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COVID-19 is spreading from person to person in parts of the United States. Risk of infection with COVID-19 is higher for people who are close contacts of someone known to have COVID-19, for example healthcare workers, or household members. Other people at higher risk for infection are those who live in or have recently been in an area with ongoing spread of COVID-19. Learn more about places with ongoing spread at   https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/ transmission.html#geographic. Have there been cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.? Yes. The first case of COVID-19 in the United States was reported on January 21, 2020. The current count of cases of COVID-19 in the United States is available on CDC’s webpage at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html. How does COVID-19 spread? The virus that causes COVID-19 probably emerged from an animal source, but is now spreading from person to person. The virus is thought to spread mainly between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It also may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads. Learn what is known about the spread of newly emerged coronaviruses at https://www.cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html. What are the symptoms of COVID-19? Patients with COVID-19 have had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms of • fever • cough • shortness of breath
What are severe complications from this virus? Some patients have pneumonia in both lungs, multi-organ failure and in some cases death. How can I help protect myself? People can help protect themselves from respiratory illness with everyday preventive actions.  
 • Avoid close contact with people who are sick. • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available. If you are sick, to keep from spreading respiratory illness to others, you should • Stay home when you are sick. • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. What should I do if I recently traveled from an area with ongoing spread of COVID-19? If you have traveled from an affected area, there may be  restrictions on your movements for up to 2 weeks. If you develop symptoms during that period (fever, cough, trouble breathing), seek medical advice. Call the office of your health care provider before you go, and tell them about your travel and your symptoms. They will give you instructions on how to get care without exposing other people to your illness. While sick, avoid contact with people, don’t go out and delay any travel to reduce the possibility of spreading illness to others. Is there a vaccine? There is currently no vaccine to protect against COVID-19. The best way to prevent infection is to take everyday preventive actions, like avoiding close contact with people who are sick and washing your hands often. Is there a treatment? There is no specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. People with COVID-19 can seek medical care to help relieve symptoms. 2019-ncov-factsheet

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MakerBot, a Brooklyn-based manufacturer of 3D printers, has partnered with the NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing field team to conduct measurements to characterize 3D printer emission rates. Several MakerBot 3D printer models and types of filament were evaluated. The thermoplastic filament materials used in the 3D printers at the time of the study included True Orange PLA (polylactic acid), True Yellow ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), and Slate Grey Tough PLA (impact-resistant PLA).

At MakerBot, the NIOSH field team used two different methods to evaluate and compare emissions. The field team evaluated particulate and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from simultaneous operation of up to 20 desktop 3D printers in a conference room. Emissions from individual 3D printers were also evaluated using a portable isolation chamber developed by NIOSH researchers. Methods included:

• collecting filter-based area air samples for detection of fine and ultrafine particulate by electron microscopy and gravimetric methods;
• collecting area air samples for VOCs using charcoal tubes, vacuum cylinders, and direct reading instruments;
• using direct reading data logging particle counters to monitor the number and size classes of airborne particles.

Findings

During 3D printing, respirable particulate concentrations were non-detectable (below 0.03 micrograms per cubic meter, µg/m³) and VOC concentrations were well below applicable occupational exposure limits (OELs). Particulate and VOC concentrations measured in the conference room during 3D printing with 20 printers were much lower than those measured in the test chamber. This was likely due to general dilution as a result of the conference room’s larger ventilated space compared to the enclosed test chamber. However, local exhaust ventilation could reduce or eliminate the concentrations of ultrafine particle emissions that were measured in the conference room.

Another key finding of our study was that True Orange PLA filament produced lower ultrafine particle emissions compared to published results from other emission tests in the scientific literature such as He, et al [2007], Stephens et al. [2013], and Stefaniak et al. [2017]. However, additional research should be conducted to identify other lower emitting filaments as an option to reduce ultrafine emissions in the workplace and to develop a system to categorize 3D printer emission rates.

Occupational exposures and potential exposure-related health effects associated with 3D printing/additive manufacturing are areas that require further evaluation and research. There are currently no OELs for 3D printer emissions and potential toxicological effects of exposure to emissions from 3D printing are not fully understood. While more information is being gathered and assessed related to these issues, we recommend the following actions to reduce potential for uncontrolled emissions from filaments used in the 3D printers.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are based on an approach known as the hierarchy of controls, and would be applicable for all brands of 3D printers and filaments. This approach groups actions by their likely effectiveness in reducing or removing hazards. In most cases, the preferred approach is to eliminate hazardous materials or processes and install engineering controls to reduce exposure or shield employees.

