While the total recordable cases incidence rate fell 0.1 cases per 100 full-time workers, the rates for cases involving days away from work and for cases of job transfer or restriction only were unchanged.
After reviewing the report, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels issued the following statement:
"Today's Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that too many workers are still being injured or sickened on the job. Every year, millions of workers are injured at work and that is simply unacceptable. We must redouble our efforts to make sure that employers provide workers with the protections and training they deserve.
"Workplace injuries and illnesses have a devastating effect on workers, their families, and the businesses where they occur. These injuries and illnesses contribute to the pressing issue of income inequality: they force working families out of the middle class and into poverty, and keep the families of lower-wage workers from entering the middle class and achieving the American Dream.
"Everyone benefits when there are fewer injuries and illnesses. OSHA is committed to continue increased efforts to ensure every employer is fulfilling its responsibility to protect the safety and health of its workers."
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 safety data sheets.
Environmental Resource Center is offering live online training for you to learn how the new rule differs from current requirements, how to implement the changes, and when the changes must be implemented.
New Exclusions for Solvent Recycling and Hazardous Secondary Materials
EPA’s new final rule on the definition of solid waste creates new opportunities for waste recycling outside the scope of the full hazardous waste regulations. This rule, which went into effect on July 13, 2015, streamlines the regulatory burden for wastes that are legitimately recycled.
The first of the two exclusions is an exclusion from the definition of solid waste for high-value solvents transferred from one manufacturer to another for the purpose of extending the useful life of the original solvent by keeping the materials in commerce to reproduce a commercial grade of the original solvent product.
The second, and more wide reaching of the two exclusions, is a revision of the existing hazardous secondary material recycling exclusion. This exclusion allows you to recycle, or send off-site for recycling, virtually any hazardous secondary material. Provided you meet the terms of the exclusion, the material will no longer be hazardous waste.
Learn how to take advantage of these exclusions at Environmental Resource Center’s live webcast where you will learn:
- Which of your materials qualify under the new exclusions
- What qualifies as a hazardous secondary material
- Which solvents can be remanufactured, and which cannot
- What is a tolling agreement
- What is legitimate recycling
- Generator storage requirements
- What documentation you must maintain
- Requirements for off-site shipments
- Training and emergency planning requirements
- If it is acceptable for the recycler to be outside the US
Orlando RCRA and DOT Training
Charlotte RCRA and DOT Training
Wilmington RCRA and DOT Training
No New Chemical Safety Investigations Opened in Seven Months
Despite nearly a score of major industrial chemical accidents since March, the federal agency charged with looking into their causes and preventing recurrences has not opened an investigation into a single one, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Instead, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has been preoccupied with a multi-month investigation of its own executive staff—a probe it just extended yet again, into mid-November, at least.
Since the former Chair Rafael Moure-Eraso resigned in March 2015, there have been at least 19 major accidents resulting in 16 fatalities and 32 serious injuries. However, the CSB has not deployed investigators to any industrial accidents or commissioned any new investigations during what appears to be the longest period of CSB inactivity since 2000. The investigative paralysis is occurring despite:
- A triple fatality at a Louisiana facility owned by the same parent company as a plant where the CSB has an unfinished investigation started in 2013. Normally a second fatal incident involving the same company in the same state would trigger additional scrutiny and a new deployment of investigators
- A gas boiler explosion hospitalizing seven workers in Florida. CSB previously investigated a major explosion at a ConAgra plant—also caused by purging gas into a building (leaving 4 dead and 67 hospitalized) —and found numerous similar gas purging incidents around the country. Thus, CSB has foregone a chance to harness this extensive earlier work in seizing an opportunity to press for the lifesaving regulatory reforms it has recommended.
Prior to March, by contrast, the CSB had been averaging 5.5 new investigations per year, with as many as 8 new deployments launched in FY 2011. Even that pace did not satisfy the US Environmental Protection Inspector General which last week called for more CSB probes in order to close what it called the “investigative ‘gap’ between the number of accidents that it chooses to investigate and the number of accidents that fall under its statutory responsibility”—a gap the IG estimated at 96%. But this new IG report failed to note the recent total hiatus of industrial accident investigations.
