OSHA has cited Lawrence-Lynch Corp. of Falmouth, Mass., for alleged willful and serious violations of safety standards following an excavation collapse at a worksite at 396 Gifford St. in Kingston, Mass. The construction contractor faces a total of $69,300 in proposed fines.
EPA is releasing its third list of drinking water contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems and may require regulation. EPA will continue to evaluate and collect data on the contaminants, and determine by 2013 for some of them whether or not to propose drinking water regulations.
EPA is adding 11 new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. Also, EPA is proposing to add 10 other sites to the list. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.
While many organizations took aggressive action to reduce costs and improve efficiency during the recession, these gains may be at risk, according to Towers Perrin's Workplace Watch, a quarterly review of employee opinions across large global organizations.
Cost-cutting actions that employers have been making to deal with the economic crisis have contributed to a sharp decline in the morale and commitment of their workers, especially top performers, according to an annual survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm, and WorldatWork, an international association of human resource professionals.
OSHA has cited Emhart Teknologies with 22 alleged serious, repeat and other-than-serious violations of safety standards at its Shelter Rock Lane plant in Danbury, Conn. The maker of fasteners, wire and brass inserts for the automotive and aerospace industries faces a total of $79,000 in proposed fines.
It’s been said the political climate in Washington for organized labor hasn’t been this sunny in more than 30 years. The clearing skies clear the way for federal OSHA, whose leadership team has close ties to labor, to embark on its most ambitious agenda since the days of President Jimmy Carter
Michigan regulators’ attempts to set an ergonomics standard in the face of a brutal recession could foreshadow the challenge confronting federal OSHA’s new leadership team’s if it follows through on its announced intent to revisit the ergo battlefield.
“I am honored that Secretary (Kathleen) Sebelius (Secretary of Health and Human Services) and Dr. (Thomas) Freiden (director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have given me the opportunity to serve again as the director of NIOSH, and to resume duties as Coordinator of the Department of Health and Human Services’ World Trade Center Health Programs.”
A good bit is staring to be written in workplace safety publications about the new OSHA regime’s “take” on incentive programs, long a staple of many a safety program.
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