May 26, 2020

OSHA Will Examine if Employers Determined Whether Employee COVID-19 Cases are Work Related for Purposes of Recording Workplace Injury and Illnesses

On May 19, 2019, OSHA issued another enforcement guidance memorandum
regarding recording COVID-19 cases that rescinds the prior guidance and obligates employers to make at least some work-related determinations regarding employees who contract COVID-19. The new memorandum goes into effect May 26, 2020, and will remain in effect until further notice.

By way of background, OSHA has explained that a COVID-19 case is a recordable illness if (1) an employee is positive or presumptively positive for COVID-19; (2) the case is work-related; and (3) the case results in medical treatment beyond first aid or days away from work. For employers, the "million-dollar" question remains: How does an employer determine whether an employee's COVID-19 case is work-related such that it is recordable on the employer's Injury and Illness logs?

OSHA's May 19 memorandum seeks to help employers address this question.

To start, OSHA will exercise its enforcement discretion to assess employers' efforts in making work-related determinations. This means that employers, at a minimum, must undertake an investigation to determine whether the COVID-19 case is work-related.

To this end, when an employer learns of an employee's COVID-19 illness, the employer should, at a minimum:

Ask the employee how he believes he contracted the COVID-19 illness;
 
While respecting employee privacy, discuss with the employee his work and out-of-work activities that may have led to the COVID-19 illness; and
 
Review the employee's work environment for potential COVID-19 exposure.

The employer should base its work-related determination should be based on the information reasonably available it at the time; however, if the employer later learns more information related to an employee's COVID-19 illness, the employer should then take that information into account and revisit whether the illness is work-related.

The memorandum explains that after a reasonable and good faith inquiry, if the employer cannot determine whether it is more likely than not that exposure in the workplace played a causal role with respect to a particular case of COVID-19, the employer does not need to record that COVID-19 illness.

The memorandum instructs Compliance Officers to consider the questions below when determining whether an employer has complied with its recording obligation. That is, evidence and information regarding answers to these questions may weigh in favor of or against work-relatedness.

Read memorandum at:

May 21, 2020

Department of Energy Announces $67 Million to Enhance Manufacturing Competitiveness Through Innovation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced a $67 million funding opportunity to stimulate technology innovation, improve the energy productivity of American manufacturing, and enable the manufacturing of cutting-edge products in the United States.

"As we move into the future, energy competitiveness is becoming increasingly critical to manufacturing competitiveness, and the Trump Administration is fully committed to securing U.S. leadership in manufacturing," said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. "To create and sustain American leadership in advanced manufacturing, DOE is investing in new industrial technologies, materials, and processes that will help bolster American manufacturing."

In its report, "Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing," the White House identified advanced manufacturing as one of the vital industries of the future, stating, "Federal, State, and local governments must work together to support advanced manufacturing through collective actions that support research and development, develop the workforce, promote free and fair trade, and create a regulatory and tax system that unleashes the private sector."

Read on at

May 20, 2020

News Release from OSHA: Revised Enforcement Policies For Coronavirus

OSHA Department of Labor, United States of America  
News Release

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has adopted revised policies for enforcing OSHA's requirements with respect to coronavirus as economies reopen in states throughout the country.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, understanding about the transmission and prevention of infection has improved. The government and the private sector have taken rapid and evolving measures to slow the virus's spread, protect employees, and adapt to new ways of doing business.

Now, as states begin reopening their economies, OSHA has issued two revised enforcement policies to ensure employers are taking action to protect their employees.

First, OSHA is increasing in-person inspections at all types of workplaces. The new enforcement guidance reflects changing circumstances in which many non-critical businesses have begun to reopen in areas of lower community spread. The risk of transmission is lower in specific categories of workplaces, and personal protective equipment potentially needed for inspections is more widely available. OSHA staff will continue to prioritize COVID-19 inspections, and will utilize all enforcement tools as OSHA has historically done.

