February 26th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
HOUSTON—U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Scaffold Industry Association (SIA) signed a new regional alliance that aims to enhance workplace safety for construction workers in the states of Louisiana and Texas.
We welcome this opportunity to join with the SIA toward emphasizing employer awareness of hazardous working conditions in the construction industry,” said Dean McDaniel, OSHA’s regional administrator in Dallas, Texas.
“It is hopeful that this cooperative effort will help prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities.”
OSHA’s Region 6 will now work with SIA to develop educational training programs relating to scaffold and fall hazards, as well as applicable American National Safety Institute (ANSI) consensus standards. The agreement will establish communication methods for providing information to employers and employees in the construction industry.
Present at the signing were SIA president Bill Breault, SIA south central region president Chris Moody, SIA south central chapter vice president Paula Manning, David Doucet, Mark Hernandez and Mark Briggs, all with OSHA, and Eric Schmidt with the SIA.
SIA president Bill Breault said he hoped this alliance would be a starting point for more regional alliances to come.
We are really excited about this opportunity for the members in our region to work hands on with OSHA,” Moody said.
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Recently, another company caught OSHA’s attention and was faced with $45,500 in fines for a number of violations.
Cranesville Block Company, a plant at Kingston, N.Y., had serious violations on chemical and electrical hazards and lack of equipment for workers. Specifically, OSHA found blocked exits, workers lacking safety glasses and gloves while working with acid, unlabeled containers of hazardous chemicals, unmarked electrical equipment, exposed live electrical parts and moisture in electrical equipment.
Edward Jerome, the OSHA area director in Albany, found the recurring nature of the hazards disturbing. He said,
Employees at this plant are exposed to the hazards of electrocution, burns, eye and hand injuries, and being unable to swiftly exit the workplace in the event of fire or other emergency. This employer must address these hazards effectively and continually now and in the future.”
Two repeat citations were issued against the company–$27,500 in fines, for the lack of personal protective equipment and the unlabeled containers of chemicals, as it had cited the company in 2009 for similar hazards at Cranesville Block’s Fishkill and Glens Falls, N.Y., locations and the issuance of six serious citations earned them $18,000 in fines. OSHA issues serious citations when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which the employer knew or should have known.
One means of preventing recurring hazards is for employers to establish an effective comprehensive workplace safety and health program involving their workers in proactively evaluating, identifying and eliminating hazards,”
said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York. Cranesville Block has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, participate in an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
February 17, 2010–OSHA has cleared Walt Disney World after a 6-month investigation on the incident that led to the death of a worker. Anislav Varbanov, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular performer died after he was seriously hurt while rehearsing for the show.
The cast member died on August 18 last year at Hollywood Studios—it was the third work-related employee death in less than two months.
Mark Priest, 47, died after complications from an injury he suffered during a performance at the Magic Kingdom.
Austin Wuennenberg, 21, a monorail pilot, died after another train backed into the one he was operating July 5, 2009. Disney was cited for four safety violations in the monorail crash, and fined more than $35,000.
The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular has run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios since 1989, the year the park opened.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
NIOSH released “Soluciones Simples – Soluciones ergonómicas para trabajadores de la construcción”, a Spanish translation of “Simple Solutions – Ergonomics for Construction Workers”.
Construction is one of the most physically demanding occupations. Workers are exposed to different kinds of hazard on a daily basis. Falling from heights, electrocution and exposure to hazardous materials are just some of the dangers that they encounter in the workplace. One hazard that they can easily avoid, or at least reduce the risk of having, is work related muscoskeletal disorders.
This booklet offers practical ideas to help reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury in common construction tasks.
Soluciones Simples responds to employers’ and workers’ needs for practical guidance written for construction workers whose first and perhaps only language is Spanish, said NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard
For more information about the booklet, please visit these links.
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.
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 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.
