Reports from NSC Congress & Expo, a NIOSH research update and a push to reduce heart failure in the U.S. were among the top occupational safety and health stories posted on ISHN.com this week.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has awarded nearly $2 million to 11 universities to research new ideas and technologies that will improve the safety of the nation’s energy transportation pipelines.

OSHA says one of the region's largest commercial laundry companies continues to expose its employees to the same workplace hazards that contributed to the 2011 death of a 24-year-old worker at a Prestige Industries LLC facility in Bay Shore, New York.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing enhancements to the oversight of hazardous waste shipments to help ensure safe management of imported and exported hazardous wastes.

Worldwide, millions of pregnant women wear face coverings at work, including the widely used N95 respirator with filtering face pieces or masks. The N95 respirator restricts normal airflow, so a woman may have to breathe harder while wearing it.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued two urgent safety recommendations calling for direct federal safety oversight of Washington’s Metrorail system by the Federal Railroad Administration.

An ongoing investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) of the November 15, 2014, toxic chemical leak that killed four workers at the E. I. du Pont de Nemours insecticide plant in La Porte, Texas, has uncovered flawed safety procedures, design problems and inadequate planning.

The former CEO of Massey Energy Co. goes on trial today in U.S. District Court in Charleston, West Virginia in a case that could set a precedent for corporate higher-ups being held accountable for the safety of their workers.

To learn whether exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace increases the risk of birth defects, NIOSH researchers are partnering with the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (CBDRP) on one of the largest birth-defects prevention research efforts in the nation.