Before the explosion, three of the workers supervised by David Senko told him that they were considering quitting or leaving for other jobs. Senko convinced them to keep their jobs.

They died in the explosion.

Senko was not in Texas when the explosion occurred. After the incident, Senko’s supervisor asked him to return to Texas to help identify those killed.

Senko claims to have suffered mental anguish and physical injuries including anxiety, shingles, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.

He sued BP, claiming it was liable for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He wanted damages for physical injuries and mental anguish.

BP asked that the lawsuit be thrown out.

The court agreed with BP and threw out the case. It said someone can not successfully sue unless severe emotional distress was the primary risk created by the company’s reckless conduct.

The court said Senko could not prove that emotional distress was the primary risk of BP’s negligence in maintaining the refinery.

What do you think about the court’s decision? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Cite: Senko v. BP, Court of Appeals for the First District of TX, No. 01-08-01022-CV, 11/5/09.

On Nov. 28, 2008, Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death at Wal-Mart’s Valley Stream, NY, store as 2,000 shoppers surged inside for its annual day-after-Thanksgiving sale.

OSHA issued Wal-Mart a $7,000 fine under the General Duty Clause. The federal safety agency says employees were exposed to being crushed by the crowd due to the store’s failure to implement reasonable and effective crowd management.

Wal-Mart contested the fine, and the case will be heard before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

The giant retailer agreed to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of a deal with local prosecutors. Wal-Mart set up a $400,000 victims compensation and remuneration fund and gave $1.5 million to local social service programs and nonprofit groups.

To prevent similar incidents, OSHA recommends retailers:

• have trained security personnel or police officers on site
• set up barricades or rope lines for pedestrians and crowd control well in advance of customers’ arrival
• make sure barricades are set up so the customers’ line doesn’t start right at the store entrance
• prepare an emergency plan that addresses potential dangers, and
• have security or customer service personnel explain entrance procedures to the public.

OSHA’s full list of crowd control guidelines is available here (PDF).

Let’s use a sports analogy. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal asks the question, “Is it time to retire the football helmet?”

The reason behind the suggestion: While helmets reduce the chance of death on the field, they also create a sense of invulnerability that encourages football players to collide more forcefully and more often, according to the article. If they weren’t wearing helmets, they’d be less likely to have head-on collisions with other players.

And research shows that, in the cases of these football players, brain damage isn’t necessarily the result of any one trauma, but the accumulation of thousands of seemingly minor blows to the head.

No one is really suggesting the NFL do away with helmets.

What is being suggested is changing some of the rules of football to make head-on collisions among players less likely.

Now, let’s apply this to workplace safety.

Here’s one example: Will fall protection equipment absolutely prevent a worker’s injury or death if that person is taking too many risks while wearing the equipment? Of course not.

Safety pros know that, but some workers don’t get it. Here’s a message workers have to hear every so often: Safety gear doesn’t make you invincible. Avoiding injury also requires proper use of the PPE, employees sticking to safety rules, not taking unnecessary risks, etc.

One of the most effective ways to counter workers’ thoughts that they’re invincible is to show them how others have been injured at work. Invite someone who suffered a serious — and possibly debilitating — workplace injury to speak at a safety meeting. Ask the person to explain in detail how the injury has affected his or her life — how everyday activities can no longer be taken for granted.

How have you dealt with employees who feel an injury “won’t happen to me”? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

“Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers,” according to a new Web site.

The statement on the home page of 16deathsperday.com goes on to say, “Under existing laws, these employers get a slap on the wrist, or walk away scot-free. Meanwhile, workers who blow the whistle face threats and retaliation at the workplace.”

A five-minute video profiles two workplace fatalities where companies paid relatively small fines and didn’t face criminal prosecution.

The group’s message: Companies would rather pay low OSHA fines rather than spend more money on worker safety.

To change that, the Web site endorses passage of the Protecting America’s Workers Act. That bill would:

• allow OSHA to pursue criminal charges against a company for an employee’s death, including fines and up to 10 years in prison for owners and managers. Criminal penalties for serious bodily injury to an employee could include up to five years in prison.
• increase the civil penalty for an employee death from $50,000 to $250,000, with a minimum $25,000 fine for companies with 25 or fewer employees
• raise the maximum fines for willful and repeat citations to $120,000, and
• increase OSHA fines every four years for inflation.

