An employee of a Florida roofing company was not wearing fall protection when he plunged to his death at a Maitland worksite. That’s the determination of an OSHA investigation, which found multiple fall-protection violations being committed by the man’s employee, Kasper Roofing & Construction.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) decision to release a West Virginia mine operator from its Pattern of Violations Notice (POV) is drawing the ire of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). President Cecil E. Roberts said the release of Affinity mine after five years of being under a POV notice is “a dangerous step in the wrong direction for America’s coal miners” and one that violates MSHA’s own rules of procedure for releasing mines from POV oversight.

An employee at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in Austin, Texas, was injured after being ejected from a forklift. OSHA cited the postal service for failing to ensure that forklift operators obeyed traffic regulations. The postal service was also cited for exposing employees to tripping hazards, and failing to label electrical panels and breakers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a memo Thursday weakening workers’ protection against employer retaliation for reporting injuries and illnesses. Section 1904.35(b)(1)(iv) of the Obama administrations 2016 “Electronic Recordkeeping Rule” told employers that “You must not discharge or in any manner discriminate against any employee for reporting a work-related injury or illness.”

An OSHA health compliance officer (an industrial hygienist -- IH) recently put me in an ethical dilemma. While conducting “side-by-side” air sampling as the employer’s representative during an OSHA inspection, I observed that the OSHA IH was not sampling for asbestos correctly.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Wisconsin in Green Bay has awarded a machine operator $100,000 in back wages and compensatory damages after his employer Dura-Fibre LLC – based in Menasha, Wisconsin – terminated him for reporting injuries he and a co-worker sustained.

When OSHA revised the walking-working surface standard in 2016, part of the goal was to make the general industry standard more consistent with existing construction standards.

News sources are reporting that President Trump will soon name his nominee for the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), an agency that oversees the implementation of government-wide policies and reviews draft regulations. That person will help execute Trump’s plan to reduce government regulations.

If you’re hoping to use your drone to capture images of Hurricane Michael and its effects, better think twice. Drone owners and operators whose vehicles interfere with emergency response areas in hurricane-hit areas could get hit themselves – with a $20,000 fine.

The loss of four fingers apparently wasn’t enough to cause a New Jersey pet food manufacturer to correct workplace safety and health hazards identified in two different OSHA investigation. After a follow up inspection to those earlier inspections - surrounding the finger amputations an employee suffered when a batch mixer activated while being cleaned - OSHA cited Hamiltime Herb Co. LLC for failing to: