The summer of 2015 has scorched the western U.S. with thousands of wildfires. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), exposure to excessive wildfire smoke even at a distance can harm eyes, lungs and heart. The CDC advises that to avoid illness caused by wildfire smoke exposure, seven steps should be taken:

The Department of Homeland Security can’t verify threat level reports from thousands of chemical plants across the country, reducing Homeland’s ability to respond to a chemical attack or emergency, according to a new government report.

A county employee who works at the Lucas County (Ohio) Job and Family Services building has been hospitalized for nearly two weeks with pneumonia while some 19 others have called in sick with upper respiratory problems over the past six weeks, county officials told the Toledo Blade.

NIOSH is celebrating N95 Day on Sept. 4, 2015. N95 is a category of respirators commonly used by healthcare personnel tested and certified by NIOSH. The agency is partnering with the Joint Commission to highlight two new educational products, Hospital Respiratory Protection Program Toolkit: Resources for Respirator Program Administrators (National Toolkit), and Implementing Hospital Respiratory Protection Programs: Strategies from the Field.

A spike in mining fatalities, how anthropometric research can enhance occupational safety and a huge financial settlement over a worker fatality were among the top stories posted on ISHN.com this week.

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer earlier this year concluded the active ingredient in Roundup, a popular weed killer, probably causes cancer. Monsanto, which manufactures Roundup, contested the findings.

An Elk Grove Village-based company is facing fines of nearly $45,000 for exposing workers to various respiratory and electrical hazards, according to OSHA.

Safety at work can depend on an effective or comfortable fit between the physical workplace or the tools of work, and the worker. A seatbelt becomes impractical if it can’t be latched securely or comfortably. The safety that firefighters’ gloves provide is compromised if the gloves are too big, hampering dexterity and movement in a hectic and physically risky situation.

A new analysis of data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has found that most American adults have experienced some level of pain, from brief to more lasting pain, and from relatively minor to more severe pain.

A complaint brought OSHA investigators to Transporter Maintenance and Inspection LLC, a subsidiary of L & B Holdings LLC in Port Allen, Louisiana. That inspection resulted in one willful, 27 serious and five other violations for exposing workers to various safety and health hazards, with proposed penalties of $156,800.