Releases of toxic chemicals into the air fell 56% from 2005-2015 at industrial facilities submitting data to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis, according to the EPA. The recently released report shows an 8% decrease from 2014 to 2015 at facilities reporting to the program contributed to this ten-year decline. Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, toluene and mercury were among chemicals with significantly lower air releases at TRI-covered facilities.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a final rule (PDF) that allows general aviation pilots to fly without holding an FAA medical certificate as long as they meet certain requirements outlined in Congressional legislation. “The United States has the world’s most robust general aviation community, and we’re committed to continuing to make it safer and more efficient to become a private pilot,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.

Happy New Year. As we start afresh in 2017 I wanted to share my recent editorial in the British journal, Occupational Medicine, “Occupational health issues in the USA”. The article highlights some of the occupational safety and health issues identified as needing attention by the industry sector groups of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Jasper Roofing Contractors Inc. and its owner/chief executive officer, Brian Wedding, for terminating their safety manager after he cooperated with a safety and health inspection by OSHA. The suit results from an investigation by OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program.

Despite the fact that they cope with heavy patient loads and hazards like sharps injuries, MSDs and workplace violence, nurses receive no training on stress management and burnout prevention. That, says Elizabeth Scala MSN/MBA, RN, is leading to an “all-time high” in burnout levels in the nursing profession that is exacerbating the nursing shortage and affecting the nation’s health care.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) approves of OSHA’s newest white paper. The oldest professional safety organization says “Sustainability in the Workplace: A New Approach for Advancing Worker Safety and Health,” shows that the agency is recognizing the opportunity the corporate sustainability movement provides to encourage better commitment to worker safety and health.

In its annual ‘State of the Air’ report for 2016, the American Lung Association reports that despite the continued improvement in air quality, there are still over 166 million Americans at risk of averse health effects on account of unhealthy air throughout the country.

Nanotechnology is a broad name given to a wide range of technologies and materials that create, manipulate, or use particles that have one thing in common - their size. Nanotechnology (or nanoscience) involves materials that are extremely small and have dimensions roughly between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm).

Hearing loss among U.S. adults aged 20 to 69 has declined over the last decade, even as the population of older Americans continues to grow. These findings, published today in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery , also confirm that hearing loss is strongly associated with age and other demographic factors such as sex, race/ethnicity, and education.