OSHA develops national emphasis programs to focus outreach efforts and inspections on specific hazards in an industry for a three-year period. Through this NEP, OSHA will focus on workplaces in general, construction, and maritime industries that use isocyanate compounds in an effort to reduce occupational illnesses and deaths.
“Workers exposed to isocyanates can suffer debilitating health problems for months or even years after exposure,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “Through this program, OSHA will strengthen protections for workers exposed to isocyanates.”
Isocyanates are chemicals that can cause occupational asthma, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose and throat, and cancer. Deaths have occurred due to both asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis from isocyanates exposure. Respiratory illnesses also can be caused by isocyanates exposure to the skin. Isocyanates are used in materials including paints, varnishes, auto body repair, and building insulation. Jobs that involve exposure to isocyanates include the spray-on polyurethane manufacturing of products such as mattresses and car seats, and protective coatings for truck beds, boats, and decks.
GHS Worker Training PowerPoint Now Available
With OSHA’s adoption of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals, virtually every chemical label, MSDS—now called Safety Data Sheet (SDS), and written hazard communication plan must be revised to meet the new standard.
By December 1, 2013, all employees at your site that work with, or are exposed to, hazardous chemicals must be trained to understand the new classification system, labels, warning statements, precautions, pictograms, and safety data sheets for chemicals at your worksite.
Environmental Resource Center is making available a PDF presentation or a customizable PowerPoint that you can use for on-site worker training. The training program, which covers all of OSHA’s required GHS Hazard Communication training requirements in a format that is easy to understand.
Pricing and options:
Options:
- Customized PowerPoint: send us your written GHS hazard communication plan and 10–20 safety data sheets. We’ll create a custom training program for your site: $899
- If you have not updated your hazard communication plan, let Environmental Resource Center update it for you: $799
- Customized PowerPoint and hazard communication plan: $1600.
How to Implement OSHA’s Globally Harmonized Hazard Communication Standard (GHS)
OSHA has issued a final rule revising its Hazard Communication Standard, aligning it with the United Nations’ globally harmonized system (GHS) for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals. This means that virtually every product label, safety data sheet (formerly called “material safety data sheet” or MSDS), and written hazard communication plan must be revised to meet the new standard. Worker training must be updated so that workers can recognize and understand the symbols and pictograms on the new labels as well as the new hazard statements and precautions on SDSs.
Dayton RCRA and DOT Training
Macon RCRA and DOT Training
Cleveland RCRA and DOT Training
OSHA Urges Increased Safety Awareness in Fireworks Industry in Advance of July 4 Celebrations
OSHA is urging the fireworks and pyrotechnics industry to be vigilant in protecting workers from hazards while manufacturing, storing, transporting, displaying, and selling fireworks for public events.
“As we look forward to July 4 celebrations with fireworks and festivities, we must also consider the safety of workers who handle pyrotechnics,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “Employers are responsible for keeping everyone safe on the job and taking appropriate measures to protect workers from serious injuries or death.”
In March 2012, three workers suffered serious burns caused by an explosion at Global Pyrotechnic Solutions Inc. OSHA cited the Dittmer, Missouri, company nearly $117,000 for safety violations relating to explosive hazards.
OSHA Reaches Agreement with ConAgra Foods to Protect Workers from Anhydrous Ammonia
ConAgra Foods, Inc., dba Lamb Weston, Inc., has signed a settlement agreement with OSHA to protect workers at five of its facilities from the release of anhydrous ammonia from refrigeration systems.
The agreement protects workers at Idaho, Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio facilities of the Nebraska-based company. It requires ConAgra to implement controls to reduce hazards associated with release of ammonia from low pressures receivers.
“This agreement ensures that ConAgra will protect workers from releases of ammonia by enclosing older LPRs that were not already enclosed, and by providing other controls such as normal and emergency ventilation to prevent exposure,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “OSHA’s corporate-wide settlement agreements are highly effective tools for ensuring that companies take a systemic approach to addressing hazards that can injure or kill their workers.”
OSHA originally cited ConAgra for failing to determine whether these older LPRs were being operated safely.
Under the agreement, ConAgra will implement administrative and engineering controls at the covered LPRs to control hazards associated with the release of ammonia. This includes building enclosures around equipment that is not already enclosed. Each enclosure must include normal and emergency ventilation that meets specified requirements, automatic switches for both normal and emergency ventilation, and ammonia detection alarms. Egress doors for the enclosures will be required to include panic hardware and to swing in the direction of egress.
