If you’re in the market for a paint remover and head to your local hardware store, most of the products you’re likely to find will contain methylene chloride. These products carry hazard warnings that say “Danger!” and “Poison” along with cautionary statements about the chemical’s nervous system effects and the possibility that exposure can cause blindness, birth defects, cancer and respiratory harm. But there’s little – if anything – to suggest such products are so hazardous that they were responsible for at least 14 deaths in the United States between 2000 and 2011. These products are banned in the EU. Are there alternatives and why are they still for sale in the U.S.?
APHA Annual Meeting
Local New Jersey officials integrate worker safety into restaurant inspections; collect new insights on occupational risks
Food safety is at the top of the list for local restaurant inspectors in Rockaway Township, New Jersey. Recently, however, inspectors tested out the feasibility of adding a new safety checkpoint to the menu — the safety of restaurant employees. The effort was a success and one that organizers hope will ultimately lead to safer working conditions for food service workers statewide.
Injury Control & Violence
Not an “accident”: Richard Johnson, 31, suffers fatal work-related injury in Phoenix, AZ
This week’s snapshot of just one work-related fatality in the U.S. This one occurred on January 12, 2015 in Phoenix, AZ.
Food Safety & Nutrition
LPNs supervised by an EMT: Poultry company’s answer to an employee health clinic
OSHA found what I’d call medical malpractice going on at a nursing station at a Wayne Farms poultry processing plant. The agency called them on it in a letter to firm’s operations manager.
With agriculture ranked one of the most dangerous industries in the country, many Americans might be surprised to know that it’s still perfectly legal for farms to officially employ children. For years, advocates have been working to address this gaping loophole in the nation’s child labor laws, often citing children’s increased vulnerability to workplace-related injury, illness and exploitation. A new study confirms those concerns, underscoring the need to better protect the children and youth working in American fields.
Staten Island worker death highlights risks facing Latino construction workers; fight continues to ban asbestos; Minnesota minimum wage increase in jeopardy for tipped workers; and researchers look for ways to protect respiratory health among dairy farm workers.
Emergency responders to a 2012 train derailment were exposed to vinyl chloride. Many did not wear respiratory protection, and some suffered acute health effects. An MMWR report describes those findings, but an NTSB report illuminates how and why their safety was compromised.
Injury Control & Violence
Not an “accident”: Timothy Winding, 50, suffers fatal work-related injury in Claycomo, MO
This week’s snapshot of just one work-related fatality in the U.S. This one occurred on December 30, 2014 in Claycomo, MO.
Reporter David McCumber introduces us to three individuals whose lives forever changed because of asbestos exposure. There will be more of them if companies, like the ones just cited by OSHA, continue to violate asbestos regulations.
A new analysis of data from the world’s largest and longest-running study of women’s health finds that rotating night shift work is associated with higher mortality rates. The new findings add to a growing awareness that long-term night shift work comes with serious occupational health risks.