The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) yesterday announced the publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to improve safety at public highway-rail grade crossings nationwide. The proposed rule would require all states and the District of Columbia to develop and implement a new or updated highway-rail grade crossing action plan no later than one year after the effective date of the final rule.
The president of the Association for Psychological Science recently published a column titled, “The Publication Arms Race.” Dr. Lisa Feldman Barret’s central point is that we professors are rewarded mainly for our publications, and mainly for the quantity of those publications.
The industrial sector is facing growing pressure to meet the rising demand for goods and energy. To meet these demands, implementation of IIoT-enabled tools can be instrumental in helping to increase production by improving plant connectivity, efficiency and scalability.
California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, aka Proposition 65 (Prop 65) was revised August 30, 2018. The revised Prop 65 requires a warning label, example shown below, for any consumer product containing any of the more than 950 chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or birth defects.
In late 2019, a plant electrician with 15 years of mining experience was electrocuted when he contacted an energized connection of a 4,160 VAC electrical circuit. Two more mining fatalities by electrocution have occurred since. The electrocution deaths prompted the MSHA to issue a safety alert.
A bill to address workplace violence in the health care and social service sectors was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last month. The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1309), sponsored by Rep. Courtney, Joe [D-CT-2] passed the House Nov. 21 and would need to be approved by the Senate before taking effect.
“The NETT council was established to provide a common portal to the Department’s decentralized modes to better engage with new technologies which are cross-modal; the Department is seeking input on how to make the NETT council work more effectively to prepare for the transportation system of the future,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.
A controversial rule with worker safety implications gets sidelined, construction company personnel charged with felonies after an occupational fatality and making sure holiday decorating is safe were among the stories featured this week on ISHN.com.
When OSHA inspectors saw employees of Blue Nile Contractors, Inc. exposed to trenching and excavation hazards while installing water lines at a Kansas City, Missouri jobsite, it wasn’t a first for the company. Among the violations arising from that May 2019 inspection were four repeat violations, along with five serious ones – with proposed penalties of $210,037.
Fifteen years ago, the federal government said “no” to piracetam.
This was a proposed new ingredient that a company had hoped to market as a dietary supplement. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the company’s application, citing “concerns about the evidence” that supposedly showed piracetam was safe.