Arizona goes (OSH) rogue, the construction company petitions Acosta to knock down the silica standard and the cause of a crash that killed five bicyclists is revealed. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

A Confined Space blog post

2018 Trump budget preview: OSHA gets cut, NIOSH gets disemboweled

 Jordan Barab

If a President or Congress want to dismantle worker protections or other government programs, they don’t have to repeal or change legislation; they can work their damage through the budget process. Slash the budget of a program you don’t like, and those protections no longer exist. Check out the President’s proposed budget in that context.

From NIOSH

Work-related styrene exposure linked to lung disease

With more plastic-based products on the market than ever before, concern about the work-related risks of the chemicals used to make them is increasing. One of these chemicals is styrene, a compound used extensively in plastic and rubber for cars, food packaging, boats, and many other products.

A FairWarning story

Tax break for high-alcohol wine sours health advocates

Paul Feldman

Winemakers could soon receive a tax break that would spur production of higher-alcohol wines, a move that would pad their bottom lines but that has health advocates seeing red.

Kentucky ups its workplace safety game

Fifteen workplaces. Eighty-seven hazards corrected so that companies were not fined $609,000 in enforcement penalties. Approximately 3,197 employees made safer.

Drainage shaft accident kills worker

Confined space procedures not followed

Cal/OSHA has cited two companies $352,570 for multiple workplace safety and health violations, including ten serious and three willful category violations, following an incident in which a worker lowered into a 50-foot drainage shaft fell to his death. Neither D&D Construction Specialties, Inc. nor Tyler Development, Inc. followed permit required confined space procedures to work in confined spaces. 

ISEA updates fall protection use and selection guide

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has released an updated version of its Personal Fall Protection Equipment Use and Selection Guide.

A Confined Space blog post

Industry petitions OSHA to reopen silica standard

 Jordan Barab

Representatives of the construction industry, as well as general industry have petitioned Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to reopen the silica standard, workplace safeguards that would save over 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year.

Driver who killed five bicyclists was impaired

Helmets and high visibility clothing were no help to a group of bicyclists when a Michigan man who was under the influence of several drugs got behind the wheel of his pickup truck on June 7, 2016.

How to prepare for an active shooter

Active shooter incidents are often unpredictable and evolve quickly. In the midst of the chaos, anyone can play an integral role in mitigating the impacts of an active shooter incident. In many cases, there is no pattern or method to the selection of victims by an active shooter, and these situations are, by their very nature, unpredictable and evolve quickly.

OSHA: Arizona is “operating outside its legal authority” on workplace safety

Responding to a complaint filed by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), OSHA has determined that that the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA) is “operating outside its legal authority.”