On the last day of ASSP’s in-person show in Austin, Jim Frederick, Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, spoke to attendees on COVID-19 and OSHA’s current priorities.
With full federal approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for those 16 and older, corporate employers, the military, hospitals and other workplaces have begun announcing vaccine mandates.
- The National Safety Council (NSC), the nation’s leading workplace safety advocate, urged all employers to implement a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for their workers and unveiled a guide outlining four levels of requirements for various workplace risk profiles.
Heat illness is 100% preventable, yet 11 workers suffer serious heat-related injury or death every day in the United States. Without federal standards for preventing heat illness on the job, the problem persists and stands to increase dramatically as the climate warms.
Long working hours are now considered by the WHO/ILO to be the occupational risk factor with the largest attributable disease burden. WHO/ILO advise, “Protecting and promoting occupational and workers’ safety and health requires interventions to reduce hazardous long working hours.”
AIHA voices its support for employers who find innovative ways to encourage vaccination among workers or develop workable programs to mandate vaccination in the workforce where warranted
OSHA on August 13, 2021 issued updated guidance to help employers protect workers from the coronavirus. The updated guidance reflects developments in science and data, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated COVID-19 guidance issued July 27.
It’s not yet common for companies to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. However, with the Delta variant spreading rapidly in the United States and elsewhere, there’s a growing number of companies taking that route. Here are five of the related manufacturing and industrial organizations doing it and the specifics associated with each.
In 2021, OSHA released COVID safety guidelines for meat plants and other food processing facilities — but stopped short of making them mandatory. The agency recommends using certain safety measures, such as face coverings and paid time off for employees to receive vaccinations. However, it does not require employers to follow these rules or produce written hazard analyses or safety plans.
Going green is one of the most desirable trends of modern industry. This is for good reason. The benefits both to the environment and to business make renewable energy and materials a positive for just about everyone.
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