“The only new investigations undertaken by the Chemical Safety Board are of its own staff,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “Plants are exploding, workers dying and communities endangered but this agency has no current plans to do much of anything about it.”
Via a memo dated October 28th, CSB Chair Vanessa Sutherland extended the paid administrative leave for CSB’s top two executive staff through November 16—it was to have expired. They have been sidelined since mid-June pending the outcome of a search for “possible misconduct.” That search is being conducted by two outside firms, retained at an initial cost of $100,000 with additional expenses mounting by the month. By way of comparison, approximately one-third of completed CSB investigations, many of involving fatalities, cost less to finish than what it has already poured into this internal probe.
“The Chemical Safety Board is sinking into irrelevance as America’s aging industrial infrastructure becomes more at-risk by the day,” added Ruch, noting that at a CSB public meeting last week recent Board appointees engaged in a round of self-congratulations, claiming the troubled agency has “turned the corner.” “On its mission to prevent major chemical accidents, this Board is currently missing in action.”
OSHA's Regional Emphasis Program Focuses on Reducing Illness and Injury at Southeastern Chicken Processing Facilities
Poultry workers are twice as likely to suffer serious injuries and six times more likely to get sick on the job than other private sector workers, facts that are leading federal safety and health inspectors to act in four Southeastern states to reduce musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic stressors affecting industry workers.
OSHA recently announced the launch of a new Regional Emphasis Program in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi intended to prompt employers to protect poultry industry workers properly and reduce injury and illness rates.
OSHA's emphasis program began this week with a three-month period of education and prevention outreach activities to share safety and health information with employers, associations, and workers. Employers are encouraged to use this period to bring their facilities into compliance with OSHA standards, if they are not already.
The agency will then begin its targeted enforcement phase, including on-site inspections and a review of poultry processing production operations, working conditions, recordkeeping, chemical handling, and safety and health programs to ensure compliance.
"The Regional Emphasis Program is designed to reduce employee exposure to crippling injuries, such as musculoskeletal disorders, and to ensure the industry records all occupational injuries and illnesses accurately," said Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA's regional administrator in Atlanta.
The emphasis program ends October 25, 2016, unless extended. OSHA area offices will continue to open inspections in response to complaints, hospitalizations, and fatalities.
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities, or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742). Additional information related to the emphasis program is available by contacting OSHA's Atlanta Regional Office at 678-237-0400.
Indiana Releases Workplace Injury and Illness Rates
Recently, the Indiana Department of Labor (IDOL) released its annual nonfatal workplace injury and illness report for 2014. Indiana’s nonfatal occupational injury and illness rate is 4.0 injuries or illnesses per 100 full-time workers. The rate for 2014 ties the 2012 rate as the second lowest on record for Indiana.
The most significant improvement among the major Hoosier industries was in the state’s utilities industry (1.5 per 100 full-time workers in 2014 compared to 2.8 per 100 in 2013). The mining, administrative and waste services, educational services, and finance and insurance industries also experienced decreases.
“The low rate of workplace injuries and illnesses is a testament to the dedication Hoosier employers and employees have shown toward workplace safety,” said Indiana Department of Labor Commissioner Rick J. Ruble. “We continue to see managers and employees actively taking ownership of their workplace safety and health programs.”
Some findings in the 2014 report include:
- The overall state non-fatal injury and illness rate for 2014 is 4.0 injuries or illnesses per 100 full-time workers. The utilities industry experienced the greatest one-year decline in non-fatal worker injuries and illnesses, 46%.
- Eight of nineteen major Indiana industry categories experienced a reduction in non-fatal worker injuries and illnesses in 2014.
California to List Pentachlorphenol and By-Products of its Synthesis as Carcinogenic
The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) intends to list “pentachlorophenol and by-products of its synthesis (complex mixture)” as known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. This action is being proposed under the authoritative bodies listing mechanism.
