OSHA has recently been granted an increase to their fine structure. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 had exempted OSHA from increasing penalties to adjust for inflation. The new budget, signed into law on November 2, 2015,...

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), four million people go to work each day exposed to damaging noise, 10 million people in the U.S. have noise-related hearing loss, and 22 million workers are exposed to po...

On August 7, 2015, OSHA provided a notice for a proposed rule for Occupational Exposure to Beryllium and Beryllium Compounds. It should be noted that this process did not start in 2015 but on November 26, 2002. This proposed rule not only updates the...

OSHA has previously issued guidance directed to the health care industry for safe patient handling procedures and now intends to enforce this guidance. With its recent announcement OSHA is indicating they will now inspect the facility’s patient and/o...

Evaluation of employee’s exposure to airborne contaminants is one of the disciplines within the occupational safety and health field. Most safety and health professionals usually use the recommended exposure limits or RELs from the CDC’s National Ins...

Did you know OSHA issued a memorandum to its regions on June 25, 2015, providing further inspection guidance for inpatient healthcare settings? Are you prepared? This applies to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Major Groups 622 (...

Part III of this series examines some of the key requirements for employers under the new confined space regulations

Part I of this Three Part Series on Confined Spaces in Construction identified the existing confined space standard in Construction (29 CFR 1926.21(b) and the newly adopted Final Rule 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA that goes into effect in August 2015. This ...

For years, many of us in the Construction field have heard the same old excuses from contractors working unsafely in confined spaces. Statements like “We don’t have a confined space standard in Construction”, have been heard countless times by safety...

Hepatitis B is a virus that can cause serious and even life threatening disease by interfering with the many functions of the liver through viral replication. It is a bloodborne pathogen as the mode of transmission is through contact with blood and b...