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Small businesses accounted for more than 60 percent of net new jobs created between 1993 and mid-2013 in the United States. In recent years, very small firms—those in the 20- to 499-employee category—have led job creation. But they face compliance challenges. Here are some resources that can help small businesses play up. The primary challenge […]
Once again, a major health and safety violation has cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this case, a marine terminal operator in Seattle has been found to have multiple serious health and safety violations and is facing more than $400,000 in fines. Labor & Industries (L&I) recently cited the marine terminal operator […]
A maintenance supervisor at a Wisconsin iron foundry was severely burned by an electrical arc flash in June 2013. The supervisor was injured while servicing a 480-volt circuit breaker without proper electrical protective equipment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the employer for a willful violation of electrical standards, alleging that the employer […]
On just his second day on the job, a 28-year-old man working on a machine to forge parts lost a fingertip in a November 2014 incident. Investigators said it could have been prevented if his employer had trained the man to properly operate the upsetter machine and if the machine had proper safety mechanisms. The […]
A worker at a Wisconsin cheese factory lost two fingers in an amputation incident in January 2013. The worker was operating an unguarded cheese packing and labeling machine. When OSHA investigated the incident, it discovered that a similar amputation had occurred a year earlier. According to OSHA, the amputations could have been prevented by 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 […]
In warm weather, increasing numbers of divers suit up to perform underwater operations. Diving has its own set of hazards and safety rules, but employers who utilize divers need to be aware that other hazards may exist besides those inherent in the diving operation itself. That’s what Liquivision Technology found out when the employer contracted […]
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 […]
On March 3, 2015, OSHA cited Seldat Distribution, a distribution warehouse in Dayton, NJ, for 10 serious violations carrying $63,000 in proposed penalties. Inspectors were at the facility looking for electrical hazards in the wake of an employee’s electrocution, and they found many, including problems with the distributor’s electrical panels. They found other problems as […]