Page 10 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2017

INDUSTRY UPDATE
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ADVISORY BOARD
Leo J. DeBobes, MA (OH&S), CSP, CHCM, CPEA, CSC, EMT
Stony Brook University Medical Center Stony Brook, NY
Scott Lawson
The Scott Lawson Companies Concord, N.H.
Angelo Pinheiro, CSP, CRSP, CPEA
Senior HES Professional Marathon Oil Company Houston, Texas
William H. Weems, DrPH, CIH
Director, Environmental & Industrial Programs University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Henry Wright, MBA, CFPS
Senior Vice President & Director — Risk Solutions BB&T Insurance Services Inc. Charlotte, N.C.
EMERITUS
Barry R. Weissman, MBA
Green Valley, Ariz.
On the Move
the risk of hearing loss that faces wildland firefighters in an article posted by George Broyles, LCDR Corey Butler, and Capt. Chuck Kardous that included a chart showing how some jobs’ exposures exceed the NIOSH REL and the OSHA PEL. (For some, including helicopter pilot and pump operator, the chart indicated 100 percent of the exposures exceed the REL.)
The article discussed a three-year study done by the U.S. Forest Service Technology and Development Program in partnership with NIOSH to measure wildland firefight- ers’ noise exposures during training and fire suppression tasks and to identify jobs that put them at increased risk for hearing loss, with a paper published in 2016 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America discussing the results. Overall, 85 of the 174 measurements were above the NIOSH maximum allowable daily dose, and some firefighters exposed to a TWA of 105-106 dBA would exceed their maximum daily limit in just four to fiveminutes. Broyles is a Fire and Fuels Project Leader with the Technology and Development Program, USDA Forest Service; Butler is an Occupa- tional Safety and Health Specialist with the NIOSH Western States Division; and Kar- dous is a senior research engineer with the NIOSH Division of Applied Research and Technology.
Business Moves
■ Toronto-based Medgate Inc., a provider of SaaS-based EHSQ solutions, made two strategic acquisitions in early 2017. The company acquired Houston-based regAc- tion Inc., a privately held environmental compliance management SaaS provider serving clients in heavy asset industries, and it also acquired Cleveland-based IQS, Inc., which provides web-based enterprise quality management software.
■ Toronto-based eCompliance, a leader in cloud safety software, announced it has acquired Field iD, also based in To- ronto and a leading provider of equipment inspection software, allowing eCompliance to expand its EHS management platform by combining mobile inspections, inter- active analytics, learning management, and asset management into a single cloud solution. “The addition of Field iD will strengthen eCompliance’s cloud EHS plat- form and make it possible for EHS leaders
Red Wing Shoe Company’s new location in Hous- ton offers 29,000 square feet of warehouse, office, customization, and collaboration space.
Red Wing Shoe Company (www.redwing- shoes.com) announced in April that it has moved its hub for the North American oil and gas industry into a new location in southwest Houston at 7256 S. Sam Hous- ton Parkway West at Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road. The newly built, 29,000-square- foot location more than doubles the size of its previous facility in the city, said Jim Bailey, Red Wing Shoe Company’s manag- ing director of the Americas. “We couldn’t be happier about moving into this first- class facility,” he said. “It better reflects our company brand and provides a more fluid working environment for our team mem- bers.” It is one of Red Wing’s four global office and distribution hubs for the oil and gas industry—the others are in Stavanger, Norway; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The new site will house sales, operations, customization, and warehousing functions. . . . NIOSH has appointed Ryan Hill, MPH, director of its Western States Division. He was sched- uled to become the division’s first full-time director on May 1. “CDR Hill possesses a wealth of expertise in the safety and health issues and unique hazards facing workers in the western United States,” said NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard. “I am confident that under CDR Hill’s leadership, NIOSH’s Western States Division can achieve its mission to improve workplace safety in the high-risk industries of the West.” Hill is stationed in Spokane, Wash., and is respon- sible for management of WSD facilities in Spokane; Anchorage, Alaska; and Denver.
NIOSH Highlights Noise Exposure of Wildland Firefighters
NIOSH’s Science Blog recently highlighted
to access real-time information on equip- ment safety,” said CEO Adrian Bartha. “We’re incredibly excited to welcome the Field iD team to the eCompliance family and solidify our position as a leader in the industry. Together, we are well positioned to achieve our mission of eliminating 1 million workplace incidents by 2020.”
■ Des Plaines, Ill.-based Justrite an- nounced in April 2017 that it has acquired Sall SRL, from the Italian province of Reg- gio Emilia, a company that designs and manufactures products for spill contain- ment of hazardous substances and modu- lar containers for hazmats, along with ma- terial handling equipment and absorbents.
“This investment underpins our strat- egy to better serve our customers within the EHS markets. Sall’s manufacturing ca- pabilities and product range, which include both metals and plastics, will integrate seamlessly into our industrial distribution and engineered solution sales channels,” said Paul Darlington, vice president for Justrite’s EMEA organization.
■ Aqua Metals, Inc., which is com- mercializing a non-polluting electrochemi- cal lead recycling technology called AquaRefiningTM, has acquired UK-based Ebonex IPR Limited, which has developed manufacturing methods for advanced lead acid batteries. For more information, visit www.aquametals.com.
10 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2017
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RED WING SHOE COMPANY