Tag: NIOSH

1-Bromopropane Coming at You from All Sides

It’s time for environment, health, and safety managers to start tracking another chemical. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has added 1-bromopropane (1-BP) to the list of chemicals required to be reported in toxic release inventory (TRI) reports. In addition, the Agency recently released a draft risk assessment for 1-BP. On top of that, the […]

Clear the Smoke about Women, Cigarettes, and the Workplace

Employers have long been concerned about how smoking affects the workplace in terms of overall health and healthcare costs, the synergistic effects of smoking and workplace exposures, and fire safety. Recently, those concerns have been expanded to include vaping—which, as it turns out, is not really any safer for workers than cigarette smoking. And, just […]

O&G Employers Encouraged to ‘Step Up for Safety’ to Prevent Struck-By and Fire Deaths

In an effort reminiscent of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) very successful “Safety Stand-Down” program to prevent falls in construction, the agency has launched a program to protect workers in the oil and gas (O&G) industry. It’s called “Step Up for Safety,” and OSHA and its partners are encouraging employers to conduct “Step […]

O&G Employers Encouraged to ‘Step Up for Safety’ to Prevent Transportation Deaths

In February, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) partnered with the National Service, Transmission, Exploration, and Production Safety (STEPS) Network and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to promote “Step Up for Safety” in the upstream oil and gas (O&G) industry. Employers are encouraged to take time out to conduct site […]

Lattes and Lungs

Who knew that when you are ordering your morning latte, you are possibly putting your barista and others at risk? Well, that’s a conclusion that can be drawn from a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report that claims workers at coffee processing facilities risk lung disease due to exposure to airborne […]

NIOSH Examines Debilitating Hearing Conditions

Hearing loss can have a debilitating impact on a worker’s life. Get the latest here on a new study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of conditions that affect workers exposed to occupational noise.

OSHA Respirator Fit Testing Bolstered

Industry can expect little relief from OSHA’s respirator fit testing requirements in light of a new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study that bolsters the Agency’s requirements and adds a recommendation that fit testing be performed for employees who lose a specific amount of weight. According to NIOSH, over 3 million workers […]

There’s an App for That! Estimating Respirator Cartridge Service Life

Whenever you put workers in an air-purifying respirator, it’s vital to know when they need to change their cartridges. Until passive visual end-of-service-life indicators become standard—something that has been a long time coming—employers must calculate, based on employee exposures and workplace factors, just how long a cartridge remains useful. There are a number of computer-based […]

Are Your Workers Vaping?

Have you included e-cigarettes in your smoking policy? The federal government is discouraging vaping at work for a number of safety reasons. These reasons include a recent federal study that found a number of hazardous chemicals in the flavorings in e-cigarettes. The results of a BLR® human resources poll show that one-half of respondents (50%) […]