The OSHA COVID-19 Case and the Scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 applicable to private sector employers with 100 or more employees. Among other things, the ETS required employers either to mandate employee vaccination or weekly testing and wearing masks.

The Sad, Sad Story of OSHA's Failure to Protect Workers From COVID-19.

In the face of a global pandemic posing unprecedented risks to worker health, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the agency charged with protecting workers from occupational illness, has floundered. Its efforts to protect workers have been too little, too late, poorly designed, and entangled in legal controversy. Two years into a pandemic that has posed the greatest threat to worker health in our lifetimes, OSHA has adopted no effective, COVID-19-specific protections for workers. This article chronicles OSHA's efforts and the response of the courts.

The pragmatic use of industrial elastomeric facemasks in health care practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced health care workers to explore alternative personal protective equipment (PPE) strategies due to traditional product shortages in the setting of increased global demand. Some physicians have chosen to use elastomeric face masks (EFMs), traditionally used in non-healthcare industries. METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study of Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians working at a Level 1 Trauma Center who chose to use self-supplied EFMs for PPE. All subjects used commercial EFMs with disposable filters (N95, P95, or P100). All subjects chose their mask size independently with no input from employee health regarding appropriate fit. Per study protocol, subjects were fit tested periodically during clinical shifts over the course of the 6-week study period. All investigators performing fit testing underwent OSHA qualitative fit testing training. Data collected included mask/filters age, subjective assessment of mask seal quality, and fit test results. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: 105 fit tests were performed on physicians wearing EFMs over the course of 49 shifts. Physicians felt their fit was adequate for all tests performed. There were no fit test failures in any subjects. CONCLUSIONS: EFMs have an extremely low failure rate. Physicians are able to assess the adequacy of fit and accurately choose EFM size.

Employer Liability for "Take-Home" COVID-19.

Workplace exposure to SARS-CoV-2 has sickened workers and, subsequently, their family members. Family members might be able to recover from the employer in a negligence action using "take-home" liability theory.

Website Survey Method for Assessing Higher Education Employee Health and Safety Programs.

OBJECTIVE: The higher education industry in the United States is large (almost four million employees and 19 million students) with diverse hazards. METHODS: We apply a novel health services research approach to systematically assess a sample of 55 institutional websites. The accessibility, content, and coverage of occupational health/safety program information were systematically coded for several domains (eg, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-related, specific hazards, clinical, person-oriented, COVID-19, and coverage). RESULTS: Information was more available for programs related to OSHA mandates (eg, chemical hygiene) and specific hazards than for person-oriented programs (eg, counseling). Larger institutions provide better information and more comprehensive programs than smaller institutions. CONCLUSIONS: Higher education institutions warrant increasing attention to occupational health and safety, particularly as COVID-19 increased attention to workplace health issues.

Honoring Eula Bingham: A Memorial Gathering During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Eula Bingham, a toxicologist who invigorated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as its director and set stringent standards to protect workers from hazardous materials, died on 13 June 2020 in Cincinnati. Throughout Dr. Bingham's long career, she insisted tirelessly that workers had the absolute right to be safe on the job. Her thoughtful and generous wisdom shaped the entire field of occupational safety and health. Her bold and courageous actions prevented countless illnesses and injuries in workers around the world. This article presents the edited transcript from a Virtual Memorial Remembrance of Eula Bingham.

OSHA Voluntary Respirator Use: Challenges incurred with use of N95 filtering facepiece respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article discusses several lessons learned in dealing with the interpretation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Use provision of the Respiratory Health Standard at health-care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This includes (but is not limited to) (a) confusion about OSHA policy and procedures when health-care workers brought outside personal protective equipment (PPE; N95 filtering facepiece respirators) into the workplace; (b) challenges in adhering to guidelines stated in Appendix D of the Respiratory Protection Standard; (c) difficulty in achieving respirator fit testing for workers; and (d) vague or inconsistent determination of "non-hazardous" environments (concerning COVID-laden droplets and aerosols). The purpose was to identify gaps in knowledge to help policy makers, enforcement personnel, safety managers, and health-care workers in the United States prepare for similar future events involving PPE shortages.

Putting the world back to work: An expert system using big data and artificial intelligence in combating the spread of COVID-19 and similar contagious diseases.

BACKGROUND: To combat COVID-19, curb the pandemic, and manage containment, governments around the world are turning to data collection and population monitoring for analysis and prediction. The massive data generated through the use of big data and artificial intelligence can play an important role in addressing this unprecedented global health and economic crisis. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this work is to develop an expert system that combines several solutions to combat COVID-19. The main solution is based on a new developed software called General Guide (GG) application. This expert system allows us to explore, monitor, forecast, and optimize the data collected in order to take an efficient decision to ensure the safety of citizens, forecast, and slow down the spread's rate of COVID-19. It will also facilitate countries' interventions and optimize resources. Moreover, other solutions can be integrated into this expert system, such as the automatic vehicle and passenger sanitizing system equipped with a thermal and smart High Definition (HD) cameras and multi-purpose drones which offer many services. All of these solutions will facilitate lifting COVID-19 restrictions and minimize the impact of this pandemic. METHODS: The methods used in this expert system will assist in designing and analyzing the model based on big data and artificial intelligence (machine learning). This can enhance countries' abilities and tools in monitoring, combating, and predicting the spread of COVID-19. RESULTS: The results obtained by this prediction process and the use of the above mentioned solutions will help monitor, predict, generate indicators, and make operational decisions to stop the spread of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: This developed expert system can assist in stopping the spread of COVID-19 globally and putting the world back to work.

Current understanding and future directions for an occupational infectious disease standard.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has demonstrated a need for an infectious disease standard that will promote a safe and healthy work environment and assure business continuity. The current pandemic has revealed gaps in workplace preparedness and employee protections to microbial exposures. Federal and state government agencies have responded by providing interim guidelines and stop-gap measures that continue to evolve and vary in approach and required controls. This interim and inconsistent approach has resulted in confusion on the part of businesses as they work toward reopening during the pandemic and uncertainty as to the efficacy of required or suggested controls. Moving forward, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, with guidance from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, should establish consistent and effective strategies through a nationwide standard to address the potential microbial exposures in the workplace. Such a standard will require effective worker protections from infectious diseases and assure business continuity.

Hazard Pay for COVID-19? Yes, But It's Not a Substitute for a Living Wage and Enforceable Worker Protections.

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing critical failures in public and occupational health in the United States. So-called hazard pay for essential workers is a necessary but insufficient response to the lack of workplace protections. The roots of these failures in the weakening of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement and pandemic preparedness and the dramatic shifts in the economy and labor market in recent decades are explored along with the history of hazard pay. The current prominence of COVID-19-related workplace hazards, and the mobilization by both nonunion and union workers experiencing them, presents opportunities amid the crisis and tragic losses to envision a revival of worker protection measures. Strategies are needed for organizing and legislative advocacy to address the disparate impact of both normal and crisis conditions on low-wage workers, especially women and workers of color.

Modifying a Full-Face Snorkel Mask to Meet N95 Respirator Standards for Use With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients.

We evaluated a full-face snorkel mask with an airway circuit filter to protect health care providers against airborne pathogens. First, a quantified N95 fit test was performed using aerosolized saline. Second, cardiorespiratory variables (heart rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, end-tidal carbon dioxide tension, and inspired fraction of carbon dioxide) were measured at rest and during moderate exercise. The modified mask passed the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) N95 respirator (N95) fit test requirements with a fit factor of 142. Neither hypercapnia nor hypoxemia occurred. This modified mask has the potential to protect providers who care for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).