While regulations are being rolled back at the federal level, the state of California is implementing new ones, including a regulation aimed at protecting the state’s health care workers from on-the-job violence that takes effect on April 1, 2017.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt signed an order yesterday denying a petition that sought to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide the agency deemed potentially dangerous to consumers – during the Obama administration. The EPA cited scientific uncertainty about chlorpyrifos’s risks in its decision.

With a fatality rate of 25.1 per 100,000 workers compared to 3.8 for all industries, the landscaping industry’s dangers are obvious – even more so when the numbers are broken down by tasks: landscaping/groundskeeping workers (10.1 per 100,000 workers), pesticide handlers (15.4) and tree trimmer/pruners (an astounding 179.9).

A new checklist developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) can help companies evaluate the effectiveness of their Hearing Loss Prevention Programs* (HLPPs) and better protect their workers from noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

OSHA has delayed the effective date of its rule to lower beryllium exposure limits for a second time, to May 20, 2017. The agency said in a statement that the change will allow for “additional review into questions of law and policy.”

President Trump yesterday began dismantling former President Obama’s efforts to combat climate change, starting with a move to have the EPA formally begin the process of repealing the Clean Power Plan, which calls for a 32 percent cut in the energy industry’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

A Pennsylvania construction worker was killed yesterday in an accident inside a Cheltenham Township bank vault.

This year’s Workers Memorial Day, April 28, will be a little different. In addition to speeches and candlelit ceremonies, processions and pancake breakfasts, there’ll be activism – motivated by what advocates say is the Trump administration’s attacks on workplace safety.

U.S. healthcare facilities are getting some help in tracking sharps incidents and blood and body fluid exposures among their workers – in the form of a new system developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

If confirmed as U.S. labor secretary, will Alexander Acosta enforce OSHA’s already-in-effect silica rule? Or will the Trump nominee follow the president’s anti-regulatory agenda and nullify the regulation?