Environmental Health and Safety

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Smart sensors. Convergence of technology. Internet-enabled devices. Analytics and informatics. Wired connectivity. Predictive monitoring. These words were not on the tip of industrial hygienists’ tongues even ten years ago.

This last full week of September is National Employ Older Workers Week. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the week “recognizes the vital role of older workers in the workforce … and aims to increase awareness of this labor segment and develop innovative strategies to tap it.”

The Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) final report into the massive release of chemicals into this valley’s primary source of drinking water in 2014 concludes Freedom Industries failed to inspect or repair corroding tanks, and that as hazardous chemicals flowed into the Elk River, the water company and local authorities were unable to effectively communicate the looming risks to hundreds of thousands of affected residents, who were left without clean water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is a leading cause of death in underground mine fires. To identify safe emergency escape routes, investigators at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), where mine worker safety and health is a research priority, study how to predict the spread of smoke and toxic gases throughout the mine’s ventilation network.

Two investigations have been launched into the collapse of an 240-foot-tall wind turbine in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, believed to be the first catastrophic failure of its kind in Canada.

Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. is tightening its fitness-for-duty procedures in response to a year-long U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigation that showed a former licensed operator at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant lied about medications he was supposed to have been taking between February 2013 and July 2014.

A chopper airlifted a man who had been injured while working on a wind turbine on August 22. The 31-year-old worker had been carrying out repairs on the turbine in the north of Lower Saxony, Germany, when a transport basket came loose from its fastenings and hit the man from behind, flinging him with great force several meters through the air.

A wind turbine in Germany burned for hours because fire fighters did not have ladders long enough to tackle the 300-foot high blaze.

Former Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) says one of the best tools to combat climate change is the use of clean, renewable sources of energy. Wind, Solar and advanced biofuels offer the ability to produce power without polluting the atmosphere.

September 18-24, 2016, is National Farm Safety and Health Week (NFSHW). This annual event, begun by the National Safety Council in 1944, promotes safe and healthy practices on farms and ranches around the U.S.