The agreement is the result of an inspection conducted at the company’s American Falls, Idaho, facility, initiated under OSHA’s PSM Covered Chemical Facilities National Emphasis Program, established to reduce or eliminate the workplace hazards associated with the catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals.
Witt Plumbing Inc. Fined $157,000 After Worker Dies When Trench Collapses
“This tragedy might have been prevented with the use of protective shoring that the company planned to bring to the job site that afternoon. All too often, compromising safety procedures has tragic consequences, and hazards like these cause numerous deaths and injuries every year,” said Bonita Winingham, OSHA’s area director in Omaha. “No job should cost a worker’s life because an employer failed to properly protect and train them.”
The two willful violations involve failing to provide cave-in protection to workers in an unprotected trench more than five feet deep and to provide a means of egress from a trench. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.
Additionally, three serious violations involve failing to train workers on trenching hazards, lack of a hazard communication program, and failing to have a competent person conduct trench and excavation inspections. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
OSHA standards mandate that all excavations 5 feet or deeper be protected against collapse.
Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities or job sites.
OSHA has proposed fines of $157,000 as a result of the incident.
Houston-Based Piping Technology and Products Inc. Fined $70,000 for Exposing Workers to Amputation Hazards
OSHA has cited Piping Technology and Products, Inc., in Houston for one willful violation with a proposed penalty of $70,000 after two workers had fingers amputated in hydraulic presses that were not properly guarded.
“Piping Technology and Products continues to expose workers to unguarded hazardous machinery, even though it has been previously cited for the same violation on various pieces of machinery,” said Mark Briggs, OSHA’s Houston South area director. “The employer knowingly permitted workers to operate machines without proper guarding. That kind of disregard for worker safety will not be tolerated.”
The willful violation was cited for four hydraulic presses that lacked point-of-operation guarding. The lack of point-of-operation guarding resulted in two workers having their fingers amputated.
Piping Technology was inspected twice in 2011 and cited with 42 health and safety violations, including failing to guard the point of operation for band saws, shears and press brakes. The company contested those citations.
The company, which employs about 700 workers, manufactures pipe supports, clamps, and expansion joints for chemical and oil refineries.
General Awning Co. Issued 8 Safety Citations After Follow-Up Inspection
General Awning Co. has been cited by OSHA with eight safety violations, carrying proposed penalties of $48,800. An April follow-up inspection found the awning manufacturer had failed to abate six previous violations. Two repeat violations were also found at the Brooklyn Heights facility.
“Six months after the previous inspection, General Awning failed to correct the safety violations noted,” said Howard Eberts, OSHA’s area director in Cleveland. “Employers who are cited for failure-to-abate and repeat violations show a profound lack of commitment to worker safety and health and a lack of awareness about the dangers that exist in their facility.”
Six failure-to-abate citations were issued for failing to correct deficiencies involving the lack of an energy control program, written hazard communication program and training for workers, training for forklift drivers, availability of safety data sheets for chemicals utilized in the facility and markings for overhead storage locations indicating approved load capacities. The same violations were cited in an October 2012 inspection.
Additionally, two repeat violations were cited for failure to ensure all necessary machine guarding was present and affixed to machinery. OSHA issues repeat violations if an employer previously was cited for the same or a similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. The company was cited for these violations in October 2012, but the attempted abatement was found not adequate.
Fatal Grain Elevator Accident Results in OSHA Fines
Plains Grain & Agronomy, LLC, has been cited by OSHA for two safety violations after a worker was fatally injured on January 18. While loading railcars at the Sheldon grain elevator, the employee fell about 15 feet and had not used fall protection.
“Allowing workers to load railcars without proper fall protection is inexcusable,” said Eric Brooks, OSHA’s area director in Bismarck. “Falls are one of the six major hazards present in grain bin handling facilities. Employers have a responsibility to identify the hazards that exist in their facilities and train workers to take precautions to prevent injury.”
OSHA cited one willful safety violation for failing to provide and ensure the use of fall protection for workers atop railcars.
One serious safety violation was cited for failing to protect workers from crushing and or struck-by hazards while using skid steers to move railcars.
OSHA’s SVEP focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations.
The company was previously cited at its Marion location when a worker died after being engulfed by grain in April 2006. Headquartered in Enderlin, Plains Grain & Agronomy operates grain terminals in Marion, Sheldon, Enderlin, and Lisbon.
