Government Affairs News

OSHA has developed stronger safety guidance to help employers implement coronavirus protection programs and identify risks that could lead to exposure.

This week's Safety News You Need highlights developments from OSHA, including COVID-19 guidance, and an agreement with the EPA to improve worker safety.

Actions by the Biden Administration are expected to improve COVID-19 protections for workers and accelerate the country's response to the pandemic.

This week’s Safety News You Need shares updates on OSHA, NIOSH and the Biden nominee for secretary of labor.

ASSP urges employers to adopt voluntary national consensus standards and implement safety and health management systems in response to newly released fatality data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 5,333 fatal work injuries in 2019, the most since 2007.

New OSHA guidance provides employers insight into which OSHA standards have been most frequently cited during COVID-19-related inspections.

Congress has introduced new legislation that would provide a credit of up to $4,000 to enable people who have become unemployed during 2020 to access professional skills training.

Ruling by an administrative law judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission calls into question scientific basis of elements of well-known heat index chart. How will this impact how OSHA cites heat-related violations?

On July 15, 2020, the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board, passed first-in-the-nation standards to address COVID-19 in workplaces. Virginia is a state-plan state that operates its own occupational safety and health program.

OSHA has amended its standard for occupational exposure to beryllium. The revisions will take effect Sept. 14, 2020.

CDC's toolkit webpage provides a wide range of resources for communicating about COVID-19 to a variety of audiences.

Through its Alliance program, OSHA has created a recurring digest of COVID-19 resources that are published on its webpage and those of several other agencies and organizations.

A new compliance directive from OSHA gives compliance safety and health officers with guidance on how to enforce the agency's silica standards’ requirements.

OSHA and ASSP recently partnered to deliver a webinar on trenching safety. Watch it now on-demand.

OSHA has issued new Guidance on Returning to Work to help employers as they reopen nonessential businesses and have employees return to work during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently ruled that OSHA’s process in adopting “start-up standards” in 1971, many of which OSHA still enforces, was permissible and the standards may be enforced.

OSHA has published a series of frequently asked questions and answers regarding the use of masks in the workplace, and explains the differences between cloth face coverings, surgical masks and respirators.

Construction employers and workers need to understand how they can protect themselves from COVID-19 exposure on the job site. New OSHA guidance offers insights into assessing worker risk level and controls to help prevent exposure.

OSHA has revised two of its COVID-19 enforcement policies to assess an employer’s actions as economies begin to reopen.