OSHA has issued a direct final rule and notice of proposed rulemaking that applies the requirements of the August 2010 cranes and derricks in construction standard to demolition work and underground construction. The application of this rule will protect workers from hazards associated with hoisting equipment used during construction activities.
The rulemaking also corrects several errors introduced in the 2010 rulemaking to make it easier for workers and employers to understand and implement these standards.
The direct final rule will become effective November 15, 2012, unless OSHA receives a significant adverse comment by September 17.
OSHA Announces Increased Enforcement Efforts in Southeast to Protect Construction Workers From Fall Hazards
The Southeast regional offices of OSHA will increase enforcement efforts aimed at reducing an upward trend in construction-related fall fatalities. Falls are one of the four leading causes of employee fatalities in the Southeast.
Beginning August 20, OSHA will be identifying sites throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi that may be exposing workers to fall hazards and conducting unannounced inspections at those sites. Additionally, all other hazards in plain sight will be addressed during the inspections.
“OSHA’s goal is to raise awareness about fall hazards and eliminate those conditions that lead to employee deaths,” said Cindy Coe, the agency’s regional administrator in Atlanta. “Our compliance officers will conduct immediate inspections when they observe employees working from elevation without fall protection.”
OSHA has various special emphasis programs that allow inspections to be opened immediately when safety and health hazards are observed at a work site, including a regional program in the Southeast on falls in construction. The programs also include separate outreach, education, and training components for employers and employees.
. OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are working with trade associations, labor unions, employers, universities, community and faith-based organizations, and consulates to provide employers and workers—especially vulnerable, low-literacy workers—with education and training on common-sense fall prevention equipment and strategies that save lives. Included are fact sheets, posters, and videos that vividly illustrate various fall hazards and appropriate preventive measures.
How to Prepare for OSHA’s Globally Harmonized Hazard Communication Standard (GHS)
How to Author GHS Safety Data Sheets
How to Label Hazardous Chemicals Using OSHA’s New GHS Hazcom Standard
Pittsburgh RCRA and DOT Training
Houston RCRA and DOT Training
Columbus RCRA and DOT Training
2012 Safety Summit: A System that Works
EnPro Industries, Inc., two-time award winner of EHS Today’s America’s Safest Company Award and winner of the Liberty Mutual Safety Excellence Gold Award, in conjunction with Environmental Resource Center, Inc., will be hosting a Safety Summit at the Hilton Columbia Center, Columbia, South Carolina, October 2–3, 2012.
“We have had a lot of success and created a passion with our proven safety practices because our focus has been at cultural level,” says Joe Wheatley, director of risk management and EHS affairs. “Every employee in the company participates in a safety pledge to renew their personal and public commitments toward safety. We spend a tremendous amount of energy across the company recognizing the positive accomplishments and safety ethic of our employees. We constantly look for ways to increase our safety awareness, and every new employee is immediately introduced to our high safety ethic.” Safety, he adds, “makes for a great place to work.”
This conference will help your organization move from a reactive to a proactive organization, preventing injuries and illnesses before they happen. Learn how to drive manufacturing safety systems and build a strong safety culture that builds morale, productivity, and profits.
Attend this conference to gain the tools you need to improve your company’s safety performance, including:
How to build your organization’s Safety Plan
Visionary Safety: How to improve on Management Commitment and Accountability
Importance and impact of Behavior Based Safety
How to identify and trigger on key injuries related to your organization
How to engage, involve, and empower employees to take ownership and responsibility
Motivation and morale of employees in the workforce
Skill set training needed for safety sustainability
How to develop a process to capture leading and lagging indicators (Goal Setting and Metrics)
Tools needed to improve on methodology and continuous improvement with all EHS Standards/Programs:
Committee-Based Safety Systems, Safety Stand Downs, SafetyFirst Kickoff/Mid-year Events, Family Safety Day, Safety Leadership Training, Recognition/Incentive Programs, Escorting injured employees and 24 Hour Reporting, Job Hazard Analysis (JHA), Personal Protective Equipment Assessment, Risk Assessments, and “Best Practice” Standards.
