All Power Construction Corp. of Huntsville, Alabama faces $139,684 in proposed penalties following a trench collapse that killed a temporary employee in November 2017. A staffing company, Labor Finders of Tennessee Inc., has $12,934 in penalties levied against it – the maximum allowed.

Although the pharmaceutical industry contends that direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising is educational and motivating, a new analysis reported on in the Annals of Family Medicine finds that the educational value of those TV ads has decreased since 2007.

An OSHA investigation into a fire at a New York State manufacturing facility that claimed the life of an employee uncovered a host of safety hazards – for which the company is facing proposed fines of $281,220. New Windsor-based Verla International LTD was cited by the agency for failing to protect its workers from dangerous chemicals, and other hazards.

Startling new research findings contradict conventional wisdom about opioids – and may help guide the design of pain relievers that do not produce addiction or other adverse effects produced by morphine and other opioid medicines.

The fatality rate in the marine industry may be low compared with other sectors, but more can be done to prevent incidents. That was the message conveyed by the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Office of Marine Safety (OMS) during its recent “safety advocacy tour.”

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) team investigating an explosion at the Husky Energy oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin has narrowed its focus to equipment within the refinery’s Fluid Catalytic Cracking, or FCC, unit. The April 26, 2018 blast injured approximately 20 employees and caused an evacuation of residents in the surrounding area.

Think that hearing damage is usually workplace-related? Actually, activities away from work can damage hearing just as much a noisy job. More than half of all adults with hearing damage do not have noisy jobs. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic health condition in the United States. Almost twice as many people report hearing loss as report diabetes or cancer, with about 40 million adults aged 20–69 years suffering from noise-induced hearing loss.

Farmers in California, the nation’s top agricultural state, are applying near-record levels of pesticides despite the rising popularity of organic produce and concerns about the health of farmworkers and rural schoolchildren. The latest figures, released in April by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and covering 2016, show that 209 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients were used in agriculture.

Hazardous material incident response teams responding to a release or spill and law enforcement officers executing search warrants on opioid processing or distribution sites are some of the first responders who risk coming into contact with fentanyl during the course of their work, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

When Spring is in the air, this man’s fancy turns to (where else?) the 2018 Spring Regulatory Agenda to discover what movement OSHA will be planning to move forward (or backward) to protect American workers from injury, illness and death in the workplace.