Millions of workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica each year in many industries, including construction, mining, abrasives, tunneling, quarrying, cement and concrete, glass making, foundries and steel production, sandblasting, hydraulic fracturing operations, silica flour production, and pottery production. Prolonged overexposure can cause silicosis, lung cancer and a host of other deadly illnesses, according to the U.S Department Of Labor.

Essroc has acquired a cement terminal in Indianapolis from Cemex as part of an asset exchange that included Essroc’s bulk cement terminal in Charlotte, N.C. This transaction is a further strategic move for Essroc in its ongoing consolidation around core geographies and key operations.

Carmeuse Lime & Stone, Grand River, Ohio, was named the recipient of this year’s “Outstanding Alternative Fuels Project of Year Award” at the recently held Global CemFuels Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Peoria, Ill.-based Dust Control Technology sponsored a day-long event to benefit the children of Casa Hogar de Cabo San Lucas, a boys’ orphanage dedicated to providing active care and personal well-being in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The 41 young men who currently reside at the facility were treated to a full day of food and surfing on the grounds of…

Materials handling and lifting equipment specialist J.D. Neuhaus has launched a mobile version of its website designed specifically for smartphones. With mobile phone users currently making up an estimated 15 percent of global internet traffic, it is becoming ever more important to have a website that looks good and functions correctly when viewed on mobile devices, noted the company.

Holcim expects the global economies to show another year of uneven performance in 2014. For instance, North American markets are expected to continue to benefit from a further recovery especially in the United States. Latin America on the other hand could continue to face uncertainties in Mexico but should overall show slight growth.

Responding to the White House’s second phase of fuel economy standards for heavy-duty trucks, targeted for 2015-16 rulemaking and implementation, Portland Cement Association CEO Gregory Scott noted, “We should expand the debate beyond making more efficient [vehicles] to making more efficient infrastructure.”

Total shipments of portland and blended cement in the United States and Puerto Rico in December 2013 were 5.1 million metric tons (Mt), up by almost 9 percent from the level in December 2012, according to the most recent USGS Mineral Industry Survey.