Several bloggers have addressed occupational health and safety issues this week:

• Revere at Effect Measure considers the factors affecting healthcare worker behavior during a pandemic, and whether it’s advisable for state authorities to order HCWs to work.  
• John Astad at OSHA Underground describes three combustible-dust explosions and fires that occurred in a single day, and one way stakeholders can address the combustible-dust problem.
• James Parks at AFL-CIO Weblog reports on a rally by Indian guest workers, who seek alterations to the US guest worker program and an investigation into an employer they say held them in forced-labor conditions in a Mississippi shipyard.
• Jason Heilpern at Hazard’s Recognized applauds OSHA for following up on a UPS whisteblower’s complaint of being fired after complaining about unsafe trucks; the company decided to settle with the mechanic.

Elsewhere:

Samantha Hulkower at EnviroWonk cheers the New York City Council’s approval of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion-pricing plan.

Andrew Leonard at How the World Works explains why farmers are expected to plant less corn this year, despite record high prices for it.

Joel Makower at Two Steps Forward wonders whether the concepts of “virtual (or embedded) water” and “water neutrality” can make a difference in corporate resource efficiency.

Ed Silverman at Pharmalot has some good news: a federal judge has denied Pfizer’s request to force a medical journal to hand over confidential peer reviews and editorial notes.

Roy M. Poses MD at Health Care Renewal digs into a story about replacing doctors with nurses-with-doctorates and finds that one of the proponents of the idea has some complicated conflicts of interest.

Florence Machio at RH Reality Check reports on research in Tanzania and Nigeria that finds most married men have extramarital affairs – which means “abstinence until marriage” isn’t the best way for women to protect themselves from HIV.

Ruth Levine at Global Health Policy hopes that a new malaria strategy emphasizing technical consensus will represent a big step forward for malaria eradication efforts.