EPA Action Plan to Reduce Radon Risk

EPA and several partners including American Lung Association have outlined a strategy for preventing lung cancer deaths due to radon exposure. Exposure to radioactive radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. EPA aims to reduce high radon levels in 5 million homes, schools and childcare centers to prevent 3,200 lung cancer deaths annually by 2020.

The National Radon Action Plan sets out strategies including requiring radon testing and reduction systems as standard practice in housing finance and insurance programs, and institutionalizing radon risk reduction through building code requirements. According to EPA, the strategy builds on the successes and broadens the scope of early federal action that generated baseline progress by including the health, scientific and technical expertise of the partners.

Onset Publishes White Paper on Managing Carbon Dioxide Risk

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Onset has published a white paper, “Managing Carbon Dioxide Risk: What You Should Know.” The datalogger company developed the white paper with Greg Lowitz, CEO of Buildera, a structural forensics firm.

Poor indoor air quality and elevated CO₂ levels, the white paper says, have been correlated to occupant discomfort and loss of productivity. The guide explains the risks associated with elevated CO₂ levels and discusses how datalogging can indicate degraded indoor air quality. The guide offers practical information and tips to help facility managers and building engineers make informed decisions about CO₂ datalogger selection, calibration and deployment.

Click here to download the white paper.

New NIOSH Vehicle Safety Newsletter

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NIOSH’s Center for Motor Vehicle Safety (CMVS) will soon release the first issue of its newsletter, Behind the Wheel at Work.

“At the NIOSH CMVS, we’re committed to research and outreach to prevent work-related motor vehicle crashes—the leading cause of workplace fatalities,” says Stephanie Pratt, Ph.D., director of the CMVS.

Behind the Wheel at Work will feature quarterly updates on research in progress, links to motor vehicle safety resources, practical tips on workplace driving and a closer look at the CMVS. Sign up here.

New CSP Exam Blueprint in 2016

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Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) has published a new blueprint for its CSP exam. It will apply to exams in the second half of 2016. BCSP's validation study of the CSP, which assessed whether the exam's subject material is relevant to current practice, was completed in 2015.

According to BCSP, a great deal of material from the current version (CSP8) was carried over to the new version (CSP9). In addition, CSP9 contains nine domains, up from the three domains contained in CSP8.

The following items are considered as new focuses or clarified elements:

Domain 1

Core research methodology concepts 

Domain 2

Applicable requirements for health plans, programs, and policies

Applicable requirement for safety plans, programs, and policies

Documentation retention or management principles (e.g., incident investigation, training records, exposure records, maintenance records, environmental management options)

Management leadership techniques (e.g., management theories, leadership theories, motivation, discipline, communication styles)

Domain 4

Common workplace hazards (e.g., electrical falls, confined spaces, lockout/tagout, working around water, caught in, struck by, excavation, welding, hot work, cold and heat stress, combustibles, lasers)

Unique workplace hazards (e.g., nanoparticles, combustible dust)

Domain 7

Sustainability principles

Domain 9

Legal issues (e.g.. tort, negligence, civil, criminal, contracts, disability terminology)

Ethics related to conducting audits

BCSP Code of Ethics

BCSP plans to conduct a statistical analysis via a beta test of the new blueprint and will invite certification candidates to participate in that test in early 2016.

Amp Up Machinery Safety With ANSI B11

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Machinery safety is an issue faced by most OSH professionals at some point during their careers. The ANSI B11 standards are one of the most widely recognized and implemented series of voluntary national consensus standards today, and many of the standards are recognized by governmental agencies at the local, state, national and global level.

ASSE recently published a tech brief that is a guide to all of the ANSI B11 standards. It includes titles, versions by year, and their applicable scope statements. Any safety professional working with machinery safety hazards and exposures should find this material valuable.

In addition, ANSI B11.0 was recently revised, and ASSE is working with the B11 Committee to raise awareness, use and implementation of this critical safety standard. ASSE has posted some information about the scope of this standard. Of particular interest are the methodology for achieving safety in the design and the use of machinery, explanation of procedures to identify hazards and estimate/evaluate risks during relevant phases of the machine life cycle, and guidance for hazard elimination and risk reduction.