Second, OSHA is revising its previous enforcement policy for recording cases of coronavirus. Under OSHA's recordkeeping requirements, coronavirus is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of the coronavirus, if the case:

- Is confirmed as a coronavirus illness;
- Is work-related as defined by 29 CFR 1904.5; and
- Involves one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7, such as medical treatment beyond first aid or days away from work.

Under the new policy issued today, OSHA will enforce the recordkeeping requirements of 29 CFR 1904 for employee coronavirus illnesses for all employers. Given the nature of the disease and community spread, however, in many instances it remains difficult to determine whether a coronavirus illness is work-related, especially when an employee has experienced potential exposure both in and out of the workplace. OSHA's guidance emphasizes that employers must make reasonable efforts, based on the evidence available to the employer, to ascertain whether a particular case of coronavirus is work-related.

Recording a coronavirus illness does not mean that the employer has violated any OSHA standard. Following existing regulations, employers with 10 or fewer employees and certain employers in low hazard industries have no recording obligations; they need only report work-related coronavirus illnesses that result in a fatality or an employee's in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.[1]

For further information and resources about the coronavirus disease, please visit OSHA's coronavirus webpage.

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 help 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.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.

[1] See 29 C.F.R. §§ 1904.1(a)(1), 1904.2.

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May 15, 2020

Wisconsin Washington/Ozaukee Public Health Department “Blueprint for Reopening Washington and Ozaukee Counties”

The Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department (WOPHD) released the "Blueprint for Reopening Washington and Ozaukee Counties"

The Blueprint provides broad guidance for reopening the economy safely and incrementally after Governor Evers' Safer at Home order is lifted.

May 11, 2020

New Chemical Accident Reporting Requirements

This Operating Experience Level 3 (OE-3) document provides information on a new requirement imposed by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) to report certain accidental releases of chemicals. The CSB requires reporting of any accidental release into the ambient air that results in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damage. This new reporting requirement is distinct and separate from other release reporting requirements from other governmental agencies. This OE-3 document includes the applicability criteria for reporting an accidental release, steps to report the release, and a recommendation to update protocols and procedures.

New Chemical Accident Reporting Requirements here;

May 8, 2020

Complimentary Webinar Employer Workplace Prevention of COVID-19 Airborne Transmission

Employer Workplace Prevention of COVID-19 Airborne Transmission:
Applying OSHA's Hierarchy of Controls

Maintain a safe work environment by learning about personal protection for infectious diseases, COVID-19 airborne prevention and recommendations for engineering work-practice. Provide a safe and healthful work environment to your employees as required by OSHA's General Duty Clause law.

Complimentary Webinar presented by Waubonsee Community College

Presenter: Michael Serpe, CSP, BSEM
Tuesday, May 12,  9 - 11 a.m. CT

RSVP for Webinar
https://www.waubonsee.edu/education-and-workforce-development-webinar-sign

35 years later, Bhopal gas leak failures resurface in Vizag

In Vizag, the 11 deaths so far and hundreds of affected people in hospital indicate that styrene must have escaped in extremely high concentrations and affected the nearby population.


Thirty six years after the Bhopal disaster, it is distressing to see accidents from hazardous industries. The fields of occupational and environmental medicine, toxicology, and epidemiology which study and prevent industrial accidents have still not been developed adequately to cater for the amount of industrial development that has occurred in India. After the Bhopal disaster, I was frustrated that this field was not available in India and I had to go overseas to study these subjects. In 2020, I'm not sure very much has changed.

Please read on from source
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/35-years-later-bhopal-gas-leak-failures-resurface-in-vizag/story-blOMncph2Az8RJO4yKTvUO.html

May 4, 2020

Solar and Wind Cheapest Sources of Power in Most of the World

(BloomBerg) A decade ago, solar was more than $300 a megawatt-hour and onshore wind exceeded $100 per megawatt-hour. Today, onshore wind is $37 in the U.S. and $30 in Brazil, while solar is $38 in China, the cheapest sources of new electricity in those countries.

Battery storage is also getting more competitive. The levelized cost of electricity for batteries has fallen to $150 a megawatt-hour, about half of what it was two years ago. That's made it the cheapest new peaking-power technology in places that import gas, including Europe, China and Japan.