Despite a drop in enforcement and staffing under the Trump administration, OSHA has issued some massive fines in recent violations cases. Dowa THT America Inc., a metal heat treatment company based in Bowling Green, Ohio faces $1,326,367 in penalties for exposing its employees to atmospheric, thermal, electrical, and mechanical hazards as they performed maintenance inside heat-treating furnaces.

With April being Stress Awareness Month and millennials reporting the highest average stress levels of any generation, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on 2019's Most & Least Stressed States as well as accompanying videos. To determine the states with the highest stress levels, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 40 key metrics.

Cal/OSHA has cited a Bay Area contractor for serious safety violations after a worker was fatally crushed at a San Rafael construction site on September 18, 2018. Investigators determined that West Coast Land and Development, Inc. did not follow regulations when it stacked plywood vertically without securing it. The accident occurred when two employees of the Concord company were framing and installing a shear wall on the third floor of a house under construction.

A recent survey of 30 metropolitan areas showed a 30% increase from 2014 to 2017 in the average wait time for a new patient to be seen by a doctor. Did the subset of workers seeking treatment for workers comp (WC) injuries experience the same delays? A recent study by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) yielded some surprising results. The NCCI research was designed to answer the question: “Did the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stress the healthcare delivery system and make it more difficult for workers compensation claimants to get medical care?”

Employees of a Georgia contractor who were installing water and sewer lines had no safe means to enter and exit the excavation in which they were working, nor did the trench have a protective cave-in system. Those were among the excavation hazards OSHA investigators found at a Corley Contractors, Inc. worksite in Acworth, Georgia. The Dallas, Georgia-based company faces $106,078 in penalties.

From a symphony orchestra in Maine to an architectural firm in Hawai’i, eight organizations across the United States and Canada have been named winners of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2019 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards. The annual award recognizes employers who implement workplace practices, backed by psychological science, that advance employee health and well-being while increasing performance and productivity.

In the wake of two airline crashes and an emergency landing involving the Boeing 737 MAX plane, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has established what it says is an expert Special Committee to review the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) procedures for certifying new aircraft. A March 10, 2018 crash involving an Ethiopian Airlines flight claimed the lives of all 157 people aboard. The October 29 crash of a Lion Air plane into the Java Sea off Indonesia killed its 189 passengers and crew. Both incidents occurred shortly after takeoff.

Pregnant women who work two or more night shifts per week have an increased risk of miscarriage, according to a study published online yesterday in online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Researchers in the department of occupational and environmental medicine at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen analyzed pregnancy outcomes in nearly 23,000 workers, most of whom were employed in Danish hospitals.

Workplaces can play a large role in improving worker health, resulting in improved community health. But, how can workplaces and communities interact to influence the overall health of workers? Can workers in precarious work arrangements, often characterized by low wages and few or no benefits, rely on their communities to help them in protecting and promoting safer and healthier work?

The growing enthusiasm for the annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction has given rise to a new, similar event: the National Safety Stand-Up for Grain Safety Week. It’s happening this week. The event is designed to raise awareness about the hazards in the grain handling industry, which include engulfment/entrapment; slip, trip, and fall prevention; mechanical hazards; machine guarding; and lockout/tagout. Demonstrations of those hazards – along with discussions about how to abate them, were held at the Asmark Institute Agricenter in Bloomington, Illinois yesterday.