1. Ventilation is an important engineering control to help control/reduce emissions from 3D printers. Examples of ventilation controls could include single unit local exhaust ventilation system, snorkel fume extractors, or for situations where multiple printers are used, operating 3D printers on enclosed ventilated racks that exhaust to the outdoors may be appropriate. These ventilation approaches may reduce energy costs compared to general dilution ventilation. Because the majority of 3D printer emissions are nanoparticles, another option would be to exhaust the air from printers through a room air cleaner equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.
2. More research is needed to identify additional low emitting filaments for use in 3D printers so that filament selections can be made based on low emission rate in addition to other filament properties. Low emitting filaments will reduce energy costs associated with ventilation and filtration controls and may be particularly important for workplaces in leased facilities or other settings where ventilation modifications are not feasible or allowable.
3. Integrate local exhaust duct connections and/or particulate filtration into the design of individual 3D printers to reduce ultrafine particle emissions into the indoor work environment.

Use of 3D printers is likely to continue to increase. As much remains unknown about 3D printer emissions, NIOSH would like to conduct further evaluations and research to assess additional additive manufacturing scenarios, processes, or exposures. Please contact Kevin L. Dunn at kgd8@cdc.gov or use the comment box below if you are interested in collaborating with NIOSH on this work.

Kevin L Dunn, MS, CIH, is the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Field Team leader in the NIOSH Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies.

Duane Hammond, MS, PE, is a Mechanical Engineer in the NIOSH Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch.

Jennifer Tyrawski, PhD, is a Health Communication Specialist in the NIOSH Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies.

Matthew G. Duling, MS, REHS, is an Industrial Hygienist in the NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, Evaluation and Testing Branch.

References

He, C. Morawska, L. and Taplin, L. [2007]. Particle Emission Characteristics of Office Printers. Environmental Science & Technology 2007 41 (17), 6039-6045 .DOI: 10.1021/es063049z

Stephens, B. Azimi, P. El Orch, Z. Ramos, T. Ultrafine particle emissions from desktop 3D printers. Atmospheric E nvironment 2013 (79) 334-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.06.050

Aleksandr B. Stefaniak, Ryan F. LeBouf, Jinghai Yi, Jason Ham, Timothy Nurkewicz, Diane E. Schwegler-Berry, Bean T. Chen, J. Raymond Wells, Matthew G. Duling, Robert B. Lawrence, Stephen B. Martin Jr., Alyson R. Johnson & M. Abbas Virji (2017) Characterization of chemical contaminants generated by a desktop fused deposition modeling 3- dimensional Printer, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 14:7, 540-550, DOI:10.1080/15459624.2017.1302589

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Post by AFL-CIO found here April 26, 2018

“View Report here: https://aflcio.org/dotj 

According to a report released today by the AFL-CIO, 5,190 American workers died on the job in 2016, an increase from 4,836 deaths the previous year. Another estimated 50,000 to 60,000 died from occupational diseases, meaning approximately 150 workers died on the job each day from preventable, hazardous workplace conditions. Overall, the national job fatality rate increased to 3.6 per 100,000 workers from 3.4 in 2015. 

“We deserve to walk out the front door in the morning knowing we’ll return home safe and healthy after a full day’s work,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA). “It’s a travesty that working people continue to lose their lives to corporate greed. The selfish and reckless decisions being made in boardrooms and in Washington are killing the very people who built this country. This is officially a national crisis, and it’s only getting worse.”

 The report, titled “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” marks the 27th year the AFL-CIO has produced its findings on the state of safety and health protections for workers within the United States. The report shows the highest workplace fatality rates are in Wyoming (12.3 per 100,000 workers), Alaska (10.6), Montana (7.9), South Dakota (7.5) and North Dakota (7.0). 

Startlingly, workplace violence is now the second-leading cause of workplace death, accounting for 866 workplace deaths, including 500 homicides. Yet, even as deadly violence increases in the workplace, the Trump administration has sidelined a proposed OSHA workplace violence standard.

