It’s mid-summer and a man’s fancy turns to what’s happening in OSHA these days. Let’s update you all before you (and I) head out on vacation:

"MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to."

Earlier this week I reviewed a New York Times article on conflicts of interest among Trump political appointees that highlighted a new Labor Department Special Assistant, Geoffrey Burr. Burr is a former lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, and his federal disclosure form notes that he lobbied DOL against the silica standard and the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation that would have required federal contractors to disclose federal labor law violations.

President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to eliminate or reverse his predecessor’s efforts to combat climate change is driving the issue to a new arena: the state level.

A new study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health shows both the effect of air pollution on our genes and the role B vitamins may play in reduce the epigenetic effects of air pollution on health.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and DisasterMap.net recently released their latest tally of petrochemical accidents in the state. During the first two weeks of February alone, the environmental group documented 78 such accidents, including 14 on offshore drilling platforms in Louisiana waters. One of the accidents killed a pipeline worker, while another released cancer-causing benzene into the St. James community.

At toxic cleanup sites across the country, environmental agencies have allowed groundwater contamination to go untreated and slowly diminish over time—a strategy that saves money for polluters but could cost taxpayers dearly and jeopardize drinking water supplies.

Although newly approved EPA administrator Scott Pruitt told agency employees this week that it’s possible to be both pro-energy and pro-environment, critics say thousands of recently released emails show that Pruitt is firmly in the pro-energy camp.

Those bins you set out by the curb once a week, along with other recycling efforts nationwide, help to generate about 757,000 jobs, according to the EPA, which has crunched the numbers to show the value of recycling.