Showing posts with label OSHA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OSHA. Show all posts
Friday, July 3, 2026
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Friday, January 14, 2022
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Monday, August 10, 2020
Workers, advocates say Strauss fired meatpacking workers after COVID-19 safety complaints
From JSOnline:
Maria Perez
Maria Perez
Milwaukee Journal Sentine
Some meatpacking workers and advocates say meat processing company Strauss Brands fired many of its employees in Franklin after some complained about the lack of COVID-19 safety measures.
Voces de la Frontera, which filed a workplace safety complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late April, says the company fired 30 employees who had worked for Strauss for 12 to 20 years.
The group says the company used old letters from the Social Security Administration as a reason to fire the workers, though the federal agency explicitly says the letters should not be used to take action against employees.
Some workers said the company told them they weren’t authorized to work in the U.S.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, questioned the timing of the terminations.
“Why did they use these letters when there’s an active investigation of OSHA, which is in the process of interviewing workers?” she said.
Strauss Brands hasn't responded to requests for an interview.
Most fired workers were told they were terminated because the Social Security Administration had informed Strauss that their Social Security numbers and names didn’t match the agency's records, according to the accounts of six workers and the immigration advocacy group.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Fact check: Masks are effective against COVID-19; OSHA doesn't say they offer no protection
The claim: Cloth masks will dangerously reduce oxygen levels, and masks don't work.
There are a lot of claims circulating on social media about the effectiveness of different kinds of face masks. A recent viral post that includes a long text allegedly written by someone "OSA 10&30 certified," sometimes along with an image with writing on a car’s rear window, takes it a step further by claiming masks can cause brain damage, headaches and high blood pressure by reducing a person’s oxygen intake to dangerous levels.
Required oxygen levels
The first claim the image made was that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires employers to keep oxygen levels in their work environments at a minimum of 19.5%.
That’s true.
The air we breathe is about 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and 1% other gases including carbon dioxide and neon, according to NASA.
OSHA states in its preamble to a document called the Respiratory Protection Standard that going below 19.5% can cause “increased breathing rates, accelerated heartbeat and impaired thinking” as well as “impaired attention, thinking, and coordination, even in people who are resting.”
However, the more detailed part of the claim are more false than true.
Do masks reduce oxygen intake? Are they safe for work?
The image claims wearing a mask puts a person’s oxygen intake below OSHA’s required levels and can cause brain damage, high blood pressure and headaches.
USA TODAY previously fact checked whether masks can cause these kinds of symptoms, and found that both cloth and surgical masks are unlikely to cause a dangerous drop in oxygen intake because they are not tight fitting.
Dr. Kelli Randell, an internist and medical advisor at Aeroflow Healthcare, told Health.com that any mask used for a long time has not caused carbon dioxide to build to a toxic level in otherwise healthy people.
Does OSHA say anything about the dangers of wearing a mask at work?
Yes. What OSHA states on its COVID-19 FAQ webpage is masks may not be appropriate for certain kinds of workers. “For example, cloth face coverings could become contaminated with chemicals used in the work environment, causing workers to inhale the chemicals that collect on the face covering.” according to OSHA.
The agency recommended alternative protections such as clear face shields. OSHA also states on its website that cloth masks cannot not be used as substitutes for required PPE.
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