What do you think of 16deathsperday.com’s message? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Joseph Teixeira was killed at the Northern Wind facility in New Bedford, MA, while performing maintenance work inside a large, industrial, ice-making machine.

The machine was activated while Teixeira was inside, and he was caught in the moving parts. An autopsy determined the cause of death was asphyxiation because of chest compression.

OSHA found that the plant lacked procedures to power down and lock out the ice machine before employees entered it.

Northern Wind faces 19 serious and 4 other-than-serious citations. It has 15 days to contest the fines.

A government labor official says a McDonald’s store manager who died of a brain hemorrhage was a victim of “karoshi” — death by overwork.

The 41-year-old woman had worked more than 80 hours of overtime per month on average for the six months before her death. She suffered from headaches for three weeks before the brain hemorrhage.

She collapsed during a training program and died in the hospital three days later.

The determination that work caused her death makes her dependent family members eligible to receive a public pension.

Japan’s welfare and labor ministry investigates whether deaths are caused by overwork if the employee worked 80 or more hours of overtime for the preceding six months or 100 hours for the previous one month.

The ministry attributes about 150 deaths each year to karoshi, usually through strokes or heart attacks.

Earlier this year, a judge ruled a man’s suicide was due to his working conditions and ordered his employer to pay 100 million yen ($1.2 million) to his surviving relatives.

A judge ruled the company, an agricultural co-operative, failed to fulfill its duty to ensure workplace safety and prevent his death.

Do you think it’s possible to determine if an employee’s stroke or heart attack was caused by working too many hours? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) originally drafted The American Communities Right to Public Information Act as a separate piece of legislation. It was passed into law as part of an appropriations bill for The Department of Homeland Security.

The amendment makes clear that the Sensitive Security Information designation created by recent homeland security laws can’t be used to withhold information that the government should share with the public.

The legislation was drafted in response to the Bayer CropScience explosion in August 2008 that killed two workers in Institute, WV.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee accused Bayer of using a “campaign of secrecy” regarding the explosion.

The committee said Bayer withheld critical information from emergency responders and investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

The appropriations bill says information may not be designated as security sensitive “to conceal a violation of law, inefficiency, or administrative error … to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization or agency … to restrain competition … or to prevent or delay the release of information that doesn’t require protection in the interest of transportation security, including basic scientific research information.”

The magazine used four criteria: workplace deaths, violent crime, fatal crashes and natural disasters.

And the winner is: Minneapolis. The city ranks in the top 10 in all four categories.

The Midwest placed four metropolitan areas in the top-10 list. Milwaukee came in #2, Cincinnati #9, and Cleveland tied for #10 with Denver.

Is New York City really unsafe? Not according to this survey. It ranked #8.

Milwaukee had the lowest natural disaster risk of the cities considered. Portland, OR, had the lowest crime rate and came in #3 overall.

Boston and Seattle were tied for fourth because of low traffic fatality rates. Why do they have fewer traffic deaths per capita? They have better mass transit systems that keep drunk drivers off the road.

When it comes to measuring workplace deaths, the industries located in the cities come into play. There are fewer deaths per capita in areas like Seattle and San Jose (#7 overall) where there are lots of technology and service jobs. Pittsburgh and Indianapolis didn’t make the top-10 list because of more industrial jobs with higher fatality rates.

Forbes only looked at the top 40 most populated metropolitan areas. So places like Memphis, TN, and Richmond, VA, weren’t ranked.

Now with just a couple mouse clicks, the whole world can see which U.S. companies had an employee fatality in the previous week.

Example: For the week of Aug. 28, 2009, OSHA’s Weekly Fatality Report lists 18 incidents. First on the list is an incident involving Tri-State Electrical Contracting, Inc., Bay Terrace, NY. The Web page lists Nature of Incident as “victim was operating a knuckle boom truck and was crushed between the boom and the controls.”

That’s all the information given.

