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The results of a landmark study on high-rise fires and the best ways to battle them were released at the 2013 Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Conference in Phoenix, Ariz. last week, prompting many fire departments throughout the United States to re-examine the ways they deal with fires in tall buildings.

With Agency requested funding in FY 2014, OSHA projects that it will issue four Final Rules (Infectious Disease, Recordkeeping Modernization, Beryllium, and Vertical tandem Lifts), seven Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (Standards Improvement Project Phase IV, Infectious Disease, Injury and Illness Prevention Programs, Combustible Dust, Backover Protection, and 2 consensus standard update actions), and initiate SBREFA reviews for five rules (Combustible Dust, Backover Protection, one chemical standard, and two other new initiatives).

In a report released Friday (pdf), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that some of the state-run occupational safety and health programs have failed to meet minimum workplace safety inspection goals because of state budget cuts, reduced staffing, and policies that limit their ability to retain safety and health inspectors.

The West Fertilizer plant that was the site of last week’s devastating explosion and loss of life had at least 50,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia onsite -- yet the site’s operators told the EPA and public safety officials that it posed no risk of fire or explosion, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).

The Protecting America's Workers Act currently pending in Congress would strengthen and modernize the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 by giving OSHA additional tools to ensure that employers promptly correct hazardous working conditions, protect workers from retaliation when they blow the whistle on unsafe working conditions, and hold employers accountable for violations that cause death or serious injury to workers.

The West Fertilizer Company facility that exploded in a deadly blast last week had not been inspected by OSHA in at least 10 years, according to advocacy group Public Citizen, which says too many similar facilities operate “with very little oversight” from regulatory agencies.

OSHA has cited Keystone Pain Institute with eight serious health violations involving bloodborne pathogen hazards at the company's Altoona facility. The February inspection by OSHA's Pittsburgh Area Office was prompted by a complaint and resulted in $46,800 in proposed penalties.

This week’s top products as featured on ISHN.com: a device that keeps important items handy and safe and a tool to improve emergency communications.

From a deadly explosion at a TX fertilizer plant to health care workers’ risk of exposure to chemotherapy drugs, here are the top OEHS-related stories as featured on ISHN.com:

Those of us who work in workplace safety and health know that workplace health is an integral part of public health. While “Creating a Healthy Workplace” is one of the five themes of National Public Health Week, the role of workplace health in Public Health is not always clear to the general public.