Oregon OSHA has adopted a new heat standard and new rules regarding wildfire smoke that are said to be the most protective in the U.S. Both rules “are the most protective of their kind in the country and reflect the need to strengthen protections in the workplace while focusing on the needs of Oregon’s most […]
A U.S. Congressman is calling for an OSHA investigation into Amazon warehouses over “skyrocketing” injury rates at its New Jersey facilities. Congressman Donald Norcross of New Jersey, a member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that he is “deeply troubled by the injury rates at Amazon facilities in […]
Federal OSHA has made it clear in early 2022 that employers need to take Form 300A injury and illness reporting very seriously. How so? Well, by mid-April, the agency has: started an enforcement program targeting 300A non-responders proposed amendments to injury and illness recordkeeping regulations, and has stated again that it will be making employer […]
OSHA is calling on Amazon to improve its severe weather emergency procedures in response to a Dec. 10, 2021, fatal warehouse collapse in Illinois. The agency issued a Hazard Alert Letter to Amazon, requiring the company to review its severe weather emergency procedures after six contractors were killed and another was severely injured when a […]
Thirteen workers die from workplace injuries every day in the U.S., and to mark Workers Memorial Day, the agency is broadcasting an event to remember lives lost and stress the high cost of ignoring safety on the job. April 28 is Workers Memorial Day and OSHA is joining with “some of those scarred by workplace […]
Wisconsin food processing plants will be seeing increased scrutiny from OSHA, which is introducing a local emphasis program (LEP) focused on machine hazards in these facilities. Workers in Wisconsin food production plants experience an injury rate that’s almost 24% higher than other production facilities in the state. During a six-year period between 2014 and 2020, […]
OSHA is rolling out a regional emphasis program (REP) aimed at identifying and reducing silica dust hazards in Colorado’s cut stone industry. The agency says the cut stone and stone products manufacturing industry in Colorado has had the highest documented overexposures to respirable crystalline silica for the past 10 years. OSHA found 30% of the […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is seeking to revoke the final approval of Arizona’s state OSHA plan, citing the state’s failure to adopt and enforce effective standards. This is in response to Arizona’s “decade-long pattern of failure” to use standards and enforcement policies at least as effective as federal OSHA’s. State plans are OSHA-approved […]
OSHA launched its first ever National Emphasis Program (NEP) for Indoor and Outdoor Heat Hazards. The NEP, which began April 8 and was announced April 12, is OSHA’s way of attempting to “immediately improve enforcement and compliance efforts, while continuing long-term work to establish a heat illness prevention rule.” Heat illness has become a top […]