In 2010, following the deaths of at least 26 US workers in grain bin entrapments, the highest number on record, OSHA focused their enforcement efforts on the grain and feed industry’s six major danger areas. These include engulfment, falls, auger entanglement, struck-by, combustible dust, and electrocution hazards. OSHA area offices in 25 states, including North Dakota, have developed a Local Emphasis Program dealing with grain.
Paterson, New Jersey, Contractor Faces $49,600 in Fines for Repeat Fall, Serious Safety Hazards
OSHA has cited Paterson-based R.E. General Contractor, LLC, for alleged repeat and serious violations of occupational safety standards found while workers replaced a roof on a commercial building at 500 Grand St. in Paterson. The general contractor faces a total of $49,600 in proposed fines following a December 2012 imminent danger inspection by OSHA’s Hasbrouck Heights Area Office.
Two repeat violations, with a $46,800 penalty, were cited for exposing workers to fall hazards of approximately 50 feet while workers engaged in roofing work without fall protection in place. Workers also used an extension ladder that did not extend at least 3 feet above the upper landing surface. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. OSHA cited similar violations in 2008, 2010, and 2011.
One serious violation, carrying a $2,800 fine, resulted from the failure to provide workers with hard hat protection while working near the forks of a material boom lift.
“OSHA will not tolerate this company’s continuous disregard for adequate fall protection,” said Lisa Levy, director of OSHA’s Hasbrouck Heights Area Office. “Employers have a responsibility to ensure that workers exposed to fall hazards are provided with the proper fall protection equipment, are trained in its use and wear it whenever a fall hazard is present.”
The page offers fact sheets, posters, and videos that vividly illustrate various fall hazards and appropriate preventive measures.
Brownsville, Texas, Employer Cited for Failing to Monitor Asbestos Exposure
The company was cited for failing to monitor asbestos exposure and provide adequate procedures to control hazardous energy sources.
The complaint inspection, which began in January, was conducted by OSHA’s Corpus Christi Area Office. The willful violation, with a $55,000 penalty, was cited for failing to perform initial monitoring prior to workers being exposed to asbestos.
The repeat violation, with a penalty of $35,000, was cited for failing to develop and implement adequate lockout/tagout procedures to control hazardous energy sources from cure presses and other equipment. A similar violation was cited in May 2010.
The other two serious violations involve exposing workers to struck-by and crushing hazards from using a boom lift extension on a powered industrial truck that had not been secured with a pin to ensure stability. The serious violation fines total $30,000.
“By failing to monitor asbestos exposure, National Electric Coil Co., puts its workers in harm’s way by exposing them to a variety of health issues. That negligence for worker safety and health will not be tolerated, and OSHA will hold this employer accountable,” said Michael Rivera, OSHA’s area director in Corpus Christi.
National Electric Coil produces high-voltage coils and bars for turbine generators, hydrogenerators, and high-voltage motors. It employs about 167 workers in Brownsville and another 377 workers nationwide.
Cal/OSHA Cites Employers for Worker’s Death in Confined Space
Cal/OSHA cited Artesia-based Express Chipping, Inc., following the death of a 40-year-old worker who was chipping concrete inside a cement mixer when he was struck by a 1,200-lb. slab of concrete. Cal/OSHA cited the company for failing to identify the hazards of working within the confined space of the mixer, and failing to train its workers about this hazard.
“Employers have a responsibility to protect their workers and prevent this type of tragedy,” said Christine Baker, director of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, more commonly known as Cal/OSHA, is a division within DIR.
Cal/OSHA cited Express Chipping, Inc., for six serious violations and one general violation with penalties totaling $50,400. Violations included failure to identify confined space hazards, provide proper equipment, emergency procedures, and training. Cal/OSHA also cited the employer where the worker’s death occurred, A&A Concrete Supply, for failing to inform rescue services of the serious hazards at the worksite. A&A received a serious and general citation totaling $7,500.
“Confined space hazards exist in most workplaces. Unfortunately, we have found that incidents involving confined spaces often result in multiple serious injuries or fatalities,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Ellen Widess. “It’s important that employers identify when their workers must enter a confined space and take the steps necessary to minimize the risks.”
Last February, Cal/OSHA launched a statewide Confined Space Special Emphasis Initiative to focus great awareness and prevention of worker deaths and serious injuries. By simply following the confined space procedures—identifying and labeling confined spaces, instituting, and maintaining onsite emergency response plans, and providing training for workers and supervisors—serious injuries and deaths can be prevented. Common types of confined spaces include tanks, silos, pipelines, sewers, storage bins, drain tunnels, and vaults. These are widespread in many industries, and also in non- industrial workplaces such as health care, education, retail and services.
