By Patrick Corcoran on September 8, 2010
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that car booster seats are being designed better to protect children.
The Associated Press reports that the institute, in rankings released Wednesday on its website, gave top grades to 21, or 29 percent, of 72 newly evaluated car seat models. Last year only nine models, or 15 percent, ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes
By Elise Craig on September 8, 2010
BP on Wednesday released its long-awaited internal report on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that called the disaster “a shared responsibility” caused by a “sequence of failures involving a number of different parties,” The New York Times reports.
The report cited multiple mistakes by BP and other firms, but did not place blame on its ... Read more »
Posted in Environmental Safety and Health, News & Notes
By Elise Craig on September 8, 2010
Two makers of green tea beverages have been warned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration not to make unauthorized claims about nutrients in their products. The action reflects a continuing clampdown by the agency on misleading food labels, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The agency criticized the Dr Pepper Snapple Group for claiming ... Read more »
Posted in Food and Drug Safety, News & Notes
By Patrick Corcoran on September 8, 2010
Last year the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced an initiative to crack down on employers that cover up workplace hazards by failing to disclose many of their on-the-job injuries. Last week the agency showed that it is moving ahead on the issue. It proposed fines of more than $1.2 million in a case against ... Read more »
Posted in News & Notes, Workplace Safety
By Jessica Roberts on September 8, 2010
Tractor rollovers long have been the leading cause of workplace deaths on U.S. farms. In recent years, though, those fatalities have declined as farmers buy new machines, or reequip their old models, with roll bars, reinforced cabs and seatbelts.
Fatalities from tractor rollovers have dropped from a rate of 5.5 deaths per 100,000 agriculture workers in ... Read more »
Posted in News & Notes, Rollovers
By Patrick Corcoran on September 7, 2010
Politicians, scientists and businesses are in the midst of a mammoth tug-of-war regarding the safety of bisphenol-A, a chemical used in a wide variety of common household products, the The New York Times reports.
Some scientists, including a number on White House advisory panels, link BPA, as bisphenol-A is commonly called, to cancer, liver disease and ... Read more »
Posted in Environmental Safety and Health, News & Notes, Product Hazards and Recalls
A Gulf Science Blackout
By Linda Hooper-Bui">Linda Hooper-Bui on August 26, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon blowout may be capped and the surface oil slick dispersed, but the scientists’ job has just begun: hundreds of us are working in and around ... Read more »
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