Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels testified yesterday before the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. Michaels shared the U.S. Department of Labor’s views on the Protecting America’s Workers Act, particularly the issue of enhanced penalties, as described in an OSHA press release.
On March 16, the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on legislation to reform, revise, or otherwise update the 40-year-old law governing OSHA operations.
Across the country, household leaks are wasting more than 1 trillion gallons of water per year — enough water to supply every home in Texas with its annual water needs, according to a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To help consumers save water and money, the EPA is working with water utilities, manufacturers, retailers, communities and plumbers to promote its second annual Fix a Leak Week, March 15 to 21.
According to a press release from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), Futurist Mary O’Hara-Devereaux, Ph.D., told the crowd attending the ASSE “Delivering Safety Results in Changing Times” symposium Thursday that although these are tumultuous times when toxic leaders can gain control, social systems are failing, and there is an ethic wasteland, less engagement by employees and a major change in demographics, safety professionals have an opportunity to take a leadership role, especially from a global perspective, as agents of change.
The International Code Council (ICC) has announced the release of Public Version 1.0 of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) to regulate construction of new and existing commercial buildings, according to an ICC press release.
The American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) has released a new book, Applied Mathematics for Safety Professionals: Tips, Tools and Techniques to Solve Everyday Problems, the organization announced in a press release. The book is described as a reference book safety professionals can turn to for time-saving solutions to complex problems.
Work absences due to osteoarthritis cost U.S. employers more than $10 billion per year, reports a study in the March Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), according to a recent press release.
OSHA has cited Hua Sheng International Group Corp. in Barrigada, Guam, for $139,500 in proposed penalties for hazardous working and living conditions at a jobsite and barracks in Harmon, Guam, according to a recent agency press release.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced in a recent press release that an administrative law judge with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission increased penalties assessed against Shelby Mining Co. from $7,684 to $10,000. The administrative law judge upheld two unwarrantable failures issued by MSHA in November 2007 regarding the coal mine operator's ventilation plan and conducting an adequate preshift examination.
Cal/OSHA investigators halted work at a roofing construction site after discovering the employer failed to provide fall protection equipment to workers who were installing roofing tiles on two and three-story apartment buildings, according to a recent press release. Citations are pending against the employer, Falcon Roofing, based out of Reno, Nevada.