Workplace Exposures

New York — Fewer than 10% of the estimated 250,000 employees who contracted COVID-19 while on the job last year in New York state filed for workers’ compensation benefits, and fewer than 1% have received a hearing, according to a recent report from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

Chicago — OSHA has launched a Regional Emphasis Program to address on-the-job noise hazards in the Midwest manufacturing industry.

San Francisco — Worker deaths caused by exposure to methylene chloride are on the rise, according to researchers from OSHA and the University of California, San Francisco, who identified 32 deaths on top of those the Environmental Protection Agency had recently reported over a period spanning nearly four decades.

Washington — OSHA is requesting input regarding its emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 for health care workers.

Stockholm — More than 1 out of 10 health care workers who developed relatively mild cases of COVID-19 were still experiencing at least one moderate to severe symptom eight months later, results of a recent study out of Sweden show.

Salem, OR — Oregon OSHA has announced plans to repeal the basic face covering and physical distancing requirements in its COVID-19 workplace protection rules when 70% of the state’s residents are at least partially vaccinated against the virus.

Columbus, OH — Workplace exposure to COVID-19 is a substantial factor in the “disproportionately high” rate of cases and deaths among Latinos in the United States when compared with whites, results of a recent study by researchers from Ohio State University and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee show.

Washington — OSHA has issued an emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 that focuses on health care workers, as well as updated guidance for other workplaces and additional resources.

Sacramento, CA — Six days after voting to readopt California’s emergency temporary standard that requires employers to protect workers from COVID-19-related hazards, the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted unanimously to withdraw the revisions.

Washington — Health care workers will be the focus of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard on COVID-19, which will be issued June 10, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told the House Education and Labor Committee during a June 9 hearing.