While the Web page explains how OSHA receives the incident information, there’s no word (at least as of the writing of this article) on what purpose the agency thinks posting this information will serve.

So, we have two guesses:

1. OSHA hopes employers use the information in safety training to show workers the real-life consequences of various workplace hazards, or
2. OSHA is posting the information to call attention to companies that just experienced a worker fatality or other catastrophe.

There are two potential problems with either of these uses. If these are meant to be used as teaching lessons for employees, the items are light on detail. If this is meant as a Wall of Shame for the companies involved, OSHA is posting the information before investigations can be completed, and before exact cause for the incident can be determined.

One more note: When the page for the Weekly Fatality Reports first appeared on OSHA’s Web site, many may not have found it. To access it, you had to find a one-line clickable link among everything on OSHA’s home page. A few days later, OSHA made it highly noticeable, front and center, in a bright blue box in the middle of its home page.

While safety pros can agree that sharing information about workplace fatalities can help prevent similar incidents from happening, it’s not entirely clear what OSHA’s intention of posting the information is.

What do you think? Is this useful information for safety training? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

In April, Charles Sittig was killed at the CES Environmental Services facility in Port Arthur, TX.

Three men have died at CES plants since December 2008.

OSHA cited the company for 34 violations, including a willful citation for failure to establish a rescue team capable of assisting a worker who becomes incapacitated while cleaning out chemicals tanks.

Other citations include raised platforms without railings, poorly maintained ladders and failure to develop decontamination procedures.

The company has 15 days to decide whether to contest the citations.

Two workers died recently at CES’ Houston plant. In December 2008, one worker died in an explosion that sent metal debris into nearby properties. In July 2009, a CES employee died when an explosion and flash fire at the Houston plant knocked him from the top of a mobile tank he was filling with water. OSHA is still investigating that death.

An OSHA investigation says Ismael Octtaviani-Mercado died from a 31-foot fall at the Palm Beach International Airport.

Octtaviani-Mercado had jury-rigged a stool to remove a light fixture, then tumbled over a rail and fell three stories.

Using the stool placed him higher than the nearby rail. Investigators believe he lost his footing and went over the rail.

Octtaviani-Mercado was working on an air surveillance radar tower that had been decommissioned after heavy damage caused by hurricanes in 2004.

He decided on his own to go to the third level to salvage light fixtures for use on an active tower. The fixtures are expensive, and it was common practice to salvage them for use elsewhere.

He was working alone when he fell.

OSHA doesn’t have the authority to fine other federal agencies, but it can perform investigations like this one.

Here’s what happened: A Home Depot employee in Houston was found lying under a truck in the store’s parking lot. The worker’s job was to gather shopping carts in the lot and help customers load packages into their cars. The worker didn’t have any visible injuries. Other employees said the man was incoherent, lying on the ground and moving, while putting his hands behind his head.

He was taken to the hospital where he died two days later. An autopsy said the cause of death was “blunt head trauma with subdural hematoma and brain contusions.”

OSHA investigated. It issued just one other-than-serious citation for the company’s failure to report the employee’s death to OSHA within eight hours of occurrence.

Home Depot appealed. An administrative law judge upheld the $1,000 OSHA fine. The judge said, “the evidence suggested that the employee fell in the Home Depot parking lot, sustaining the head injuries to which he eventually succumbed.”

Home Depot also appealed that decision. This time, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission threw out the citation. Reason: The judge’s finding that the employee fell in the store’s parking lot wasn’t supported by a preponderance of the evidence. The Commission said it was speculation that he fell and hit his head in the parking lot.

OSHA has 60 days to decide if it wants to appeal the Commission’s ruling.

What do you think about the Commission’s ruling? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Cite: Secretary of Labor v. Home Depot, OSHRC Docket No. 07-0359, 9/16/09. (PDF)

And the rulemaking process is moving along.

OSHA has submitted the proposed regulation to the Office of Management and Budget for review.

That news comes in the wake of the Chemical Safety Board’s recent release of its investigation into the explosion and fire that killed 14 and injured 36 at the Imperial Sugar plant in Wentworth, GA.

In a 25-year period, 281 combustible dust explosions and fires killed 119 workers and injured 718.

