News - Articles - Page 109

Some prescription med users are skipping healthy changes

February 5, 2020

Heart-healthy lifestyle modifications are always recommended whether blood pressure or cholesterol medications are prescribed or not. However, a new study found that many patients let these healthy habits slip after starting the prescription medications, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

One roofing contractor cited for fall hazards at three different worksites

February 5, 2020

A Pennsylvania roofing contractor faces $605,371 in penalties after being cited by OSHA for exposing employees to fall hazards at three separate worksites in the Lehigh Valley area. OSHA initiated an inspection of the Webb Contractor Corp. worksites on September 6, 2019, after a compliance officer observed employees performing residential roofing work without fall protection at a worksite in Macungie, Pennsylvania.

NTSB: Fatal S.C. bus crash shows importance of passenger restraints

February 4, 2020

A December 2019 crash involving an SUV and a 14-passenger coach bus in South Carolina resulted in fatalities, but it could have been worse, according to a preliminary report released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The 2015 Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle's airbag control mode indicates that the driver, a 53-year-old woman, was not wearing a seat belt. She was ejected from her vehicle and fatally injured during the crash sequence.

AHA calls for changes that address inequities in U.S. health care system

February 4, 2020

Improvements in the nation’s health care system – particularly changes that address inequities in care and the impact of social determinants of health – are necessary to achieve the goal to equitably increase healthy life expectancy in this country, according to a new advisory published by the American Heart Association, the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke.

Construction co. owner gets prison time after employee’s fatal fall

February 4, 2020

The former owner of a framing company in Florida has been sentenced to 30 days in prison, after pleading guilty to one count of willfully violating federal fall protection standards. Stalin Rene Barahona – former owner of the now-dissolved SB Framing Services Inc. in Naples will begin serving his sentence on Feb. 26, 2020.

CDC expects more coronavirus cases in U.S.

Person-to-person spread is occurring

February 4, 2020

Only four of the five latest confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus infections in the U.S. are people with a travel history to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, according to the CDC’s National Center for Respiratory Diseases. Its director, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, said at a press briefing yesterday that the fifth patient – who is in California - is a close household contact of another patient in California.

Fatal U.S. mining accidents dropped in 2019

Respirable quartz and dust fell to all-time low

February 3, 2020

There were 24 mining fatalities in the U.S. in 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reports. This is the fewest annual fatalities ever recorded, and only the fifth year in MSHA’s 43-year history that mining fatalities were below 30.

Mich. school district surveilled, fired employer who blew the safety whistle

Asbestos, pesticide exposure at core of case

February 3, 2020

A school district in Michigan ran afoul of federal laws protecting whistleblowers when it fired an employee who reported unsafe working conditions. That determination against the Dearborn Heights School District – made last week by OSHA - carries with it a $102,905.78 penalty, for back wages, damages and other compensation.

Researchers: Take-home workplace contaminants are a public health hazard

February 3, 2020

Workplace toxins that are inadvertently tracked by employees into their homes serve “as an intriguing example of how occupational conditions can have broader public health consequences,” according to scientists who’ve studied the problem. In Eliminating Take-Home Exposures: Recognizing the Role of Occupational Health and Safety in Broader Community Health, researchers reframe the problem as one arising from unsanitary worker behavior – the current thinking – to a larger issue that needs to be viewed through an ecosocial lens in order to institute effective prevention.

Steel plate falls from crane, injuring worker

“Aluminum Shapes continues to disregard their legal responsibility to comply with safety and health standards"

January 31, 2020

OSHA has cited Aluminum Shapes LLC for workplace safety and health hazards after a crane operator was injured in August 2019 at the aluminum manufacturer’s Delair, New Jersey, foundry. The company faces $169,524 in penalties for these violations.