Archive for the ‘OSHA’ Category

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently unveiled a new interactive web tool to help users determine whether injuries and illnesses are work-related and recordable under the OSHA Recordkeeping rules. The OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor is an interactive tool that simulates an employer's interaction with a Recordkeeping rules expert. The Advisor relies on the users' responses [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is publishing in the Federal Register today (June 22, 2011) a proposed rule to amend Appendix A in Subpart B of Its Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting regulation. Appendix A contains a list of industries that are partially exempt from maintaining records of occupational injuries and illnesses, [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is asking as many as 19,000 businesses nationwide to participate in its Baseline Survey of Safety and Health Practices to help the agency better shape future rules, compliance programs, and outreach efforts. The voluntary survey will be sent to companies of all sizes and across all industries. Results [...]

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued its Semiannual Report to Congress for the six-month period ending March 31, 2011, taking aiming at OSHA for its "inability to best target its resources and measure the impact of its efforts." The report is based in part on an OIG [...]

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced the forthcoming release of a final rule that streamlines and simplifies standards while reducing employer burdens. The rule, which soon will be published in the Federal Register, will help keep OSHA standards up-to-date and better enable employers to comply with their regulatory [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first proposed, then abandoned, and finally reintroduced a rule that would add a column for reporting musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on the annual Form 300 Injury and Illness Log that each business must submit. In its latest incarnation, the rule was opened to public commentary during teleconferences held on [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed into law 40 years ago today (April 28, 2011) by then-President Richard Nixon. In a ceremony marking the anniversary, OSHA head David Michaels noted that, at the time of signing, 14,000 Americans were dying on the job every year, a number that has been reduced to [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published its list of Top Ten Citations for 2010, with this explanation: "OSHA publishes this list to alert employers about these commonly cited standards so they can take steps to find and fix recognized hazards addresses in these and other standards before OSHA shows up." The list: [...]

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the wing of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) charged with workplace health issues, has come out with its list of objectives for Healthy People 2020, a program launched by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Among the objectives are to reduce work-related deaths [...]

Following a series of court and review commission decisions regarding personal protective equipment (PPE), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued guidance on who must pay for each type of PPE. The relevant document, Guidance for Personal Equipment in General Industry, took effect on Feb. 15, 2011, clarifying final regulations issued in 2007 and [...]