A recent OSHA letter of interpretation explores whether a burn injury, caused by a set of personal lithium-ion batteries, is considered “work-related.”

The Jan. 20 letter outlines a scenario in which an employee brought rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for e-cigarettes into the workplace. The batteries allegedly came into contact with a key used for work, sparking a fire that burned the employee.

Lee Anne Jillings, director of OSHA’s Technical Support and Emergency Management Directorate, answers five employer questions stemming from the incident.

For many organizations, OSHA recordkeeping is viewed as an administrative obligation rather than a strategic safety function. Employers complete logs, post summaries, and submit electronic data, but do so largely just to avoid citations. That mindset misses the point.

OSHA never intended the Recordkeeping Standard to be a paperwork exercise. It is one of the agency’s oldest and most foundational rules because accurate injury and illness data is the backbone of effective workplace safety, both for regulators and for employers themselves.

Nearly 15,000 nurses from three of the city’s largest hospital systems are currently on strike over workplace safety, among other issues. According to a Documented analysis of 2024 injury report data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, hospitals consistently rank among the workplaces with the highest number of reported injuries. Eight of the 10 employers in New York state with the most injuries in the analysis were hospitals. NYU Langone was the most injury-prone workplace, with Mount Sinai at number three and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center at number five. The other two businesses included Stop & Shop and Delta Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to the analysis.

OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration both face “significant challenges” in ensuring workers’ safety and health, according to a report from the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

In its annual U.S. Department of Labor’s Top Management and Performance Challenges report, published Jan. 29, OIG says the challenges are particularly acute for high-risk industries such as mining, health care, agriculture, construction, meatpacking, fishing, forestry and manufacturing.

A persistent shortage of Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors is a key challenge in enforcing workplace safety, according to an internal report.

The report, from the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General, highlights OSHA’s difficulty in deploying enough inspectors to oversee the roughly 8 million worksites under its jurisdiction.

The number of OSHA inspectors fell from 846 in February 2024 to 736 in June 2025.

Fear of retaliation keeps workers silent on safety hazards, according to a survey by Pie Insurance.

While employers prioritize compliance, policies and procedures, the data showed that the employee voice has largely been absent from these discussions. Meanwhile, the gap between what workers intend to do and what they actually do reveals how fear, confusion and resignation create invisible barriers to workplace safety.

Evaluate heat exposure risks and implement hydration, shade, and acclimatization protocols on outdoor job sites

Assess silica-related tasks, ensuring engineering controls, respiratory protection, and hazard assessments are up to date

Update safety programs and training to reflect actual field conditions, ensuring consistent implementation across projects

Develop injury response and return-to-work procedures focused on emerging risks like heat illness to reduce claim severity and impact on EMRs

A confined space, an emerging fire/explosion hazard, carbon monoxide and even tax fraud played a role in what OSHA calls some of its “most interesting” cases.

The agency’s fourth consecutive presentation took place in September at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo in Denver. Four agency representatives discussed the cases that stood out to them:

U.S. Department of Labor safety investigators are alleging that an engineering and construction company exposed workers to safety hazards after an investigation into a 2025 worker death at a plant in White, Georgia, according to a statement released Thursday.

OSHA issued a citation to Hyoungwon E&C America Inc. alleging a serious violation under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s general duty clause for failing to protect employees against asphyxiation hazards related to nitrogen gas and another serious violation for failing to provide “effective” information and training on hazards related to nitrogen gas and oxygen-deficient atmospheres.

The employer faces $20,522 in proposed penalties and has 15 business days from receipt of their citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.