A fatality earlier this month involving a hydraulic breaker represents a sharp uptick in U.S. mining industry deaths caused by machine accidents, according to the Mine Safety and Health Admininstration (MSHA). The 32-year-old general manager/owner and the excavator operator were in the process of positioning the excavator for a motor exchange when the hydraulic breaker attachment fell off the excavator and hit the victim.

Although they compose only six percent of the total U.S. workforce, construction workers accounted for 36 percent of all occupational heat‐related deaths from 1992 to 2016 – and climate change may have something to do with it. That’s one of the key findings from new research from the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR).

“While you don’t have to give up foods derived from animals completely, our study does suggest that eating a larger proportion of plant-based foods and a smaller proportion of animal-based foods may help reduce your risk of having a heart attack, stroke or other type of cardiovascular disease,” said lead researcher, Casey M. Rebholz, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

Picnics. Family gatherings. Barbecues. Plenty of adult beverages and now, legal marijuana. During the long Labor Day weekend, many Americans will enjoy themselves in many different ways – some of which will hamper their ability to drive safely. That’s where tens of thousands of law enforcement officers across the U.S. (who won’t get days off over the holiday) come in. They’ll be enforcing a crackdown on impaired drivers, spearheaded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Despite a dozen OSHA inspections in the past four years, the Fuyao Glass America Inc. plant in Moraine, Ohio is still exposing employees to a variety of safety and health hazards. That’s according to the most recent OSHA action, which found that in addition to electrical safety violations, the company has failed to:

Two years after a devastating collision in Singapore that claimed the lives of ten U.S. Navy sailors and injured 48 more, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that a lack of training was a key factor in the August 21, 2017 tragedy. Inadequate bridge operating procedures and a lack of operational oversight also contributed to the incident involving the USS John S. McCain, a destroyer, and the Liberian-flagged Alnic MC, a chemical tanker.

In a study that spanned two and a half decades and looked at data from more than 4,700 participants, Johns Hopkins researchers have added to evidence that abnormal blood pressure in midlife persisting into late life increases the likelihood of developing dementia. Although not designed to show cause and effect, the study suggests that maintaining a healthy blood pressure throughout life may be one way to help decrease one’s risk of losing brain function.

Prepping for back-to-school means buying new supplies, clothes, and backpacks, but it's also time to make sure your children are protected from cancer. This fall, the American Cancer Society (ACS) is reminding parents that making sure girls and boys ages 11-12 receive the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine should be part of the back-to-school routine.

In the study, “Suicide and drug‐related mortality following occupational injury,” published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, researchers found that workplace injury significantly raises a person’s risk of suicide or overdose death. Earlier studies have shown that injured workers have elevated rates opioid use and depression.

Compared to small and "micro" businesses, larger companies have made more progress toward introducing the Total Worker Health (TWH) approach to worker health and safety, reports the August Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Our results indicate a need for intervention research that specifically targets microbusinesses and small businesses, especially in light of the outsized health and safety risks encountered in these sectors of the economy," write Liliana Tenney, MPH, and colleagues of Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Aurora.