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In a recent article in Public Health Reports, the U.S. Surgeon General, Vice Admiral (VADM) Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, recognizes the important relationship between employment and health. The article, “The Value of Worker Well-being,” also highlights the efforts of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the NIOSH Office of Total Worker Health®, the NIOSH-funded Total Worker Health (TWH) Centers of Excellence, and NIOSH TWH affiliates.

Flight attendants are applauding the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) bid to restrict the types of animals allowed in cabins, saying emotional support animals have threatened the safety and health of crew members as well as passengers. Amid a surge in passengers claiming that their emotional support animals – of many species – must fly with them in the passenger areas of planes, the DOT has released a notice of proposed rulemaking that seeks to amend the definition of a service animal in air transportation.

Woodburn, Indiana: Sean Redden was crushed to death early Tuesday morning in an industrial press at the BF Goodrich tire plant. The Allen County Coroner's office has ruled his death an accident. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be conducting an investigation into the fatality. The plant's union, United Steelworkers Local 715L, said in a statement that it is eager to assist in the investigation and work with the plant’s management “to prevent another tragedy in the future.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has announced plans to reestablish the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board – a regulation-setting agency that had previously been abolished by his predecessor, former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin. The newly formulated board will consist of 12 members representing industry, agriculture, labor, and safety and health.

Most American workers are not at significant risk of contracting the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV ) – but there are certain categories of employees who may be in danger of exposure, according to OSHA, which has published a webpage about rapidly-evolving outbreak. Chinese health officials have reported thousands of infections with 2019-nCoV in that country, with the virus reportedly spreading from person-to-person in many parts of that country.

An estimated 7% of the U.S. fatalities recorded by MSHA between 1995 and 2011 occurred in a confined space. To reduce that number, conveyor operators are wise to understand exactly how a confined space is defined, and to consider what they can do to prevent serious injuries.

When it comes to hand protection, what kind of training actually gets through? What causes a worker to act safely (or not) in the moment? Which stats are meaningful and which are useless? What infrastructure changes and personal protective equipment (PPE) decisions actually pay off? How do cultural issues play in? How have others reduced hand injuries by 50, even 90 percent?

Pure Safety Group™ (PSG) is launching the Stronghold® Quick-Switch® Tool Tether System for the prevention of dropped objects during work at height. The system is based on the proprietary Quick-Switch design, the only technology that allows workers to switch tools from one connection point to another in a single motion to provide a level of dropped objects safety unmatched in the industry.

Pure Safety Group™ (PSG) announces new availability of its products across three brands into additional global markets at this year’s World of Concrete (WOC) Show. Checkmate®, which has been known throughout Europe as a leader in fall protection product innovation for more than four decades, is now, as part of the PSG family, making many of its products available in the U.S. for the first time.

Heart disease and stroke deaths have declined, according to data reported in the just published American Heart Association’s (AHA) Heart & Stroke Statistics - 2020 Update, but that decrease has slowed significantly in recent years. Further discouraging is that more people are living in poor health, beginning at a younger age, as a direct result of risk factors that contribute to these leading causes of death worldwide.