Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has announced plans to reestablish the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board – a regulation-setting agency that had previously been abolished by his predecessor, former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin. The newly formulated board will consist of 12 members representing industry, agriculture, labor, and safety and health.

While 2018 has been a banner year so far for equipment manufacturers, the long-term future of the industry and the markets it serves is – and likely will remain – far less certain.

A panel discussion Monday morning offered some insight into the first 17 months of OSHA under the Trump administration. Some questions that arose include: How has the mission or strategy of the Agency changed? How might these changes at the Agency affect worker safety and health? What do we expect based on the regulatory agendas? How has enforcement been affected?

OSHA and the Beryllium industry have reached a settlement regarding changes in OSHA’s Beryllium standard for general industry. The changes, which mostly focus on clarifications of “ancillary requirements” dealing mostly with regulated work areas, hygiene (cleaning of workers and equipment) and medical management, will be phased in in two major stages.

Following a review of the requirements put in place in 2016 regarding the “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses” regulation, OSHA has taken action to correct an error that was made with regard to implementing the final rule.

The AFL-CIO’s just-released annual report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers tallied up millions of work-related injuries in 2016 that resulted in billions of dollars in costs to the economy and revealed that workplace violence is now the second leading cause of death while on the job in the U.S.

They say that those who forget history are forced to repeat it. But when it comes to workplace and environmental disasters, that’s not exactly true. Because while the politicians and their corporate supporters are doing the forgetting, it is the workers, the environment and surrounding communities that ultimately pay the price when the inevitable — and preventable — tragedies come home to roost.