We could see history being made here. Many DC sources tell us the same thing: Dr. Michaels “loves” his job, according to one source, and has made it known in DC he wants to stay on. It would be the first time in OSHA’s 40+ year history that an OSHA chief has stayed in place for a president’s second term.
This would be Richard Fairfax, currently deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Fairfax has worked in numerous positions at the agency since joining in 1980. One source who knows Fairfax says he is the longest-serving careerist at OSHA.
For some time now I have contended we are, and have been for probably 10-15 years, in the post-OSHA era. Remember Al Gore’s attempt to “reinvent” OSHA to be more “customer friendly”? Specifically I am referring to OSHA standards-setting.
Many global EHS managers travel abroad about once a quarter. Thirty-eight percent make three to four trips to foreign countries each year. And they put in long days at foreign sites.
The first thing we noticed in this year’s annual White Paper EHS State of the Nation reader survey was age. It could be that morbid mindset that seems to settle in with age: the older you get the more you tend to check ages.
Safety manufacturers and distributors sourcing products from China, competing against products from China, or selling to China, will find no drop-off in the boom times in the Middle Kingdom in 2013.
Safety manufacturers and distributors have been targeting the oil and gas industry (as well as mining and alternative energy industries) as one of the strongest markets coming out of the Great Recession of 2008.
