Because wildfire smoke contains a mixture of harmful chemicals and particles, Washington has implemented new wildfire smoke rules, which become effective on January 15, 2024.
On December 14, 2023, California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approved an emergency temporary standard (ETS) intended to enhance protection of workers from the hazards of respirable crystalline silica.
The Supreme Court of Canada has let stand a decision finding an “owner” of a construction project can be considered an “employer” within the meaning of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
The federal government, states, counties, and cities were active again this year passing workplace legislation intended for the most part to protect employees, creating new compliance obligations for employers.
On October 31, 2023, the NLRB and OSHA announced that the agencies have executed a Memorandum of Understanding “to strengthen the agencies’ partnership to promote safe and healthy workplaces through protecting worker voice.”
On September 30, 2023, California enacted the first general industry workplace violence prevention safety requirements in the United States that will be applicable to nearly all California employers, with very few exceptions.
In a recently published interpretation letter, OSHA opined that an employee’s gunshot injury—sustained when a motorist collided with three other cars, shot the employee-driver, and stole the company’s truck—was work-related and recordable.
On August 24, 2023, as part of its ongoing heat illness prevention rulemaking effort, the OSHA released various options for inclusion in a proposed rule to address heat injury and illness prevention in outdoor and indoor work settings.
