- Miguel Cabezola, a driver for United Parcel Service Inc in Tucson, Arizona, complained on March 27 to U.S. workplace safety regulators, alleging the company was taking a lax approach to social distancing, sanitizing equipment and quarantining workers with COVID-19 symptoms. He hoped for an inspection of the facility that would force changes to protect worker safety.
Cabezola’s complaint to the regulator, along with that of another worker in May, had “zero effect,” said Karla Schumann, head of the local Teamsters union representing UPS workers. Asked about the outbreak, UPS expressed regret about the manager’s death and said it has strengthened protocols requiring social distancing and sanitation since the early days of the pandemic.
The workers’ regulatory complaints came from a cross-section of companies that included some of America’s best-known firms, including Tesla Inc and Tyson Foods Inc . The federal agency’s acting leader, Loren Sweatt, said in a statement that the allegations in the cases the news organization cited do not reflect the totality of OSHA’s efforts to keep workers safe and “unfairly disparage dedicated OSHA inspectors across the country.”
OSHA is the nation’s workplace safety watchdog, tasked with preventing on-the-job injuries and illnesses. Federal OSHA enforces workplace safety in about half of the states, while OSHA-affiliated state agencies carry out those duties in the rest of the country. State OSHA agencies are overseen by state governors and the federal agency and must, at a minimum, enforce federal workplace safety regulations.
Even in workplaces that OSHA has designated as “high exposure risk” for COVID-19 infection - mostly healthcare facilities - few complaints lead to inspections. OSHA has closed out complaints from about 1,800 hospitals and nursing homes nationwide, but only about 15% of them have been inspected so far during the pandemic, the Reuters review of OSHA data shows. OSHA fined about one in five of those inspected facilities.
“This is the sort of workplace crisis that OSHA was invented to address,” said David Michaels, who led the agency during the Obama administration and is now a professor at George Washington University’s school of public health. “OSHA needed to be more forceful and creative to use the tools it has, but it decided not to.”
“What you’re seeing with COVID is a function of not having a leader,” said Kelly Schnapp, a former director of OSHA’s Office of Science and Technology Assessment, who left the agency in 2019.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Obesity a driving factor in COVID-19 deaths, global report findsThe report, which described a 'dramatic' correlation between countries' COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity. The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization's Global Health Observatory data on obesity. Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates.
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »
Obesity a driving factor in COVID-19 deaths, global report findsThe majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday. Shocker But what about our freedom to choose snacks!?!?
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »
Covid-19 death rates 10 times higher in countries where most adults are overweight, report findsThe risk of death from Covid-19 is about 10 times higher in countries where more than half of the population is overweight, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Obesity Forum. Who'd have thunk it? In Africa they are thin. Thinning the heard... a regrettable pun.
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »
WSJ News Exclusive | Cuomo Advisers Altered Report on Covid-19 Nursing-Home DeathsNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's top aides requested changes to a Covid-19 report that resulted in the death toll in nursing homes being significantly undercounted, people familiar with the report's production said How is this not the end of Cuomo? I like how they are no unnecessary march pushed by liberal American women. good luck
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »
Report: Trump Sicker With COVID-19 Than PortrayedThe New York Times said Trump had lower blood oxygen levels than his doctor reported; that X-rays found lung infiltrates, which can be a sign of an acute case of the virus; and that officials considered putting Trump on a ventilator at one point. Just shows how tough the fighter Trump is Not bad enough... Who cares. Stop giving Trump press
Source: WebMD - 🏆 709. / 51 Read more »
Report: North Korean Hackers Tried To Steal Covid-19 Vaccine Tech From PfizerI am a London-based reporter for Forbes covering breaking news. Previously, I have worked as a reporter for a specialist legal publication covering big data and as a freelance journalist and policy analyst covering science, tech and health. I have a master’s degree in Biological Natural Sciences and a master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow me on Twitter theroberthart or email me at rhartforbes.com Behind every successful person there is a helper Fxlisama001 is the person behind my success story and the great achievement of my goals Fxlisama001 thanks for restoring hope once again. Oh my God!
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »