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.
Every year since 1996 the OSHA has collected work-related injury and illness data from more than 80,000 employers. For the first time, the agency has made the data from 1996 to 2007 available in a searchable online database, allowing the public to look at establishment or industry-specific injury and illness data. The workplace injury and illness data is available at wwwosha.gov/pls/odi/establishment_search.htmlhttp://www.osha.gov/pls/odi/establishment_search.html
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.
OSHA announced in a recent press release that the agency is proposing $217,500 in penalties against Hearthmark LLC, doing business as Jarden Home Brands, for safety violations at its Birmingham location.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced federal guidance to expressly prohibit texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses, according to a Department of Transportation press release. The prohibition is effective immediately and is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Department to combat distracted driving since the Secretary convened a national summit on the issue last September.
RSS