Hazards

Arlington, VA – The American Transportation Research Institute, the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, has launched a website on commercial motor vehicle operator fatigue management.

Washington – OSHA expects to issue highly anticipated proposed rules for its Silica and Injury and Illness Prevention Program standards within the next few months, according to the Spring Regulatory Agenda, published July 3.

Washington – The Chemical Safety Board has scheduled a meeting to consider whether OSHA's responses to some of the board's recommendations have been "unacceptable," and to launch its Most Wanted Chemical Safety Improvements Program.

London – Workers in the lead industry are experiencing reductions in exposure, and a majority of them have blood-lead levels below regulatory limits, the International Lead Association announced July 9.

Chapel Hill, NC – Industrial livestock workers may be more likely to be exposed to certain types of drug-resistant bacteria than workers at antibiotic-free livestock operations, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Austin, TX – Beginning Sept. 1, assaulting emergency department personnel in Texas will be a felony offense under legislation signed into law June 14 by Gov. Rick Perry (R).

CSB is an independent agency. That makes it, to a degree, answerable to no one. It’s free to investigate an incident without fear (in theory) of an oversight agency such as OSHA telling it what to do or what type of findings to release. This is good, obviously, but it goes both ways – CSB can’t force an agency to change.

With a deadline looming, OSHA is under pressure to resolve crane operator certification issues.

Atlanta – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published biosafety recommendations for laboratories working with highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Washington – Three advocacy groups on June 25 filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that unsafe conditions in poultry plants threaten workers’ basic human rights.