Environmental Health and Safety

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Creating and implementing a respiratory protection program can be a complex and challenging task, from exposure assessments to respirator selection to fit testing, a written respiratory protection program has multiple requirements that companies must meet.

Butte County, California has become the fourth county in that state to ban the controversial method of harvesting natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

A training program will help approximately 35,000 first responders and workers whose jobs may expose them to infectious diseases protect themselves while also minimizing the spread of disease to others. The three-year, $9 million program is being launched by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies.

Employees of a Louisiana firing range were exposed to lead from spent ammunition rounds – a health and safety hazard which helped earn the company citations for 16 serious violations from OSHA.

We’ve heard plenty about the factories, automobiles and other things that produce greenhouse gas and contribute to climate change, but how about a new kind of plastic that is made from greenhouse gas?

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for issuing a proposed rule (PDF) that would bring its Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program in line with current evidence on the dangers of beryllium. According to advocacy group Public Citizen, the DOE’s proposal stands in sharp contrast with the actions of OSHA, which has yet to lower its workplace beryllium limit from an outdated level set in 1971, Public Citizen said.

The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI®) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary working toward sustainable jet fuels. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) helped found the coalition a decade ago to promote the development and deployment of alternative jet fuels that sustainably reduce lifecycle carbon emissions and local pollution around airports. These innovative new fuels also improve energy security, minimize fuel price volatility, and enhance rural development.

Work-related respiratory diseases include both those that are uniquely caused by work, such as coal workers pneumoconiosis, and those that are caused by both work and non-work factors. Asthma is an example of this second type of condition.

Federal workplace safety and health inspectors have cited a Steuben County rail manufacturing and repair service facility for 17 serious violations, including exposing employees to unsafe levels of known cancer-causing chemicals such as cadmium, lead, nickel and silica.

Both short- and long-term exposure to some air pollutants commonly associated with coal burning, vehicle exhaust, airborne dust and dirt are associated with the development of high blood pressure, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Hypertension.