Environmental, Safety, & Toxic Tort

Subscribe to Environmental, Safety, & Toxic Tort

By James L. Curtis and Craig B. Simonsen

OSHA recently released its Safe Patient Handling — Preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders in Nursing Homes Fact Sheet. OSHA Fact Sheet (OSHA FS-3707, 2014).

OSHA, on its Healthcare webpage, indicates that more workers were injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector in 2010 than any other. Reviewing Bureau of Labor Statistics…
Continue Reading Healthcare Industry Receives New Fact Sheet on Musculoskeletal Disorders in Nursing and Residential Care Workers

By James R. Beyer

Earlier this week, we blogged about the Illinois Vehicle Code that became effective on January 1, 2014.  We advised that “The enactment of this amendment provides Illinois employers with the opportunity to publish (or create) a policy that tells employees that they are NOT to talk on their mobile phones while on company business and in…
Continue Reading Employees Using Cellphones And Other Portable Devices While Driving: Should Employers Ban This Completely?

Please see the recent blog (here) from our colleagues on the Environmental, Safety, and Toxic Tort team. In this piece, they report on several significant OSHA citations based, in part, on standards relating to employee safety — even though the program participants are more appropriately classified as interns or students.

Something to be “on the lookout” for if…
Continue Reading Students Are Now Employees? OSHA Issues Citations to Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Alleged Safety Violations

James L. Curtis, Erin Dougherty Foley, and Craig B. Simonsen

Effective January 1, 2014, the Illinois Vehicle Code, at 625 ILCS 5/12-610.2, was amended to prohibit driving while using an electronic communication device, including hand-held wireless telephones, hand-held personal digital assistants, or portable or mobile computers.

The amendment provides for exceptions including the use of hands-free devices,…
Continue Reading Employees Driving In Illinois? What Employers Need to Know

By Illana Morady

As our friends at the Environmental and Safety Law Update have been reporting (here, here, and here), December 1, 2013 marks the date that employers must begin complying with OSHA’s new Hazard Communication (HazCom) standard.

With the new HazCom standard, adopted in 2012, OSHA seeks to improve employees’ understanding of the health and…
Continue Reading New OSHA HazCom Compliance Deadlines Are Here!