Released Jan. 12, 2009, by the U.S. Department of Labor and Associated General Contractors of America, the model gives educators a clearer picture of the skills students needed to succeed in construction careers.
The Workplace Safety Awareness Council begins a series of electrical safety and arc flash training classes on March 2 that includes stops in 33 cities. A Susan Harwood grant from OSHA funded the development and presentation of the series.
In the midst of changes taking place throughout the health care industry, many OHNs are rightly feeling they are in a whole new profession, which helps explain why organizers of this year's annual AAOHN conference have for months now been plugging the event with the tagline "It's a Whole New Symposium."
One of the most important things any safety professional can do upon being terminated is to take a few hours to reflect on the job he or she has done.
In several EU countries, Labor Inspectors lack concrete guidance and must devise their own investigation methods and interpretations. It would be desirable to have a formal method that could be applied by all investigators. Besides, such formal methods should enable underlying causes to be discovered as soon as possible.
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has scheduled a series of meetings and workshops this spring to help small and very small food plants comply with federal rules. The information will cover HACCP, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, product recalls, developing food defense plans, and more.
"Fixing Food Safety," an April 2008 report from Trust for America's Health, said the fragmented federal scheme for safeguarding the nation's food supplies should be centrallized and modernized.
The plan was launched to safeguard domestic and imported food from contamination using three core strategies of prevention, intervention, and response.
Health hazard evaluation report HETA-2006-0332-3058, issued in April 2008, evaluates Republic Conduit workers' exposures to noise, metalworking fluids, welding fumes, and acids during metal conduit manufacturing. NIOSH investigators who visited the site in November 2006 and March 2007 concluded most workers were overexposed to noise, but the 168 workers weren't overexposed to acid mists, elements, or hexavalent chromium. The confined space and respiratory programs were incomplete, they found.
Publishing the proposed rule on Nov. 28, 2007, wasn't the end of the story. Contractors and their trade associations opposed it, testified against it at OSHA hearings, and filed additional documents as recently as October 2008.
The International Food Information Council Foundation added food safety questions to its 2008 Food & Health Survey and found consumers confident they safely prepare foods but not taking some simple steps, such as using a food thermometer to check meat temperatures.
Do everything you can -- and there's a lot that you can do -- to get through this difficult time. You and your employer(s) will be stronger for it.
When a confined space disaster strikes, an urban search and rescue team responds. Vital to its success is its medical personnel's approach.
The edcuational program for ASSE's conference and exposition, Safety 2009, includes three sessions devoted to safe confined space entries and two sessions about construction safety issues.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says Americans' intake of perchlorate, primarily from food and drinking water, does not appear to be a significant health risk, but EPA's inspector general on Dec. 30, 2008, questioned the research approach that produced the EPA perchlorate reference dose for drinking water in 2005. Nine days later, EPA announced an interim health advisory of 15 parts per billion.
Will the safety and health community respond to a sincere invitation to ensure these important tools are maintained? FOHS President Dean Lillquist, Ph.D., CIH, and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) board Chair Larry Gibbs, MEd, MPH, CIH, discussed the new fund Dec. 11, 2008, a week after FOHS announced it. This Q&A is the result.
According to a survey conducted by Audits International, when people prepared meals in their own kitchens, they failed to follow food safety and sanitation practices more than 99 percent of the time.
Eight years after she took the job, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao leaves the safety and health community wanting more from her successor.
Planners need to address the impact of these projects, which can expose workers and patients to airborne dust, bacteria, and mold spores.