Friday, July 31, 2009

CSB Releases New Safety Video, “Combustible Dust: An Insidious Hazard”

From: http://www.csb.gov/newsroom/detail.aspx?nid=269

Washington, DC, July 28, 2009 – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today released a new safety video depicting how accumulations of combustible dust at worksites can provide the fuel for devastating explosions that kill and maim workers, shut down plants, and harm local economies.

Entitled, “Combustible Dust: An Insidious Hazard,” the new video is available online at www.CSB.gov, and on YouTube. It can also be ordered free of charge on a new two-DVD set of all CSB safety videos by filling out the CSB’s online DVD request form.

“Combustible Dust” features all-new CSB computer animations which illustrate three major dust explosion accidents the CSB has investigated: West Pharmaceutical Services in Kinston, North Carolina; CTA Acoustics in Corbin, Kentucky; and Hayes Lemmerz International, in Huntington, Indiana.

For each accident, the animations show how explosive dust accumulated over years on plant equipment, pipes, floors, ducts, dust collectors, and other areas. The video shows how conditions develop needing only an ignition source to set off a primary explosion, which lofts the accumulated dust, leading to deadlier secondary explosions. Read more here.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Obama taps epidemiologist to lead OSHA

From: http://blogs.hcpro.com/osha/2009/07/obama-taps-epidemiologist-to-lead-osha/


President Obama wants David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH to serve as the next head of OSHA, according to the Associated Press.

Michaels is currently the research professor and interim chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Read more here.