Plains Trucking in Ross, North Dakota, Cited After Worker Dies While Cleaning Tanker
Plains Trucking, LLC, has been cited by OSHA for nine safety violations after a worker was fatally injured March 27 while cleaning the inside of a crude oil tanker that exploded at the company’s facility in Ross. The incident occurred when another worker lowered a treble light, not approved for use in such conditions, into the tanker. The second worker suffered a concussion and a head laceration.
“The company failed in its responsibility to train workers and evaluate the working conditions of confined spaces, which carry unique hazards, before allowing workers to enter,” said Eric Brooks, OSHA’s area director in Bismarck. “No job should cost a person’s life because of an employer’s failure to properly protect and train workers.”
One willful safety violation involves failing to develop and implement a confined space entry program.
Eight serious safety violations were cited for failing to evaluate the need for personal protective equipment; lack of machine guarding on pulleys and belts; failing to develop and implement a written respiratory protection program; use of electrical lighting not approved for a hazardous location; and failing to compile a list of chemicals, such as crude oil, which was in use, and provide workers training on those chemical hazards and precautions.
OSHA’s SVEP focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations.
Confined space hazards are addressed in specific standards.
Proposed fines total $28,000.
Grand Trunk Western Railway Co. Ordered to Pay Back Wages to Suspended, Injured Employee
The employee was seriously injured by a 20-foot section of crane chain while changing defective railcar wheels in the company’s Ferndale rail yard. OSHA has ordered the company to pay $137,618 in back pay, along with interest, punitive and compensatory damages, and attorney’s fees.
“For an employer to place blame on an employee who got injured on the job while following the instructions of his supervisors is unjust,” said Nick Walters, OSHA’s regional administrator in Chicago. “When employees are disciplined for injuries and the reporting of safety concerns, worker safety becomes a serious concern.”
An OSHA investigation upheld the 23-year Grand Trunk Western Railway Co., employee’s allegation that the railroad issued him a 90-day suspension after the employee was struck and injured by the crane chain. Following his injury, Grand Trunk Railway Co.’s internal investigation determined the worker had violated company safety protocol, leading to his injury, and issued the carman a 90-day suspension from service. The carman returned to work after 53 lost days.
OSHA’s investigation found that the employee had been directed by the mechanical supervisor to change the defective tires in a manner which violated company safety protocols, and that the employer used the injury as a pretext to suspend the employee.
The railroad carrier has been ordered to remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and to provide whistleblower rights information to its employees. Grand Trunk Railway Co., will also pay a total of $137,618, which includes $5,242 in lost wages and $125,490 in punitive and compensatory damages.
Either party in the case can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
On July 16, 2012, OSHA and the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration signed a memorandum of agreement to facilitate coordination and cooperation for enforcing the FRSA’s whistleblower provisions. Between August 2007, when OSHA was assigned responsibility for whistle-blower complaints under the FRSA, and September 2012, OSHA has received more than 1,200 FRSA whistleblower complaints. More than 60% of the FRSA complaints filed with OSHA involve an allegation that a railroad worker has been retaliated against for reporting an on-the-job injury.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, maritime, and securities laws.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program.
Minnesota Joins Midwestern States Looking to Promote Safe Practices for Grain Workers
Five seconds. That is how quickly a worker can become engulfed in flowing grain and be unable to get out.
Sixty seconds. That is how quickly a worker can be completely submerged in flowing grain. More than half of all grain engulfments result in death by suffocation.
In the past 50 years, more than 900 cases of grain engulfment at worksites and family farms have been reported with a fatality rate of 62%, according to researchers at Purdue University in Indiana.
In 2010, due to an increasing amount of worker fatalities in this industry, OSHA reached out to the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MNOSHA) and related agricultural and grain-handling industries to find ways to prevent deaths and injuries.
MNOSHA conducts compliance inspections and offers outreach to grain-handling facilities as part of its 2009 through 2013 strategic plan. Since 2009, MNOSHA has conducted almost 100 grain facility inspections. There have been no Minnesota grain-handling workplace fatalities in the past five years.
Federal OSHA also developed a local emphasis inspection program for grain-handling facilities, which focused on the grain and feed industry’s six major hazards. These include engulfment, falling, auger entanglement, being struck by, combustible-dust explosion and electrocution hazard.
“OSHA is working hard to change the ‘it won’t happen to me’ mindset,” said Nick Walters, US Department of Labor OSHA Regional Administrator for six Midwestern states. “Grain-handling injuries and deaths can be prevented if employers follow proper safety procedures.”
