Report from the European Trade Union Institute: An important international meeting on toxic products opened in Geneva on 4 May with, as one of the main items on its agenda, the inclusion of chrysotile in the Rotterdam Convention. In spite of the deleterious effects of this form of asbestos, lobbying by producer and importer states has so far enabled this carcinogenic substance to remain outside the purview of this instrument.
OSHA has updated its free heat illness app with some new features for iPhone users. The app, which was launched in 2011, allows workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite, and, based on the heat index, displays a risk level to outdoor workers.
What is even more frustrating with this delay is the fact that there has been agreement by both the largest domestic player in the beryllium industry and the United Steel Workers Union in agreeing to a proposed exposure limit to beryllium. It remains to be seen if other stakeholders will agree to this compromise exposure limit until the proposal is returned to OSHA and open for public comments.
On International Workers’ Day, the Berkeley, CA-based health publisher Hesperian is celebrating by releasing a one-of-a-kind resource on workers’ health and safety. More than a decade in the making and drawing on the experiences of workers and health educators from every continent, this book aims to provide essential information to workers themselves, those who are the best placed and the most highly motivated to prevent the devastating factory disasters that all too often dominate the news.
Gas sensors measure the concentration of gas in their vicinity, and are used across various end-use industries. There have been numerous developments in gas sensing technology, primarily on account of the advent of embedded electronics, and enhanced manufacturing techniques. Gas sensors prove to be highly effective in measuring gas concentrations in the event of a leak.
The applications of smart devices connected to the Internet seem endless. They include everything from a smart bra that senses temperature and blood flow to detect breast cancer to the University of British Columbia’s “smart concrete” that contains sensors and can send out alarms if a bridge has too much weight on it.
As part of President Obama’s plans to combat climate change, the White House announced a program for the U.S. Department of Energy to train 75,000 people to work in the solar power industry by 2020, many of whom will be part of a military veterans jobs initiative called Solar Ready Vets.
Devices that detect potentially hazardous gases or airborne environmental pollutants are out there. But they’re expensive and bulky. Now M.I.T. researchers say they’ve developed a way to get the same.
In October, researchers from the University of London gave a Pennsylvania couple in Susquehanna County an air monitor to keep on their front porch. Every few weeks, the couple uploads the data from the monitor onto their computer.
Julie Vastine is Director of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring based out of Dickinson College. ALLARM started in 1986 enlisting the help of average citizens to monitor streams for the impacts of acid rain.
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