If your employees wear small, wearable devices powered by lithium batteries – such as body cameras – they are potentially at risk from burns or other injuries if the devices catch fire or explode. Those outcomes may occur if the batteries are defective or become damaged. There were more than 25,000 overheating or fire incidents involving lithium battery-powered consumer products over a recent five-year-period, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Among the many events organized around this year’s World Hearing Day is a Wikipedia Edit-a-Wikipedia Edit-a-ThonExternal led by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Established by the World Health Organization, World Hearing Day is held on March 3rd every year and is aimed at raising awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world.

Older workers (those ages 55 and older) bring extensive skills, knowledge, and experience built over the course of a lifespan. However, age-related physical and mental changes may affect older workers’ driving. While such changes are normal, they also put older drivers at a greater risk of dying if they are in a motor vehicle crash.

Rude passengers and sleep deprivation from irregular hours aren’t the only work-related hazards that crew members of airplanes have to deal with. They – along with passengers - are exposed to cosmic ionizing radiation on every flight, because of the altitudes at which they fly. Because crew members fly more frequently, they are more at risk from the health effects of the radiation than are passengers. Cosmic ionizing radiation (or cosmic radiation) comes from outer space.

While the extent of responsibility under the law of staffing agencies and host employers is dependent on the specific facts of each case, staffing agencies and host employers are jointly responsible for maintaining a safe work environment for temporary workers - including, for example, ensuring that OSHA's training, hazard communication, and recordkeeping requirements are fulfilled.

Could air pollution be making us fat? A new USC study suggests that exposure to traffic pollution during childhood makes adolescents 34 percent more likely to eat foods high in unhealthy trans fats — regardless of household income, parent education level or proximity to fast-food restaurants. The findings on air pollution and obesity in teens appear in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Moving a ladder while a co-worker remained on the ladder platform led to a fall that – six months later – proved fatal, according to a Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) reportfrom NIOSH. The incident occurred on December 12, 2015, when two men employed by a municipality were dusting crown molding in a meeting room inside city hall. The 68-year-old victim had finished dusting a section of molding and the ladder needed to be moved to continue the task.

The growing demand for wireless and broadcast communications over the past three decades has spurred a dramatic increase in communication tower construction and maintenance – one that exposes workers to specific hazards. In order to erect or maintain communication towers, employees regularly climb towers, using fixed ladders, support structures or step bolts, from 100 feet to heights in excess of 1000 or 2000 feet.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has announced the availability of newly developed information on respiratory health and health care worker safety as well as an upcoming webinar series on ergonomics: The final National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for Respiratory Health is now available. The 10 strategic objectives are organized into three sections.

An uncommon source of carbon monoxide poisoning—industrial gas-burning fryers—caused carbon monoxide poisoning among a large group of workers at an industrial kitchen, according to an investigation published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and potentially deadly gas.