During a 2006 biopsy of a worrisome growth on his thyroid gland, while a needle was still lodged in his neck, Arizona veterinarian Brett Cordes was surprised by a question from his endocrinologist. The doctor, Cordes said, “asked me if I handled chemotherapy and hazardous drugs” at work, and he acknowledged that he did.

An employee at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in Austin, Texas, was injured after being ejected from a forklift. OSHA cited the postal service for failing to ensure that forklift operators obeyed traffic regulations. The postal service was also cited for exposing employees to tripping hazards, and failing to label electrical panels and breakers.

OXEA, part of the Oman Oil Company, is a leading chemicals manufacturer with operations around the globe. Its specialist products go towards making high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, printing inks and plastics.

Although U.S. OSHA updated its occupational silica standard in 2016 for the first time in 45 years, relatively few countries have followed suit. Aside from a handful of European countries, some Canadian Provinces and Mexico, most other countries do not have as stringent of a standard as the current U.S. Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.05 mg/m^3.

Vahid Ebadat today announced the launch of Stonehouse Process Safety (Stonehouse) to provide expert process safety consulting, testing, training and litigation support services in the specialist areas of dust flash fires & explosions, NFPA 652, gas & vapor flammability, electrostatic hazards and thermal decomposition.

As those of you who read my posts on the Lac Megantic disaster where 47 people were incinerated by a “bomb train” that derailed in the middle of town, brakes on trains are complicated and often fallible safety devices. This is how they work: A brake pipe runs the length of the train which supplies air to reservoirs mounted on each of the cars.

More than 95,000 signatures will be on a petition delivered to Congress tomorrow, urging the EPA to “Ban Asbestos in the U.S. Now, Without Loopholes or Exemptions.” That delivery is timed for Mesothelioma Awareness Day, an effort to bring attention to mesothelioma, a lung disease caused by exposure to asbestos and the inhalation of asbestos particles.

Back when Nixon was in office, asbestos was one of the first carcinogens regulated under the Clean Air Act of 1973. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush largely banned use of asbestos in the United States.

A mistrial was declared today after a California state court jury deadlocked on whether Johnson & Johnson was responsible for the asbestos-related cancer of a woman who blamed her illness on longtime use of contaminated baby powder. Soon after starting a sixth day of deliberations, jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court told Judge Margaret L. Oldendorf that they were at an impasse, with eight of 12 favoring an award of damages to the plaintiff, Carolyn Weirick.

A new bill would give feds the legal authority to shoot down drones that are deemed “credible threats” to national security. The problem – say critics – is that the bill doesn't define credible threats or specify target areas. It may also allow the federal government to sidestep laws requiring authorities to get courts for permission to conduct surveillance.