Policies, economic systems, and marketing practices that promote the consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food, changing behavioral patterns that couple high total energy intake with insufficient physical activity, and human-built environments that amplify these factors are driving a worldwide rise in excess body weight, according to a new report.

Cal/OSHA has cited a Riverside, California construction company $66,000 for serious workplace safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker when a 17-foot-deep trench he was in collapsed. Cal/OSHA determined that Empire Equipment Services, Inc. did not properly classify the soil and failed to correctly slope the excavation.

Two workers were injured Sunday in Pennsylvania when they were struck by equipment they were using to clean the interior of a 20” underground pipeline. One worker was treated at a local hospital and released. The other was hospitalized with a broken arm.

It’s finally here—the most wonderful time of the year… for shopping. People will visit retail stores to buy a variety of goods: the cleaning supplies they will use to prepare for holiday celebrations, the food and beverages they will serve at holiday gatherings, the holiday gifts they will give loved ones, and much more.

After being trapped inside an abandoned mine in West Virginia for days, three people were found alive and in good condition yesterday. News sources say Kayla Williams, 25, Erica Treadway, 31, and Cody Beverly, 21 – who had entered the Elk Run Coal’s Rock House Powellton mine near Clear Creek illegally – were located on day four of a search coordinated by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.

OSHA has cited Parts Authority LLC - a wholesale auto and truck parts distributor based in Norcross, Georgia - for exposing employees to fire, electrical shock, and struck-by hazards. The company faces $133,406 in penalties.

A chickenpox outbreak at a private school in North Carolina drew extensive national news coverage in November. The thrust of most stories was the public health threat of unvaccinated children and superstitious beliefs about vaccine risks.

The Norman County Sheriff’s Office has released more details of a farm accident last month that fatally injured a 28-year-old mother. Katherine Brommenschenkel Vilmo, of Ada, was feeding cattle Friday, Nov. 16, on her family’s farm in Hendrum along Minnesota Highway 200. It was about 9 a.m. when a large hay bale pinned Vilmo against a cattle feeder, according to a sheriff’s office report.

The comment period is now open for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed objectives for Healthy People (HP) 2030. This includes proposed core objectives for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH).

An urgent search and rescue operation going on in an underground West Virginia mine right now is atypical: the Rock House Powellton mine is inactive and the missing people are not mine employees. A West Virginia mine rescue team is attempting to find and rescue three young people who reportedly entered the sealed mine illegally, leaving an all-terrain vehicle near its entrance.