What would prevent another disaster like the recent fertilizer plant explosion in Texas that killed 15 people? A new poll has mixed reaction from the public on what the right solution is.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: better enforcement, fertilizer plant explosion, workplace safety regulations
“Safety is our top priority.” So said a BP executive in court testimony to determine the company’s liability for the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Where have we heard that before?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: BP, Deepwater Horizon, safety is our top priority, safety is our top value
The tragedy of the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, provides an opportunity for a discussion on workplace violence. What can we do, as a society and as individual safety professionals, to make it less likely that this happens again?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Newtown CT, Sandy Hook, shootings, workplace violence
Cass Sunstein is leaving as head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Obama administration. What could that mean for OSHA regulations if Obama wins a second term?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cass Sunstein, David Michaels, new OSHA regulations, OIRA
OSHA recently ordered Norfolk Southern Railway to pay more than $800,000 to three employees because they were fired for reporting injuries. This calls into question the railroad’s gold medals in previous years for low injury rates.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: E.H. Harriman Award, fired for reporting injuries, Norfolk Southern, The Virginian-Pilot
Maybe you’ve worked at a company that adopted a safety phrase like this: Our goal is zero injuries! Now some in the world of safety say slogans like that are a bad thing, while others say anything less is unconscionable. Who’s right?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASSE Safety 2012, Corrie Pitzer, David Michaels, The Power of Habit, zero injuries
You know Mike Rowe, the guy on the Discovery Channel who hosts Dirty Jobs? A viewer recently called him out on not wearing the proper safety gear on his show. His response? “Of all the platitudes embraced in the workplace there is none more pervasive, erroneous, overused and dangerous than ‘Safety First!’”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe, safety first, Safety Third
Here’s a statement that caught our eye: The owner of a small manufacturing business in New Jersey told a local newspaper that his employees are “not concerned about having a safe place to work, they’re concerned about having a place to work.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employees not concerned about safety, machine guarding, OSHA regulations, out of business
The title of the press release says, “OSHA encourages major retailers to provide crowd management measures.” A better word instead of “encourages” would have been “warns.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Black Friday, crowd control, OSHA warning, retailers, Wal-Mart trampling death
An investigation by iWatchNews.org shows a number of employee deaths at “model workplaces” within OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) haven’t been recorded in the agency’s database that monitors the program. And the facilities remain in VPP today.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: David Michaels, deaths recorded, i2p2, iWatch News, National Safety Council, OSHA funding, user fees, VPP
