The American Public Health Association (APHA) applauded the House for recently passing a comprehensive climate change bill that includes important provisions to protect the health of the public, the agency announced in a press statement.
The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) has recognized 63 large employers — representing the full spectrum of the U.S. economy — as “2009 Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles’ award winners for their exceptional commitment to a healthy workplace and for helping their employees and families make better choices about their own health and well-being, the non-profit group announced in a recent press release.
National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker today addressed the Crescent River Pilots’ Association on ensuring passenger ship safety on the nation’s waterways, according to a NTSB press release.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association is preparing to launch another effort to see if it can find a new process to "update the PELs," according to a blog post by AIHA Government Affairs Director Aaron Trippler.
In another sign of OSHA’s pumped up enforcement posture, the agency last week banged Milk Specialties Co. in Whitehall, Wisc., with multiple violations of federal workplace safety and health standards and proposed $1,145,200 in penalties.
OSHA has announced it will address problems identified in its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) in response to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, “OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs: Improved Oversight and Controls Would Better Ensure Program Quality,” issued this past May.
Even prior to last year’s presidential election, many OSHA watchers were saying no matter the outcome, the new OSHA leadership regime shouldn’t touch the hot-button ergonomics standard issue with a ten-foot pole. It’s politically radioactive, they warned.
Despite Secretary Solis declaring earlier this year that, under her leadership in the Department of Labor, "There's a new sheriff in town" regarding how OSHA operates, there’s scan evidence as to what that new sheriff intends to do, or in fact who that new sheriff is.
OK, in a few days it will be the Fourth of July. The Obama administration is near six months in office. And there is no news, even juicy rumors, as to the appointment of a permanent head of OSHA.
Former NIOSH Director John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, who was reported to be on the short list of candidates for the OSHA chief job in the Obama administration before dropping from contention, perhaps in part due to his service in the Bush administration, is still alive and well in Washington. Dr. Howard still mans a desk at NIOSH/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and according to some sources, is interested in returning to his old NIOSH post.