Across the globe it’s estimated that 1 in 10 people will become sick due to respiratory hazards encountered in the workplace annually, according to The American Journal of Respiratory Care and Medicine.

Although we talk about a company’s bottom line as the reason to implement engineering controls to reduce or eliminate respiratory hazards in the workplace, that doesn’t mean most organizations put profit above worker safety.

Can hand protection cause a respiratory hazard? That’s the question scientists from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) set out to answer when they conducted a Health Hazard Evaluation at a steel mill in Pennsylvania.

OSHA in December, 2014, cited Republic Metals Inc. in Cleveland for 19 alleged serious health and safety violations, including exposure to lead and copper fumes. The proposed penalties are $42,800, the administration said in a news release Thursday, Dec. 18.

A worker at Watco Investments LLC reported suffering from respiratory inflammation after performing welding work inside a rail car in Omaha. OSHA has cited the company, operating as Watco Companies Inc., for three repeat and three serious safety violations, many involving OSHA's confined space safety regulations.

Workers should use respirators for protection from contaminants in the air only if other hazard control methods are not practical or possible under the circumstances. Respirators should not be the first choice for respiratory protection in workplaces. They should only be used:

An OSHA investigation at Crane Army Ammunitions Activity in Indiana following an explosion and fire that sent five workers to the hospital has resulted in 36 notices of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions at the company.

More than seven months after a train derailment and chemical spill forced more than 700 people from their homes in Paulsboro, N.J., the borough remains ill-prepared to respond to a similar or worse accident, officials told federal investigators, according to various news reports.