Page 10 - Occupational Health & Safety, May 2018

INDUSTRY UPDATE
job opportunities, allow for product expansion, and provide for greater economic impact in our community, state, and region.” Eddy has been named an executive vice president in the Justrite Safety Group, leading the North American chemical safety busi- ness, which will include the Justrite operation in Mattoon, Ill.
■ The European Commission on March 1 approved the $58.49 billion merger of eyewear groups Luxottica and Essilor without set- ting conditions, saying the merger would not harm competition. The two companies also announced the same day that the merger had been cleared by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission without conditions, and that, as of that date, the transaction also had been unconditionally approved in Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and Taiwan. They said finalization of their proposed combination is planned for the first part of 2018 after obtaining all necessary authorizations.
■ Workrite Uniform Company, which makes flame-resis- tant and chemical splash protective clothing, announced it has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification for its quality management systems. The company achieved it by documenting its quality objectives, procedures, and work processes; ensuring the docu- mented system is consistently implemented; performing regular internal audits; and proactively identifying opportunities for con- tinuous improvement.
“When it comes to protective clothing, poor quality can have devastating safety consequences,” said Victor Gonzalez, Workrite’s quality assurance manager. “Our ISO 9001:2015 certification al- lows us to support our promise of consistent quality with proce- dures that meet internationally recognized standards, offering our customers additional peace of mind.”
■ Motion Industries, Inc., a Birmingham, Ala., distributor of MRO replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genu- ine Parts Company (GPC), announced that EIS—a wholly owned subsidiary of GPC, as well, that was operating independently—has become the Electrical Specialties Group of Motion Industries.
“We have been working directly with Motion Industries for many years, as EIS’s products and services complement Motion’s offerings in many ways,” said Larry Griffin, president of EIS. “Com- bining our resources into one offering to the industrial marketplace makes a lot of sense with our similar markets, goals, and culture.”
EIS currently operates 39 branches and six fabrication facilities in North America, supplying process materials, production sup- plies, specialty wire and cable, and value-added fabricated parts to electrical OEMs, motor repair shops, and various assembly mar- kets. Based in Atlanta, the company focuses on three main areas: Electrical & Electronic, Cable & Connectivity, and Fabrication & Coating. EIS’s annual revenues were approximately $800 million in the previous year.
“This move creates operational synergies and new growth strat- egies that will make both companies stronger than ever in custom- er service and in the competitive market,” said Tim Breen, Motion Industries’ president and CEO.
■ The Health & Safety Institute (www.hsi.com), a leader in EHS software, training, and compliance services, on March 7 an- nounced it has acquired Pasco, Wash.-based Vivid Learning Sys- tems, a provider of online safety training. HSI said the combination “brings the market strength of HSI’s Summit Training Source and
CLMI brands together with the diverse training options of Vivid Learning Systems, creating an unmatched provider of online work- place safety training topics.”
“At its core, this acquisition is about unlocking exciting new value for existing customers of both organizations and growing the subscription safety business together while honoring our shared mission to make the workplace and community safer,” said Chad Birckelbaw, chief executive officer of HSI. “Vivid brings great tal- ent, a strong brand, and incredible safety training to our family of companies and customers.”
“We are excited to become part of the HSI family of compa- nies,” said Matt Hammer, CEO of Vivid. “Not only will our con- tent and training programs further expand HSI’s extensive library of courses, the solutions offered through the HSI Encompass EHS management platform, such as chemical management and incident reporting, will provide a great opportunity to our customer base to simplify their safety and compliance footprint. We are a perfect fit.”
Free NIST Software Can ID Fentanyl Analogs
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in March released a free software tool to help forensic chemists iden- tify fentanyl analogs, a tool that will help law enforcement trying to cope with the opioids epidemic. The agency noted that “illicit chemists” are always creating new forms of fentanyl, each with a slightly different chemical structure, and while forensic chemists need a way to identify these, the new analogs won’t be in the chemi- cal databases they use to identify illegal drugs, at least not yet.
The tool contains an algorithm for searching chemical data- bases that can recognize new fentanyl analogs even if there are no matches in the database. This method, called Hybrid Similarity Search, employs mass spectrometry and was recently described in Analytical Chemistry.
The agency’s news release said this method also works with syn- thetic cathinones—commonly called “bath salts”—synthetic mari- juana, and other drugs.
NIOSH Documents Address
Nanotechnology Workplace Design
NIOSH posted four new documents in March about designing workplaces so that the workers’ exposures to nanomaterials while conducting common processes and tasks will be controlled. En- gineered nanomaterials are used in medicine, electronics, bioma- terials, and consumer products. Workers at sites using or making engineered nanomaterials may inhale nanoparticles daily, posing a respiratory hazard.
The documents provide recommendations on minimizing workers’ exposures during:
■ handling and weighing of nanomaterials when scooping, pouring, and dumping
■ harvesting nanomaterials and cleaning out reactors after materials are produced
■ processing nanomaterials after production
■ working with nanomaterials of different forms, including dry powders or liquids
The new documents are posters that pose questions employers and workers should consider before starting work with a nano- material and list options to reduce exposures based on the nano-
10 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2018
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