Health and safety at work in the USA Hi everyone! I work in the health an safety sector. I am curious  and I would like to understand more about the laws and obligations in this sector in the USA. Are there some laws for the employers and for their workers? Which are these obligations? In particular, are there some specific compulsory insurance? Thanks to everyone who can answer me!

A funny story A few years ago I decided with my friends to have an holiday in Spain. We went to Ibiza at the Baleary islands. We went out a night to drink something and to dance in some discotheque. We walked around for some hours when saw a group of girls out of a bar. My friend liked one of those girls and we tryed to chat with them about the usual things: the better beaches, the best discoutheque where we had been until now and about the place where they came from. They came from another city of Spain and they stayed there on holiday. At those years I didn’t speak English (as well as now…), so me and my friends searched to explain us in Italian because it has many words similar to Spanish. The discussion was pleasant but I noticed one of those girls remained aloof. I thougth that probably she was ashamed and I tryed to make her partecipate of our talks. I asked her if she was “imbarazzata”, this word means “embarassed” in English, and I looked her to redden. The girls’ friends began to laugh so much that I asked them what was my wrong because I wished to apologize with her. They tell me that the word “embarazada” means “pregnant” in Spanish! So, I got the opposite of that I wanted, because that girl became more red than before!

Medicine and health The people’s good health is much helped from medicine. Also in a small family there are at least twenty types of medicines. I worked out that a normal family with little children spends some hundred of euros in a year for the pharmacy products. In many years I have never listened about a pharmacy closed down because they had not enough customers, in fact pharmacy owners are always rich. In every family there are medicines for headache, stomach ache, flu, intestinal problems and many other physical complaints. I heard that many people have also food supplements in their pharmacy shelves. A famous proverb said that “we are the doctors of ourselves”. For example if I had not eaten so much last evening, I would not have had the stomach ache and I would not have had to take a pill. I have friends that when they drink a coffee their stomach add up for all day. I know other people that if they eat some food with cheese they do not sleep well. They could eat and drink everything, it would be enough than they take a pill later their meal, but those way would do much more bad for their health. Rather than we take some food supplements I believe that it would be better if we understood which kind of food cointains that sustance and increase that food in our diet.

food and drink Personally I like all type of food and fortunately I haven’t got neithr intollerance or allergy. Recently I am seeking to riduce the quantity of meat in my diet. In particular I attempt to eat only once at week the red meat as for example steaks and sausages. If I could avoid to eat them it would be better, but when someone invite me for lunch or dinner I would be very embarrassed if I did not eat something. We have studied a basic menu for all week, in this menu we eat white meat once at week. We usually cook grilled chicken or baked fish. We bring these dishes with different vegetables. I like cooking steamed carrots and cooked spinach. When the weather is cold we like eating vegetables soup at dinner. We often cook some eggs, specially we eat omelette with eggs and cheese all with a mix salad. Mostly the dinner is the meal that we condivide together and we have not much time to dedicate to cookers. In the weekend if we stay at home we cook something more complicated such as some type of pasta or other. If I have a bit of spare time I prepare homemade pizza. We prefer our recipe because it is much more digestible than other. I put in addition to tomato and cheese also capers, artichokes, mushrooms, basil and peppers. We often drink water and green tea and we seek to avoid sodas but with my pizza is impossible to say no to a good beer

Food and drink Personally I like all type of food and fortunately I haven’t got neithr intollerance or allergy. Recently I am seeking to riduce the quantity of meat in my diet. In particular I attempt to eat only once at week the red meat as for example steaks and sausages. If I could avoid to eat them it would be better, but when someone invite me for lunch or dinner I would be very embarrassed if I did not eat something. We have studied a basic menu for all week, in this menu we eat white meat once at week. We usually cook grilled chicken or baked fish. We bring these dishes with different vegetables. I like cooking steamed carrots and cooked spinach. When the weather is cold we like eating vegetables soup at dinner. We often cook some eggs, specially we eat omelette with eggs and cheese all with a mix salad. Mostly the dinner is the meal that we condivide together and we have not much time to dedicate to cookers. In the weekend if we stay at home we cook something more complicated such as some type of pasta or other. If I have a bit of spare time I prepare homemade pizza. We prefer our recipe because it is much more digestible than other. I put in addition to tomato and cheese also capers, artichokes, mushrooms, basil and peppers. We often drink water and green tea and we seek to avoid sodas but with my pizza is impossible to say no to a good beer.

House and home The houses are changed a lot in the last years. When I visit construction site I see this change, above all when somebody is restoring an old building. In the past people liked many rooms and many walls divided them. An example is the distinction between kitchen and living room. There were once divided in two different spaces. Now many of us love open spaces even for optimizing the available area. Another case is the bathroom sizes. A family with three or four children had a little bathroom of about 4 or 5 square meters for everyone. Now the same family wants two bathroom minimum and if the space allows, the parents want a private bathroom connected to their bedroom. I see though that the bedroom sizes were bigger than now. Probably they were so because the people passed more time than now in that room and many children slept in the same room. There were not once the gardens or courtyards where the person could relax and the houses were attached to each other. Personally I like the modern houses with great open spaces and minimal interiors, but I find very interesting those situations where you have to rethink an old house with new ideas and for another functionalities. In these case you must use much care to preserve the old fashioned of the house. Studies said that only fifty percent of the old houses have maintained their style about external parts and only 10 percent have preserved their interior style. Fortunately more and more houses are protected by urbanistic specific laws.