Question

Research OSHA. What are some of the new standards and laws its recently developed

Answer 1

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. OSHA is currently headed by Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor Loren Sweatt. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects to employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival. OSHA officially formed on April 28, 1971. The OSHA Act covers most private sector employers and their workers, in addition to some public sector employers and workers in the 50 states and certain territories and jurisdictions under federal authority.

By OSHA law, employers must provide their workers with a workplace that does not have serious risks and must follow all OSHA safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act grants OSHA the authority to issue workplace health and safety regulations. These regulations include limits on hazardous chemical exposure, employee access to risk information, requirements for the use of personal protective equipment, and requirements to prevent falls and risks from operating dangerous equipment. n its first year of operation, OSHA was permitted to adopt regulations based on guidelines set by certain standards organizations, such as the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, without going through all of the requirements of a typical rulemaking. In 2000, OSHA issued an ergonomics standard. In March 2001, Congress voted to repeal the standard through the Congressional Review Act.

Since 2001, OSHA has issued the following standards:

• 2002: Exit Routes, Emergency Action Plans, and Fire Prevention Plans
• 2004: Commercial Diving Operations
• 2004: Fire Protection in Shipyards
• 2006: Occupational Exposure to Hexavalent Chromium.
• 2006: Assigned Protection Factors for Respiratory Protection Equipment
• 2007: Electrical Installation Standard
• 2007: Personal Protective Equipment Payment (Clarification)
• 2008: Vertical Tandem Lifts
• 2010: Cranes and Derricks in Construction
• 2010: General Working Conditions in Shipyards
• 2012: GHS Update to the Hazard Communication Standard
• 2014: New Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements for Employers
• 2014: Revision to Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution; Electrical Protective Equipment
• 2016: Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica.
• 2016: Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses.
• 2016: Update General Industry Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection Standards.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued several new regulations in the last months of 2016, set to go into effect in January 2017.

To clear up some of the confusion, let’s look at the two major regulations that will go into effect in January:

1. Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (including new regulations for drug testing)-

        It has several components, and was introduced to protect employees from retaliation when reporting an injury on the job. Specifically, it states that employers must have a reasonable procedure for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses, and employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees for reporting an injury. According to OSHA’s rule, a reporting procedure is reasonable “if it is not unduly burdensome and would not deter a reasonable employee from reporting. Under OSHA’s new rule, it would not be reasonable for the employer to discipline the worker for not reporting the injury immediately when they first experienced minor pain.

        Some employers implement a proactive workplace early intervention program. In this type of program, a physical therapist or athletic trainer is stationed at the workplace on a regular basis.

      Another component of the Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule involves drug testing. Many employers panicked when they first saw this regulation, because it states that companies can be subject to citations for “blanket drug testing” after injuries. f there is reasonable suspicion that an injury was caused by alcohol intoxication or drugs, an employer can test for drugs.

2. Update to General Industry Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection Standards-

This rule scheduled to go into effect in January 2017 . Slips, trips, and falls from heights or a working surface are a leading cause of injury on the job. Index indicates that most falls are same-level falls. OSHA’s new regulation update gives employers more flexibility to choose which fall protection system to use to prevent falls, instead of mandating guardrails as a primary method of protection. According to Business Insurance, this rule is employer-friendly and therefore likely to stand under the new administration. Issues like obesity, previous injury, hip strength, ankle stability strongly influence balance which in turn affects whether a person will fall after encountering a slippery or uneven surface. So addressing those human factors is important.