OSHA renewed its Alliance with the Airline Ground Safety Panel to address hazards and worker injuries related to operating aviation ground support equipment. The Airline Ground Safety Panel is a joint industry and labor partnership that consists of 11 airline companies and three unions that employ and represent 350,000 workers, which accounts for about 85% of the industry.
During the two-year agreement, the Alliance will develop fact sheets that highlight ways to prevent slips, trips and falls, and other hazards while operating ground safety equipment such as hi-lift trucks and pushback tugs. The Alliance will also conduct studies to improve the safety of ground personnel and address hazard communications and issues associated with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.
The three labor organizations on the panel—the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO; and the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO—praised the Alliance for furthering the shared goal to ensure that all workers return home to their families each day as healthy as when they went to work. Airlines for America, a panel participant that represents the airline industry, also expressed its support for the Alliance, stating that its member airlines are pleased to be a part of this voluntary, collaborative program with OSHA and labor union partners to further enhance the safety of airline employees.
The purpose of each alliance is to develop compliance assistance tools and resources and to educate workers and employers about their rights and responsibilities. Alliance Program participants do not receive exemptions from OSHA inspections or any other enforcement benefits.
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OSHA Cites Nursing Home Care Facility for Failing to Protect Workers from Exposure to Biological Hazards
OSHA has cited Columbus, Ohio-headquartered Atrium Centers LLC, which operates the Woodside Village Care Center in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, with four health violations for exposing workers to biological hazards at the nursing care facility. OSHA conducted an inspection under the agency’s National Emphasis Program for Nursing and Residential Care Facilities. Proposed penalties total $89,000.
One repeat violation involves failing to include in the facility’s exposure control plan a list of tasks and procedures in which occupational exposure to biological hazards may occur. The company was cited for the same violation in March 2007 and September 2008 at the Essex of Springfield Care Center in Springfield. A second repeat violation involves failing to document annual evaluations of the exposure control plan and to implement safer needle devices as part of that evaluation. The company was cited for the same violation in March 2009 at the Royal Oak Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Cleveland. 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.
One serious violation is failing to maintain an injury log for the recording of percutaneous injuries from contaminated sharps as required by OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard. 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.
One other-than-serious violation involves record keeping. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.
OSHA initiated its National Emphasis Program for Nursing and Residential Care Facilities in April to protect workers from serious safety and health hazards that are common in medical industries. OSHA develops national emphasis programs to focus outreach efforts and inspections on specific hazards in an industry for a three-year period. Through this program, OSHA is targeting nursing homes and residential care facilities to reduce occupational illnesses and injuries from exposure to blood and other potentially infectious material; exposure to communicable diseases such as tuberculosis; ergonomic stressors related to lifting patients; workplace violence; and slips, trips, and falls. Workers also may be exposed to hazardous chemicals and drugs in these environments.
According to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing and residential care facilities experienced one of the highest rates of lost workdays due to injuries and illnesses of all major American industries in 2010, the latest data available.
Atrium Centers operates 43 skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This inspection was OSHA’s seventh of a facility operated by the company since 2003.
Fontarome Chemical Cited for Process Safety Management Program Deficiencies Following Fire
OSHA has cited Fontarome Chemical Inc., for 17 serious safety violations following a fire at the company’s pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in St. Francis, Wisconsin, on April 13. The fire occurred during the troubleshooting of an electrical component on the hot oil heater.
Twelve violations cited relate to process safety management, including failing to address hazards related to potential engineering and administrative control failures, implement written operating procedures, review and certify operating procedures annually, train workers on the procedures, develop emergency procedures for the shutdown of process equipment or to address deviations from normal operating limits, validate management of change procedures, conduct a compliance audit at least every three years, and respond to deficiencies found in compliance audits.
Five other violations involve failing to develop machine-specific procedures for locking and tagging out energy sources, perform periodic inspections of machinery, guard machines, require workers to wear insulating gloves and fire-retardant clothing when working on energized circuits, and conduct an arc flash hazard analysis.
OSHA’s standards contain specific requirements for the management of hazards associated with processes using highly hazardous chemicals.
Fontarome Chemical manufactures ingredients for pharmaceuticals and the flavor and fragrance industries. Based in St. Francis, the company also operates a facility in Paris, France. This inspection was OSHA’s third of the St. Francis facility, which previously had been cited for a total of 22 violations.
OSHA Cites Williams Brothers Construction for Safety Hazards at Highway Site
OSHA has cited Williams Brothers Construction Co., Inc., with one repeat and one serious violation at a work site in Houston, Texas. OSHA conducted an inspection August 27 and found that workers were setting barrier copings at the edge of the highway bridge overpass without the protection of guardrails, a safety net, or personal fall arrest system. Proposed penalties total $45,500.
The repeat violation is for failing to protect workers from fall hazards. A similar violation was cited in June 2010. The serious violation is for failing to protect workers from impalement hazards when working above unprotected rebar.
Williams Brothers, a Houston-based highway and bridge construction company, employs about 1,800 workers nationwide.
OSHA Cites Lunda Construction After Worker Killed in Crane Collapse
OSHA has cited Lunda Construction Co., of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, with three serious safety violations after a worker was struck by a section of the crane he was assembling and killed April 20. OSHA initiated an inspection in response to the incident, which occurred at a construction site near De Pere.
The violations involve failing to train workers and provide written procedures on safe crane assembly, provide a competent person to supervise the assembly and disassembly of the crane, and follow the manufacturer’s recommended procedures for assembly of the American 5299 crawler crane.
Lunda Construction previously had been inspected by OSHA 14 times since 2007, resulting in citations for seven violations.
Proposed fines following the latest inspection total $21,000; the maximum fine OSHA may assess per serious violation is $7,000.
OSHA Cites Milling and Paving Company Following Heat Fatality at Construction Site
OSHA has cited LH Musser & Sons Inc., in Clarksburg, Maryland, for one serious violation of OSHA’s general duty clause following a heat-related fatality in June. OSHA initiated an inspection after an employee who was performing paving operations in the parking lot of a church in the District of Columbia became ill from heat stress and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The violation involves failing to provide a program addressing heat-related hazards in the workplace. In this case, the workplace was the outdoors, where employees performed duties involving hot asphalt in direct sunlight. The employer did not maintain a work/rest regimen, train employees on recognizing the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses as well as on methods of prevention, and ensure that employees consumed adequate amounts of water.
The company also was cited for one other-than-serious violation for failing to report the fatality to OSHA within eight hours.
The app displays a risk level for workers based on the heat index, as well as reminders about protective measures that should be taken at that risk level.
The paving and milling company faces a proposed fine of $6,900.
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