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Travelers Cos. units sued a company that makes and sells quartz surface products, adding to the insurance giant’s bid to limit its exposure to litigation from stoneworkers in California alleging they developed silicosis from handling similar products.

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For decades, fossil-fuel companies and their climate-change-denying allies obsessively tried to kill the federal government’s right to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. Like Ahab, they may find that finally harpooning their white whale risks taking them down with it.

How Trump Is Scrapping the Bedrock of Climate Rules: QuickTake

In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency formally concluded that greenhouse gases jeopardize public health and welfare. This so-called endangerment finding became the legal foundation for a host of rules combating planet-warming pollution — and a perennial target of conservative efforts to reverse them.

AI Must Support Worker Safety, Trades Industry Officials Testify

Artificial intelligence can reduce health and safety hazards at warehouses and construction sites so long as the technology is deployed in a transparent and responsible manner that supports workers, labor advocates and trades industry officials testified Wednesday.

Practitioner Insights

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Covid-19 Vaccine: Can Your Employer Make You Take It?

As employers are making plans to return to their workplaces. How quickly they succeed will likely depend on how many of their employees get vaccinated.

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Joseph M. Sanzari, Inc., Newark, NJ

Employer contests a four-item serious citation in 11 parts and $53,976 fine. The serious citation includes the alleged violation of 29.C.F.R. 1910.134(c)(1), for failure to establish and implement a written respiratory protection program with worksite-specific procedures; 29.C.F.R. 1910.134(e)(1), for failure to provide a medical evaluation to determine an employee’s ability to use a respirator before the employee was required to use the respirator in the workplace; and 29.C.F.R. 1910.134(f)(2), for failure to ensure that an employee using a tight-fitting face-piece respirator was fit tested prior to initial use of the respirator. (20-0329)

Framing Specialist Inc., Cliffside Park, NJ

Employer contests a three-item serious citation and $6,998 fine and a repeat citation and $8,906 fine. The serious citation includes the alleged violation of 29.C.F.R. 1926.102(a)(1), for failure to ensure that eye and face protective equipment was used when machines or operations presented potential eye or face injury; 29.C.F.R. 1926.1053(b)(1), for failure to secure portable ladders used to access an upper landing surface against displacement; and 29.C.F.R. 1926.1053(b)(13), for failure to ensure that the top step of a stepladder was not used as a step. (20-0330)

PetSmart, Inc., Horseheads, NY

Employer contests a two-item serious citation and $12,337 fine and a two-item other-than-serious citation with no fine. The serious citation includes the alleged violation of 29.C.F.R. 1910.36(d)(1), for failure to ensure that employees were able to open exit route doors from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge; and 29.C.F.R. 1910.178(l)(4)(iii), for failure to conduct an evaluation of each powered industrial truck operator performance at least once every three years. The other-than-serious citation includes the alleged violation of 29.C.F.R. 1910.157(e)(3), for failure to perform annual maintenance checks on fire extinguishers. (20-0317)