”Safety is a core value. We recognize that all injuries are preventable and our motivation is our genuine caring about the well-being of others,” says CEO Steve Macadam. “Our ultimate vision is a culture where employees look out for each other in the workplace and carry their safety practices home at the end of every day and we have made great progress in creating this culture. We have developed a comprehensive playbook for our safety practices and our team is relentless in executing these practices.”
You will not want to miss this highly informative and inspirational program.
MVP Kosher Foods Cited for Exposing Workers to Safety and Health Hazards
The repeat violations, which carry $65,000 in penalties, include failing to provide the proper guards for a ladder way and platforms. 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. The company was cited for this same violation in 2010.
Fifteen serious violations, with $74,000 in penalties, include failing to provide fixed stairs where required, properly support gas cylinders, develop lockout/tagout procedures, and training to prevent the inadvertent start up of a machine, guard machines, protect workers from energized conductors, use flexible cords for proper purposes, prevent employees from working on live electrical parts, provide personal protective equipment for employees working on energized equipment, maintain a written hazard communication program, and train workers on hazard communications, and provide a hearing conservation program. 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.
Also cited are four other-than-serious violations, with $1,000 in penalties, for failing to complete and post an OSHA 300 form on injuries and illnesses, conduct a hazard assessment, use equipment in accordance with listing and labeling, and effectively close openings through which conductors enter boxes. 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.
Heavy Equipment Operator Cited After Crane Comes in Contact with Power Line and Injures Worker
A Canton, Massachusetts-based heavy equipment operator has been cited by OSHA for alleged willful and serious violations of safety standards while working on the Hine Bridge replacement project in Amesbury. Barletta Heavy Division Inc., faces proposed fines of $91,000 following a March incident in which one of its cranes struck an overhead power line, injuring a worker.
An inspection by OSHA found that multiple incidents of the crane striking power lines had occurred during the course of the Hine Bridge project. In addition, the company did not conduct a hazard assessment, failed to properly identify the work zone with signage, and did not ensure that each signal person met qualification requirements prior to giving signals to a crane operator.
As a result of its findings, OSHA has issued a citation with a $70,000 proposed fine for the willful violation, as well as citations carrying $21,000 in fines for three serious violations involving the additional hazards. 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. 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 Proposes $82,500 in Fines to Chemical Manufacturer for Workplace Hazards
OSHA has cited Cardolite Corp., with one willful and 13 serious health and safety violations for exposing workers to chemical and other hazards at the company's Newark facility. OSHA initiated its March investigation in response to a complaint and also as part of the agency’s national emphasis program on process safety management for covered chemical facilities. Proposed penalties total $82,500.
The willful violation is failing to monitor employees’ formaldehyde exposure at six-month intervals. The citation carries a $44,000 penalty.
The serious violations include failing to ensure that workers are not overexposed to formaldehyde, implement effective engineering controls and work practices to reduce formaldehyde exposure, provide medical surveillance to workers overexposed to formaldehyde, ensure that process safety information is accurate and in place, provide a hazard analysis of the facility in the event of a chemical release and its impact, provide refresher training to chemical operators on the epichlorohydrin process, inspect and test epichlorohydrin piping within the process building, and identify deficiencies in process safety management compliance audits. The citations carry $38,500 in penalties.
Cardolite Corp., which employs about 70 workers at its Newark location, develops and manufactures products based on cashew nutshell liquid for the coating, friction material, and adhesive markets.
Sodexho Cited for Asbestos-Related Safety and Health Violations
OSHA has cited Sodexho Inc., with safety and health violations—12 of them serious—found while maintenance workers removed asbestos at Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, West Virginia. OSHA initiated an inspection March 8 in response to a complaint. Proposed fines total $81,000.
The serious violations include failing to provide respirators, protective clothing, and training for employees performing Class II asbestos work; inform workers of the location and quantities of asbestos-containing material; provide workers who voluntarily wear dust masks with Appendix D information of the Respirator Standard on the use of dusts masks or respirators; ensure that Class II asbestos work was conducted in regulated areas and supervised by a competent person; conduct daily monitoring to assess employee exposure and airborne concentration exposure; ensure proper disposal of ceiling tiles; ensure wet methods were used when conducting Class II asbestos work; and equip vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters.
