U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Elaine L. Chao last week announced proposed new rules and a pilot project to allow unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, to fly overnight and over people without waivers under certain conditions and to further integrate drones safely into the national airspace system.

The National Safety Council has posted an online version of the Injury Facts reference book for safety statistics. The free resource features a section on workplace safety that includes work-related injury and fatality trends, and how to benchmark an organization's injury and illness incidence rates with national averages.

A new report says that “systemic failures” in the U.S. food safety system have led to a sharp increase in recalls of contaminated foods since 2013. How Safe is Our Food?, from U.S. Public Interest Research Groups’ (PIRG) Education Fund, found that many types of food recalls have increased since the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011.

The increasingly competitive marketplace of products related to occupational safety and health offers up a continuing cornucopia of goods and services, emerging technology and ways to address emerging risks. How do you make your company’s products stand out from the rest of the pack?

A World Health Organization (WHO) report, published late last year, highlighted the latest scientific evidence linking exposure to air pollution to adverse health effects in children. It wrote that although air pollution is widely recognized as a major health threat causing about 7 million premature deaths worldwide each year, the critical aspect that it is affecting children in uniquely damaging ways is often overlooked.

A week after a similar incident killed people in Nigeria, a pipeline explosion in Mexico has claimed 85 lives, and injured 58, with dozens more still missing. According to news sources, the disaster occurred as people filled containers with gasoline from a pipeline that was illegally punctured. Fuel theft is widespread in Mexico, causing pipelines to be shutdown repeatedly for the repair of punctures.

Workers in New York State who’ve been affected by the impact of the opioid crisis are getting some help from the U.S. Department of Labor, in the form of funding for disaster relief jobs and employment services. The Dislocated Worker Grant (DWG) award to the New York State Department of Labor will assist eligible individuals in New York counties impacted by the health and economic effects of widespread opioid use, addiction, and overdose.

Evidence from NIOSH surveillance studies indicates gaps in hospitals’ respiratory protection programmatic operations and healthcare workers’ (HCWs) marginal compliance with respiratory protection recommended practices.

Despite being shut down during the partial federal government shutdown, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) last week approved OSHA’s final Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule. What are the details? The public doesn’t know and will not know until the rule can be published in the Federal Register, which is closed for business during the shutdown.

Kansas drywall contractor cited following fatal forklift incident. Midwest Drywall Company, Inc., faces $77,604 in penalties after a worker was fatally crushed by part of a forklift. OSHA inspectors determined that the company failed to properly secure a suspended and supported load, and ensure that workers were kept clear of it.