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Process safety management (PSM) is a suite of risk management elements designed to minimize the risk of accidents associated with industrial processes using highly hazardous materials. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) PSM regulation requires that process equipment and equipment inspection and testing adhere to recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP). This term was introduced to allow the regulation to incorporate by reference all relevant consensus codes and standards, engineering society technical reports, and other technical specifications without specifically referencing each individual document (of which there are hundreds). Although it is well-intentioned, the definition of RAGAGEP is not sufficiently clear. Lack of consensus about the definition has led to confusion and disagreement between industry and government regulators. Drawing on a review of regulatory and other documents and structured interviews with industry stakeholders, the author presents the origin and intention of RAGAGEP, the points of confusion and disagreement about the definition, and recommendations for Cal/OSHA to help clarify the definition and bring industry and government into better alignment about expectations for complying with RAGAGEP in the PSM regulation.

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The government of Puerto Rico submitted an economic and disaster recovery plan to Congress on August 8, 2018, describing a strategic approach to recover from the destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, build resilience to withstand future disasters, and restore the struggling economy. The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC, a federally funded research and development center operated by the RAND Corporation under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) provided substantial input for the plan by engaging with numerous stakeholders, conducting analyses, assessing damage and needs, deducing courses of action and costs, and identifying possible funding mechanisms. Acting in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) public building sector and the government of Puerto Rico, the HSOAC team compiled data from multiple sources on public building damage, analyzed the data, and identified gaps in the data for some public buildings. Additional analyses assessed recent changes in population and employment that might affect building use and needs. These analyses, coupled with discussions with FEMA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and government of Puerto Rico agencies, informed the development of 12 courses of action represented in the recovery plan for the public building sector. These courses of action embody the public building sector vision of reinvesting in public building infrastructure not only to repair the damage caused by the 2017 hurricanes but also to modernize this infrastructure to increase resilience to natural hazards, improve energy efficiency, and improve functionality and user experience.

Public buildings --- Hurricane damage --- Hurricane Irma, 2017. --- Hurricane Maria, 2017. --- Natural disaster effects.

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The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) of 2006 charged the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) with expediting the development and commercial availability of new safety technologies for underground coal mining. NIOSH has facilitated the development of numerous new technologies but has observed that the commercialization and widespread adoption of technologies face formidable barriers. This report presents results of a project characterizing barriers to the development, commercialization, and adoption of new technologies for use in underground coal mining in the United States. The authors of this report interviewed representatives of a sample of organizations that have a stake in the U.S. underground coal mining market and held a workshop with selected stakeholders to refine and prioritize the barriers and to identify solutions to them. Through the interviews, the authors identified and characterized 24 barriers falling into three groups (economic, regulatory, and other) and several subgroups within each group. The workshop prioritized barriers according to perceived frequency of occurrence and magnitude of impact. The individual barriers span a variety of specific issues. Most barriers have the effect of dissuading suppliers from developing new technologies, updating existing technologies, or even entering or remaining in the underground coal mining market at all. Solutions proposed in the workshop centered on streamlining the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approval process, modernizing MSHA standards, increasing stakeholder interaction in efforts to update mining technology and the associated regulatory regime, and increasing federal support for mining technology.

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The authors document the role of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in the initial adoption of smoke alarms, ongoing changes to smoke alarm performance requirements, and ongoing research on wildfire safety in the wildland urban interface. They also provide econometric estimates of the social and economic impact of the fire safety standards that NIST helped develop.

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China's extensive and expanding foreign investment and financing activities over the past two decades have garnered substantial attention and raised several concerns. Such concerns are diverse and include (1) paying insufficient attention to internal politics, global relations, environmental regulations and controls, and human rights, worker safety, and health records of host nations; (2) engaging in unfair contracting practices; (3) using overseas investments and financing to attain access and influence in strategic locations; and (4) using disinformation to influence markets. For this report, the authors examined Chinese foreign investments and financing in critical resources and energy infrastructure for evidence of these types of behaviors. They used a case-study approach in which they examined investments and financing in coal power plants in Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Africa; electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure associated with the global energy interconnection initiative in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico; and seabed mining globally. The objective of the research was to characterize Chinese foreign investments and financing in critical resources and energy infrastructure, emphasizing the extent to which Chinese investors engaged in any of these concerning behaviors, and to develop recommendations to build capacity among host nations to diversify their sources of investment and financing in order to minimize the potential negative impacts of an overreliance on Chinese investments and financing. The research did not turn up many clear examples of such behaviors, but the authors identified several other topics of concern that have important implications for host nations.