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While regulations on the federal level are being repealed or delayed, the rulemaking process is still going strong at the state level – as demonstrated by California’s approval last week of a tough new oil refinery safety regulation.

As a person with bipolar disorder, mental illness feels like a balancing act. In order to stay healthy, I have to be sure to take my meds, get enough sleep, and stay attuned to my mood. I am always aware of the potential for the symptoms of mania and depression to recur, and must be prepared to manage them.

Smokers who received frequent, tailored emails with quitting tips, motivational messages, and social support had cessation rates rivaling that of the most effective medication available for cessation, according to a new American Cancer Society (ACS) study. The study appears in Tobacco Control.

Last week wasn’t a good one for New York City’s construction industry, which has come under increasing criticism for taking safety shortcuts under pressure from high-end developers eager to capitalize on the city’s building boom.

I’m not sure that was their intention, but what could make hiring undocumented workers more attractive than passing a law that “prohibits undocumented workers from receiving payments if injured on the job?”

If a President or Congress want to dismantle worker protections or other government programs, they don’t have to repeal or change legislation; they can work their damage through the budget process. Slash the budget of a program you don’t like, and those protections no longer exist. Check out the President’s proposed budget in that context.

With more plastic-based products on the market than ever before, concern about the work-related risks of the chemicals used to make them is increasing. One of these chemicals is styrene, a compound used extensively in plastic and rubber for cars, food packaging, boats, and many other products.

Winemakers could soon receive a tax break that would spur production of higher-alcohol wines, a move that would pad their bottom lines but that has health advocates seeing red.

Fifteen workplaces. Eighty-seven hazards corrected so that companies were not fined $609,000 in enforcement penalties. Approximately 3,197 employees made safer.

Cal/OSHA has cited two companies $352,570 for multiple workplace safety and health violations, including ten serious and three willful category violations, following an incident in which a worker lowered into a 50-foot drainage shaft fell to his death. Neither D&D Construction Specialties, Inc. nor Tyler Development, Inc. followed permit required confined space procedures to work in confined spaces.