Wednesday January 4, 2012
OSHA to Focus on
Nursing Home
The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration will soon launch the National Emphasis
Program on Nursing Homes and
Residential Care Facilities. This is in response to what
OSHA sees as higher than
average incidents of occupational injuries and illnesses among
health care support
workers. Through this initiative, they
will increase inspections of these facilities, focusing on back
injuries from resident handling or lifting patients; exposure to bloodborne pathogens and
other infectious diseases; workplace violence; and slips, trips and
falls.
See OSHA Press Release 2011 for
more details.
OSHA
Publishes New and Updated Materials on Worker Safety and
Health
The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) recently published new and updated educational brochures on a
number of topics including workers' rights, employers' rights following an OSHA inspection,
as well as how to protect workers from hazards in the construction, general and maritime
industries. OSHA's Worker' Rights booklet describes
the rights to which
workers are legally entitled under the Occupational Safety and
Health Act. The booklet,
Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following an OSHA
Inspection, reviews what happens after an inspection and is
provided to employers during an OSHA inspection. The agency also recently published an
updated Construction Industry Digest, and a new Small
Entity Compliance Guide for Respiratory
Protection Standard, Laboratory Safety Guidance, a
series of new QuickCards
and new publications to help protect construction, general industry
and shipyard workers.
Please call 1-800-321-OSHA or (202) 693-1999 to order copies or
visit OSHA's
Publications page: http://www.osha.gov/pls/publications/publication.AthruZ?pType=AthruZ)
to order online.