February 1st, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Starting February 1 up to April 30 all companies that are subject to OSHA recordkeeping policies are required to post their OSHA 300a log.
What is an OSHA 300a log?
An OSHA 300a log is a summary of work-related injury and illnesses that occurred in 2009 and recorded in the OSHA 300 log.
Who should post this?
Companies that employ more than 10 workers are required to keep an illness and injuries record. If your company presently has 10 employees but had more than 10 at one point during the last calendar year you are required to keep an injury and illness record. Other businesses classified in a specific low hazard retail, service, finance, insurance or real estate industry listed in Appendix A to this Subpart B are exempted from keeping a log.
Where should we post this?
This should be posted in a common area where it is easily noticeable to most of the employees.
Your OSHA 300A log must be posted from Feb 1 – April 30
For more information about recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses click here.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:25 am
Julie Tisdale-Pardi from the NIOSH Science Blog contacted us to bring attention to a recent blog post titled “The Effectiveness of Workplace Training“, which outlines some of the work they’ve been putting in recently to help companies justify the cost of workplace safety training.
From the article :
This report shows that investment in training results in positive changes in worker knowledge and skills, attitudes, and behavior. These results are encouraging given that a primary purpose for workplace training is to impart new skills/behaviors that are transferred into the workplace. However, this research revealed that training as a lone intervention has not been demonstrated to have an impact on reducing injuries or symptoms. The fact that the study did not show an effect of training on health outcomes was, in part, an indication that training alone is not sufficient to result in reduced morbidity, mortality, or injury. For training to be effective in preventing occupational injuries and illness, it also requires management commitment and investment and worker involvement in a comprehensive hazard identification and risk management program.
– Carol Merry Stephenson, Ph.D.
The article can be found here, and is an excellent read. Thanks Julie!
January 26th, 2010 at 11:12 am
OSHA has proposed $683,000 fine to Mueller Industries subsidiaries for allegedly exposing its employees to safety and health hazards.
The company received a total of 128 citations. OSHA has given them 15 days to contest these violations.
The investigation started after a worker of Mueller Copper Tube was killed and two other employees were injured when a flammable substance leaked and ignited from an electric pump.
Out of the 128 violations, 90 were against Mueller Copper Tube, a subsidiary of Mueller Industries in Fulton, MS. They were issued willful, repeat and serious citations. Some of the violations are:
- Failure to guard machinery
- Exposure to electrical shock
- Unsafe electrical equipment and practices
- Failure to label hazardous chemicals.
The total fine to Mueller Copper Tube is $413,000.
Other citations were issued to Mueller fittings. Some of the violations are unsafe propane storage and handling, unsafe material storage and likelihood of exposure to blood-borne pathogens.
Mueller Packaging also received citations for unsafe crane operation, failure to lock out source of hazardous energy and electrical hazards.
Mueller Industries’ headquarters is located in Memphis, TN. The company owns and operates 20 facilities located in eight states and two foreign countries.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:20 am
The past week has seen several work hazards prove fatal to 3 workers in their respective worksites in Colorado and Florida.
In Broomfield, Colorado, an electrical worked was killed Friday. North Metro Fire Rescue officials said the boom lift he was working in gave way. The worker, along with a co-worker was putting up an electrical line shortly after 10 am, when the bucket gave way. The lines were not live and the cause for the bucket collapse is being looked into.
The worker sustained fatal injuries when he was thrown from the bucket and fell onto the truck. His co-worker sustained serious injuries and was rushed to St. Anthony’s hospital.
Meanwhile in Florida, a worker at an Ocala site died after he was crushed by a metal beam Friday morning. He had tried to escape by running, according to three witnesses but was unsuccessful. More details can be found here.
While in Flagler County, a beverage cart slid off a lift and pinned a mechanic underneath it while he was working on it. Another employee attempted to free the mechanic but failed and rescue personnel pronounced him dead at the scene past 9am, Monday. For more on this accident, click here.
OSHA investigators are looking into the cause of all three accidents.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:11 am
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January 11th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
You can now watch two new videos on respirators and facemasks on the US Department of Labor’s YouTube site. Respirator Safety which runs around nine minutes contains general instructions on how to properly put on and take off certain types of respirators. It advises that specific instructions must be consulted from the manufacturer’s manual. The video also differentiates a user seal check and a fit test. It says that a user fit test is done every time one wears a respirator while a fit test is done when one uses a respirator for the first time and at least annually thereafter. It warns users not to enter a hazardous area and instead consult the supervisor when a proper seal cannot be achieved.