Suffocation can occur when a worker becomes buried by grain as they walk on moving grain or attempt to clear grain built up on the inside of a bin. Moving grain acts like quicksand and can bury a worker in seconds. “Bridged” grain and vertical piles of stored grain can also collapse unexpectedly if a worker stands on or near it. The behavior and weight of the grain make it extremely difficult for a worker to get out of it without assistance.
MNOSHA also participates each year with the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association at its operations, maintenance and safety workshop to promote awareness of grain-industry hazards.
“MNOSHA is working with the grain and agricultural industries and the agricultural community to educate employers and workers about the unique hazards of the grain and feed industry,” said James Krueger, Director, MNOSHA Compliance. “We continue to work to improve awareness of these hazards and the safety and health of workers on Minnesota farms and in grain-handling facilities. We are committed to preventing injuries and deaths.”
Resources
- OSHA’s grain bin local emphasis plan is used in 25 states.
New Alliance Between Erie Institute of Technology and OSHA to Promote Workplace Safety and Health
OSHA and Erie Institute of Technology formed an alliance to promote workplace safety and health among the school staff, students, and local employers in the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors that hire institute students. Based in Erie, the Institute provides technical training programs for computer, electronics, manufacturing, and technology careers.
Through the alliance, OSHA and the Institute will provide information on OSHA national, regional, and local emphasis programs; opportunities to participate in the federal rulemaking process; and occupational safety and health laws and standards, including the rights and responsibilities of workers and employers.
Additionally, both organizations will participate in forums, round-table discussions, and stakeholder meetings on youth safety to help forge solutions in the workplace and provide input on safety and health issues.
“We welcome this opportunity to partner with the Erie Institute of Technology to promote workplace safety and health at the jobs and in the service sectors that the students enter,” said Brendan Claybaugh, acting director of OSHA’s Erie Area Office. “By joining forces, we will help save lives, prevent injuries and illnesses and raise public awareness about issues critical to protecting workers.”
The purpose of each alliance is to develop compliance assistance tools and resources and educate workers and employers about their rights and responsibilities. Alliance Program participants do not receive exemptions from OSHA inspections or any other enforcement benefits.
New OSHA Program Targets Fatalities, Injuries Associated with Automotive Lifts
To reduce injuries and fatalities associated with the operation of automotive lifts, the OSHA is launching a local emphasis program in Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa in July.
OSHA compliance offices will begin conducting inspections to identify and evaluate hazards of lifts used in the automotive industry. Inspections will be conducted at randomly selected sites in general operations within targeted industries, such as: automobile dealers; automotive repair and maintenance shops; gasoline stations; and automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores. In addition, OSHA will respond to complaints, referrals, and fatalities related to operations where automotive lifts are used.
“Workers in the automotive industry are exposed to crushing hazards from automotive lifts when servicing and repairing vehicles,” said Ken Atha, OSHA’s Regional Administrator in the West. “These hazardous risks can be limited by properly maintaining automotive lifts and providing workers with effective training regarding inspection and use of lifts.”
Most of OSHA’s inspections for automotive lifts result from un-programmed work initiated by complaints, referrals and incidents. Since 2007, according to OSHA’s Fatality and Catastrophe Investigation Summary database, OSHA has conducted several automotive lift inspections, 11 of which resulted from fatalities. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a total of 15,000 workers were treated in hospitals for automotive lift, jack or jack stand injuries. By targeting inspection activity to employers in the automotive industry, OSHA hopes to reduce the injury and fatality rates of employers who use these devices.
OSHA Announces Safety Stand-Down in New York and New Jersey to Prevent Falls at Construction Work Sites
OSHA is encouraging construction employers in New York and New Jersey to participate in a safety stand-down held June 24 to July 3.
The OSHA safety stand-down will focus on preventing falls within the construction industry by partnering with contractors, unions, and workers to distribute safety information to more than 4,000 organizations.
“Falls continue to be the leading cause of worker deaths, and we need to ensure that top-level management remains committed to supporting effective injury prevention programs,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York. “This is an opportunity for OSHA, industry leaders, unions and workers to team up and reinforce the importance of providing fall protection and education for all exposed employees.”
OSHA produced the construction industry information packet to combat worker falls and provide clear safety standards. It also serves as an information sheet for companies to record their stand-down events. Companies have the option to receive an OSHA certificate of participation for taking part in the voluntary program.
It was developed in partnership with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and NIOSH’s National Occupational Research Agenda program.
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