A lawsuit by meat plant workers against the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, claiming the agency failed to protect them from COVID-19, has been dismissed by a Pennsylvania federal judge.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a research agenda for critical issues involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should focus on essential workers involved in critical continuity functions in the United States, according to NIOSH.
Lingering asbestos persists as a threat to homeowners, construction workers, and even agricultural workers. However, in industrial settings, newly manufactured materials and products may also contain asbestos, as the U.S. limit is at one percent.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 2019 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis earlier this year, and companies across the nation are actively working to reduce their chemical footprint. Despite a minor increase in the Pacific Southwest Region, the overall release of TRI chemicals was down by 9 percent in 2019.
As humans experienced the first global pandemic since 1918, it also experienced a multitude of missed opportunities that would have mitigated the frequency and severity of COVID-19 exposures and infections. Contrary to many messages communicated by politicians, the pandemic is not a political issue. Instead, it is a hazard, subject to scientific hazard control.
OSHA announced its preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2020. As is usually the case, the Top 10 violations didn’t change from FY 2019, they just swapped numbers.
For more than a decade, OSHA has placed an emphasis on combustible dust hazards, which have resulted in numerous deadly incidents over the years. While no OSHA standard directly addresses combustible dust, this has not hindered OSHA enforcement.
Despite two severe amputation injuries in 2018 and 2020 on the same machine at a Lakewood, New Jersey, ice cream manufacturing plant, a recent federal safety and health inspection found the company continued to ignore protocols designed to prevent other workers from suffering similar injuries.
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