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Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration is seeking public comment on existing coal mine rescue training guides IG7 and IG7A, the agency announced Dec. 21.

Arlington, VA — Twenty-seven miners died on the job in 2018, one fewer than in 2017 and the second lowest total recorded by the Mine Safety and Health Administration since it began publishing such data more than a century ago, the agency announced Jan. 9.

Washington — The chair of the renamed House Committee on Education and Labor, along with a likely 2020 presidential candidate, are among the lawmakers asking for an audit of the Department of Labor’s proposal to allow unsupervised 16- to 17-year-old workers to operate powered patient lifts.

Washington — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Dec. 21 granted a petition to pre-empt California’s meal and rest break rules for commercial motor vehicle drivers, stating that the rules are incompatible with current federal hours-of-service regulations and cause “a disruption in interstate commerce.”

Washington — NIOSH recently introduced checklists to help employers assess damp areas and identify mold.

Atlanta — Suicide prevention strategies for workers are needed to help mitigate rising workplace suicide rates, a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests.

Washington — The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has denied the Department of Labor’s request for the dismissal of a lawsuit stemming from OSHA’s suspension of its deadline for employer submission of data from Forms 300 and 301 – part of its Improved Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule.

OSHA needs better methods to prevent and detect underreporting of worker fatalities and certain injuries, while the Mine Safety and Health Administration "lacks a consistent approach to logging, assessing and responding to complaints of hazardous mine conditions," the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General concludes in its recently released semiannual report to Congress.

Washington — Potential elimination of the agency and a lack of leadership authority are among the key managerial challenges facing the Chemical Safety Board in the new year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General Annual Plan for Fiscal Year 2019.

Washington — OSHA has renewed the two-year charter for its Maritime Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health.