A number of OSHA standards address aspects of combustible dust control, including those on housekeeping, emergency action plans, ventilation, spray finishing, permit required confined spaces and electric power generation.

Do you think a separate OSHA standard on combustible dust is necessary? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below, and take our Quick Poll on our home page.

Francisco Moreno Garcia died as the result of an incident at the ADM facility in Decatur, IL, when a waste compression system malfunctioned. He was insulating pipes 15 feet in the air when he was sprayed with steam and hot caustic chemicals.

He struggled to free himself from his harness and tumbled to the ground. Third degree burns covered 90% of his body.

He lived in excruciating pain for a day and a half before doctors decided there was nothing more they could do to save him.

Workers’ comp awarded $60,000 to Garcia’s family in Mexico. Most of that will be returned to an insurance company after the family receives payment from the jury trial.

In many workplace deaths, the family can’t sue because workers’ comp prohibits it – it’s the “exclusive remedy.”

But in this case, Garcia was working for a contractor, so the family could sue ADM. The jury award was one of the largest such judgments in Illinois history for a single man with no spouse or children.

In its final report on the explosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said ongoing releases of sugar from poorly designed and maintained dust collection equipment, conveyors, and sugar handling equipment led to the blast.

Inadequate housekeeping allowed highly combustible sugar dust to build up throughout the plant’s packing buildings.

A conveyor had been enclosed, creating a confined, unventilated space where sugar dust could accumulate to an explosive concentration. It’s likely the dust was ignited by an overheated bearing.

The initial explosion caused a cascade of secondary dust explosions in adjacent packing buildings.

On top of these problems, the CSB said Imperial hadn’t conducted evacuation drills for its employees and that the explosions and fires disabled most of the emergency lighting, making it difficult for workers to escape.

A 2006 CSB study identified 281 combustible dust fires and explosions between 1980 and 2005 that killed 119 workers and injured 718, and extensively damaged industrial facilities. In April, OSHA started development of a combustible dust standard. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has recommended practices for preventing dust fires and explosions.

In its Position Statement on Distracted Driving in Motor Vehicles, ASSE calls on its members and other safety professionals to:

• encourage and support employer rules banning any employee use of electronic devices while driving
• support proposed public laws and regulations that effectively limit the use of electronic devices while driving, and
• back improved driver education that includes the risks of distracted driving and ways to avoid such risks.

ASSE’s views about distracted driving aren’t limited to cell phone use. It says, “The same safety risks posed by cellular phones also hold true for a vehicle operator who drives in an unsafe manner while eating, drinking, putting on makeup, reading a newspaper, operating any other electronic device, or some other type of distracting activity where the driver’s mind, eyes, and hands are engaged elsewhere than the road ahead and the steering wheel.”

ASSE cites various studies to make its point that distracted driving isn’t limited to electronic device use.

A Carnegie Mellon University study shows brain power used while driving decreases by 40% when a driver listens to conversation or music. A Nationwide Mutual Insurance study found 80% of drivers admit to blatantly hazardous behavior including changing clothes, steering with a foot, painting nails and shaving.

Does your company have a policy on employees and distracted driving? Do you think it’s a good idea to support laws banning use of cell phones while driving? Should those bans also cover other types of distracted driving? What are some examples you’ve seen of distracted driving? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Men’s Health magazine has ranked 100 U.S. cities from least to most accident prone.

The most accident-prone: Charleston, WV, followed by Jacksonville, FL, and Corpus Christi, TX.

Safest cities: Rochester, NY, Burlington, VT, and Los Angeles.

The magazine also provides break-outs by category. Most fatal workplace accidents: Cheyenne, WY, Bangor, ME, and Modesto, CA. Highest number of fatal falls: Charleston, WV, Denver and Baltimore.

Men’s Health used stats on fatal workplace accidents (Bureau of Labor Statistics); deaths from car crashes, poisoning, drowning, falls and fires (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention); emergency-room visits (American Hospital Association); and bandage sales.

Check stats for your city, here.

The site, DeathRiskRankings.com, was developed by researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University.