Pentachlorophenol and by‑products of its synthesis (complex mixture) meet the criteria for listing as known to the state to cause cancer under Proposition 65, based on the findings of the National Toxicology Program. The NTP is one of several institutions designated as authoritative for the identification of chemicals as causing cancer.
Additionally, NTP states that “People exposed to pentachlorophenol are also exposed to its by‑products; therefore, the listing is for this complex mixture,” and that “the evidence from studies in experimental animals indicates that the observed carcinogenicity cannot be fully explained by either the presence of by-products alone or pentachlorophenol alone.”
OEHHA is relying on NTP’s discussion of data and conclusions in the report that pentachlorophenol and by‑products of its synthesis (complex mixture) causes cancer. Evidence described in the report includes studies showing that pentachlorophenol and by‑products of its synthesis (complex mixture) increased the incidences of malignant liver tumors in male mice, combined malignant and benign liver tumors and combined malignant and benign adrenal-gland tumors in male and female mice, malignant tumors of the blood vessels of the spleen and/or liver in female mice, malignant tumors in the tunica vaginalis of the testes in male rats, and malignant tumors of the nose to an unusual degree with respect to tumor type in male rats.
OEHHA is requesting comments as to whether pentachlorophenol and by‑products of its synthesis (complex mixture) meets the criteria set forth in the Proposition 65 regulations for authoritative bodies listings. In order to be considered, OEHHA must receive comments by 5:00 p.m. on November 30, 2015. We encourage you to submit comments in electronic form, rather than in paper form.
Comments received during the public comment period will be posted on the OEHHA web site after the close of the comment period. Electronic files submitted should not have any form of encryption.
Safer Consumer Products Guidance Document Released
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has released a draft of its First Stage Alternatives Analysis Guide, a key step in the implementation of California's Safer Consumer Products regulations, which are creating safer substitutes for hazardous ingredients in consumer products sold in California.
The regulations identify specific products that contain potentially harmful chemicals and ask manufacturers to answer two questions: 1) Is the chemical necessary? 2) Is there a safer alternative?
“One of the primary aims of our Safer Consumer Products regulations is to avoid regrettable substitutions,” said Deputy Director for the Safer Products and Work Places Program Meredith Williams. “The Alternatives Analysis process is a cornerstone of the regulations because it requires manufacturers to find safer alternative ingredients for their products.”
It is written to assist people who are conducting Alternatives Analyses (AA) in accordance with the Safer Consumer Products regulations. The Guide helps people understand the California Alternatives Analysis process; provides useful information and resources; and describes how California’s AA relates to other existing alternatives assessments.
An additional guidance document, which describes the second stage of the Alternatives Analysis process, will be released in draft by Spring of 2016. It will undergo similar public comment and review.
“We are eager to hear feedback from manufacturers and users of the guide,” Williams said. “It’s important that it helps them comply with the regulations.”
The Alternatives Analysis process will help manufacturers determine how best to compare the chemicals of concern in Priority Products with potential alternatives and determine if there is a safer way to make the products.
In March 2014, DTSC announced its initial three draft priority products consumer goods sold in California that each contain at least one toxic chemical:
- Children's foam padded sleeping products containing TDCPP or TCEP
- Spray Polyurethane foam systems containing unreacted MDI
- Paint stripper containing Methylene Chloride
DTSCs landmark Safer Consumer Products regulations represent a significant shift toward a more protective, economically viable approach to how California protects people and the environment from hazardous chemicals found in consumer products. The regulations provide an opportunity for innovative industries to capitalize on the growing consumer demand for products that are safer and better for the environment. The Alternatives Analysis Guide is available online.
Perry's Maintenance Inc. Employee Fatally Struck by Rock
OSHA began its inspection on June 11, 2015, upon learning of the death of an employee who had been injured on June 6 and died on June 10. He was trimming weeds when he was struck in the back of the head by a rock that shot out of the grass clipping discharge chute of a riding lawnmower being operated nearby by another employee.
