For the first time, the agency is allowing the public to look at establishment or industry-specific injury and illness data. The workplace injury and illness data is available at www.osha.gov/pls/odi/establishment_search.html
OSHA boss Dr. David Michaels has had few opportunities so far (he arrived at the agency December 9) to publicly articulate his plans. There have been no press conferences, one on one interviews, congressional testimony, and but a handful of speeches.
The growth of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program has been one of the most dynamic job safety and health stories in recent years. Founded during the Reagan administration in 1982, VPP dawdled along largely off the radar screen until the mid-1990s. From ’82 to ’94, the number of federal and state plan VPP worksites increased from 11 to 180.
Currently 22 states and jurisdictions operate complete occupational safety and health state plans (covering both the private sector and state and local government employees) and five - Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and the Virgin Islands - cover public employees only.
Hilda Solis was confirmed as Secretary of Labor almost one year ago to the day, February 24, 2009. Her boss, President Obama is now widely criticized and questioned in the press as an indecisive leader.
OSHA has scheduled two informal stakeholder meetings to solicit comments and suggestions on combustible dust hazards in the workplace. OSHA will use comments from these meetings in developing a proposed standard for combustible dust. The meetings are scheduled for Feb. 17, 2010, 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., at the Marriott Perimeter Center, 246 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, Ga., 30346.
“I've long advocated that every employer establish a Comprehensive Workplace Safety and Health Program that features management leadership, worker participation, and structure that fosters continual improvement. While thousands of responsible employers already operate this way with excellent results, many other employers haven't gotten the message,” said OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels in a December speech at a NIOSH meeting, his only public remarks to date.
How might Dr. Michaels’ advocacy turn into action? Safety and health experts always point to California’s workplace safety and health program standard as a possible guiding light.
OSHA’s plans for updating permissible exposure limits, ergonomics, and setting workplace safety and health program requirements are nebulous, to say the least in early 2010.
But one hot potato issue OSHA can’t duck regards revising the hazard communication standard to conform with the United Nations' (UN) Globally Harmonized System of
Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).
From the blog OSHA Aboveground, penned by a longtime agency hand: “Any one who follows OSHA's press releases has probably noticed a recent jump in the number of sig-cases (a sig or significant case is any OSHA case where the proposed penalty exceeds $100,000). I've certainly noticed a jump, although I don't have the numbers to back it up.
The left-wing politicos will, of course, claim it's the current administration doing what the previous one failed to do. And the right-wing politicos will, of course, claim it's another example of the left's assault on business. But here's the thing, no one has told me to do more sig-cases, just like under the previous administration, no one told me not to do sig-cases. There was no memo. There was no directive.
One of the topics OSHA says it will have an open ear to at the February 11 public “listening” session held to help OSHA leadership assemble its priorities is the on-going saga of how to update chemical exposure limits
Year one of the new OSHA regime – 2009 – was a time for laying down markers: The sheriff is back on the job, said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. More inspectors will be hired. VPP may not be all that glitters – stronger oversight is needed. Recordkeeping under-reporting is a concern and must be investigated. Special inspection SWAT teams swoop down on Texas contractors. Ergonomics is a political football OSHA is ready to tackle, said acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab.
American Industrial Hygiene Association Government Affairs Director Aaron Trippler reported yesterday that it looked as though the Senate was nearing approval of the 2010 omnibus appropriations bill, possibly during the Sunday session. Trippler says, “While they are still debating health care, they have removed the final obstacle to approving the omnibus appropriations bill so I expect the vote to take place with no further debate. This bill combines all remaining appropriations bills yet to be passed by Congress.”
American Industrial Hygiene Association Government Affairs Director Aaron Trippler offers in his latest Washington insider’s newsletter, “Happenings From The Hill,” this assessment of hot or emerging issues that did not find their way on to OSHA’s regulatory agenda released earlier this week.
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced OSHA has begun to publish the names of employers with reported fatalities on a weekly basis, according to a DOL press release.
We’re not even out of 2009, so no one is in the mood to start thinking about another long, drawn-out, media-saturated presidential election battle in 2012. At least outside of Washington. Campaign consultants, party leaders and Potomac Fever gossipers are always on to the next race. It’s the habitual pastime in the nation’s capital.
Acting OSHA boss Jordan Barab said yesterday the focus on the agency’s updated regulatory agenda, released yesterday, is on taking care of rulemaking initiatives that are old and in the way, causing gridlock and preventing OSHA from beginning to track bigger and more controversial regulatory game.
OSHA announced yesterday it plans to publish a proposed rule on adding column on its 300 log for recording musculoskeletal disorders. The move naturally raised this question: Is this a prelude to a broader ergonomics regulation?
Elvis Presley’s trademark motto, “Taking Care of Business,” is an apt theme for OSHA’s most recent regulatory agenda update, announced yesterday by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
The long wait is over. Last night, the U.S. Senate confirmed David Michaels, Ph.D, MPH, as assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.
OSHA in October announced its largest proposed penalty ever — $87,430,000 in proposed penalties to BP Products North America Inc. for the company’s failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees.
“For nearly 40 years, OSHA has been the Federal government's leading advocate for workplace safety and health. In this time we have made clear progress - think back to what workplaces were like in this country before OSHA,” acting agency boss Jordan Barab told a cheering audience at the United Steelworkers’ Health, Safety and Environment Conference, held earlier this year in Houston, Texas.
OSHA “welcomes” the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report on the under-reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses and OSHA's audit process, according to an agency press statement.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Department of Labor is required to collect and compile work-related injury and illness data. The U.S. Government Accountability Office was asked to determine (1) whether DOL verifies that employers are accurately recording workers’ injuries and illnesses and, if so, the adequacy of these efforts, and (2) what factors may affect the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness records.
In the absence of a full Senate committee question and answer hearing, OSHA chief nominee Dr. David Michaels of George Washington University provided senators with written answers to submitted questions.
President Obama’s nominee to head OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC, has moved a step closer to taking the reins at OSHA after his November 18th approval by the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
Right-wing bloggers and lobbyists have wasted no time attacking OSHA chief nominee Dr. David Michaels as a promoter of “junk science” who will lower the bar of scientific evidence needed to support OSHA standards-setting. Dr. Michaels explained his position in a written response to a written question submitted by Senator Johnny Isackson, R-Georgia.
Assistant Secretary of Labor OSHA nominee Dr. David Michaels has kept a low profile since his nomination in July. The follow exchange of written questions (from Senator Johnny Isakson R-Georgia) and answers from Dr. Michaels, dated October 9, 2009, give you the clearest sense yet of Dr. Michaels’ positions on the hottest OSHA issues of the day.
Addressing the Wisconsin AFL-CIO Safety and Health Conference in late September, acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab chimed in on the healthcare debate with these remarks:
Speaking at the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Health and Safety Conference Day, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Friday, September 25, 2009, acting OSHA boss Jordan Barab had this to say about having another go at setting an ergonomics standard:
