OSHA has cited R.A.W. Construction LLC for exposing its employees to trench collapse hazards. The Tallahassee-based company faces proposed penalties of $148,845. During its investigation of the company’s Loganville worksite, OSHA identified two repeat and five serious violations, including failing to provide cave-in protection, and safe access and egress to employees installing gas lines at the excavation site, and not setting excavated materials at least 2 feet from the excavation.

OSHA and Bartlett Grain Company LP have signed a comprehensive settlement requiring the company to implement safeguards, training, and audit procedures at its 20 grain handling facilities in six states. The agreement resolves contested citations issued by OSHA in April 2012 after six individuals were killed and two injured as a result of an Oct. 29, 2011, explosion at the Atchison grain elevator.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) and the Occupational Hygiene Training Association® (OHTA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that details several areas of future collaboration. AIHA and OHTA plan to build on current collaborative efforts to promote better standards of occupational hygiene practice throughout the world.

From December 25 to January 1, the South Central, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, and Southeast regions will get hit harder by the flu and colds than other regions of the country, according to projections by WebMD, a leading source of online health information. Using a combination of geo-location data and self-reported information from consumers experiencing influenza-like symptoms such as fever, sore throat, and cough, identified the top five cities expected to be hardest hit: Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Fort Smith, AR/ Fayetteville, AR/ Springdale, OK/ Rogers, OK; San Diego, CA; and Charleston, SC.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is warning that tax legislation approved by Congress “will create a dangerous environment for public health in which millions fewer Americans are insured, key health programs and agencies are desperately underfunded and income inequality is dramatically worsened.” In a statement, the APHA said the legislations’s repeal of the individual health insurance mandate will cause deep automatic cuts to key health programs like Medicare and the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

A video series intended to make ambulances safer for both the patients being transported in them and the EMTs tending to those patients has garnered its creator a new honor. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) safety engineer James Green should be used to the accolades by now. The merit award he just received from the Health Information Resource Center (HIRC) is the latest of four awards he’s wracked up for the seven-part video series he created about ambulance crash test methods.

As retailers and other businesses temporarily increase staffing levels to accommodate heightened seasonal consumer demand, the U.S. Department of Labor is reminding employers of the necessity of complying with federal labor laws related to safety, pay, and benefits. “The busy holiday shopping season places heavy demands on employers and employees, particularly in the retail, warehouse, and delivery sectors."

Federal state and local officials gathered last week in Point Pleasant, West Virginia to commemorate a tragedy. Fifty years ago, during rush hour on Dec. 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge connecting Ohio and West Virginia collapsed into the Ohio River, sending 46 people to their death. Investigators later determined that the collapse was caused by a crack in an eyebar in the bridge’s suspension chain.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) says it’s ready to use its network of members and stakeholders to help address fatal occupational injuries that increased for the third straight year according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The data showed that there were 5,190 workplace fatalities in the United States in 2016, up 7 percent from 2015.