OSHA found that the lawnmower's discharge chute lacked the guard that prevents rocks and other objects from shooting out. The bracket used to attach the discharge chute was broken in 2014 and the company had not repaired or replaced it since. As a result, OSHA cited Perry Maintenance on September 30 for one willful violation of workplace safety standards. The company has contested its citations and penalties to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Proposed penalties total $70,000.
"This worker's death was easily preventable. The attachment and use of the required guard for the discharge chute would have kept this hazard from occurring in the first place," said Michael Scime, OSHA's area director in Buffalo. "Employers should take note of this tragic incident and ensure that required safeguards are in place and in use to protect their employees against injury or death."
Iowa Postal Facility Exposed Mail Handler to Excessive Heat
The citations follow a July 2015 OSHA investigation of a complaint alleging a mail carrier reported experiencing heat illness symptoms and requested relief from completing his route on June 10. OSHA's investigation found the carrier was directed to complete the route, despite feeling ill. The heat index that afternoon exceeded 100 degrees. During its investigation, the agency found that a mail carrier was hospitalized for heat illness on July 13. The carrier had also asked for relief due to feeling ill, and was directed to complete the route.
OSHA cited the employer for one repeated violation for exposing workers to excessive heat while delivering the mail. USPS was cited for a similar violation in Independence, Missouri, after a worker died of heat related illness in 2014. OSHA also found carriers could not readily summon emergency assistance.
"When a worker says they are experiencing heat related illness and need assistance, employers must respond and take appropriate precautions. If not quickly addressed, heat exhaustion can quickly become heat stroke, and that can be deadly," said Larry Davidson, OSHA's area director in Des Moines.
Proposed penalties total $46,600.
OSHA to Hold a Meeting of the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee
The Best Practices and Corporate Culture Work Group will meet on November 9, 2015.
The tentative agenda will include remarks from Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels, remarks from the director of the Directorate of Whistleblower Protection Programs presentation of State Plan issues public comments and work group discussions and presentations.
The committee will meet from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. ET, November 10 in Room S-4215 A-C, US Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20210. The work group will meet from 1 – 4 p.m. ET, November 9 in the same room. The deadline for submissions is November 2. All meetings are open to the public.
OSHA Schedules Meeting of National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health
The Temporary Workers Work Group will meet December 1 and the full committee will meet December 2.
The tentative agenda for the committee meeting includes: an update on OSHA initiatives from Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels, remarks from Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. John Howard, a report from the NACOSH Emergency Response and Preparedness Subcommittee, and a report from the NACOSH Temporary Workers Work Group on developing best practice language including protecting temporary workers in injury and illness protection programs.
The Temporary Workers Work Group will continue discussions of workplace safety and health issues related to temporary workers including workplace protections and joint responsibility of host employers and staffing agencies for temporary workers. The work group will develop and present recommendations for the full committee's consideration.
The work group will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., December 1 in the same room. Both meetings are open to the public. The deadline for submitting comments and requests to speak is November 20, 2015.
NACOSH advises, consults with and makes recommendations to the secretaries of labor and health and human services on matters relating to the Occupational Safety and Health Act including regulatory, research, compliance assistance, and enforcement issues.
OSHA Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health to Meet
Three working groups—on Health Hazards, Emerging Issues and Prevention through Design; Temporary Workers; and Training and Outreach—will meet Tuesday, December 1, from 1–5 p.m. The full committee meets the following day from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
Both meetings will be in Room N-4437, A-D, US Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20210. The meetings are open to the public. Comments and requests to speak must be submitted by November 13, 2015.
The tentative agenda includes remarks from Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, followed by updates from the Directorate of Construction and information about OSHA data and the 2015 National Safety Stand-Down. The group will also discuss a recommendation to eliminate from OSHA standards the requirement for employee social security numbers.
Additionally, OSHA is accepting nominations for six new members to serve on the 15-member committee. Nominations are sought for members representing employees (2), employers (2), the general public (1) and state safety and health agencies (1). The deadline for submissions is December 28, 2015.
