Congress did right by public health in the FY 2018 budget it passed recently, according to the American Public Health Association (APHA). “By increasing funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other health agencies, Congress has shown its commitment to improving the health of all communities and investing in activities that keep our country healthy and safe,” according to a statement released by the organization.

On November 14, 2017, the day before our Most Wanted List (MWL) progress meeting, we concluded our investigation into the April 2016 Amtrak train derailment in Chester, Pennsylvania. As I offer the closing words of this blog series highlighting the progress made to address issues on our list, the NTSB is presently investigating the December 2017 Amtrak train derailment in DuPont, Washington, and the February 2018 Amtrak train and CSX freight train collision near Cayce, South Carolina.

The co-owner and operator of a Kansas waterpark face murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery and aggravated endangerment of a child charges in the death of ten-year-old Caleb Schwab, who was decapitated on a water slide in 2016. Jeffrey Wayne Henry, co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts in Kansas City, Kansas was arrested yesterday in Texas and held without bond, pending his extradition to Kansas to face charges.

Less than 40 percent of people with severe elevations in cholesterol are being prescribed appropriate drug treatment, according to a nationally representative study reported in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Circulation. Data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used to estimate prevalence rates of self-reported screening, awareness and statin therapy among U.S. adults age 20 and older with severely elevated LDL or “bad cholesterol” levels of 190 mg/dL or higher.

Being cited seven times in the past five years for safety violations apparently has not made an impression on Jose A. Serrato. The independent roofing contractor based in Marietta, Georgia has again been cited by OSHA for exposing his workers to fall hazards – this time at a worksite in Birmingham. Current proposed penalties total $133,604.

Insomnia is costing U.S. companies more than $63 billion a year, according to a new white paper that examines the toll that insufficient sleep takes on safety and productivity at work. Entitled Sick, Unsafe, and Unproductive: Poor Employee Sleep Is Bad for Business, the publication from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)  notes that sleep is a basic biological need, and getting less than seven hours of it a night (for the average person) can have serious detrimental consequences for an individuals’ long-term health, safety, and performance.

A natural gas explosion that killed a 12-year-old girl and injured four others in Dallas earlier this year wasn’t the only one that rocked that neighborhood, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incidents.

They won’t be getting an increase, but federal worker safety agencies will not, at least, see the slashes in funding that some were predicting. The FY 2018 budget passed by Congress recently maintains funding for OSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) at 2017 levels.

Sturdy new fiberglass railing were installed in a New York City subway tunnel last week - the day after one collapsed, sending a worker to his death. Killed in the nine foot fall from a local track to an express track was 23-year-old St. Clair Zaire Stephens Richards, who had six months on the job, according to news reports.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking steps that may exempt premium cigars from tobacco regulation – a move that is angering the American Heart Association. By asking for more information about the high end cigars, the AHA’s CEO Nancy Brown said the FDA is “sending mixed messages on tobacco regulation.”