The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced the availability of an estimated $103 million in American Rescue Plan funding over a three-year period to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the health workforce.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Making Workplaces Safer
Monday, November 5, 2012
OSHA urges hurricane recovery workers to protect themselves against hazards
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Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Workers’ Compensation Insurer Responses to COVID-19
This free NIOSH Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies (CWCS) webinar will highlight the ways that many insurers are responding to COVID 19:
- Communicating prevention programs
- Providing funding for engineering controls and PPE
- Providing remote risk control services
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Jerry Brown vetoes public safety death benefits bill
Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Sunday that would have extended the statute of limitations for survivors of public safety officers to file a workers' compensation claim for death benefits.
Assembly Bill 1373, by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, would have extended the time limits for survivors' claims for injuries while on duty to 480 weeks from 240 weeks in cases involving cancer, tuberculosis or blood-borne infections diseases. Brown vetoed a broader version of the bill last year, and in vetoing an unrelated bill Saturday regarding the timeliness of sex abuse victims' claims, the Democratic governor delivered a virtual treatise on the significance of statutes of limitation. In his veto message, Brown said the measure is "identical to the one I vetoed last year." "At that time, I outlined the information needed to properly evaluate the implications of this bill," he wrote. "I have not yet received that information." In his veto a year ago of Assembly Bill 2451, Brown said there was "little more than anecdotal evidence" available to determine how to balance "serious fiscal constraints faced at all levels of government against our shared priority to adequately and fairly compensate the families of those public safety heroes who succumb to work-related injuries and disease." This year's bill was backed by labor unions representing firefighters and law enforcement officers, who argued existing law fails to provide for the families of... |
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Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Governor Murphy Reinstates Public Health Emergency Triggering Presumptions of Compensability
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
NJ Governor Murphy Signs Legislation to Protect First Responders, Including 9/11 Volunteers
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900jon@gelmans.com has been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Friday, March 5, 2010
OSHA is Listening
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) held a public meeting, "OSHA Listens," to solicit comments and suggestions from OSHA stakeholders on key issues facing the agency. The meeting was scheduled for Feb. 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST in Washington, D.C.
"Public involvement in the government's activities is a priority for this administration and is important to enhancing OSHA efforts to protect the safety and health of workers," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. "This public meeting gives us an opportunity to hear your ideas, suggestions and comments on key issues facing this agency."
Some of the questions OSHA invited public input on included:
- What can the agency do to enhance and encourage the efforts of employers, workers and unions to identify and address workplace hazards?
- What are the most important emerging or unaddressed health and safety issues in the workplace, and what can OSHA do to address these?
- How can the agency improve its efforts to engage stakeholders in programs and initiatives?
- What specific actions can the agency take to enhance the voice of workers in the workplace, particularly workers who are hard to reach, do not have ready access to information about hazards or their rights, or are afraid to exercise their rights?
- Are there additional measures to improve the effectiveness of the agency's current compliance assistance efforts and the on site consultation program, to ensure that small businesses have the information needed to provide safe workplaces?
- Given the length and difficulty of the current OSHA rulemaking process, and given the need for new standards that will protect workers from unaddressed, inadequately addressed and emerging hazards, are there policies and procedures that will decrease the time to issue final standards so that OSHA may implement needed protections in a timely manner?
- As we continue to progress through a new information age vastly different from the environment in which OSHA was created, what new mechanisms or tools can the agency use to more effectively reach high risk employees and employers with training, education and outreach? What is OSHA doing now that may no longer be necessary?
- Are there indicators, other than worksite injuries and illness logs, that OSHA can use to enhance resource targeting?
- In the late 1980s, OSHA and its stakeholders worked together to update the Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) (exposure limits for hazardous substances; most adopted in 1971), but the effort was unsuccessful. Should updating the PELs be a priority for the agency? Are there suggestions for ways to update the PELs, or other ways to control workplace chemical exposures?
Meeting Agenda
9 a.m. Welcome and Introductory Comments
David Michaels, Assistant Secretary, OSHA
Deborah Berkowitz, Chief of Staff, OSHA
9:10-9:50 Panel 1
Tonya Ford, Uncle killed at ADM facility in 2009
Katherine Rodriguez, Father killed at British Petroleum in 2004
Wanda Morillo, Husband killed in a NJ industrial explosion in 2005
Celeste Monforton, American Public Health Association
Linda Reinstein, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
9:50-10:30 Panel 2
Marc Freedman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Keith Smith, National Association of Manufacturers
Frank White, ORC
Stephen Sandherr, Association of General Contractors
10:30-10:40 Break
10:40-11:20 Panel 3
Workers United
Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO
Scott Schneider, Laborers' Health and Safety Fund
Mike Wright, United Steel Workers
11:20-11:50 Panel 4
Chris Patton, American Society for Safety Engineers
Katharine Kirkland, Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics
Aaron Trippler, American Industrial Hygiene Association
11:50-12:30 Panel 5
Kathleen McPhaul, American Public Health Association, Univ. of Maryland Nursing
Hestor Lipscomb, Duke University Medical School
Rick Neitzel, National Hearing Conservation Association
Matt Schudtz, University of Maryland Law School
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:00 Panel 6
Karen Harned, Nat'l Federation of Independent Business, Small Business Legal Center
Cynthia Hilton, Institute of Makers of Explosives
Thomas Slavin, Navistar, Inc.