It compares mortality risks by gender, age, cause of death and geographic region.

For example, men ages 40-49 are more likely to die from a fall than of eight types of cancer. The No. 1 cause of death among women 20-29 is transportation incidents. For 20-year-old males, 80% of their deaths are from accidents, homicides and suicides.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has found that the explosion and fire that killed four employees at T2 Laboratories in Jacksonville, FL, on Dec. 19, 2007, was caused by a runaway chemical reaction that likely resulted from an inadequate reactor cooling system.

The CSB report says T2 didn’t recognize all of the potential hazards of its manufacturing process.

The explosion was so powerful that 28 people working at nearby businesses were injured when building walls and windows blew in. The blast damaged buildings within a quarter-mile of the T2 facility.

Reactive chemical hazards are a major cause of workplace deaths and serious injuries. A previous CSB report identified 167 incidents over a two-decade period and made recommendations to improve reactive chemical safety.

The national rate in 2008 was 3.6 fatal work injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. The rate in Wyoming was 17.1 – more than 4.5 times the national rate.

In a preliminary report this summer, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that there were 210 workplace fatalities in Wyoming from 2003 to 2007. Of those, 136 were in transportation. More than half of those victims didn’t wear seatbelts.

In other words, more than 60 lives could have been saved if workers buckled up before getting behind the wheel.

Some companies we know perform spot checks of their employees who drive as part of their jobs to see if they’re wearing their seatbelts. If they’re not, the employees face discipline, up to firing after multiple infractions.

How does your company enforce safety rules for employees who are away from direct supervision because they’re driving? Let us know in the Comments section below.

The acting director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has some thoughts on that.

Xcel Energy and RPI Coating, Inc., each face fines up to $2.5 million and restitution, while RPI executives Philippe Goutagny and James Thompson each face 2.5 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.25 million.

On Oct. 2, 2007, vapor from a solvent ignited inside a tunnel at a Colorado hydroelectric plant. Workers inside survived initially, but were overcome by smoke and fumes and died from asphyxiation.

A federal indictment alleges the companies knew about the hazards in the tunnel and did nothing about them.

It also accuses RPI of trying to cover up safety shortfalls by altering, destroying or concealing the cameras, journals and cell phone of two of the dead workers.

The companies failed to get a permit for the work or assess the tunnel for hazards, according to the indictment.

OSHA proposed $845,100 in fines against RPI and $189,900 against Xcel.

The indictment can be downloaded here (PDF).

If the executives are found guilty in a trial, are jail time and fines warranted? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The town of Gwent police department made the video last summer. It starts with a multi-vehicle crash caused by a young woman who was texting while driving. The first four minutes have turned up on YouTube. (Warning: The video is very violent.)

The driver is the only survivor in her car. Two of her friends die in the crash.

The video shows much more than the crash and its immediate aftermath. It also shows the future: the aftershocks that change the lives of the young survivor and her family.

In an interview with CBS News, the video’s writer and director, Peter Watkins, said, “Yes it is violent, but the reality of a fatal road accident is much more gruesome, is much more violent. My position is that if you are old enough to drive, you are old enough to want to drive, you are old enough to be aware of the real and serious risks one places yourself in every time you get behind the wheel.”

Gwent police chief constable Mick Giannasi said, “We have had e-mail after e-mail from people saying, ‘I will never ever text and drive again’ — from young people.”

Watch the video via the link above. Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below. Or, take our poll about this subject on the SafetyNewsAlert.com home page.

If you’d like more information about this video, send an e-mail to: corporate.communications@gwent.pnn.police.uk

A 30-minute video, made in a small town in Wales, was intended for local high school students to show them the dangers of texting and driving. But now, more than 1.5 million people have watched it on YouTube — and the general reaction by viewers is that they’ll never text and drive again.

The town of Gwent police department made the video last summer. It starts with a multi-vehicle crash caused by a young woman who was texting while driving. The first four minutes have turned up on YouTube. (Warning: The video is very violent.)

The driver is the only survivor in her car. Two of her friends die in the crash.

The video shows much more than the crash and its immediate aftermath. It also shows the future: the aftershocks that change the lives of the young survivor and her family.

