Thousands of people who provided assistance in the aftermath of the September 11 attack in New York are suffering significant ill-health effects, the US government has revealed in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the atrocity.

Physical therapist Cara O’Connell, writing in the Asia-Pacific Journal, draws on current Japanese and international research and literature to provide information that may be of value in protecting the health of Fukushima workers and others who experience extreme heat and radiation.

Younger workers are more stressed in their jobs and feel under more pressure to work long hours than their older colleagues.

The chief executive of German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp’s Italian operation has been sentenced to 16 and a half years in prison after a court in Turin convicted him of murder charges relating to a fire that killed seven workers in 2007.

The UK is marking the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster by contributing to a fund to ensure the permanent safety of the site.

Chinese workers at a factory making touch-screen devices for Apple have aired their health and safety grievances in a letter sent to the US company’s CEO, Steve Jobs.

The campaign for the return of common sense in the application of health, safety and environmental rules has made its way across the pond, with the announcement by Barack Obama that he is to get rid of regulations that are “just plain dumb”.

A committee of MPs has upheld the UK’s offshore regulatory standards as robust and fit for purpose but is concerned that the industry is failing to anticipate and plan for high-consequence, low-probability events.

Women who report having high job strain have a 40-per-cent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, compared with those with low job strain.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has promised to protect miners who draw attention to unsafe working practices.