Working together shapes community. This summer Midwest Special Instruments (MSI) hosted Kendra Palmer Anderson and Lance Anderson from Palmer Associates, who taught a NIOSH spirometry course in Savage, MN.
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last Thursday at a hearing before the full House Education and Workforce Committee, and although I take great pleasure in (deservedly) criticizing Trump administration appointees, he wasn’t terrible — as Trump appointees go. Now let me qualify a bit. I’m focusing only on workplace safety issues, not on any wage and hour, apprenticeship or other labor issues that were addressed during the hearing. Second, his performance varied from fairly decent (regarding enforcement issues) to pretty bad (regarding standard setting and staffing.)
Reviews continue to pour in about President Trumps long delayed nomination of Scott Mugno to be the next Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. In addition to my original post, we have already checked in with Katie Tracy at the Center for Progressive Reform and on the business side, Eric Conn of the law firm Conn Maciel Carey.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which will consider Mugno’s nomination, issued a rather cautious statement:
The man likely to become the next head of OSHA will first have to face a Senate review process – and safety advocacy groups like National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) have some ideas about the topics that should be covered during those sessions.
Scott Mugno, vice president for safety, sustainability and vehicle maintenance at FedEx Ground in Pittsburgh, Pa.. has been nominated by President Trump to lead the agency.
While the new headlines are all about Hurricanes, health care, North Korea and tax “reform,” chickens around the country are getting more and more nervous as the foxes quietly move into the government agencies that are supposed to be protecting them.
In their first 100 days in power, the Trump administration and the Republican Congress have repealed and blocked worker safety regulations that were years, sometimes decades, in the making. Through legislative action, executive orders and the use of the Congressional Review Act, the executive and legislative branches jointly and repeatedly shifted the cost and responsibility of keeping workers safe from corporations to workers and the public.
Silicosis is a lung disease common among construction workers, including lifelong bricklayers. The disease is caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust, created when drills and saws buzz into bricks, concrete, and mortar.
Arizona goes (OSH) rogue, the construction company petitions Acosta to knock down the silica standard and the cause of a crash that killed five bicyclists is revealed. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
ClickSafety, a leading provider of online safety training for the construction and general industries, has launched Spanish language versions of its Respirable Crystalline Silica Awareness in Construction and Respirable Crystalline Silica in Construction for the Exposed Worker.
According to OSHA, 2.3 million workers are exposed to crystalline silica on the job in 676,000 construction, general industry, and maritime workplaces. To better protect these workers, OSHA has finalized two new crystalline silica standards: one for general industry and maritime (1910.1053), and one for construction (1926.1153), both effective June 23, 2016.
