Instrumentation
Digging Deeper into Trenching Safety
Some employees end up digging their own graves when they’re working in trenches. This tragedy is avoidable when employers take precautions and employees ask one simple question: “Is it safe?” ...
Industrial Scientific Announces Recall of GasBadge Plus Single-Gas Monitors
Industrial Scientific Corp. has determined that the GasBadge Plus single-gas instrument may not properly indicate a low battery condition resulting in a failure to alarm or instrument shut down. ...
The Bad Character(istics) of Gas
Written as a first-person account from hydrogen sulfide, this tongue-in-cheek article about a day in the life of hydrogen sulfide and his friends methane, oxygen and carbon monoxide offers extremely valuable advice about the dangers of confined space and low-oxygen environments....
Underage Worker Dies from Toxic Gas Exposure at California Recycling Center
One worker died and two other workers at the Community Recycling and Resource Co. near Lamont, Calif., had to be taken to the hospital when they were exposed to toxic fumes on Oct. 12 while working in and around a drainage tunnel. Cal-OSHA is investigating not only the incident, but also the fact that the worker who died was a 16-year-old named Armando Ramirez...
Best Practices for Use of Portable Gas Monitors in Confined Spaces
In the confined work spaces found in chemical plants, paper mills, refineries, underground mines and utility passageways, the air may be contaminated with toxic or combustible gases or suffer from a lack of oxygen. Regulations call for the monitoring of these environments...
Gas Detection Through the Ages
We all know how gas detection works for us today, but how many of you understand how it has evolved over time...
OSHA Fines Binghamton, N.Y., Demolition Contractor $52,500
OSHA cited MJ Scoville Inc., a Binghamton, N.Y., demolition contractor, for nine willful and serious violations of workplace safety and health standards at a building renovation site in Binghamton. The contractor faces a total of $52,500 in proposed fines, chiefly for fall and lead hazards...
Wireless Monitoring for a Safe Indoor Environment
Energy efficiency in new buildings does not have to result in unhealthy indoor air quality...
Gas Detection: Changed Behavior Can Save Lives
What’s really happening in the field when it comes to using gas detectors might surprise you...
Oil and Gas Companies: Safer Production through Gas Detection Technology
Companies that are involved with the discovery, production, processing, refining or transportation of oil and gas products might have unique gas detection needs, but gas detection programs share a similar architecture...
Fashion Kills: Industrial Manslaughter in the Global Supply Chain
No matter how you cut it, a pair of jeans is not worth a worker’s life...
What's All This TLV Stuff About Anyhow?
Although compliance with the threshold limit values set for chemicals and other substances set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists is not mandatory, many employers scramble to do so, fearing that non-compliance might come back to bite them later...
The Importance of Mobile Radiation Detection for Homeland Security
The successful test of a mobile radiation detection system in our nation’s capital led one official to say that major U.S. municipalities should adopt the technology...
Wireless Gas Detection: An Update and Two Case Studies
Wireless gas detection systems are available as stand-alone monitors, rapid deployable systems, self-healing mesh-radio systems and as replacements for traditional fixed or hard-wired systems...
Special Challenges with Gas Detection
What Mark Twain wrote about words can apply to a gas monitoring system. 'The difference between what's right and what's almost right is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.'...
Scientists Develop New Way of Finding Trapped Miners
University of Utah scientists devised a new way to find miners trapped by cave-ins with a method that involves installing iron plates and sledgehammers at regular intervals inside mines, as well as placing sensitive listening devices on the ground overhead....
Mayfly-Mimicking Sensor Could Improve Mine Safety
Mechanical engineers Ken Kiger and Elias Balaras and entomologist Jeffrey Shultz identified a biological mechanism in the young mayflies that could enable...
IH Instrumentation: Catch Problems Before They Happen
A wide variety of gas monitors are on the market today. Just take a look at any safety product catalog and you will see a range of seemingly similar gas...
IH Insights: The Indirect Approach
If you practice occupational health and safety (OHS), you eventually will encounter resistance. An ethical career in OHS guarantees direct assaults on...
ASSE Protests NYC Detector Permit Law
In the letter sent to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ASSE Chapter President Stephanie Altis-Gurnari stated that the legislation could have a negative...
Big Issues Keep Industrial Hygienists Focused on the Big Picture
Its the mantra of every industrial hygienist in every industry: use every means possible to keep employees, contractors and the public safe. Its a big...
AIHA, NYCOSH Protest Air Monitoring Bill
The bill, known as Int. No. 650: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the City of New York, in relation to permits for atmospheric biological,...
International OHS Through the Looking Glass of the Global Economy
The occupational health and safety conditions at the giant open-pit copper mine in Cananea, Mexico displayed how workplace safety in the global economy...
Welding Safety: Ventilation is a Breath of Fresh Air
Tom, a welder for 20 years, has encountered many workplace health issues throughout his career. I know a lot of welders who have suffered from emphysema...
Are You Managing Your IH Program or is it Managing You?
The personal and environmental monitoring equipment on the market today makes the instruments used 10 or 15 years ago seem positively Paleolithic. Back...
