A consultant hired by Broomfield, CO to assess risks at planned Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. well sites within the city identified 36 gaps in safety plans, most of which have since been addressed by city and company best practice guidelines. However, the consultant, Norwegian-based DNV-GL, did find that two of its recommendations are still not covered by the documents intended to ensure the health and safety of residents.

There is a network of thousands of miles of pipes underlying the frenzied oil and gas development in the Permian Basin of Texas. Nationally, more than 450,000 miles of such gathering lines snake underground from wells, and reports of death and injury have emerged from Texas to Pennsylvania.

Plastic is a human health crisis hiding in plain sight, according to a recent report from a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) lead by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). To date, research into the human health impacts of plastic have focused narrowly on specific moments in the plastic lifecycle, often on single products, processes, or exposure pathways.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued five safety recommendations Thursday following completion of its investigation of the Aug. 27, 2016, chlorine release from a ruptured rail tank car near New Martinsville, West Virginia. There were eight injuries reported in connection with the accident in which 178,400 pounds of liquefied compressed chlorine was released in the course of two and a half hours after a DOT-105 rail tank car sustained a 42-inch long crack in its tank shell shortly after being loaded at the Axiall Corporation Natrium plant.

The EPA says it has put together a nationwide plan to address PFAS - an environmental danger that has gained prominence and raised alarm in recent years. The acronym stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of man-made chemicals that have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the United States since the 1940s.

Advances in technology - such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics – that are transforming workplaces should cause governments to act to put the digital transformation onto a sustainable footing, according to a coalition of labor groups. The warnings about the effect of technology on jobs and working conditions comes as the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of work launches a major interim report, Working for a Brighter Future, examining the impact of digitalisation on the labour market.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report, published late last year, highlighted the latest scientific evidence linking exposure to air pollution to adverse health effects in children. It wrote that although air pollution is widely recognized as a major health threat causing about 7 million premature deaths worldwide each year, the critical aspect that it is affecting children in uniquely damaging ways is often overlooked.

Pollution at London Underground tube stations is up to 30 times higher than in busy roads in the capital, research has found, potentially putting the health of staff and thousands of London commuters at risk. The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) said there is “likely” to be some health risks associated with the high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) on the London Underground network.

An environmentally friendly diet proposed by scientists that would radically transform food production and the types of food we eat; how the shutdown is affecting federal workers’ mental health and a look back at one of the strangest and deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Although the fatal and destructive wildfires in California captured headlines last year, there were likely communities throughout the U.S. that remained untouched by wildfires because of the mitigation efforts of individuals and groups. Those efforts – which the public is rarely aware of – were honored recently by a partnership consisting of the National Association of State Foresters (NASF), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and the USDA Forest Service (USFS).