The 90-day review period for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revised Hazard Communication Standard (HAZCOM) passed yesterday (Jan. 23, 2012) with no approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which must review all regulations for economic impact and other issues. The OMB Web site, however, indicates that its review will be [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a new directive for its field agents entitled Enforcement Procedures for Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence. Specifically, the directive “highlights the steps that should be taken in reviewing incidents of workplace violence when considering whether to initiate an inspection in industries that OSHA has identified as [...]
Read the rest of this entry »In its semi-annual report to Congress on its upcoming agenda, the Department of Labor (DOL) revealed that the Occupational Safety (OSHA) and Health Administration and the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will be finishing up some far-reaching rule-making decisions. OSHA is busy revising its Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2), a program that will affect [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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: [...]
Read the rest of this entry »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 [...]
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