Other report highlights show that the construction, transportation and agriculture industries remain among the most dangerous. In 2016, 991 construction workers were killed—the highest total of any sector. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting was the most dangerous industry sector, with a fatality rate of 23.2 per 100,000 workers.

Despite these alarming findings, OSHA continues to face a desperate dearth of resources. Responsible for regulating 9 million workplaces, the agency’s 764 federal inspectors would need 158 years to visit each site just once. Yet, the administration has continued to enact an aggressive deregulatory agenda, gutting safety rules and proposing deep cuts to worker safety and health training.

In one case, the administration is considering rolling back MSHA’s coal dust rule, even as NIOSH is warning of the largest cluster of black lung in coal miners seen in years. More than 400 cases of advanced progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) were reported from just three Appalachian clinics from 2013 to 2017.

Contact: Carolyn Bobb (202) 637-5018″

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States that operate their own Occupational Safety and Health Plans are required to adopt maximum penalty levels that are at least as effective as Federal OSHA’s. For additional information on penalty amounts: penalty amounts

Penalty increases are in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.

If you have concerns about the safety of your work location, please reach out to your local safety committee or contact the IAM CREST Safety and Health department at 301-967-4707

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“Further rounds of testing have discovered lead in two now-decommissioned compressors used to supply Spokane firefighters with breathable air.

The test results come from Veritox, Inc., a company out of Redmond, Washington, that the Spokane Firefighters Union hired to test samples from the two machines. Randy Marler, president of the union, said both compressors showed levels of lead on components near where the bottles are filled, though the chamber where air is injected has not yet been tested.

The two compressors were taken offline in November after an odor and contaminants were found in air bottles filled by the compressors. The Spokane City Council unanimously approved the purchase of two new compressors this week at a cost of $160,000. In the meantime, the department is using loaner bottles from surrounding fire departments.

Deputy Fire Chief Mark John said a higher concentration of contaminants was found in certain points of the compressors, but less near where bottles are filled. Results from the city’s testing were not available Wednesday.

National Fire Protection Association quality standards call for quarterly testing of air samples for levels of oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other substances, but not lead. The metal was discovered as debris in the bottom of the bottles.

With these results, Marler said further testing would be necessary.

“We don’t expect to find lead anywhere near them, the fact is it’s unusual,” Marler said. “It’s unusual to the point where normal air testing standards wouldn’t even have us testing for lead.”

The two new compressors, purchased from Bauer, a California-based firm specializing in air purification systems, are expected to arrive in the next two months.”

This article was originally published by Jonathan Glover on January, 11 2018 at spokesman.com.

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https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2018/01/17/npg2/

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NIOSH has become aware of a counterfeit N95 Respirator on the market.

 While the TC number and private label holder (KOSTO) are valid, this unapproved unit can be identified by the misspelling of NIOSH on the front of the respirator.

 How can you be sure your respirator is truly NIOSH-approved?

Check the respirator approval markings or Certified Equipment List.

Additional information is available on the NIOSH Trusted Source Page or by calling 1-800-35-NIOSH.

 As we become aware of counterfeit respirators or those misrepresenting the NIOSH approval on the market, we will post them here  http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/default.html#Counterfeit Respirators

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In 2016, there were 31,948 federal safety inspections along with 43,105 state safety inspections. These inspections are critical because in 2015, 4,836 workers were killed on the job. This doesn’t count the many thousands who were injured.

Click below and watch Jordan Barab, the former OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary under Obama, weigh in on OSHA and the affects of the Trump administration’s budget and staff cuts.

video link

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“The number of federal workplace safety inspectors has fallen under the Trump administration, according to new data obtained by NBC News, raising questions about the government’s efforts to protect workers and the long-term impact of the White House’s move to slow hiring. 

In the months after President Donald Trump took office, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration lost 40 inspectors through attrition and made no new hires to fill the vacancies as of Oct. 2, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The departing inspectors made up 4 percent of the OSHA’s total federal inspection force, which fell below 1,000 by early October.

OSHA’s reduced staff reflects Trump’s broader effort to slow the growth of the federal bureaucracy and is a part of the mass departure of civil servants across the government, from the Internal Revenue Service to the Environmental Protection Agency.

OSHA is one of the many federal agencies where hiring has stalled in Trump’s first year and mounting vacancies remain unfilled. Some worker advocates and former officials worry that staffing delays are undermining the work of a small but critical institution responsible for protecting the health and safety of American workers.

