Global Safety and Health Forum

In a July 19 letter to OSHA staff, Assistant Secretary David Michaels wrote: "After forty years, OSHA needs a fundamental transformation in the way we address workplace hazards, and in our relationship to employers and workers."  His letter outlined the goals (identified by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis) for which OSHA shares responsibility with other Department of Labor agencies, i.e., securing safe and healthy workplaces, particularly in high-risk industries; and ensuring workers' voice in the workplace, and attached a list of strategies formulated by the Secretary for

ORC is forming a Task Force to address the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on May 24.  (See http://orc-dc.com/?q=node/3576 to get a copy of this proposal.)  Currently comments and requests for public hearing are due by August 23, 2010. 

An April 22, 2010 memorandum from OSHA Administrator David Michaels to the agency's Regional Administrators outlines "Administrative Enhancements to OSHA's Penalty Policies" that will be implemented as agency personnel are trained over the next several months.  The action is being taken in response to an agency work group's finding that "the Agency's penalties are too low to have an adequate deterrent  effect."  The changes are intended to result in higher average

OSHA's Roster of National Advisory Committee members for Fiscal Year 2010 is attached below.  We are pleased that two ORC members hold positions on NACOSH.

This survey was prompted by an ORC member seeking information on how other multinational companies manage recordkeeping consistency between workplace safety and health incidents in Europe compared with other parts of the world.   Specifically, very similar incidents occurring in different regions result in very different recordkeeping outcomes/classifications (based on the US OSHA recordkeeping system).

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), are hosting an International Conference on Commercial Driver Health and Wellness, November 8–10, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Conference objectives are:

On January 12, 2010, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Safety Council President Janet Froetscher announced the creation of FocusDriven, the first national nonprofit organization devoted specifically to raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. The group will be led by Jennifer Smith, who has been an outspoken advocate against distracted driving since her mother was killed by someone talking on his cell phone while driving in 2008.

OSHA has announced two additional informal stakeholder meetings on the workplace hazards of combustible dust. OSHA plans to use the information gathered at these meetings in developing a proposed standard for combustible dust.

ORC is forming a Task Force to address the issues associated with regulation of combustible dust. One of the first tasks is to review the questions set out in OSHA's October 21 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and to develop an ORC response to the issues raised in the notice. ORC plans to hold at least one Task Force meeting to develop the comments.