Environmental Health and Safety

RSS

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must consider tightening its corrosive dust limits, after a lawsuit filed on behalf of the World Trade Center first responders who sustained lung damage after toiling in heavily polluted air in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

After receiving more than 1.5 million public comments, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell this month released final standards that she said will support safe and responsible hydraulic fracturing on public and American Indian lands. The standards are aimed at improving safety and protecting groundwater by updating requirements for well-bore integrity, wastewater disposal and public disclosure of chemicals.

While milling asphalt pavement allows for materials to be recycled as roads are surfaced, cold-milling machines can generate airborne crystalline silica dust, putting road crews at risk of respiratory illness, according to Pete Stafford, Executive Director of the Center for Construction Research & Training (CPWR).

Customs agents and workers at two FedEx facilities were exposed to hazardous materials in three separate incidents last year because the companies shipping the toxins failed to label and package them properly.

The conference on women’s health and work, organised by the Eurropean Trade Union Institute (ETUI) from March 4 to 6 in Brussels showed that a situation of equal rights for men and women in the workplace is very far from having been achieved.

The American Psychological Association will recognize six employers for their efforts to promote employee well-being and organizational performance at its 10th annual Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 14, 2015.

OSHA is suing the owner of a Bronx, NY hair salon for firing a worker who warned her fellow employees about the dangers of formaldehyde – an ingredient in many professional hair styling products.