Safety News Briefs: OSHA 300 Public, Tyvek Shortages, New Respirator Posters

Here are a few recent headlines from the world of safety:

Federal Judge Rules OSHA 300 Info is Not Confidential

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern California has ruled that OSHA injury and illness log information is not confidential.  The ruling comes as a part of a lawsuit where news organization the Center for Investigative Reporting made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to OSHA for records and OSHA denied the claim under FOIA exemptions for “law enforcement” and “trade secrets”.

The judge ruled that because employers are required to post this information annually and keep it on file for up to 5 years so that current and former employees can review them, these employees can freely share this information.  Thus, it’s readily observable and can be made public anyway.

The Center for Investigative Reporting was pleased with the ruling, saying that it would help keep the “dangerous” employers accountable and encourage them to improve safety while giving workers a better understanding of the risks involved in the job.

MSA Warns of Shortage of White Tychem, Tyvek 

Personal protective equipment company MSA Safety has issued a notice regarding a shortage of the white DuPont Tychem hoods used for powered air purifying respirators.  DuPont notified MSA that there would be shortages of white Tyvek, including Tychem, materials until early 2021.

MSA will be substituting white hoods with yellow Tychem hoods.  They say that the yellow Tychem is just as protective as the white.  However, some companies have policies requiring the white, and those policies may need to be altered for a while until the supply is restored.

Respirator Posters Available in 16 Languages

OSHA’s poster “Seven Steps to Correctly Wear a Respirator at Work” has now been published in 16 different languages.  These include English, Spanish, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French Creole, Hmong, Korean, Kunama, Polish, Russian, Somali, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese.

As many manufacturing safety managers know, most OSHA documents and posters are not printed in this many varieties, so this is a great time to get these for your workplace.  Find all of these for download at https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/06152020-0.