Do your employees have quick access to properly working emergency eyewashes and showers? To ensure equipment is available when needed, employers should make accessibility a top priority, according to Shannon Harper, ESEW product manager for Houston-based Encon Safety Products.

What are the differences between a permissible exposure limit and a threshold limit value?

TWA/STEL/PEL/WEEL/IDLH … What does this all mean?

Arlington, VA – The Mine Safety and Health Administration has extended the comment period for a proposed rule that would require underground coal mine operators to equip coal-hauling machines and scoops with proximity detection systems.

Washington – The Mine Safety and Health Administration needs to provide better oversight of coal mine operators’ emergency response plans, according to a recent audit conducted by the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

Arlington, VA – The Mine Safety and Health Administration has launched its annual campaign intended to promote roof and rib fall hazard awareness among coal miners and mine operators, while also focusing on continuous mining machine operator safety.

Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued a safety alert in response to five fatal incidents that occurred when miners situated between a longwall face conveyor and coal face were struck by falling sections of the face or roof.

Washington — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is among five Senate Democrats who have expressed opposition to any rollback to the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s respirable coal dust rule, in a letter sent Dec. 22 to Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta.

Washington — The Mine Safety and Health Administration has no immediate plans to change its regulation on respirable dust in coal mines, MSHA administrator David Zatezalo said Feb. 6 during a hearing before the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

Washington — Coal miners soon will have access to a series of free, confidential health screenings through the NIOSH Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program.

Washington — A “fundamental shift” is needed in the mining industry’s approach to coal dust exposure to help mitigate a surge in black lung disease among underground coal miners, according a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration is seeking input on a study of its respirable coal mine dust rule, as outlined in the 2014 regulation, according to a Request for Information published in the July 9 Federal Register.

Arlington, VA — Top-ranking Democrats in the House Education and the Workforce Committee and the Workforce Protections Subcommittee are questioning the legality of a Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission decision to remove a Sophia, WV, mine from Mine Safety and Health Administration Pattern of Violations status.

Washington — The Mine Safety and Health Administration is extending to July 2022 the deadline for comment on a Request for Information concerning a retrospective study of the agency’s respirable coal mine dust rule.

Washington — Surface coal miners, especially those who work in drilling, may be exposed to higher concentrations of respirable dust or quartz. This puts them at elevated risk of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis – a deadly but preventable disease known as black lung, results of a recent NIOSH study show.

State College, PA — Using a 3D device on a microchip that mimics the behavior of human lungs, researchers from Penn State University will use a $400,000 grant from NIOSH to study the effects of nano-scale coal dust on the lungs of underground miners, the university has announced.

Blacksburg, VA — Researchers at Virginia Tech have launched a project aimed at boosting the effectiveness of dust scrubbers in underground mining to enhance dust control and improve miner safety.

Arlington, VA — Prompted by a recent incident in which a bulldozer operator working on a surge pile of coal was engulfed and trapped in the machine’s cab when the pile collapsed, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued a safety alert.

Washington — The Mine Safety and Health Administration has determined that the annual training requirements outlined in its Refuge Alternatives for Underground Coal Mines rule supply “an experience sufficient to enable miners to apply their knowledge, other training and available written instruction to effectively use the refuge alternative in an emergency.”

Arlington, VA — Criteria for the certification of coal mine rescue teams will “remain in effect, without changes,” the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced Sept. 1, after completing a requisite review under the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006.

Washington — Health care workers will be the focus of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard on COVID-19, which will be issued June 10, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told the House Education and Labor Committee during a June 9 hearing.

Washington — Proposed legislation that would ease access to health care and other benefits for coal miners who have black lung disease is advancing in the House.

Washington — A new law permanently restores a recently expired excise tax rate increase on coal production, which will help fund health care and other benefits for coal miners who have black lung disease.

Arlington, VA — In response to a number of fatalities and serious injuries involving miners working near highwalls in recent years, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued a safety alert on the associated hazards.

Arlington, VA — The “collective effort” of mine industry workers and stakeholders in 2022 contributed to a 21.6% decrease in worker deaths over the previous year, Mine Safety and Health Administration head Chris Williamson said during a recent conference call.

Washington — A new software training module from NIOSH is intended to assist mine operators, miners and industry stakeholders with emergency decision-making during coal mine rescues.

