Some members of Congress and professional associations have called on OSHA to initiate an emergency, temporary infectious disease regulation due to the coronavirus pandemic. What could an emergency regulation include? One way to find out is to look at one state’s rule that already exists and at the rulemaking that was started on a permanent […]
Federal OSHA has received thousands of COVID-19-related complaints from workers across the U.S. who are required to work despite the hazards posed by the pandemic. Workers in healthcare, construction, grocery stores, pharmacies and shipping companies filed more than 3,000 complaints claiming their employers aren’t keeping them safe from exposure to the coronavirus. Freedom of Information […]
During this COVID-19 pandemic, workplace drug testing will require new rules and new precaution, but it should never be compromised. Here’s a real-life incident involving a test subject who, while waiting to take a drug test, realized that a co-worker was coughing in the restroom. He then refused to enter the restroom because there was […]
OSHA expanded its temporary guidance for respirator fit-testing during the COVID-19 pandemic to all industries as of April 8. Temporary guidance the agency issued March 14 regarding COVID-19-related supply shortages of N95 and other facepiece respirators in the healthcare industry is now expanded to all workplaces where there is required respirator use. OSHA field offices […]
OSHA provided clarification regarding COVID-19 and the agency’s recordkeeping requirements, making recording of the illness much less likely for most businesses outside of healthcare. The agency won’t enforce its recording requirements for COVID-19 cases outside of the healthcare industry unless some specific conditions are first met. While COVID-19 is a recordable illness under OSHA’s recordkeeping […]
As further guidance during the N95 respirator shortage, OSHA released a list of standards from other countries for alternative respirators and filters certified outside the U.S. This guidance is for N95 filtering face piece respirators either certified under standards of other countries or certified under other countries’ standards but expired. According to the Department of […]
To help alleviate some of the strain on the medical community during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed an online assessment bot for patients. The Coronavirus Self-Checker helps guide people to make decisions about seeking proper medical care. CDC’s system isn’t meant for diagnosis or treatment. The bot […]
A safety professional with 12 years of experience at pandemic planning at state and federal worksites shared her insight regarding the COVID-19 pandemic during a recent American Society of Safety Professionals Q&A session. Deb Roy, a safety professional for more than 35 years and author of Preparing for a Pandemic: Lessons From H1N1, discussed a variety of […]
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) looks at a potential alternative to N95 respirators in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and had favorable findings. The study, led by a member of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, looked at use of elastomeric half-mask respirators (EHMRs), which […]