On the other hand, The Difference between Respirators and Surgical Masks, the other video that runs around five and half minutes, makes it clear that a surgical mask is not a respirator. It says that a respirator reduces exposure to airborne infectious diseases contaminants while facemasks are not designed to prevent the inhalation of airborne contaminants. They may have differences but both need to be worn correctly and consistently while in use. Respirators must be NIOSH-certified while facemasks must be FDA-approved.
Both videos show that respirators must be used in the context of a comprehensive respiratory program.
In related news, the California Department of Public Health or CDPH has ordered a recall of 3M 8000, a type of N95 respirator, because of its “low success rate in fit-testing.” Millions of respirators have been released in October of last year to protect workers of health-care facilities from being exposed to the H1N1 influenza virus. However, DOSH and CDPH urge employers to use other respirators. DOSH is not actually preventing the use of these respirators but it “strongly recommends against using this model for prevention of aerosol-transmitted disease.” It asks employers who still decide to use these respirators to make sure that the respirators fit the workers.
CDPH says it will provide other brands and models of respirators to local health departments upon request. To protect the supply, DOSH reminds employers to conserve respirators. Employers are encouraged to limit exposure to disease “by appropriate patient identification and placement, source control measures, and using engineering and work practice controls to minimize respirator use.”
Respiratory protection items such as respirators and facemasks are very important personal protective equipment in the workplace especially in health care units. The proper use, disposal, cleaning and storage of such equipment must not be taken for granted. Remember to always check the PPE you are going to use if it is compatible with the specific work you are going to perform and always inspect them first and use them according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Safety first!
January 4th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Last Dec. 16, 2009, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels spoke at NIOSH’s Making Green Jobs Safe: Integrating Occupational Safety and Health into Green and Sustainability. The conference was held in Washington, D.C. Dr.
Michaels stressed out that green jobs cannot be good jobs unless they’re safe jobs. He also discussed the importance of worker participation when it comes to reporting injuries and illnesses in the workplace and OSHA’s Green Reform Principles.
Here are some excerpts from his speech:
“We’re all aware of the job opportunities that green jobs offer, and in the present economy, new technologies with the potential of new jobs are especially welcome.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently announced nearly $55 million in green job grants, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These grants will support job training and labor market information programs to help workers, many in underserved communities, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations.
But in addition to job opportunities, there are many concerns that we need to consider – which is why you have gathered here this week.
Secretary Solis has provided the Department of Labor with her vision, which is simply and profoundly: “Good jobs for everyone.” And everyone at this conference understands all too well that green jobs cannot be good jobs unless they are safe jobs.”
“It is vital, now, that we integrate worker safety and health concerns into green manufacturing, green construction and green energy. Most importantly: We must push worker health and safety as a critical, necessary, and recognized element of green design, green lifecycle analysis and green contracts.
It’s not a matter of choosing either a green future or safe jobs. It’s both. It’s all or nothing, and NIOSH, OSHA and everyone else needs to play a role in building this sustainable economy – an economy that will provide sufficient jobs, green jobs, and jobs that are safe for all workers.
Here is where we start: Most people instinctively see green jobs as safe. But at OSHA, when we hear “weatherization and renovation,” we see exposure to lead and asbestos. When we hear insulation, we think isocyanate exposure. When we hear rooftop solar power, we see fall hazards. When we hear wind energy, we see lockout hazards.
It’s small wonder that some call OSHA the “Debbie Downer” of federal agencies.
But there are even more fundamental issues – and these present problems as well as opportunities. You’re all aware of the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls. What’s at the very top of that hierarchy? Substitution.
This means exchanging a safe, clean chemical for a hazardous one. But, we also all know that, all too often, substitution is an unreachable panacea – because the safer chemical may be too expensive or may not quite fit the job’s technical needs, or because we don’t have enough information to know which chemicals are actually safe.”
“I have a vision of a greener world where there is full and complete hazard information available for every chemical and every chemical mixture; where science is at work not only to make more effective and more profitable chemicals, but safer chemicals, too. I dream of a world where workers can collaborate on an equal basis with management to find safe chemicals and develop and implement processes that won’t put workers in danger.
There’s an enormous chasm to bridge between the ideal future and the imperfect present. Today we suspect that at least a couple of thousand high-use chemicals out there may present some threat to worker health. Yet, OSHA currently regulates about 500 chemicals, based mostly on science from the 1950s and 1960s. How many chemical standards has OSHA issued in the past 12 years? Two – and one of these two only came about because of a court order! We haven’t been keeping up with the science.
