An OSHA investigation into a fire at a New York State manufacturing facility that claimed the life of an employee uncovered a host of safety hazards – for which the company is facing proposed fines of $281,220. New Windsor-based Verla International LTD was cited by the agency for failing to protect its workers from dangerous chemicals, and other hazards.

Startling new research findings contradict conventional wisdom about opioids – and may help guide the design of pain relievers that do not produce addiction or other adverse effects produced by morphine and other opioid medicines.

The fatality rate in the marine industry may be low compared with other sectors, but more can be done to prevent incidents. That was the message conveyed by the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Office of Marine Safety (OMS) during its recent “safety advocacy tour.”

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) team investigating an explosion at the Husky Energy oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin has narrowed its focus to equipment within the refinery’s Fluid Catalytic Cracking, or FCC, unit. The April 26, 2018 blast injured approximately 20 employees and caused an evacuation of residents in the surrounding area.

Think that hearing damage is usually workplace-related? Actually, activities away from work can damage hearing just as much a noisy job. More than half of all adults with hearing damage do not have noisy jobs. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic health condition in the United States. Almost twice as many people report hearing loss as report diabetes or cancer, with about 40 million adults aged 20–69 years suffering from noise-induced hearing loss.

Farmers in California, the nation’s top agricultural state, are applying near-record levels of pesticides despite the rising popularity of organic produce and concerns about the health of farmworkers and rural schoolchildren. The latest figures, released in April by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and covering 2016, show that 209 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients were used in agriculture.

Hazardous material incident response teams responding to a release or spill and law enforcement officers executing search warrants on opioid processing or distribution sites are some of the first responders who risk coming into contact with fentanyl during the course of their work, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

When Spring is in the air, this man’s fancy turns to (where else?) the 2018 Spring Regulatory Agenda to discover what movement OSHA will be planning to move forward (or backward) to protect American workers from injury, illness and death in the workplace.

Tobacco companies were ordered last week to place warning statements about their products’ health effects on their websites and cigarette packages – the latest step in a court order they’ve been fighting for 17 years. Altria, its Philip Morris USA subsidiary and R.J. Reynolds have until Nov. 21, 2018 to publish “corrective statements” on five topics about which they had been found to deliberately deceive the public:

Automation which is currently available can help reduce accidents in general aviation (GA), according to the FAA, which is reminding GA pilots that all aircraft flying in designated controlled airspace must be equipped with it by January 1, 2020. Only aircraft that fly within uncontrolled airspace and aircraft without electrical systems, such as balloons and gliders, are exempt.