The big news this week: OSHA issued a final silica rule that dramatically cut permissible exposure limits for silica – limits which hadn’t been updated in four decades. It wasn’t the only news though:

Today, the American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) announced the results of its 2016 election for the AIHA Board of Directors. The new Board members will be inducted at AIHA's Annual Business Meeting on Thursday, May 26, during the 2016 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) in Inner Harbor Baltimore, Md.

The Proposition 65 warning requirement for exposures to BPA, listed as a reproductive toxicant, is effective on May 11, 2016. California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued two proposed regulations -- an emergency regulation for exposure to BPA through ingestion, which permits temporary point of sale warning signage for canned and bottled food and beverages, and a proposed regulation which sets a safe harbor level of 3 mcg/day for dermal absorption of BPA from solid materials.

When he was a kid, Tom Ward thought his dad was Superman, especially because he worked with his hands. When I sat down with Tom a few weeks ago, he talked about how heroic and invincible his father seemed, about his athleticism and his work ethic. But years of working as a sandblaster had taken their toll. They turned out to be this Superman’s kryptonite.

Workers in support occupations in the healthcare and social assistance sector are significantly more likely to smoke cigarettes than are workers in all other occupations in that sector, according to a recent study by investigators at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a final rule to improve protections for workers exposed to respirable silica dust. The rule will curb lung cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease in America's workers by limiting their exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced today a historic commitment by 20 automakers representing more than 99 percent of the U.S. auto market to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on virtually all new cars no later than NHTSA’s 2022 reporting year, which begins Sept 1, 2022.

Every year, thousands of workers across the United States are killed on the job — 4,679 in 2014 alone. Thousands more are seriously injured. Many of these deaths and injuries are entirely preventable when employers put in place basic safety measures. Some even result from company policies and practices that encourage and reward behavior that creates unacceptably risky conditions.

Falling 25 feet to the ground from a roof, being struck in the head by a steel beam as it is transported across a worksite, or getting hit by a vehicle moving supplies–these are only a few examples of why the construction industry has the greatest number of both fatal and nonfatal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) among U.S. workplaces.