Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis sent President Biden a letter urging his administration to allow 18-year-olds to drive trucks in interstate commerce in order to ease supply chain disruptions, and do away with vaccine mandates that could discourage freight employees from seeking jobs. CNBC
Fed-OSHA cites employer for death at North Carolina bridge demolition site
Fed-OSHA has concluded established procedures were ignored, causing a 42-year-old welder on the Bonner Bridge in North Carolina to fall more than 50 feet to his death when the structure collapsed on April 14. The employee was torch-cutting crossbeams on a section of the bridge when the concrete’s weight caused the structure to collapse and the welder to fall, reports the media release. Coastland Times
Iowa meat processing company fined $28,000 for violations tied to February explosion
IOSH has fined a northeast Iowa kosher meat processing company a combined $28,415 in fines for safety violations in connection with an explosion last winter that injured three workers. The agency’s records records show that on February 15, a forklift driver was moving cages filled with chickens from a truck trailer at the company’s live poultry dock when the machine slid and punctured a 100-pound propane tank, which released a cloud of gas that ignited, possibly by contact with a nearby tube heater, resulting in the explosion. Des Moines Register
Farmworkers continue to be at risk of heat hazards
At least 65 agricultural employees have died from heat-related causes since 2002, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of Fed-OSHA data. The median amount Fed-OSHA fined the employers whose farmworkers died was $4,000, a sum one advocate said could be described as the “cost of doing business.” But protections from heat stress might be coming, for all industries. The Counter
Late fireman becomes first in Virginia to win cancer coverage under new law
During the 2020 legislative session, state lawmakers expanded coverage for firefighters in Virginia, adding brain, testicular and colon cancer to the list of presumed work-related illnesses. The first firefighter to win a workers’ compensation case for brain cancer was Norfolk firefighter Christopher Griffin in late September. He died from the cancer just over a week later. According to union leaders, firefighters are 65 percent more likely to contract cancer because of exposure to toxic chemicals on the job and 14 percent more likely to die from cancer. WAVY