News from the Safety Industry

Since the current federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2018, Minnesota OSHA Compliance has received 15 reports of amputations, many of them to workers' hands and fingers. The agency is urging employers to take immediate steps to assess and reassess amputation hazards and risks in their workplaces and take needed corrective actions to eliminate them, as well as redouble their efforts to train employees on how to perform tasks safely.

Hospitals will be required to report serious adverse drug reactions and medical device incidents to Health Canada within 30 days after the incidents are documented within the institutions.

Under the proposed agreement, Vermont would accept responsibility for licensing, rulemaking, inspection, and enforcement activities related to industrial, medical, and academic uses of radioactive material. However, by law, NRC would retain jurisdiction over the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

"Our investigation revealed a long chain of failures which resulted in this fatal event, including deferring much-needed process improvements, improvements that could have prevented the toxic release," said CSB Interim Executive Dr. Kristen Kulinowski.

The $939,852 being paid by the company as part of the settlement will purchase emergency response equipment for authorities in Columbia County, Ore. Dyno Nobel also will file revised estimates of its total ammonia releases and will update its Risk Management Plan.

June 26, 2019 U.S. Department of Labor Reminds Employers of the Dangers of Heat Illness

The Gamma Ray Inspection Technology program seeks novel approaches to achieve high-intensity, tunable, narrow-bandwidth sources of gamma ray radiation. These would be useful for a wide range of national security, industrial, and medical applications.

"Workers have different needs and circumstances, depending on factors such as occupation, working night shifts, or being paid by the hour," said Dr. Rebecca Tsai, epidemiologist and lead author of the study. "We recommend that employers tailor their workplace health promotion programs based on their specific work organization characteristics in order to maximize participation."

DOL published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a process to advance the development of high-quality industry-recognized apprenticeship programs (IRAPs) and is awarding $183.8 million to 23 academic institutions partnering with companies that provide a funding match component. DOL also will make available an additional $100 million for efforts to expand apprenticeships and close the skills gap.

The board's conclusions, recommendations, and statements from individual board members are riveting, starting on page 120 of the report. They cite multiple failures by the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority.