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Riggio Valve is a family-owned small business in Bayonne, New Jersey, that performs rebuilding, welding, and machining services. Several years ago, owner and president Vin Riggio set out to improve his company’s workplace safety and health program.

Xcel Energy has been cited for three “serious” safety violations in connection with an electrical explosion at its Becker, Minn., power plant last summer that left three workers significantly injured.

A man who suffered serious burns in a suspected arc flash incident at the Central Norseman gold mine in Australia was reported in a stable condition at a Perth hospital. The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety confirmed it was investigating the incident.

A major government reorganization, a union drops its health and safety program and the AIHA gets a new Board of Directors. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The Trump administration wants to merge the Departments of Labor and Education into one entity that would be called the Department of Education and the Workforce, according to news sources. The proposal was announced at a cabinet meeting yesterday.

With triple digit temperatures heating up parts of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and temperatures in the 80s and 90s in other states, employers need to take measures to protect their outdoor workers from heat illness.

Low back strains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other soft-tissue musculoskeletal injuries are the most frequent causes of missed workdays in the United States, and most result from ergonomic, slip, trip, or fall hazards, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For decades, the science and practice of safety has been based on incident-based approaches based on manual processes. Today, even the most digitally advanced companies are still basing their safety processes on data from events that have already occurred.

A recent study by Harvard University professor Michael Zaroob showed that unionization saves lives. That’s the good news. But it doesn’t happen automatically when you sign the union card. The beneficial effect of unions on worker safety is the result of action by educated union members supported by union staff.