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By Emily Clark, Safety Editor With OSHA primed with funds for enforcement in 2014, it’s wise for employers to closely examine workplace compliance with OSHA standards. The latest budget signed into law by President Obama includes $552.2 million in funding for OSHA, including approximately $208 million for enforcement. Although the total amount falls $18.3 million […]
By Emily Clark, Safety Editor OSHA has released its annual inspection plan under the Site-Specific Targeting Program (SST). Will your establishment be the target of one of these inspections? Intended to focus enforcement resources on high-hazard industries, the SST plan targets high-hazard, nonconstruction workplaces with 20 or more workers and is based on data collected […]
Organizations with strong safety cultures tend to experience low levels of risky behavior and low accident rates, turnover, and absenteeism as well as high productivity. To strengthen your safety culture, here’s a list of suggestions: Give away ownership. In the strongest safety cultures, everyone feels responsible for safety. A worker who notices another worker without […]
In February 2014 alone, the EPA announced enforcement actions against 37 contractors and training providers nationwide for failure to comply with requirements of the Lead-Based Paint RRP Rule. The RRP Rule requires that contractors that work on pre-1978 dwellings and child-occupied facilities be trained and certified to use lead-safe work practices. In February 2014 alone, […]
Does your safety management program meet all of the following criteria? It should.
Yesterday, we outlined the steps in the process of transitioning to safer chemicals. Today, we review reasons why using safer chemicals whenever possible is a good idea. American workers use tens of thousands of chemicals every day. While many of these chemicals are suspected of being harmful, only a small number are regulated in the […]
The most effective way to control hazardous chemical exposures in the workplace is to eliminate them, but it can be difficult to identify safer alternatives. OSHA has created a toolkit to identify safer chemicals you can use in place of more hazardous ones. The toolkit walks employers and workers through information, methods, tools, and guidance […]
Hardly a month goes by without the EPA publishing enforcement actions against companies and individuals that have run afoul of the many regulations related to asbestos. Although most involve violations related to lack of training, lack of public notification, and other abatement-specific failures, many also cite violations of regulations protecting air and water. The Clean […]
How many jobs in your facility could be performed by someone wearing a blindfold? Even a relatively minor eye injury can send a worker home for the day, so it makes not only safety sense but also business sense to protect workers’ eyes. March is Workplace Eye Health and Safety Month, which makes this an […]