The head of OSHA says the agency’s new hazard communication standard may be finalized in the early part of 2012.
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Tags: David Michaels, GHS, Globally Harmonized Standard, hazard communication
Some business leaders claim the reason the U.S. economy has been floundering is because of the number of new regulations imposed by the Obama administration. Bloomberg News has conducted an analysis of new regulations enacted by the last several presidents. The results may surprise some people.
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Tags: beryllium, Bloomberg News, combustible dust, diacetyl, federal rules, injury and illness prevention programs, Obama regulations
OSHA says it’s trying to level the playing field with new rules for residential construction. But some builders say the new rules are having the opposite effect: They’re tilting the field in such a way that cheaters are prospering, and those who comply are in danger of falling over the edge.
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Just one U.S. senator is blocking a bill that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines. The senator isn’t opposed to any particular part of the bill; he simply doesn’t like any additional federal regulation at all.
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Tags: less federal regulation, National Transportation Safety Board, new safety regulations, Pacific Gas & Electric, pipeline safety bill, San Bruno pipeline explosion, Sen. Rand Paul, Tea Party
A transportation advisory board is recommending that all commercial drivers be forbidden from using cell phones while driving, whether the devices are hand-held or hands-free.
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Tags: cell phone ban, Department of Transportation, Kentucky bus crash, NTSB, Ray LaHood, texting ban
About a month from now, a 14th state will allow employees to store legally owned firearms in their locked, privately owned vehicles while at work.
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Tags: Gov. Rick Perry, guns in cars at work, Texas
One of the largest states in the nation, with some of the highest workers’ comp costs, has a new law intended to cut businesses a break.
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Tags: carpal tunnel syndrome, doctors, drunk workers, fraud, Illinois, Workers' comp
OSHA wants to make significant changes to its injury reporting regulations. One involves which companies have to report. The other involves the situations that have to be reported.
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Tags: amputations, fatalities, hospitalization, industrial classification, injury reporting
One governor has thumbed his nose at federal OSHA’s suggestions for strengthening his state’s safety agency. This is the same state that had much to do with federal OSHA’s crackdown on state workplace safety programs.
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Tags: burden to businesses, Gov. Brian Sandoval, Nevada, State OSHAs
On April 28, 2011, OSHA turned 40 years old. Is the agency suffering an early mid-life crisis?
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, i2p2, inspectors, job killer, maximum fines, mid-life crisis, OSHA 40-years-old, permissible exposure limits, retaliation, unions
Last September we told you about a Tennessee OSHA (TOSHA) ruling: allowing guns in businesses that serve alcohol doesn’t create an unsafe workplace. Now, the state has taken the issue one step further.
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Tags: businesses that serve alcohol, guns at work, Tennessee, TOSHA
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued a report on regulatory impediments to job creation. The report lists five OSHA proposals that business groups say would inhibit job growth.
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Tags: combustible dust, i2p2, musculoskeletal disorders, noise standard, on-site consultation
A bill introduced in the California Assembly seeks to prevent violent acts against healthcare workers.
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One day after President Obama signed an Executive Order requiring a government-wide review of federal regulations to uncover ones that hurt job creation, OSHA has pulled a revised interpretation of its noise standard.
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Tags: employee hearing, executive order, feasible engineering and administrative controls, noise standard, President Obama
Next year, a 16th state will enact regulations allowing use of medical marijuana. Even though these laws are becoming more prevalent, questions regarding users and workplace safety remain.
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Tags: Arizona, court battles, medical marijuana
Imagine this: A big order or a crisis requires lots of overtime for your employees. Where would you draw the line on OT because of worker fatigue?
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Tags: David Michaels, employee fatigue, injury and illness prevention program
Researchers at OMB Watch have released their take on the first 20 months of rulemaking under the Obama administration, including a status check on OSHA.
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Tags: ergonomics, injury and illness prevention programs, Obama's OSHA, OMB Watch
Allowing guns in businesses that serve alcohol doesn’t create an unsafe workplace, according to an official with Tennessee OSHA (TOSHA).
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Tags: David Randolph Smith, Gov. Phil Bredesen, guns and alcohol in bars, Tennessee OSHA
The head of OSHA says after 40 years, the agency needs a fundamental transformation in the way it addresses workplace hazards, and its relationship to employers and workers. David Michaels says it’s time for OSHA to “take a different road.”
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Tags: David Michaels, future of OSHA, OSHA at 40
Your state says it’s OK to bring guns to work. But as an employer, you think that’s a safety hazard that violates your rights and undermines your responsibilities. What now?
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OSHA has an explicit new message for the millions of workers who participate in the agency’s outreach training program: We’re on your side.
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Tags: David Michaels, Injuries, OSHA
It happened after the Sago mine disaster in 2006, and it will most likely happen again, after 29 miner fatalities in an explosion in the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia: Lawmakers will seek new mine safety regulations.
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The federal government has reversed a ban on flying for pilots taking antidepressants. Part of the reason: Antidepressants have advanced to the point where the risk of the drugs being a safety hazard has subsided.
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Tags: antidepressants, drowsiness, Federal Aviation Administration, pilots
Remember the story from about a year ago in which a chimp tore off the face and hands of a woman? The police officer who shot and killed the raging animal was denied workers’ comp benefits.
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Tags: chimp attack, police officer, Workers' comp
A healthcare group has called on California to require use of condoms in the production of adult films.
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Tags: adult film industry, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Cal/OSHA, condoms, HIV
A year ago, the federal government announced new hours-of-service rules for commercial vehicle drivers. Now there’s word that they’re about to change again.
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Tags: commercial motor vehicle, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, hours of service
A dust explosion at a plant in Florida sent four workers to the hospital. One had to be airlifted to a burn center for critical injuries.
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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and OSHA interim administrator Jordan Barab have said that a new combustible dust regulation is one of their rulemaking priorities at OSHA.
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Tags: combustible dust regulation, Hilda Solis, Imperial Sugar explosion, Jordan Barab
A government agency says the February 2008 explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, GA, that killed 14 workers and injured 36 others, was caused by poor equipment design, maintenance and housekeeping.
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Tags: Chemical Safety Board, combustible dust, dust explosion and fire, Imperial Sugar explosion, poor housekeeping
OSHA has started to update its regulations to match national consensus standards.
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Tags: ANSI standards, consensus standards, eye face head foot protection, PPE regulations
California is one of only two states to have regulations that require employers to take steps to reduce employee injuries or deaths due to heat stress. It’s also been issuing fines and even shutting down some companies that have violated the regs. But now a lawsuit says California isn’t doing enough.
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Tags: ACLU lawsuit, agricultural workers, CAL-OSHA, heat stress, United Farm Workers Union
The Transportation Department will require direct observation collections for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug tests for transportation workers in safety-sensitive jobs.
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California wants to toughen and clarify its heat-illness prevention standard.
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Tags: California heat standard, heat illness, shade water for workers
In response to media coverage of a rash of construction worker fatalities, one state is now requiring such employees to get safety training.
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Tags: 10-hour OSHA course, construction worker fatalities, Nevada safety training
Some tough talk about enforcement from OSHA’s interim administrator, Jordan Barab.
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