Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As today’s workplace becomes more complex, regulation of that workplace increases. In this section, you’ll find the practical advice you need to understand exactly what OSHA, other federal agencies, and their state counterparts, require of you, and to comply in the ways that best satisfy both your and their needs. Look also for important court decisions, advice on how to handle enforcement actions, and news of upcoming changes in workplace health and safety law.
Free Special Report: What to Expect from an OSHA Inspection
On Friday, we presented three great reasons to attend our Safety Forum event on November 13 and 14 in Orlando, Florida. Here’s yet another: You can gain a compliance advantage in a free workshop led by an OSHA employee. The tips and insights from this session could save your company thousands of dollars!
In a recent enforcement case, the owner of a demolition company was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $7.8 million in restitution for failing to remove asbestos before demolishing a former factory in Cleveland. The alleged criminal action violated the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began enforcing the respirable crystalline silica standard on September 23, 2017. However, for the first 30 days, the Agency offered compliance assistance in lieu of enforcement for those employers that were making good-faith efforts to comply with the new construction standard.
An Anchorage building contractor has withdrawn its contest of nearly $300,000 in fines proposed by Alaska’s state-run safety and health program, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
On October 10, OSHA resumed regular enforcement throughout Texas and Louisiana, having suspended programmed activity in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
It has been two years since Congress enacted enacted legislation requiring federal agencies to adjust their civil penalties to account for inflation. This resulted in the first increase in federal OSHA’s penalty amounts since 1990 – beginning with a whopping one-time increase of 78%. For federal OSHA, the new penalties went into effect for citations […]
United States Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has sent a letter to the acting head of OSHA expressing concern about vacant positions at the agency. In her communication to deputy assistant labor secretary Loren Sweatt, DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, pointed out that despite the lifting of a federal hiring freeze in April, OSHA still has not filled […]
A manufacturer of rigid metal, plastic, and hybrid containers faces more than half a million dollars in proposed penalties after OSHA inspectors responded to four separate reports of injuries at a Chicago plant. The company is based in Atlanta and has 27 facilities about 4,000 employees, including 500 in Chicago.
At the National Safety Council (NSC) Congress & Expo 2017 in Indianapolis, Patrick Kapust, Deputy Director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, announced OSHA’s top 10 most cited violated for fiscal year (FY) 2017 in a packed NSC Learning Lab on the expo floor.
OSHA’s new respirable crystalline silica in construction standard took effect September 23. But the agency will not be aggressively enforcing provisions during the first 30 days.