President Trump this week signed into law comprehensive legislation aimed at slowing the nation’s opioid crisis. The 250-page bill called The Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act (H.R.6):
authorizes $36 million for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023 to train and resources to first responders and other key community members on protection from occupational exposure to fentanyl and other opioids, and how to respond if an exposure occurs.
More than 25 patient and consumer groups are warning that Trump administration guidance about Affordable Care Act (ACA) the issued this week will decrease health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the guidance will allow states to “move their insurance markets away from the one-size-fits-all rules and regulations imposed by the ACA and increase choice and competition within their insurance markets.”
Every year, one of the most-attended presentations on the expo floor at the NSC Congress & Expo is the announcement of the Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety violations.
This year was no exception as Patrick Kapust, deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, presented the preliminary Top 10 for fiscal year 2018 to an overflowing room.
Lots happening these days: the grizzly murder of a Saudi journalist, baseball championships (Go Dodgers!!), mid-term elections, Presidential temper tantrums about “Horseface” and “Pocahontas.” The usual.
But by far the most important thing happening today is the Fall 2018 Regulatory Agenda. Release of the Regulatory Agenda is a much anticipated (for regulatory geeks) semi-annual event that gives the President the opportunity to boast about his efforts to allegedly “Cut Burdensome Red Tape and Unleash the American Economy.”
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.
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