Most fear that distracted driving is getting worse. Drivers who report using a cellphone behind the wheel has jumped 46 percent since 2013, and almost half (49 percent) of all drivers report recently talking on a hand-held phone while driving, and nearly 35 percent have sent a text or email.

One of the first actions of the Republican Congress after Trump’s election was to repeal OSHA’s recently issued “Volks Rule” that allowed the agency to cite companies for continuing failure to accurately record injuries and illnesses. Now an article by Will Evans at Reveal shows how real workers are suffering because of automaker Tesla’s failure to record numerous serious injuries and how the company will likely get away with it because of the action of Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump, who signed the repeal bill.

Health advocates are condemning a legislative move made last week by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee that they say will significantly undermine public health by weakening the FDA’s ability to regulate tobacco products. A rider attached to the agriculture funding bill will exempt some types of cigars from FDA oversight and lessen the agency's authority to review the health hazards of thousands of tobacco products.

Generally, Good Samaritan immunity laws are enacted by policymakers to encourage particular types of conduct. For example, the first Good Samaritan law, enacted in California during the 1950s, offered immunity to physicians who voluntarily stopped to render aid to accident victims. The goal of this approach was to encourage physicians to act by reducing the risk of negligence lawsuits.

According to research by Mark V. Sherrid, MD, New York University Langone Medical Center, et al, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in March 2017, certain states require or recommend AED placement in various settings, including schools. Following is a summary, based on this research.

OSHA is proposing a rule to clarify crane operator certification requirements – one which would reinstate the employer's duty to ensure that a crane operator is qualified to safely operate equipment. The agency says a change to the categories of certifications for crane operators under the proposed rule would ensure more operators are able to meet the requirement.

Five years after a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas killed 15 persons, destroyed much of the city, and launched reforms in the way the federal government oversees the safety of the nation’s chemical facilities, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last week told us that he cares more about the concerns of the chemical industry than he does about the millions of Americans living in the shadow of hazardous chemical facilities.

A panel discussion Monday morning offered some insight into the first 17 months of OSHA under the Trump administration. Some questions that arose include: How has the mission or strategy of the Agency changed? How might these changes at the Agency affect worker safety and health? What do we expect based on the regulatory agendas? How has enforcement been affected?

A direct final rule issued by OSHA on May 4 “clarifies” several provisions of the agency’s beryllium standard for general industry, the agency announced in a press release. The provisions addressed in the rule concern processes, operations, or areas where workers may be exposed to materials containing less than 0.1 percent beryllium by weight; the definitions of the terms “beryllium work area,” “emergency,” “dermal contact,” and “beryllium contamination”; disposal and recycling; and dermal exposure to materials that contain at least 0.1 percent beryllium by weight.

OSHA releases its spring regulatory agenda, more tobacco warnings rolled out and the effects of climate change on health were among the top safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.