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During the summer months, outdoor workers are at heightened risk of heat-related illnesses, ranging from mild heat rash to potentially deadly heatstroke. “It’s not like you just provide them water and that solves the problem,” one expert says. “It starts with an effective plan.”

San Francisco — Attorneys general of 10 states and the District of Columbia are suing the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Andrew Wheeler, over the agency’s refusal to issue a rule to further regulate asbestos – a known human carcinogen.

Washington — OSHA conducted its highest number of fatality/catastrophe investigations in more than a decade in fiscal year 2018, while overall inspections decreased 1.2% from FY 2017, the agency’s latest enforcement summary shows.

Washington — Embattled Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta announced his resignation July 12 amid the fallout over his involvement in financier Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal in a 2008 sexual abuse case in Florida.

Washington — Questions over how to protect workers from heat-related illnesses took center stage during a July 11 hearing convened by the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

Washington — The Mine Safety and Health Administration is extending to July 2022 the deadline for comment on a Request for Information concerning a retrospective study of the agency’s respirable coal mine dust rule.

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on draft risk evaluations for two chemical substances that are among the first 10 slated for evaluation for potential health and environmental risks under the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, according to a notice published in the July 1 Federal Register.

Washington — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is now eyeing July 31 as the publication date for a proposed rule the agency says would add flexibility to hours-of-service regulations for commercial truck drivers, according to a Department of Transportation regulatory update released in June.

Rochester, NY — Approximately one-third of business owners with fewer than 500 employees are ill prepared to manage the impact of marijuana use on the workplace, according to the results of a recent poll.

Washington — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has vacated a 2018 amendment to a 2017 Mine Safety and Health Administration rule that allowed a competent person to inspect the workplace as miners began work rather than prior to a shift – a decision United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts calls “a victory for miners everywhere.”