The National Nurses Union said the president's decision to tap a White House Ebola czar falls short unless the administration gives the czar power to cut off Medicare and Medicaid funds at hospitals that don't meet the highest uniform, national workplace safety standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency is receiving conflicting comments on its proposed revisions to its worker protection standards (WPS) for agricultural pesticides, with House Democrats and some state health officials urging stronger protections while the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and state agriculture departments are calling on EPA to overhaul the rule.
Federal chemical safety officials cite the high closure rate of their recommendations to improve industrial site safety as demonstrating the value of the investigative activities, as the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) comes under increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill over rampant allegations of dysfunction and whistleblower reprisal.
OSHA officials are asking stakeholders to consider whether major changes should be made to the agency's rulemaking procedures in order to possibly expedite changes to workplace chemical exposure limits – a concept detailed in a recently issued request for information (RFI) on how the agency should approach updates to permissible exposure limits (PELs).
Worldwide concern over outbreaks of Ebola disease has hit home in the U.S. health care sector as a nurse in Dallas who cared for a now-deceased patient with the virus has contracted the disease, despite use of full personal protective equipment (PPE), putting new pressure on employers to institute comprehensive infection control programs that include site-specific training of employees.
A Democratic lawmaker is calling on federal toxicology experts to study the possibility of human health risks from exposure to artificial field turf containing particles from recycled rubber tires, saying the tires often contain numerous chemicals considered carcinogens, including benzene, arsenic and phthalates, among others.
OSHA is floating a wide range of new options for tackling what many health experts consider long-outdated permissible exposure limits (PELs) for workplace hazardous chemicals, saying the legal hurdles involved in regulatory updates to existing levels call for potential changes in approach that include using other data sources and approaches such as control banding and task-based controls to tamp down on worker risk.
The White House budget office has given OSHA the go-ahead to publish a formal request for stakeholder input on ways to update hazardous chemical workplace permissible exposure limits (PELs), most of which have not been changed in decades despite emergence of more modern scientific data.
Nurses and their supporters across the United States are voicing a variety of concerns about the U.S. health care sector's readiness to provide them with adequate health protections as cases of Ebola infection begin sprouting up outside the disease-ravaged region of West Africa, including a patient in Dallas and most recently a nurse in Spain -- with ensuring adequate protective gear a key priority of advocates.
OSHA reportedly is on the cusp of sending out, as soon as late this month or sometime in November, the necessary materials to start a small business review process on the agency's proposed rulemaking to help prevent workplace exposures to infectious diseases, a source closely following the issue tells Inside OSHA Online.
Worker safety advocates in New York have issued a new report sharply critical of working conditions for contract employees within the city's two major airports, ranging from potential bloodborne pathogen exposure to excessive noise levels, and say workers' health concerns about bodily fluid exposures are heightened now that suspected cases of Ebola disease have apparently gone through the U.S. aviation system.
NIOSH officials express deep concern that a large contingent of U.S. health care workers who deal with cancer patients face highly risky exposures to hazardous chemicals, raising red flags in a new study coming out in a major occupational health journal about issues ranging from inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to lack of worker training despite widely available guidance.
Federal experts are exploring the potential toxicity of chemicals involved in a disastrous spill from an industrial storage tank into West Virginia's Elk River early this year that devastated the region's water supply and left thousands of residents for lengthy periods without clean drinking water -- an event closely watched by OSHA observers.
Occupational safety and health activists are vocally concerned about a bevy of Republican-led bills that would make the regulatory process much more difficult for agencies such as OSHA to navigate -- especially complicated rules like crystalline silica that are currently in the midst of the rulemaking process.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is pressing the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to work with OSHA to clarify safety regulations involving railroad and rail roadway safety, saying the agencies need to establish “clear guidelines” for use by railroads and railroad workers detailing when and where OSHA standards are to be applied.
Federal chemical safety officials are citing so-called “hot work” hazards near storage tanks containing organic or biological materials as a central concern in preventing industrial fires and explosions, saying it is both crucial and cost-efficient for such operations to monitor combustible gas levels and head off dangers associated with them.
OSHA has hit a cell tower contractor with two “willful” and four “serious” safety violations following the deadly collapse of a tower that was being dismantled early this year in Kansas -- an incident that prompted OSHA also to add the employer to its controversial Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) -- demonstrating the agency's willingness to wield rigorous enforcement as a key part of its recent push to improve communication tower safety.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in a 2-1 ruling has backed a lower court decision giving the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) authority to investigate the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, expanding CSB's jurisdiction from traditional land-based releases to also include releases from offshore facilities.
OSHA is again putting a laser focus on worker fall protection, tackling the trend of increasing numbers of fatalities, particularly with recent growth in the construction sector, by teaming with a major national safety group to address the hazard.
Union officials have filed suit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) over truck driver safety, saying a federal appeals court should order DOT to issue what the complainants characterized as a “long-overdue rule” outlining training standards for entry-level drivers.