So, not only are we lacking critical information about the hazards of many chemicals, but we have virtually no information about the hazards of chemical mixtures.
If we don’t pay attention at the dawn of this new green revolution, we’ll be replicating past problems as we move into future industries. I’m making it my mission and OSHA’s mission to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Clearly one of the best ways to move forward on worker safety at the same time that we move forward on green jobs is to ensure that workers are more engaged in the work process and in the development of green jobs. It’s clear that we must move toward a permanent system where employers and workers come together, on a basis of mutual respect, to assess and abate hazards. This is OSHA’s ‘Green Reform Principle Number One.’”
“Another part of the big picture is chemical safety, as I outlined earlier. This is Principle Number Two. For example, the European Community’s REACH program will provide industry and American workers with more and better information about the chemicals they are exposed to. More important, REACH is also, finally, challenging the old paradigm where chemicals are considered innocent until proven guilty – and all too often proven guilty by the sick and dead bodies of American workers.”
“As green industries grow, OSHA will be fully involved in the movement toward Prevention through Design. This is OSHA’s Green Reform Principle Number Three. Prevention through Design is about fundamental change that integrates safety efficiently and thoroughly.
Prevention through Design asks: Why should we go back and expend precious time and resources retrofitting hazardous industries to make them safer when we have the ability and the opportunity to begin fresh and make work safe from start to finish?”
“Principle Number Four: Where, and when possible, OSHA must move ahead on rulemaking for urgently needed standards – and to create good standards, we’ll need the input of scientists and engineers, academics, students and workers. We’ll also need allies in the progressive business community who will say “yes” to sensible changes and participate in the rulemaking process with constructive comments and insight.
OSHA’s Green Reform Principle Number Five: Enhancing workers’ voice in the workplace. To get us up to date and move into a safer, healthier future, it’s also clear that workers must have a stronger voice in workplace safety than they have now. Giving that voice impact and value means that workers must have much better information about their rights, the hazards they face and controls for those hazards.”
“It’s been OSHA’s pleasure to participate in this workshop. Thanks to your contributions now and in the future, we can look forward to developing a reliable roadmap to help employers drive their industries in the proper direction – toward a safe and healthful future.
The challenge now is to get everyone else on board across the Nation. We need to make the expression “green jobs” synonymous with “safe jobs” – because green jobs are good jobs only when they are safe jobs.”
To read the full speech, please visit www.osha.gov
December 21st, 2009 at 2:51 pm
April 29 – Jorge Leandro-Ramirez was fatally injured while operating a cherry picker. Leandro-Ramirez was working at the construction site in the Effingham County Industrial Park. Due to this accident Vos Electric, a subcontractor at the EFACEC plant, was issued with a serious citation facing a $4900 fine.
However after an informal settlement with OSHA inspectors, company officials were able to present sufficient evidence that extensive training was given. The documentation of training provided by the company convinced the inspectors to delete the citation and the penalty.
Michael Wald, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor’s regional Atlanta Office said “The company provided our investigator with documentation of training on that piece of equipment. The fatality occurred despite of training, not because of lack of training.”
Our main priority should always be to maintain a safe working environment to all our employees. Although accidents sometimes happen even to the best and well trained individuals, providing proper training and making sure that everyone is in good working condition would help us a lot in getting closer to our goal of keeping the workplace safe. Not only will it make them aware of job related dangers it will also make them more efficient workers. Be sure to document trainings given to employees and always remember to retrain or give refresher training whenever necessary.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
December 7, 2009 – Acting Secretary for OSHA Jordan Barab discussed the agency’s regulatory agenda through an hour long live chat. The live chat was open to the public and members of the media.
Some of the topics that were addressed were about the airborne infectious diseases, combustible dust, musculoskeletal disorder and Diacetyl.
Here are some excerpts from the live chat.
Jordan Barab:
As you can see, OSHA has set an ambitious fall 2009 Agenda that includes 29 regulatory items. The agenda projects that OSHA will publish two RFIs; seven NPRMs; and six final standards. Through these regulatory actions, the Agency continues to ensure good jobs for everyone through a safe and healthful workplace.
We encourage you to raise questions, submit views, and otherwise provide input to us on the Department’s plans for upcoming regulations. Our main purpose today is to have a dialogue on the overall regulatory priorities reflected in the plan.