OSHA inspectors are the ground troops that enforce federal health and safety requirements in the workplace. Inspectors flag potential hazards, investigate employee complaints, and document apparent violations, which can result in citations, fines and other penalties against employers. Since the agency has limited resources, OSHA prioritizes high-risk workplaces like construction sites and manufacturing plants that have elevated rates of fatal accidents, illnesses and serious injuries. (Twenty-one states run their own comprehensive OSHA programs with state inspectors.)

Though the president has repeatedly stressed the need to shrink the federal workforce, OSHA has acknowledged in recent months that it needs more manpower to do the job.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP file

Since early October, the agency has hired “several additional inspectors” and is currently recruiting over two dozen more, according to Labor Department spokesman Eric Holland. (The department declined to specify how many new inspectors it has hired.) The new hires will “ensure that OSHA has the necessary personnel to carry out its important work,” Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said in November.

But, as with many other federal agencies, OSHA has faced headwinds in hiring in Trump’s first year: A government-wide hiring freeze; a push to reduce the workforce through attrition; proposed budget cuts; and deep uncertainty about future funding. That’s bogged down the hiring process in a bureaucracy that’s already notorious for taking its time, making it more challenging to staff up even when administration officials believe that new additions are warranted.

Conservative advocates for smaller government say that it’s wise to consider whether more federal workers are truly necessary.

Rachel Greszler, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that the administration is making a laudable effort to reduce “redundancy, waste and inefficiency” across the federal workforce while remaining adequately staffed.

“This won’t mean slashing jobs immediately, but it will mean transitioning — through retirements, attrition and reassigning current employees — to a smaller federal workforce,” she said.

By that measure, Trump has succeeded: The federal government had 16,000 fewer permanent workers at the end of September than it had at the end of 2016 out of a workforce of nearly 2 million, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. During the same time period, OSHA dropped below 2,000 permanent, full-time employees, with 116 fewer total staff than in December 2016, according to the latest personnel data.

But former agency officials are concerned that staff departures and hiring delays are coming at a cost to ordinary Americans. Under federal law, OSHA has a limited window of time to issue citations for health and safety violations — a time period that Trump and Congressional Republicans helped shorten by killing an Obama-era regulation in April.

Reduced staff has made it even harder for OSHA to do its job properly, said David Michaels, who headed OSHA during the Obama administration.”It meansthere’s greater pressure to quickly reach a settlement with the employer, which often means reduced fines,” he said. “The lack of new inspectors makes OSHA invisible. If employers don’t think OSHA will come, workers are much more likely to be hurt.”

Trump’s hiring freeze

Like most other federal agencies, OSHA was subject to the hiring freeze that Trump imposed shortly after taking office “to stop the growth of a bloated government,” as the White House put it. The president also instructed his administration to formulate “a long-term plan to reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce through attrition.”

Trump has emphasized that he is making a deliberate effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy. “We are not looking to fill all of those positions. Don’t need many of them — reduce size of government,” Trump tweeted in August after being criticized for understaffing his administration.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Andrew Harnik / AP

Though the president technically lifted the freeze in April, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney stressed that “does not mean that the agencies will be free to hire willy nilly.”

“In many if not most agencies, the leadership has maintained an effective freeze,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, which focuses on improving the federal workforce. “It took what was already an overly laborious hiring process and made it even more difficult to bring in talent.”

Enforcing the law with fewer inspectors

OSHA insists that its enforcement efforts have remained vigorous, even with fewer inspectors on the job. According to the Labor Department, the agency conducted 32,396 OSHA inspections from October 2016 to the end of September 2017 — a few hundred more than in 2016, marking the first annual increase in five years.

But critics warn that the staff departures have crippled small, regional OSHA offices that were already short-handed. The southeast region — Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi — lost the most on-the-ground inspectors in the first eight months of the Trump administration, with 10 departures, according to data that the Labor Department sent in a letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., first obtained by NBC News.

“OSHA is far too understaffed to fulfill its mandate of reducing workplace injuries,” DeLauro said. “Under the Trump administration, OSHA has suffered a troubling decline in both staff and workplace inspections in key areas of the country.”

