United States Congressman Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) has introduced a bill that would require OSHA to issue a workplace violence prevention standard for the health care industry. The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, H.R. 7141, directs OSHA to issue a standard requiring health care and social service employers to write and implement a workplace violence prevention plan.

When thinking of workers’ compensation insurance, we typically think of the money and other benefits provided to workers injured on the job. When public health researchers think of this same insurance, they may also see a potential opportunity to learn more information about work-related health and safety hazards.

Temporary workers should be protected from the sudden release of stored energy just as permanent workers are. That reminder from OSHA comes in a newly issued bulletin on lockout/tagout that explains the joint responsibility of host employers and staffing agencies to ensure that temporary employees are properly protected against this serious – potentially fatal - workplace hazard.

There are more than three times as many home cooking fires on Thanksgiving as a typical day of the year, making it by far the leading day for US home cooking fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA®). This sharp spike (a nearly 250 percent increase over the daily average) is a powerful reminder to use caution when cooking this year’s Thanksgiving feast.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Serving as the largest civil settlement in U.S. history, this 1998 court settlement was between 46 states and the District of Columbia and the four major tobacco companies at the time, and provided new protections against the marketing of tobacco products to kids and the opportunity for funding to address tobacco-related diseases in our nation.

A company that provides temporary agriculture labor has been cited by OSHA, after one of its employees died from a heat-related illness. OSHA found that Rivera Agri Inc. failed to protect employees working in excessive heat after a farmworker succumbed to apparent heat-related symptoms while working in a cornfield near Grand Island, Nebraska.

At 5:30 in the morning on November 20th, a huge explosion tore through Consolidation Coal’s Number Nine mine. The force of the blast could be felt for miles. There would be dozens of other explosions in the days to come and intense fires. Ninety-nine miners were underground at the time; 21 managed to make it to the surface, the other 78 all died. Nineteen bodies were never recovered.

It’s a pretty big breakfast meeting and it takes place every four months or so. Approximately 200 members of the General Building Contractors Association’s (GBCA) Philadelphia chapter get together with OSHA representatives three times a year to learn more about improving safety in Philadelphia area construction projects.

From east to west, north to south, both federal OSHA and state-level agencies say busy conducting investigations and issuing citations to companies who violate safety regulations. This review of recent cases indicates a variety of citations issued, for confined space, fall and trenching hazards, among others.