OSHA enforcement officers to Clarion Sintered Metals, Inc. in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, where they found dozens of violations – including the one that led to the worker’s injury.

Statement by ASSE President Michael Belcher: “ASSE appreciates OSHA’s commitment to encouraging better employer management of workplace safety and health risks in the draft update of its Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines. Likewise, ASSE appreciates OSHA’s effort to engage stakeholders in the development of final guidelines and looks forward to sharing the views of its members who are the leaders in addressing workplace risks through safety and health management plans.

Antibiotic resistance – the rise of deadly germs no longer stopped by the drugs that once controlled them – “threatens to take us back to the days when minor infections commonly killed,” according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), which has made combating antibiotic resistance a top priority.