In Mississippi, which has one of the country’s highest worker fatality and injury rates, the number of federal OSHA inspections fell by 26 percent from Trump’s inauguration in January to the end of September, according to public data. Other federal offices in the region saw smaller declines in OSHA inspections during the same time period, ranging from a 5 percent drop in Alabama to a 1 percent reduction in Georgia.

Debbie Berkowitz, who was an OSHA official in the Obama administration, attributed the drop-off in enforcement to staffing shortages. OSHA did not specify how many inspectors had left in each state, but, according to the latest personnel data, the agency’s Mississippi office fell to 14 from 18 full-time employees by the end of September.

“They can’t do it all, they can’t keep up,” said Berkowitz, now a fellow at the National Employment Law Project. “What we noticed in Mississippi is there were a lot of reports of very serious injuries that OSHA wasn’t inspecting.”

Clyde Payne, former head of OSHA’s office in Jackson, said he’s concerned about the risks to workers at Mississippi’s smaller shipyards and construction companies.

“They really need close oversight because the ownership in those companies doesn’t likely have a dedicated safety staff to make sure they’re controlling their injuries and illness — they’re more likely to fall off the train,” Payne said.

Not every area with fewer inspectors saw a decline in enforcement: In Wisconsin and Ohio, the number of federal OSHA inspections last year increased from Jan. 20 to the end of September, according to agency data, despite the loss of eight on-the-ground inspectors and two inspection supervisors in the region.

The Labor Department said that hurricanes, not staffing shortages, were responsible for the decline of OSHA inspections in Southern states.

“The bottom line is OSHA inspections were up for the first time in five years,” Holland said. “That’s despite a historic hurricane season that necessitated the temporary suspension of enforcement activities in three OSHA regions, including two of its largest.” (OSHA inspections in Mississippi were declining before the first hurricanes made landfall.)

Industry groups said they haven’t noticed a shift in OSHA enforcement under the new administration. But they also stressed that government oversight was not the key to protecting workers.

“Inspectors don’t make workplaces safe. People and programs do by working to prevent problems before they occur and by creating workplace cultures where safety is top of mind,” said Eric Mittenthal of the North American Meat Institute, the meatpacking industry’s biggest trade association. “Safety programs operate continuously regardless of the frequency of OSHA inspections.”

Budget uncertainty

Not all the delays in federal hiring have been by design. The Labor Department said budget uncertainty affected its hiring timeline in 2017, even after the president lifted his hiring freeze. The government was operating under short-term funding measures throughout 2017, at the same time that House Republicans and Trump were proposing cuts to OSHA’s 2018 budget. (Lawmakers still have not passed a full 2018 budget, and the government continues to operate under a short-term funding measure.)

By August, however, the Labor Department said it had more budget certainty and could “responsibly add inspectors that would likely be funded” through 2018, said Holland. That month, Acosta said that he gave OSHA the green light to hire new inspectors “in an expedited manner,” he told lawmakers in November.

Christina McGier straightens pages during a production run of President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 federal budget at the Government Publishing Office’s plant on May 19, 2017. Carolyn Kaster / AP

But federal hiring is often a protracted process, and OSHA requires its inspectors to pass a medical exam, among many other requirements. As of Sept. 30, the agency had 54 inspection staff vacancies and still hadn’t hired any new inspectors.

Since then, the agency said that it has made greater headway in hiring. OSHA has “more than two dozen recruitments that are in various stages of the hiring process,” in addition to the inspectors it has brought on board since the beginning of October, Holland said. (The Labor Department declined to specify the exact number of slots it is still looking to fill and how many are currently on staff.)

At the same time, the looming fight over federal spending could put further constraints on hiring at OSHA and other agencies.

Though lawmakers never passed a full 2018 budget, last year the House proposed cutting more than $21 million from OSHA, and Trump wanted a $9.5 million cut. (The Senate proposal kept funding level.) This year, Republicans may push for bigger cuts across the federal government to offset the sweeping tax bill they passed in December, which added $1.5 trillion to the deficit.

Even if agencies get the funding and approval to increase staff, last year’s hiring delays could continue to affect the federal government’s performance.

Jordan Barab, an OSHA official under Obama, said that it typically takes months of training and experience in the field for agency inspectors to get up to speed.

“Even after OSHA hires someone, they can’t just send them out to do an inspection by themselves,” Barab said. “This will have an impact for years.” “

This article was originally published by SUZY KHIMM on January, 8 2018 at nbcnews.com.

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