DOT Issues New Flight Safety Rule for E-Cigarettes
In its continuing effort to improve transportation safety, the US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recently issued an interim final rule (IFR) to prohibit passengers and crewmembers from carrying battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices (e.g. e-cigarettes, e-cigs, e-cigars, e-pipes, personal vaporizers, electronic nicotine delivery systems) in checked baggage and prohibit passengers and crewmembers from charging the devices and/or batteries on board the aircraft.
"We know from recent incidents that e-cigarettes in checked bags can catch fire during transport," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "Fire hazards in flight are particularly dangerous. Banning e-cigarettes from checked bags is a prudent safety measure."
Also, on June 9, 2015, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) published an addendum to the 2015-2016 ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air prohibiting the carriage of e-cigarettes in checked baggage and restricting the charging of these devices while on board the aircraft.
"The importance of the safety of the flying public provides good cause for our issuing an IFR," said PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. "E-cigarettes in checked bags present a safety risk because they are capable of generating extreme heat, which could lead to a fire on board the aircraft."
Passengers may continue to carry e-cigarettes for personal use in carry-on baggage or on their person but may not use them on flights. The Department's current regulatory ban on smoking of tobacco products on passenger flights includes the use of electronic cigarettes. Nevertheless, to prevent passenger or crewmember confusion, the Department has proposed to amend its existing airline smoking rule to explicitly ban use of electronic cigarettes aboard aircraft.
The IFR does not prohibit a passenger from carrying other devices containing batteries for personal use (such as laptop computers, cell phones, cameras, etc.) in checked or carry-on baggage, nor does it restrict a passenger from transporting batteries for personal use in carry-on baggage.
An e-cigarette is a battery-powered device that simulates tobacco smoking by producing a heated vapor, which resembles smoke.
OSHA Renews Alliance with Louisiana Associated General Contractors to Promote Worker Safety and Health
Throughout the duration of the three-year agreement, OSHA will provide safety and health information in English and Spanish to construction and general industry workers.
"Over the past few years an industrial resurgence has been underway in south Louisiana, and that really emphasizes the importance of working together to make sure workers, who are contributing to the industrial growth, remain safe and healthy in the workplace so they can return home to their families," said Dorinda Folse, OSHA's area director in Baton Rouge. "That's what this alliance is about, a continuing commitment to worker safety and health."
For information about forming an alliance or partnership, contact OSHA's Baton Rouge Area Office at 225-298-5458.
National Office Furniture of Santa Claus Achieves VPP “STAR” Recertification
National Office Furniture, located in Santa Claus, Indiana, has achieved recertification in the Indiana Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) as a “STAR” site. Indiana VPP sites are recognized as leaders in workplace safety and health and commended for their success in proactively protecting Hoosier workers.
“VPP certification is an achievement that does not come easy. It requires the hard work and diligence of both management and employees,” said Indiana Department of Labor (IDOL) Commissioner Rick J. Ruble. “The Indiana Department of Labor congratulates and is pleased to continue to partner with National Office Furniture for worker safety and health excellence.”
To participate in VPP, a company must develop, implement and maintain an exemplary worker safety and health management system and complete a comprehensive workplace safety and health audit conducted by IDOL staff and safety professionals from a pool of Special Government Employees (SGEs). Additionally, the site’s workplace injury and illness rates must be below the national industry average for its respective industry. Worker injury and illness rates at National Office Furniture’s Santa Claus location are more than 60% below the national industry average. To date, 75 Indiana workplaces have achieved VPP certification—with 73 of these sites achieving “STAR” certification.
Employing over 300 workers, National Office Furniture manufactures wood laminate and veneer office furniture in Santa Claus. Last year, over 323,000 articles of furniture were manufactured at the location. Management’s commitment and worker involvement includes regular committee meetings, an incentive program and monthly walkthroughs. A licensed Athletic Training Coordinator and Physical Therapist visits the site at least once a week. National Office Furniture is also a member of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Indiana Environmental Stewardship Program. The worksite has no lost workday cases so far in 2015.
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