Environmental Health and Safety

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As temperatures heat up across the country and landscaping work kicks into high gear, several industry associations are partnering with OSHA to help protect their workers from heat-related illnesses and landscaping injuries. The Southeast Safety Stand-Down will take place April 17-18 from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. EDT.

Criminal charges have been dropped against Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), according to Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), for causing the deaths of 47 people when 73 cars of highly combustible crude oil derailed in the small Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic in 2013 turning the downtown into a raging inferno.

The discovery that Black Lung Disease – which once appeared on the verge of being eradicated – has come roaring back among U.S. coal miners, and in a more virulent form than in the past, has ignited the fury of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The union representing miners is accusing coal mine operators of putting production miners’ health and safety and state and federal agencies of failing to enforce the law.

ACGIH® offers two of its most popular reference resources in one product! The just released 2018 TLVs® and BEIs® with 7th Edition Documentation, CD-ROM offers access to: Everything contained in the 2018 TLVs® and BEIs® book – all of the TLVs® for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and all of the BEIs® (including the Notice of Intended Changes and Appendices).

Whether it’s called Workers' Memorial Day, International Workers' Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured or Day of Mourning, April 28 will be dedicated – in all corners of the globe - to remembering workers who’ve killed, disabled, injured or sickened by their work.

Since the 19th century, many therapeutic drugs have been known to affect hearing. Known as ototoxic drugs, many are used today in clinical situations despite these negative side effects because they are effective in treating serious, sometimes life-threatening conditions. Research has shown that exposure to certain chemicals in the workplace may also negatively affect how the ear functions, potentially causing hearing loss or balance problems, regardless of noise exposure.

In our previous two columns on this subject, developing an actionable safety plan is covered in three parts. First Actions was explained in Part One (October 2017 ISHN) and Core Actions detailed in Part Two (January 2018 ISHN). The rest of this column focuses on Sustaining Actions.

YouTube workers are targeted by an angry shooter, Kentucky restricts the black lung disease diagnosis process and researchers find a surprising yet common injury among actors and technicians who work in theatres. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Sensors are an increasing presence in our lives—from wearable gadgets to smart buildings, from autonomous vehicles to smart cities. In occupational health and safety, sensors are used widely for exposure monitoring, emergency response, and safer worker-machine interfaces. The use of sensors as real-time respirable dust monitors is a targeted application with its own specific challenges.

Internal audits are a fact of life for many environment, health and safety professionals -- especially those working for large companies. I recently had a discussion with a long-time Phylmar client about internal safety audits. There is a lot of guidance and advice available on how to prepare for such audits and how to create corrective action plans to respond to audit findings.