In an interview with CBS News, the video’s writer and director, Peter Watkins, said, “Yes it is violent, but the reality of a fatal road accident is much more gruesome, is much more violent. My position is that if you are old enough to drive, you are old enough to want to drive, you are old enough to be aware of the real and serious risks one places yourself in every time you get behind the wheel.”

Gwent police chief constable Mick Giannasi said, “We have had e-mail after e-mail from people saying, ‘I will never ever text and drive again’ — from young people.”

Watch the video via the link above. Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below. Or, take our poll about this subject on the SafetyNewsAlert.com home page.

If you’d like more information about this video, send an e-mail to: corporate.communications@gwent.pnn.police.uk

Accident lawyer David Perecman put out a press release this week, Attorneys in New York Baffled at how Construction Related Deaths Continue to Occur. The statement is in response to the news that a 42-year-old working on a luxury apartment building fell to his death after a scaffold suddenly gave way.

The press release starts, “New York construction accident lawyers were left scratching their heads as they heard the news of a construction worker who died after falling four stories in Brooklyn, NY.”

The statement goes on to say, “New York construction accident lawyers like David Perecman continue to fight for more safety regulations on construction sites … there is a lack of proper safety precautions being taken on the job site.

“Until we ensure all bases are covered, like the proper equipment is available and people are trained appropriately, accidents like this won’t stop.”

What do you think about his point of view? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Texas had the highest number of workplace deaths in 2008: 457. However, that’s a 13% decrease from 528 deaths in 2007. (Note: The decrease may turn out to be lower. These figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are preliminary and usually go up.)

California ranks second with 404 fatalities, also a decrease from the previous year. Florida is third with 290, once again, a decrease.

Overall, the number of workplace deaths nationwide fell from 5,657 in 2007 to 5,071 in 2008. However, 14 states had increases: Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Virginia.

Texas ranked first in deaths due to contact with objects and equipment, and falls. OSHA recently started a special emphasis program on construction in Texas to prevent the number of construction fatalities there.

Texas also ranked first in deaths due to fires and explosions. Georgia ranked second in 2008 due to the Imperial Sugar Co. explosion and fire that killed 14 employees.

California had the most deaths due to assaults and violent acts, and exposure to harmful substances or environments.

To find out more about how your state ranks, click here.

The construction worker was trapped in a flooded tunnel under a highway.

Four workers were in a 24-inch diameter tunnel being dug for a water main according to Conroe, TX, police.

When a heavy downpour moved through the area, a supervisor told the employees to get out of the tunnel. Three employees were able to escape, one was not.

The employee’s body was found just more than two hours later, 50 feet from the tunnel’s opening.

The deceased employee worked for Boring and Tunneling Co. of America for 9 years.

The company’s president called the incident “a freak flood event.”

OSHA is investigating.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2008 shows transportation incidents were the most common cause of occupational fatalities. They accounted for 40%.

Contact with objects and equipment accounted for 18% of deaths; 10% of all deaths were caused when an employee was struck by an object or equipment.

Other causes:

• assaults and violent acts, 16%
• falls, 13%
• exposure to harmful substances or environments, 9%, and
• fire and explosion, 3%.

Overall, workplace fatalities decreased from 5,657 in 2007 to 5,071 in 2008. However, the fatality rate usually goes up after the initial BLS report because of cases not originally accounted for. Last year, an additional 169 deaths were eventually added to the final total.

BLS also notes that economic factors likely played a role in the fatality decrease. Average hours worked fell by 1% in 2008. Plus, some industries that have historically higher fatality rates, such as construction, experienced larger declines in employment.

Among increases in deaths:

• farming, fishing and forestry rose 6%
• those aged 16 or 17 rose 1.9%, and
• falls on the same level (to a floor or against an object) increased slightly.

The full BLS report is available here.

A construction worker in Corpus Christi, TX, died of heat stroke.

On Aug. 5, 32-year-old Guadalupe Liscano was part of a home-building crew.

Co-workers found him slumped over, lying in the sun at about 2:30 p.m.

He was taken to the hospital where he later died. The medical examiner said he died of heat stroke.

