EHS News

OSHA is about to launch a year-long National Emphasis Program (NEP) of on-site inspections at several hundred facilities to review injury and illness records from 2007 and 2008. Details of the $1 million program were revealed at a July 15 meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health by Dave Schmidt, an economist in OSHA’s Office of Statistical Analysis.

On July 16, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health released the results of the most recent of a series of national polls that focused on Americans' views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in the fall or winter. The most recent polling was done June 22-28, 2009.  Approximately six in ten Americans (59%) believe it is very or somewhat likely that there will be widespread cases of Influenza A (H1N1) with people getting very sick this coming fall or winter.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab laid out their vision of OSHA’s new agenda at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ annual professional development conference, held in San Antonio beginning on June 29. 

A June 18 report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) found OSHA’s internal controls for its Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) “are not sufficient to ensure that only qualified worksites participate in the VPP.”

The report found OSHA lacks a policy requiring documentation in VPP files regarding follow-up actions in response to fatalities and serious injuries at VPP sites. This lack of documentation hinders the national office’s ability to ensure regions are reviewing sites’ safety and health systems in order to determine whether sites should remain in VPP.

OSHA is seeking nominations for people to serve on the 12-member National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. NACOSH members advise the Secretaries of Labor and Health and Human Services on matters relating to the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Among the seven positions open for appointment are one management representative, one health professional representative, one safety professional representative, two public representatives and two labor representatives.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Pandemic on June 11, 2009, 76 global organizations gathered at an International SOS Pandemic Planning seminar. A synopsis of the event chaired by leading virology expert, Professor John Oxford, was provided to ORC by International SOS. (See attachment below.)

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC), has announced that it will conduct a public meeting to discuss current respirator standards development projects for Supplied Air Respirators (SAR); Air Fed Ensembles; and Total Inward Leakage (TIL) for respirators other than filtering facepieces and halfmasks. There will be an opportunity for discussion following NIOSH's presentations and an accompanying poster session. The meeting will take place from 8:30 a.m.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the pandemic alert to Phase 6.  Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5 . Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.