Happy New Year. As we start afresh in 2017 I wanted to share my recent editorial in the British journal, Occupational Medicine, “Occupational health issues in the USA”. The article highlights some of the occupational safety and health issues identified as needing attention by the industry sector groups of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Jasper Roofing Contractors Inc. and its owner/chief executive officer, Brian Wedding, for terminating their safety manager after he cooperated with a safety and health inspection by OSHA. The suit results from an investigation by OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program.

Despite the fact that they cope with heavy patient loads and hazards like sharps injuries, MSDs and workplace violence, nurses receive no training on stress management and burnout prevention. That, says Elizabeth Scala MSN/MBA, RN, is leading to an “all-time high” in burnout levels in the nursing profession that is exacerbating the nursing shortage and affecting the nation’s health care.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) approves of OSHA’s newest white paper. The oldest professional safety organization says “Sustainability in the Workplace: A New Approach for Advancing Worker Safety and Health,” shows that the agency is recognizing the opportunity the corporate sustainability movement provides to encourage better commitment to worker safety and health.

In its annual ‘State of the Air’ report for 2016, the American Lung Association reports that despite the continued improvement in air quality, there are still over 166 million Americans at risk of averse health effects on account of unhealthy air throughout the country.

Nanotechnology is a broad name given to a wide range of technologies and materials that create, manipulate, or use particles that have one thing in common - their size. Nanotechnology (or nanoscience) involves materials that are extremely small and have dimensions roughly between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm).

Hearing loss among U.S. adults aged 20 to 69 has declined over the last decade, even as the population of older Americans continues to grow. These findings, published today in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery , also confirm that hearing loss is strongly associated with age and other demographic factors such as sex, race/ethnicity, and education.

Acting on a complaint, OSHA officers in June 2016 found employees of one of the Verona, New York area's largest general contractors working in an unprotected 10-foot deep excavation at a suburban New Jersey high school, in violation of federal safety and health laws.

From neighbors and traffic to trains and pets, noise is a part of our everyday lives. But there are serious repercussions when it comes to daily exposure to high noise levels. It’s important to stay aware of how noise can affect you—both physically and emotionally—and learn how you can protect yourself from noise pollution.