Additionally, the company has been cited with one other-than-serious violation for recording inaccurate information in OSHA 300 injury and illness logs.
Sodexho Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, employs about 25 workers at Alderson-Broaddus College and is responsible for grounds work, housekeeping, and security.
JC Silva Remodeling Services Cited for Fall Hazards at Three Work Sites, Including Where a Worker Died from a Fall
OSHA has cited Bridgeport, Connecticut, roofing contractor JC Silva Remodeling Services LLC, for fall hazards at three work sites, including one where a worker died February 14 when he fell from the roof while installing and removing skylights.
The investigation by OSHA of the site where the fatality occurred, located in Shelton, found that neither fall protection, such as guardrails or lifelines, was provided for the workers, nor were they trained to recognize fall hazards. These conditions exposed them to falls of 30–40 feet from the roof. An additional fall hazard stemmed from the use of a damaged ladder to access the roof.
At the second site in Norwalk, inspectors found that workers were exposed to falls of up to 20 feet from the roof and a scaffold due to a lack of fall protection. Additional fall hazards stemmed from using a damaged ladder to support the scaffolding, using a ladder that did not extend at least three feet above the roof’s edge to ensure stability, and failing to inspect the scaffold for defects.
At the third site, located in Shelton, inspectors found that an employee installing shingles on the roof 18 feet above the ground lacked adequate fall protection. In this case, the employee was wearing a safety harness and lifeline, but the lifeline was inadequately anchored to the roof, and at 25 feet, it was too long to prevent the employee from striking the ground if he were to fall.
As a result of these hazards, OSHA has cited JC Silva Remodeling for two alleged willful and nine alleged serious violations of workplace safety standards.
The company faces a total of $77,400 in fines.
Johnson Controls Cited with Five Health Violations Involving Asbestos Work
OSHA initiated an inspection upon receiving a complaint alleging hazards. Proposed fines total $59,400.
In 2007, Johnson Controls was cited for failing to train workers performing asbestos removal at a job site in Orland Park.
Also cited are four serious violations related to Class II asbestos work. These include failing to perform air monitoring and conduct exposure assessments; use appropriate engineering controls and work practices, including having a competent person supervising the work; establish barriers or using impermeable drop cloths; require employees to wear appropriate respirators and use protective clothing; and properly dispose of material containing asbestos.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls Inc., serves building and automotive industries in more than 150 countries and employs more than 160,000 workers. In 2011, OSHA cited the company’s Texas and North Carolina plants for multiple violations with proposed penalties exceeding $100,000 in each case.
National Janitorial Services Company Cited for Exposing Workers to Hazards
OSHA has cited Healthcare Services Group Inc., with five safety violations—including three serious and two repeat—for exposing workers to multiple hazards at the Missoula Health and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled nursing home in Missoula, Montana. Proposed penalties total $58,300.
Pennsylvania-based Healthcare Services Group employs about 37,000 workers nationwide and provides janitorial services to the healthcare industry. The Missoula Health and Rehabilitation Center is affiliated with Vancouver, Washington-based EmpRes Healthcare LLC, which operates licensed nursing homes and assisted living communities in six states.
The serious violations at the Missoula site include failing to train new workers on how to prevent exposure to hepatitis B, guard the belts and pulleys of a commercial dryer, and cover the opening of an electrical junction box. The citations carry $14,300 in fines.
The repeat violations are failing to make vaccinations for hepatitis B available and provide training to employees on hazardous chemicals. The citations carry $44,000 in fines. Similar violations were cited at the company’s Pueblo, Colorado, facility in 2007 and its Laurel, Montana, facility in January.
Recycler Cited and Fined Over $100K Following Worker Injury
California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) has issued seven citations carrying $111,935 in fines to Southern California-based EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, Inc.
The collection and recycling business has a history of safety violations and worker injuries, according to the state.
The enforcement actions resulted from an accident and serious injury on December 31, 2011. It occurred as workers were connecting a hydraulic cylinder to the packer device in a garbage truck.
The injured worker was standing on the packer unit inside the truck when the cylinder struck it, causing the worker to fall between the packer and the truck wall.
EDCO has been cited previously by Cal/OSHA, including for an October 2011 accident in which a mechanic was seriously injured in a refuse truck accident.
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