2:00-2:30 Panel 7
Andrew Youpel, Brandenburg Industrial Service Company
Robert Matuga, National Association of Home Builders
Tom Broderick, Construction Safety Council
2:30-3:00 Panel 8
Don Villarejo, California Institute for Rural Studies
Luzdary Giraldo, NY Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
Roger Cook/Peter Dooley, Western NY Council on Occupational Safety and Health
3:00-3:40 Panel 9
Rick Engler, NJ Work Environmental Council
Tom O'Connor, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
Norman Pflanz, Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law
Chris Trahan, Building and Construction Trades Department
3:40-3:50 Break
3:50-4:10 Panel 10
John Masarick, Independent Electrical Contractors
Davis Layne, VPPPA
4:10-4:40 Panel 11
Bruce Lapham, Valcourt Building Services, LC
Scott A. Mugno, FedEx Express
Marc Kolanz, Brush Wellman Inc.
4:40-5:10 Panel 12
Pamela Vossenas, Unite Here! International
John Morawetz, International Chemical Workers Union Council
Dinkar Mokadam, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
5:10-5:50 Panel 13
Rick Inclima, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Jason Zuckerman, Employment Law Group
Richard Renner, National Whistleblowers Center
Tim Sharp, Alaska Review Board & Laborer's Council
Click here to read more about OSHA and workers' compensation.
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Workers' Compensation Judges Exempt from Gun Permit Requirement
A Federal Judge, in a multifaceted decision, upheld a New Jersey law exemption that allows specific individuals to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Workers’ compensation judges actively handling cases are one of the groups of individuals who are exempt from the permit requirement.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
OSHA Sued to Implement Mandatory Worker Safety Standards at Meatpacking Facilities
Thursday, October 29, 2020
NJ Takes Action to Put Workers’ Health Ahead of Covid
Building on ongoing efforts to safeguard New Jersey’s frontline workforce, Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order No. 192, providing mandatory health and safety standards to protect all New Jersey’s workers at work during the pandemic.
Friday, August 19, 2016
NIOSH to Hold Meeting on Motor Vehicle Safety
Monday, March 7, 2022
COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Lifted - Terminating The Rebuttable Presumption
At his final COVID-19 press briefing, NJ Governor Phil Murphy announced the signing of Executive Order No. 292, which lifts the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. The order effectively ends the liberalized span of time that established a rebuttable presumption in favor of the employee as to the causal relationship between employment and COVID-19 on March 7, 2022.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Why Do Roofers Fall From Roofs? Is it just because of gravity?
Friday, January 3, 2014
OSHA announces proposed new rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses
The public will have 90 days, through Feb. 6, 2014, to submit written comments on the proposed rule. On Jan. 9, 2014, OSHA will hold a public meeting on the proposed rule in Washington, D.C. A Federal Register notice announcing the public meeting will be published shortly.OSHA is also proposing that establishments with 20 or more employees, in certain industries with high injury and illness rates, be required to submit electronically only their summary of work-related injuries and illnesses to OSHA once a year. Currently, many such firms report this information to OSHA under OSHA's Data Initiative.The proposed rule was developed following a series of stakeholder meetings in 2010 to help OSHA gather information about electronic submission of establishment-specific injury and illness data. OSHA is proposing to amend its current recordkeeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers are already required to keep under existing standards, Part 1904. The first proposed new requirement is for establishments with more than 250 employees (and who are already required to keep records) to electronically submit the records on a quarterly basis to OSHA.
OSHA plans to eventually post the data online, as encouraged by President Obama's Open Government Initiative. Timely, establishment-specific injury and illness data will help OSHA target its compliance assistance and enforcement resources more effectively by identifying workplaces where workers are at greater risk, and enable employers to compare their injury rates with others in the same industry. Additional information on the proposed rule can be found athttp://www.dol.gov/find/20131107/ and http://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/proposed_data_form.html.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
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Sunday, November 8, 2020
Halting Workplace COVID-19 Transmission: An Urgent Proposal to Protect American Workers
Friday, May 27, 2011
Occupational Safety Recognized as One of the Top Ten Great Health Achievements
Occupational Safety
Significant progress was made in improving working conditions and reducing the risk for workplace-associated injuries. For example, patient lifting has been a substantial cause of low back injuries among the 1.8 million U.S. health-care workers in nursing care and residential facilities. In the late 1990s, an evaluation of a best practices patient-handling program that included the use of mechanical patient-lifting equipment demonstrated reductions of 66% in the rates of workers' compensation injury claims and lost workdays and documented that the investment in lifting equipment can be recovered in less than 3 years (45). Following widespread dissemination and adoption of these best practices by the nursing home industry, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed a 35% decline in low back injuries in residential and nursing care employees between 2003 and 2009.
