Occupational Health News Roundup

In the Wausau Daily Herald, Gannett Wisconsin Media reports that an explosion at the Packaging Corp of America in Bradley, Wisconsin killed three workers: Randy Hoegger, 55, and Steve Voermans, 52, both of Tomahawk, and Donald Snyder, 46, of Merrill.

According to a company human resources manager, the men were performing maintenance on top of a recycling fiber storage tank when it exploded. The cause of the blast is under investigation.

In other news:

Pantagraph (Illinois): Ironworker Josh M. Dawe, 33, was killed when a crane collapsed on the basket in which he was working at a construction site.

Associated Press: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing on the medical certification of commercial truck drivers.

American News Project: Cynthia Fleming shares the story of her son, Marine Corporal James Jenkins, a decorated veteran of the Iraq invasion who took his own life after serving 22 months overseas.

The Republican (Massachusetts): The Massachusetts Senate Thursday passed a patient-safety bill that, unlike its House counterpart, does not order the state to set nurse-patient ratios.

Occupational Hazards: Johns Hopkins University engineering students have created a prototype of a tool to allow utility workers to disconnect power lines from residential transformers at a distance outside of the range of electrical arcs.

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