As we look ahead to the coming year, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the learning moments of 2017 ― the areas where the security industry learned, grew and shifted thinking to better provide products and solutions for buildings of all types, across all industries.

Customers never have to come home to a dark house when the lighting is turned on by this wireless controller.Widely perceived as a residential crime deterrent, lighting is a natural

The Israel Nature & Parks Authority (INPA) is using PowerG™ technology from Visonic Ltd., Tel-Aviv, Israel, a developer and manufacturer of wireless home security and safety systems and components, to enable research that will help protect the griffon vulture population in Israel.

360 State Street, New Haven, Conn. — the state’s greenest and largest residential development — is the first new major residential construction in New Haven in more than 15 years. 

The Siemens Building Technologies Division’s Beltsville, Md. branch office was recently awarded LEED® for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EB: OM) certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art’s academic facility at 41 Cooper Square in New York, attained LEED Platinum certification. ASSA ABLOY supplied door and hardware products.

Energy-saving light control manufacturer Lutron Electronics announced that its Washington, D.C. Commercial Experience Center was awarded LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is the USGBC’s leading rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy-efficient and high-performing buildings.

Approximately 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, the National Audubon Society’s Starr Ranch Sanctuary rolls across 4,000 acres. SoCal’s sprawling development is not far from the sanctuary borders, reminding everyone of the critical need to balance development with open spaces.

Honeywell, Melville, N.Y.,announced that the Pro-Watch Integration Kit has been successfully deployed to protect the largest complex of the federal justice system in Mexico.

Brent Street runs through a diverse, tree-lined neighborhood in Dorchester, Mass. At 81 Brent Street stands a three-story, traditional New England home. However, its basic design is the only traditional thing about the home, which is adorned with 30 solar panels on its roof, native and drought-tolerant plants and trees in its yard, and a home automation system fit for the Jetson’s.

Panasonic in partnership with the Seattle Mariners announced the installation of a solar panel system comprised of 168 Panasonic HIT® Double solar panels at Safeco Field, the Seattle Mariners' home ballpark.

The University of Minnesota’s UMore Park wind energy research site in Rosemount, Minn. is not a typical security installation. In fact, security is only secondary to the needs of this project. Yet, Tom Fuxa, director of sales for Plymouth, Minn.-based Paragon Solutions Group Inc., saw an opportunity to apply security technology to this unique project.

The Johnson Controls headquarters campus at Glendale, Wisconsin has the largest concentration of buildings on one campus to ever receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.

The tallest LEED certified green office building in the United States, the Comcast Center in Philadelphia, has more than 2,500 openings equipped with door and hardware products from ASSA ABLOY Group companies.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), a living laboratory for researchers to teach, test and study the long-term impact of sustainable practices and technologies, features advanced building controls, sensing technology and management software from Honeywell.

With a nearly 10,000-foot perimeter to secure at its newly constructed solar farm in the Midwest, an independent power producer turned to SmarterFence and SmarterBeam solutions from SmarterSecurity Inc. Systems integrator MidCo Inc. took on the task of installing the solutions to help secure the owner’s investment and operations from intruders to allow the site to be routinely unmanned.

While most people like the idea of conserving energy and going green, moving from theory to practice in their daily lives requires more than just a philosophy. “Everybody likes being green if it’s not too much work,” explains Gene Jordan, president of Advanced Security Engineering, an Alarm.com dealer located in Pleasanton, Calif.

By upgrading 66 older metal halide lights in its schools’ parking lots and grounds to energy-efficient low-voltage LED illuminators from Raytec, the Western Quebec School Board, Gatineau, Quebec, has achieved energy savings of more than 90 percent.

The Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter partnered with CoastalCOMS to install digital cameras networked with Milestone XProtect® Corporate to monitor wave breaks and sand lines.

When a large aerospace manufacturer acquired gas detectors to protect against hazardous leaks, it decided to leverage its Metis Secure Emergency Notification and Communications System.

After experiencing an increase in crime, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad, home to more than 39,000 grad and undergrad students, was in the market for a professional grade CCTV surveillance system to improve the security of its students and assets.

Innovative Electronic Systems (IES), an electronic systems contractor in Hurt, Va. partnered with Custom Structures, a Central Virginia architectural design and build firm, to build the first LEED-certified home in the central Virginia area.

Many integrators have already discovered that adding home energy management features to residential systems provides opportunities for additional sales and recurring monthly revenue (RMR).