Pay attention to local air quality reports. Listen and watch for news or health warnings about smoke. If you are advised to stay indoors, keep indoor air as clean as possible. Keep windows and doors closed unless it is extremely hot outside. Run an air conditioner if you have one, but keep the fresh-air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent outdoor smoke from getting inside.

In today's world, a single fingerprint can be the difference between multiple deaths and a man locked away, safely away from the public. A Florida man has been charged with sending 14 homemade pipe bombs to political figures such as former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others.

Healthcare workers should recognize the value of the occupational health professionals (OHPs) who are responsible for their health and safety. That message is coming from the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) in the form of a Position Statement on The Critical Role of Occupational Health in Healthcare, which seeks to shed light on the vital role OHPs play in the industry.

AccuFIT 9000™ is a new RFT that uses a single mode of operation to perform fit tests on all respirator types including N95.

If you’re in construction, maritime, hydraulic fracturing, or other general industries using silica, the new silica standard and silica dust should matter to you. Chances are, you could be getting exposed to dangerous respirable silica dust that you can’t even see. And, what you can’t see, can hurt you.

What are the big headlines in the respiratory protection world this year? Here are three areas safety and health professionals are watching closely.

“This year we’re getting particular about protection against particulates,” declares the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on its N95 Day 2018 web page, which it is using to promote the proper use of the widely used NIOSH-certified respirators.

At least 17 large fires are burning across California, and dozens more throughout other Western states, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres, sending toxic pollutants into the air and contaminating water supplies. The air quality in certain areas — particularly near California's massive Mendocino Complex Fire in the northern part of the state — is among the worst officials have ever seen.

Animal data has hinted that nanoparticles can hop the barriers from in the lungs to ride in the bloodstream. But researchers didn't know if that applied to humans. For a new study, researchers recruited 14 healthy male volunteers to breathe in gold nanoparticles of varying sizes for two hours in a chamber where they also did moderate exercise on a stationary bike.