The annual cost of farm-associated injuries among youth has been estimated at $1 billion annually (46). A comprehensive childhood agricultural injury prevention initiative was established to address this problem. Among its interventions was the development by the National Children's Center for Rural Agricultural Health and Safety of guidelines for parents to match chores with their child's development and physical capabilities. Follow-up data have demonstrated a 56% decline in youth farm injury rates from 1998 to 2009 (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, unpublished data, 2011).
In the mid-1990s, crab fishing in the Bering Sea was associated with a rate of 770 deaths per 100,000 full-time fishers. Most fatalities occurred when vessels overturned because of heavy loads. In 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard implemented Dockside Stability and Safety Checks to correct stability hazards. Since then, one vessel has been lost and the fatality rate among crab fishermen has declined to 260 deaths per 100,000 full-time fishers.
Reported by: Domestic Public Health Achievements Team, CDC. Corresponding contributor: Ram Koppaka, MD, PhD, Epidemiology and Analysis Program Office, Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, CDC; rkoppaka@cdc.gov, 347-396-2847.
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Friday, November 30, 2012
OSHA cites Mississippi Phosphates for 40 safety and health violations following 2 worker fatalities
OSHA has cited the company for three serious safety violations related to the fatalities, including exposing workers to "struck-by" hazards by not protecting them against overpressurization, and failing to maintain and service equipment in accordance with the company's maintenance program to prevent overpressurization.
An additional 23 serious safety violations involve failing to test and inspect pressure relief devices throughout the facility, provide handrails on fixed stairways, guard floor holes that could cause workers to trip and fall, provide fixed stairs to access tank gauging, address engineering controls during a process hazard analysis, and guard belt roller nip points, horizontal shafts, rotating shafts and horizontal V-belts. The violations also include various electrical hazards such as exposing workers to shocks, missing panel knockouts, broken face plates, unguarded light bulbs and an open ground in an outlet circuit.
Ten serious health violations involve failing to conduct an initial process hazard analysis, update the process hazard analysis every five years, conduct compliance audits for process safety management and determine the presence of asbestos prior to working on equipment, as well as to label hazardous substances such as caustic soda, acid and petroleum products that are used throughout the facility. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
One repeat health violation has been cited for a lack of housekeeping. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. A similar violation was cited in May 2009.
Three other-than-serious safety violations are failing to mount a fire extinguisher so it is readily available, not labeling circuit breakers, and using flexible cords and equipment cables that do not have strain relief. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.
"Employers need to be proactive to ensure that all operating equipment is properly maintained and functional," said Clyde Payne, director of OSHA's Jackson Area Office. "Had this employer done so, these tragic events could have been prevented."
Mississippi Phosphates is a producer and marketer of diammonium phosphate, which is used as a fertilizer. The company's manufacturing facilities consist of two sulfuric acid plants, a phosphoric acid plant and diammonium phosphate granulation plant.
The citations for the serious and repeat violations carry total proposed penalties of $165,900. The citations for the other-than-serious violations do not carry monetary penalties. All citations can be viewed at
- http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Mississippi_Phosphates_Corp_491760_11-20-2012.pdf
- http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Mississippi_Phosphates_Corp_439251_11-20-2012.pdf
- http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Mississippi_Phosphates_Corp_506258_11-20-2012.pdf
- http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Mississippi_Phosphates_Corp_452057_11-20-2012.pdf
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Jackson office at 601-965-4606.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
Read more about OSHA
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Engineering and Physical Sciences
Biological Sciences
Human Studies
- Couch JR, Petersen MR, Rice CR, Schubauer-Berigan MK. Development of retrospective quantitative and qualitative job-exposure matrices for exposures at a beryllium processing facility. Occ Environ Med. Published online October 25, 2010. doi: 10.1136/oem.2010.056630.
- Schubauer-Berigan MK, Couch JR, Petersen MR, Carreón T, Jin Y, Deddens JA. Cohort mortality study of workers at seven beryllium processing plants: update and associations with cumulative and maximum exposure. Occ Environ Med. Published online October 15, 2010.doi:10.1136/oem.2010.056481.
- Schubauer-Berigan MK, Deddens JA, Couch JR, Petersen MR. Risk of lung cancer associated with quantitative beryllium exposure metrics within an occupational cohort. Occup Environ Med. Published online November 16, 2010. doi: 10.1136/oem.2010.056515.
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