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OSHA Standards for the Construction Industry as of August 2009 
This book contains the occupational safety and health standards for the construction industry promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), effective July 1, 2009.
In a national survey of businesses that looks at their preparations for a possible widespread H1N1 outbreak, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that only one-third believe they could sustain their business without severe operational problems if half their workforce were absent for two weeks due to H1N1 (also known as "swine flu"). Just one-fifth believe they could avoid such problems for one month with half their employees out. The survey also found that while 74 percent of businesses offer paid sick leave for employees, only 35 percent of businesses offer paid leave that would allow employees to take care of sick family members, and even fewer would allow paid time off to care for children if schools/daycares were closed (21 percent).
"Businesses need to start planning how to adjust their operations to account for greater absenteeism and to slow the spread of H1N1 in the workplace," said Robert Blendon, professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at HSPH. The survey is part of an ongoing series about the country's response to the H1N1 flu outbreak undertaken by the Harvard Opinion Research Program at HSPH. The polling was done July 16-August 12, 2009 and was conducted with a representative sample of Human Resources personnel at 1,057 businesses across the United States selected using randomization.
Likelihood and impact of serious outbreak. Just over half of businesses in the U.S. (52 percent) believe there will be a more widespread and more severe outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) in the fall. If such an outbreak does occur, 84 percent of firms are concerned that it will negatively affect their business.
Strategies to slow the spread of the illness if the outbreak becomes more severe. One of the approaches to slowing the spread of the H1N1 virus if it becomes more severe is to encourage businesses to adopt strategies to limit contact between employees and between employees and customers. If these policies were recommended, many businesses would face serious problems in implementing them for long periods of time. Roughly half of businesses could make changes for at least 1-2 weeks before they ran into significant problems. For example, almost six in ten (59 percent) could stagger shifts in order to increase distances between people at the business site and on mass transit for at least 1-2 weeks; 42 percent could stagger shifts for more than 4 weeks. Fewer businesses could physically rearrange their workspace to reduce contact between employees (44 percent) or between employees and customers (42 percent) for at least 1-2 weeks. Only a quarter (26 percent) of businesses could keep up such a strategy for more than 4 weeks.
Source: Harvard School of Public Health; www.hwph.harvard.edu.
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