Occupational Safety

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President Barack Obama should veto the proposed fiscal year 2016 funding cuts to OSHA and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), said Public Citizen, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) and 74 worker safety, labor, good government, public health, environmental and community groups.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration appears to be readying a new policy that could significantly expand and re-interpret mine operator responsibilities in conducting workplace examinations. On July 9, 2015, MSHA briefly circulated a new program policy letter (PPL) on workplace examinations.

A 30-year-old temporary employee required extensive surgery after suffering burns and lacerations of tendons and ligaments in her right hand after she used a cutting and sealing machine at a frozen bread manufacturer that supplies products to Costco Wholesale Corp., IGA, Piggly Wiggly and others.

Youth@Work-Talking Safety is a free customized curriculum that provides youth with work readiness skills to keep them safe and healthy on the job now and throughout their lives. This NIOSH brochure, intended for educators, school administrators, school boards of education, and community leaders, provides a brief overview of the curriculum and describes the benefits of using Talking Safety in middle schools and high schools in all U.S. states and territories.

Recently in Texas, two men were seriously injured on the job. In some ways, their circumstances looked very different. They were in different cities, working for different employers. One was repairing a roof, high above the ground. The other was in a trench, about eight feet down.

Have you ever gone to a concert or performance and found your ears ringing on the way home? Imagine if that was your job and your ears were exposed regularly to such loud sound levels?

In the first six months of 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration recorded the deaths of 18 miners in mining industry accidents in its national mid-year summary released today. The toll represents a decrease of five metal and nonmetal deaths from the same period in 2014.

A teenage worker's life was altered forever when his employer allowed him to operate machinery illegally and the 14-year-old lost his hand in the process.

One minute, a man was working in the 8-foot trench below ground. The next, he was being buried in it. His co-workers came to his rescue, digging the worker out with their bare hands. Moments after they pulled the injured man to safety, the unprotected trench collapsed again. His injuries were serious and led to his hospitalization.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez came into office pledging to create good jobs and take on the economic injustice that oppresses blue-collar workers, from raising the minimum wage and restoring unpaid overtime to combatting wage theft.