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Last year, the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) focus was largely on responding strategically to spikes in particular causes of mining accidents. That’s according to Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health David Zatezalo, who reviews the agency’s 2019 activity in a post on the U.S. Department of Labor blog.

OSHA has cited Goose Lake Construction Inc. after an employee suffered serious injuries when an unprotected trench collapsed, burying him up to his waist at a Glencoe, Illinois, worksite. The agency proposed penalties of $233,377.

A harness intended to keep helicopter passengers safely in place was the cause of the aircraft losing power and ending up in New York City’s East River, in which all five passengers drowned. The pilot sustained minor injuries. That’s the conclusion of the NTSB's investigation into the March 11, 2018 incident involving a doors-off sightseeing helicopter.

During evaluations of construction workplaces, investigators with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) identified issues that could affect indoor environmental quality (IEQ) such as: a lack of dust control; the use of high emission building materials and limited communication with occupants about hazards related to the work being done.

In New Jersey, a company that passed its OSHA safety inspection in 2018 experienced a worker fatality January 18th of this year, according to news sources. Twenty-eight-year-old Felipe Rodriguez-Tzon died while cleaning under a conveyer in a Safeway Fresh Foods freezer warehouse in Vineland. The incident occurred shortly after midnight.

As public health officials work to contain the mysterious, pneumonia-like virus that has gripped Asia, people are taking measures to protect themselves against the expanding outbreak. The yet-unnamed coronavirus, a family of viruses that affect the respiratory tract, has killed 41 people and sickened more than 1,000 at last count, including a man in Washington state and woman in Chicago who both had recently traveled to Wuhan.

The AIHA has published the second edition of Recognition, Evaluation, and Control of Indoor Mold. This second edition of the book provides health information which is aligned with the current epidemiology and medical information on environmental allergens, updated taxonomy of the fungi and mold remediation guidelines, and the most current and comprehensive discussion on the basic practice of identifying mold damage, the evaluation of the samples that are collected, and the process of remediation.

Although machines are indispensable to modern work, machine-related incidents remain a common cause of injuries in plants and other workplaces. The effects of these injuries can be considerable. Often, the effects range from minor scrapes and scratches to permanent disability and even fatalities. Not only do these incidents cause costly and time-consuming damage to machinery, but they can also negatively impact employee morale.

With 2020 barely underway, the poultry industry has already experienced two workplace fatalities, at facilities in two different states. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) says those incidents, along with a government-approved increase in line speeds at poultry slaughterhouses, illustrate the need for safety reforms in the industry. The poultry industry maintains that employees are considerably safer now on the job than in the past, and points to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to back up that claim.

A massive explosion and fire this morning at a Houston, Texas manufacturing facility damaged homes and injured at least one person, according to news sources. The 4:15 a.m. blast at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing sent a fireball into the air and knocked nearby residents out of their beds. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted that debris was scattered a half-mile from the explosion site.