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On July 9, 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a 60-day temporary enforcement policy for its Confined Spaces in Construction standard, which became effective on August 3, 2015. The administration is postponing full enforcement of the new standard to October 2, 2015, in response to requests for additional time to train employees […]
On July 9, OSHA announced a 60-day temporary enforcement policy for its Confined Spaces in Construction standard, which became effective August 3, 2015. The agency is postponing full enforcement of the new standard to October 2, 2015, in response to requests for additional time to train and acquire the equipment necessary to comply with the […]
At a storage system manufacturing facility in Georgia, two workers suffered finger amputations in two separate incidents within a 3-month period beginning in November 2014. Yesterday, we looked at the first incident; today, we’ll look at the second incident, in which a worker was standing up a fabricated metal rack. The 353-pound rack tipped over […]
At a storage system manufacturing facility in Georgia, two workers suffered finger amputations in two separate incidents within a three-month period. The first worker was using a power press to stamp small parts for metal racks in November 2014. The employer had not ensured that the press was guarded, and the worker’s hands entered the […]
OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently issued a joint hazard alert about protecting workers from significant crystalline silica exposure during manufacturing, finishing, and installing natural and manufactured stone countertops. Protect workers in this and other industries from silica exposure with the safety measures outlined below. Preventing Silica Exposures Because […]
June 24, 2015, was a muggy Wednesday night in north Alabama. At the Federal Mogul manufacturing facility in Athens, 25-year-old Allen Michael Brown was outside the plant, trying to secure an empty barrel when he walked in front of a forklift. Brown was run over and killed by the forklift. Any time you have heavy […]
Protecting workers from the heat is a critical issue during the hot months of July and August—so critical that OSHA is ramping up its awareness and enforcement efforts around heat illness prevention this year. Ideally, employers are supposed to prevent workers from suffering heat illness in the first place, but what happens after a worker […]
In October 2014, OSHA reinspected Wood Fibers, Inc., a wood pellet manufacturing facility in Niagara, Wisconsin, for the fifth time in 3 years. The employer had been cited for serious hazards in 2012, but late last year, conditions had not improved much. Wood Fibers was cited for four repeat and eight serious violations, including serious […]
In early February, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slapped Ashley Furniture Industries with nearly $1.8 million in proposed fines for repeat and willful violations. The furniture manufacturer stands accused of exposing workers to amputation hazards, electrical violations, training deficiencies, and other violations at its Arcadia, Wisconsin, manufacturing facility that led to more than […]
by Dan Hannan, CSP An employer that only focuses on preventing workplace accidents is missing a large exposure. It’s a hard reality that the frequency of off-the-job injuries and fatalities exceed those occurring in the workplace many times over. Even though he’s not “on the job” when an employee makes home roof repairs , fails […]