Uncategorized 59 articles

The United States Senate has approved the 15th resolution establishing April 1-7 as National Asbestos Awareness Week. The resolution seeks to “raise public awareness about the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure.” Asbestos is a strong, fire-resistant mineral that was mined from the earth and used in a variety of construction, shipbuilding and friction materials. Its use was greatly reduced in the 1980s. By then, it had been known for decades that asbestos exposure could lead to serious diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma. Asbestos-related diseases can take up to 50 years to develop. Once symptoms ... Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S Department of Justice, and the Jefferson County Board of Health in Alabama have reached a settlement with Drummond Company over allegations that Drummond’s ABC Coke facility north of Birmingham, Alabama, was releasing 10 times the amount cancer-causing benzene into the air than it was reporting. As part of the settlement, Drummond will pay $775,000 in penalties, which will be equally split between the EPA and the Jefferson County Board of Health. The company will also complete a supplemental environmental project so that it can establish semi-annual monitoring for leaks using a thermal imaging ... Read More

In 2015, executives from Insys Therapeutics played a parody video during the company’s national sales meeting. Employees rapped to the tune of A$AP Rocky’s “F**kin’ Problems” and encouraged sales staff to boost sales of its potent fentanyl spray Subsys. Toward the end of the video, the company’s former head of sales appeared dressed as a 1,600-microgram bottle of Subsys – the highest dosage available. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a great idea. The video became evidence this week in a racketeering trial against five former Insys executives, including the Subsys suit-wearing sales manager Alec Burlakoff. Former Insys CEO Michael Babich ... Read More

As Alabama coal company that was belching more than 10 times the amount of benzene it had been reporting to state and federal regulators will pay $775,000 in penalties. Birmingham, Alabama-based Drummond Company, one of Alabama’s largest coal operations, agreed to the settlement eight years after the Jefferson County Board of Health inspectors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that the company’s foundry coke facilities were releasing hazardous levels of benzene into the air. According to the County and the EPA, both of which have gone to great lengths to shield Drummond from the community’s concerns, the company ... Read More

A fire that broke out aboard a Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz shuttle boat in Fort Richey, Florida, last year was the result of a deficient maintenance program and a lack of guidance in responding to high-temperature warning indicators, federal investigators said. On Jan. 14, 2018, the casino shuttle boat, a 72-foot-long vessel named the Island Lady, was transporting 53 people to the Tropical Breeze Casino boat about nine miles out in the Gulf of Mexico in international waters when a fire broke out onboard. With the casino shuttle filling with smoke, the captain managed to turn the vessel around and ... Read More

“Disturbingly” high levels of heavy metals that can be harmful to humans, like lead and nickel, have been found in more than two dozen different kratom products, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned. “While the levels of the specific products we’ve tested so far are not likely to result in immediate acute heavy metal poisoning from a single use, some of these products included levels that, with chronic use, could cause some people to suffer heavy metal poisoning,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., said in a statement. The agency tested 26 different kratom products, and is concerned that there ... Read More

A worker’s accidental finger amputation on the job has prompted federal officials to fine an Ohio pallet manufacturer nearly $200,000 for serious safety violations that contributed to the accident. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Buckeye Diamond Logistics Inc. which operates as BDL Supply, will have to pay fines of $191,794 or contest the proposed fines within 15 business days of receiving notice of the penalties. OSHA said the injured employee suffered a finger amputation while working with an electrical pallet stack machine, but didn’t offer details about how the accident occurred other than to say the ... Read More

More than 132,600 pounds of ground beef products made from the chuck portion of the carcass are being recalled because the meat may be contaminated with Escherichia coli O26 (E. coli), a bacteria that can cause potentially life threatening illness in some humans. At least 17 people have been sickened and one person has died between July 5 and July 25, 2018, after eating the meat. The recall was initiated by Cargill Meat Solutions, a Fort Morgan, Colorado-based establishment. Affected ground beef products were produced and packaged on June 21, 2018, and bear the establishment number “EST. 86R” inside the ... Read More

An Oregon family that survived a July 31 Aeromexico airplane crash is taking the airline and its partner Delta Air Lines to court, alleging they were negligent in decisions pilots made that day. Colleen McCormick, her husband Donald Hudson, and their four children were on Aeromexico Flight 2431 from Durango to Mexico City when a storm moved into the area. Angel Hudson, who was on the Aeromexico flight with her dad, stepmom, and siblings, told Portland, Oregon’s KOIN News that the plane taxied on the runway and stopped. Ms. Hudson said she thought the plane was going to wait out ... Read More

At least seven people are dead and several others injured after a tractor-trailer plowed into a Greyhound bus head-on on I-40 in western New Mexico Thursday morning. The deadly collision occurred in the westbound lanes of I-40 near the town of Thoreau, New Mexico, about 100 miles west of Albuquerque and near the Arizona border. New Mexico authorities investigating the crash said that a tractor-trailer traveling eastbound crossed the median and collided with the bus head-on. They said it appears the driver of the tractor-trailer lost control of the vehicle after a tire blowout. Aerial footage of the crash site ... Read More