Silicosis is a lung disease caused by exposure to airborne silica. Generally, it causes scarring (pulmonary fibrosis) after 20 or more years of exposure. Since 1988, Michigan has been identifying individuals who develop silicosis with the goal of targeting prevention actions. Michigan’s system is both the longest running and only comprehensive surveillance system for silicosis in the United States.

A new report says without a national investment and commitment to transforming health care delivery in the United States, many people will not benefit from the substantial progress in reducing the burden of cancer already made, let alone the innovations and breakthroughs that are yet to come. The article is the fifth in a series comprising a cancer control blueprint to identify opportunities for improving cancer control in the U.S. The latest chapter, authored by Robin Yabroff, Ph.D., and colleagues describes the state of cancer care delivery in the U.S.; provides an overview of its health care systems; and identifies goals for a high-performing health care system.

Rollover protective structures, or ROPS, saved more than $4 million in prevented deaths and injuries among New York State farm workers from 2007 to 2017, according to a NIOSH-funded study published in the American Journal of Public HealthExternal. ROPS, which became standard tractor equipment in 1985, help prevent injuries from tractor overturns –the leading cause of farm-related deaths.

The motor vehicle towing industry has a higher rate of work-related injury and death compared to other industries, according to NIOSH research presented at the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium in Morgantown, West Virginia. Yet studies historically have focused on the safety of other first responders, including law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical services workers.

A certified OSHA trainer who plead guilty to selling fake OSHA training cards faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. According to the Department of Justice, training agent Mark Dropal sold more than 100 fraudulent training cards for about $200 each to carpenters in New York and New Jersey between Feb. 21 and March 11, 2018.

The shooting on Saturday in Aurora, Illinois involving a gunman who opened fire at a warehouse where he’d worked is the latest incident of its kind, but probably won’t be the last. Five people were killed and five police officers who responded to the scene were injured during the shooting, which reportedly lasted for approximately one hour. The suspect, 45-year-old Gary Martin, was killed in the exchange of gunfire. News reports say Martin returned to the warehouse armed after being fired from his job.

Want to enhance your chances of getting hired as an EHS generalist – also known as an environmental health and safety multidisciplinary professional? In addition to the necessary education, make sure your communication skills – both oral and written – are well developed. That’s one of the conclusions in a white paper just released by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), one that focuses on the hiring requirements and expectations from stakeholders for recent EHS generalist graduates.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has released its final report of the June 27, 2016, investigation of an explosion and fire at the Enterprise Products Pascagoula Gas Plant in Pascagoula, MS. The CSB determined that the probable cause was a phenomenon known as thermal fatigue. The CSB also issued recommendations to two trade associations and local emergency responders.

A 54-year-old worker died after he fell into a vat of sulfuric acid at a South Lyon-based steel manufacturing firm (Michigan) in what is being described as a "serious industrial accident." The man was fully submerged in the 10 percent to 12 percent sulfuric acid solution as his Michigan Seamless Tube co-workers worked desperately to pull him from the industrial container, burning themselves from the at least 160-degree chemical solution, Fire Chief Robert Vogel said.

If you can’t get your crew to a safety training, there’s a bus which will bring the training to you. A bus which is outfitted for certified safety training is an innovative wrinkle to get this most important job done, says Randy Dignard, president of Industrial Safety Trainers.