Comment From David LaHodaDavid LaHoda:
Q: Without an aerosol transmissible disease standard for the current H1N1 pandemic, did you think OSHA was hampered with regard to its educational preparedness and enforcement activities?
Jordan Barab:
A: No, it has not hampered us. OSHA has moved aggressively to address the hazards of H1N1 pandemic influenza in the workplace. We have worked closely with the other federal agencies and the White House to ensure that workers are safe. While a standard on airborne transmissible diseases would have been preferable, we believe that we are responding to the issues effectively using existing standards and the General Duty Clause. In part, as a result of our experience with pandemic influenza, we have added the airborne transmissible diseases “Request for Information” to the regulatory agenda to further explore how we can better address these issues through the regulatory process.
Comment From Inside OSHAInside OSHA:
Q: Sen. Sherrod Brown recently sent a letter to Secretary Solis expressing his concern that OSHA has not acted quickly enough in setting enforceable diacetyl standards. Meanwhile, the reg agenda indicates OSHA won’t initiate the peer review of health effects and risk assessment until next October. Can you explain what accounts for this delay?
Jordan Barab:
A: Diacetyl is a priority for OSHA and DOL, and developing a sound assessment of health risks is critical for the success of the rulemaking. The Agency’s analysis for diacetyl is particularly challenging given the nature of available health studies and ongoing research in this area. We believe the projected Oct. 2010 date for the peer review reflects a reasonable timeframe in which to meet this challenge and develop a scientifically sound assessment.
Comment From Holly:
Q: In a speech recently, you called ergonomics a “huge health and safety problem” and said the govt must “take the field and make some fundamental changes.” Given these comments, why WOULDN’T OSHA have plans for regulatory activity?
Jordan Barab:
A: Holly: You’re right. I called musculoskeletal disorders a “huge health and safety problem.” I also called it a “huge political issue” and that we are in the process of determining how we are going to address it. Our new Assistant Secretary will arrive later this week, and we will intensify the process of determining how we are going to address ergonomics.
Comment From Laura Walter, EHS TodayLaura Walter, EHS Today:
Q: On this agenda, OSHA has included 9 items in the pre-rule stage, 8 in the proposed rule stage, another 8 in the final rule stage, as well as two long-term actions and three completed actions. How does the scope of this agenda define how OSHA is currently approaching regulatory action, and is this the level of activity we can continue to expect in the future?
Jordan Barab:
A: Laura: OSHA is currently focusing on moving a number of standards that have been stuck in the pipeline for the past eight years. In addition, we have added combustible dust, airborne infectious diseases and the MSD column back on the OSHA injury and illness log back onto the regulatory. Now that our new Assistant Secretary has been confirmed, we will be moving forward on additional regulatory initiatives.
Comment From Laura Walter, EHS TodayLaura Walter, EHS Today:
Q: What are OSHA’s main goals and expectations in developing a hearing conservation program for construction workers, and for how long do you anticipate the process of collecting/analyzing information will continue before the agency is able to move forward to the next step?
Jordan Barab:
A: Laura, this is one of many issues that has not received adequate attention. As OSHA finishes up some of the items on the existing agenda we will evaluate other safety and health issues to see if we can make progress on the highest priority items within our budget constraints.
Comment From Laura Walter, EHS TodayLaura Walter, EHS Today:
Q: How does OSHA plan to use the information that would be included in the proposed WMSD column on the 300 Log to improve safety and health policymaking and statistics? Does this attention to WMSDs indicate any potential future intentions of developing an ergonomics standard?
Jordan Barab:
A: Laura, OSHA believes that putting the MSD column back on the log will improve the nation’s occupational injury and illness statistics as well as providing useful information that employers and workers can use to better identify musculoskeletal disorders in their workplaces. Musculoskeletal injuries are one of the biggest worker health and safety problem in this country. But addressing this problem is also a complicated regulatory and poltical issue which the agency is considering. At this time, OSHA has no plans to pursue ergonomics regulation, although the incoming Assistant Secretary will be addressing this issue as one of his highest priorities.
To read the full live chat session please visit:
www.dol.gov
December 10th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
David Michaels has been confirmed to be the new Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health last Dec. 3.
Michaels was a Research professor and Interim Chair in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. He was nominated by President Barack Obama last July 28. The nomination was approved by the Senate Health and Labor Pensions last Nov. 18 then turned to the full senate.
Acting secretary Jordan Barab will carry on as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA.
This is the first that OSHA had a permanent administrator since Edwin Foulke Jr. resigned in 2008.
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