The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a National Emphasis Program (NEP) focused on heat hazards, effective April 8. Under the NEP, OSHA will be conducting proactive inspections for heat-related hazards – in both outdoor and indoor work environments. It thus behooves employers to ensure they have implemented appropriate safety measures to protect employees from such hazards before potentially coming under OSHA’s attention.

Specialists in either safety/health or human resources, or generalists responsible for both, found abundant common ground May 17 at TRSA’s HR, Health & Safety Summit in Chicago. All benefited from practical, hands-on analysis of trends, issues and techniques they could use to improve their corporate cultures. They went home with numerous ideas thanks to presentations specific to the industry or covering best practices from other industries, as well as peer-to-peer sharing.

The cover article in this month’s Textile Services focuses on a series of plant innovations. Common themes among the operators cited in this piece, titled “Innovation – ‘Every Problem Is an Opportunity,'” include breakthroughs in automation, resource conservation and ergonomics. Highlights from the article appear below.

Michael Halter, director of loss control at Haylor, Freyer and Coon Inc., Syracuse, NY, will keynote this year’s TRSA HR, Health & Safety Summit scheduled for Tuesday, May 17, in Chicago. Halter, a certified safety professional with more than 30 years of safety and health consulting experience, will provide an outside perspective on how to be safe and compliant in today’s ever-changing landscape.

From coast to coast, TRSA is hosting a series of in-person events in May, ranging from a state legislative conference in Albany, NY, to a pair of regional town halls in Chicago and Long Beach, CA, plus several summits focused on issues such as fleet vehicles, human resources and safety.

Arriving soon at your home, office or plant: the April edition of Textile Services, which includes a cover article on one of the biggest hazards facing any commercial laundry: fire.

TRSA’s 2022 schedule of in-person state/local meetings begins Tuesday, May 3, with a Legislative Conference in Albany, NY, then continues on each of the following Mondays with Town Hall discussions in Long Beach, CA, and Chicago.

Wildman Business Group, Warsaw, IN, recently announced the acquisition of Porters, Griffith, IN. The acquisition will further expand Wildman’s service offerings in the Griffith, Valparaiso and Merrillville areas, according to a news release.

Additional recent headlines from consumer media of interest to linen, uniform and facility services operators, and especially readers of Textile Services Weekly.

TRSA recently hosted a webinar presentation to educate linen, uniform and facility services industry operators and supplier partners on cyber threats and how to protect their systems from intruders.