Expand OSHA’s Respiratory Reach for Next Pandemic, Report Urges

The role of federal and state workplace safety agencies should be expanded to protect workers from the next airborne virus pandemic and other hazards, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The 573-page report issued Thursday also said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration should widen worker respiratory protections to include other increasing hazards such as wildfire smoke, and it called for expanded duties at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the federal agency that certifies respirators such as ubiquitous N95 masks.

The report could give additional impetus to advocates ...