Restaurants, movie theatres and big box stores that serve food like Costco and Target will get an extra year to add calorie information to their menus. In announcing the extension – to December, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the extra time is necessary “for the agency to provide further clarifying guidance to help facilitate efficient compliance across all covered businesses and for covered establishments to come into compliance with the final rule.”
Eight people have died in construction-related accidents in 2015 thus far, according to the city’s Buildings Department, as many as in all of 2014; the year before, three died. Not since 2008, during the height of the last building boom, has the number of construction accidents been so high, when a rash of episodes, including two falling cranes, claimed 19 lives, according to an article in The New York Times.
Although hardhats are a fixture in construction work and are intended to keep construction workers safe, they do not always prevent accidents that lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) on construction sites, according to the Brain Injury Society.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the most common construction site injuries suffered by workers include: Burns and scarring – Burns are one of the most common construction site injuries around, mainly because of the likelihood of fires and explosions on build sites. Exposed wiring, dangerous chemicals, leaking pipes, and other items all pose a potential risk for fires, which if not handled properly, could endanger nearby workers.
A 32-mile stretch of interstate where construction began in June, 2014 to repair the interstate and widen it from two lanes to three lanes in each direction (a $261 million project) has gone hand in hand with a significant increase in crashes during the last year, according to local police, according to an article in the Toledo Blade.
A John Deere & Co. pipefitter who was fired after reporting several safety violations to OSHA would be reinstated with back pay, under the terms of a lawsuit filed by the agency. On three separate occasions, the worker filed complaints about the company’s Moline, Illinois facility with OSHA, each time resulting in violations against the company.
Pipeline safety, toxic toys, teaching occupational safety to schoolkids and a tale of workplace violence were among the top stories posted on ISHN.com this week.
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says the nation’s alarming heroin epidemic – which spans nearly all demographic groups and is causing a dramatic rise in overdose deaths, is largely due to two factors.
In November 2014, a worker was overcome at a DuPont chemical manufacturing facility when a supply line unexpectedly released more than 20,000 lbs. of methyl mercaptan, a deadly chemical. Three co-workers came to the worker's aid in an attempted rescue, but all four were asphyxiated fatally by the colorless, flammable, and highly toxic gas.
Two employees in two different incidents each lost a finger last year at a Georgia manufacturing company – injuries that OSHA says could have been avoided. The amputations occurred within a three month period at Elite Storage Solutions LLC. The company was issued 24 safety and health violations with proposed total penalties of $125,165.