President-elect Joe Biden named 16 health experts to his Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board on Monday, advancing his plans despite uncertainty over how much the Trump administration will cooperate amid its ongoing legal challenge to the election results. The coronavirus has spread at alarming rates in the U.S. in recent weeks. The panel will be co-chaired by three people: former Food…
U.S. workplace injury rate remained unchanged in 2019 Private industry employers reported 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2019, unchanged from 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. In 2019, the incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) in private industry was 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers – the same rate reported in 2018 and…
OSHA inspections decline, fall protection violations top the list, cloth masks aren’t considered PPE
OSHA inspections decline 35% in fiscal year 2020 OSHA conducted just 21,589 inspections during fiscal year 2020, down 35% from 33,401 in fiscal 2019, according to a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Employers’ attempts to overturn citations issued by federal OSHA declined in fiscal 2020, according to a report from the panel that hears those cases, according to…
California nursing home fined nearly $100K for COVID-19-related workplace violations California state workplace regulators issued one of the largest fines yet to a Bakersfield, CA nursing home for COVID-19 related workplace violations, according to McKnight’s Business Daily. Kingston Healthcare Center, a 184-bed skilled nursing facility, received a fine of $92,500 as a result of numerous violations detailed in a 23-page citation…
This year, we’ve been tracking consumer environmental concern and sustainability messaging from brands during the COVID-19 crisis to monitor whether these issues would again take a back seat in light of current challenges. We polled consumers across the globe in 2019 and again at the peak of COVID-19 to explore whether attitudes have changed, and to what extent, according to…
Accompanying the outbreak of the pandemic were persistent reports of good ecological news. Some of these reports appear to be true – such as reduced emissions due to less travel on the road and in the air. Other reports appear to be less credible – such as dolphins returning to Venice, according to an article in Forbes. But even if all reports were…
How to help employees with mental health issues The combination of lockdowns, unemployment and anxiety over the threat of your vulnerable loved ones or you contracting the Coronavirus with unknown consequences has fueled a significant jump in mental health problems, according to an article in EHS Today magazine. As an employer, do you know how to deal with these issues…
Businesses and workplaces have pointed to plexiglass dividers as one tool they are using to keep people safe against the spread of the virus, according to a CNN report. But it’s important to know there’s little data to support their effectiveness, and even if there were, the barriers have their limits, according to epidemiologists and aerosol scientists, who study airborne…
For over four decades Mary Nichols has been the regulator behind some of the nation’s most ambitious climate policies and in recent years she’s been their staunchest defender against President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle them, according to an Associated Press report. With Joe Biden heading to the White House, Nichols hopes she is not done yet. Nichols, 75, ends…
On November 19, 2020, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) adopted an emergency temporary standard (ETS) on Coronavirus (COVID-19) prevention in the workplace. On November 30, 2020, following approval from the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), the emergency standard was filed with the Secretary of State and took immediate effect. Phlymar Regulatory Roundtable (PRR) Director Elizabeth Treanor…