What are some employers doing to help their outdoor workers stay safe from extreme heat?

MCO Construction in Miami puts a safety flier in employees’ paycheck envelopes to remind them of the dangers of heat stress, and also provides extra water and holds regular safety meetings when temperatures rise.

MCO’s crews also change from their company red to white shirts, which are more comfortable in the heat.

Florida Power & Light C. incorporates a “buddy system” asking co-workers to watch each other for signs of heat stress.

How do you help your outdoor workers cope with extreme heat? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

A 12-year-old boy died and his 8-year-old brother was injured after they got stuck in sand where their father was working in Azle, TX.

Edwin Gomez and his brother had climbed into the bed of a truck that was filled with sand.

They were playing there for a while when workers, who were installing a swimming pool, noticed a host used to pump the sand became jammed.

The workers found the 8-year-old buried up to his waist in the sand. The boy told the workers his brother was buried underneath the sand.

Workers dug the 12-year-old out and called 911.

Edwin was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The 8-year-old suffered a broken leg.

The local sheriff said the father won’t face any charges for bringing his children to a dangerous work site.

Do you have safety rules for children of employees at your company? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

A North Carolina man died after being run over by both his pickup and a large dump truck at a landfill.

James Huskey of Waynesville went to the county landfill to dump some trash, according to the Citizen Times.

As he was leaving, a dump truck struck the passenger side of his pickup and pushed it about 90 feet.

Huskey opened his door and stood up in an attempt to alert the dump truck driver. He lost his balance, fell and was run over by his pickup and the dump truck.

The dump truck traveled another 120 feet before a supervisor at the landfill alerted the driver.

Huskey was declared dead at the scene.

An officer with the county sheriff’s department called it “a very freak accident.”

The driver doesn’t face charges because traffic laws don’t apply on private property.

North Carolina OSHA is investigating.

Last week, a worker was killed when he fell more than 20 stories from a high-rise construction site in Dallas.

Jose Aguila, 37, was installing metal louvers on the side of the building. A scaffold collapsed, and the worker’s safety harness failed, according to a report by NBC-5 in Dallas.

In June, OSHA announced an increase in construction-site inspections in Texas due to the high rate of worker fatalities and serious injuries.

Raleigh Roussell, with contractor organization TEXO, complains that some OSHA inspectors arriving at construction sites are transfers from other OSHA areas who don’t have construction experience. “The hazards are much different than those in a plant,” he said.

Personal injury attorney Mark Werbner is also critical of OSHA’s inspections, but for a much different reason.

Werbner says the agency is still far too easy on contractors and the fines for violations aren’t high enough.

What do you think? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

And the case hasn’t been settled.

The fact that the appeal is dragging on is significant.  But how it turns out may be even more significant.

When the fine was announced, company CEO John Sheptor said he hoped the whole thing would be settled “in a few weeks,” according to an article in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

In the same article, plantiffs lawyer Mark Tate explains why that hasn’t happened: “(OSHA’s) pressing its case as doggedly as private lawyers would. Proposed OSHA fines used to get settled for pennies on the dollar. But not this time.”

This chart, posted by probublica.org, lends credence to the “pennies on the dollar” comment. Many of OSHA’s largest proposed fines eventually withered into small fractions of their original figures.

Does this mean OSHA is now overreaching? Or is developing a bite that matches its bark long overdue? Let us know what you think in the Comment Box below.

The National Safety Council (NSC) is advocating legislation to ban all types of cell phone use on the road, including hands-free usage.

Now, six states have bans on driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington. It’s also banned in the District of Columbia, and at least five other states have cities and towns with bans.

The organization acknowledges that it’ll take a long time to get all states to pass such legislation, so it’s also urging businesses to enact policies prohibiting the practice.

The NSC notes results of several studies to back up its call, including:

• Drivers are at a four times greater risk of a crash
• Cell phone use contributes to 6% of crashes, and
• The annual financial toll of cell phone-related crashes is $43 billion.

Anticipating some of the arguments against cell phone bans, the NSC admits other in-car activities are more dangerous than using cell phones. However, the group says as cell phone use has become so prevalent, it has become more dangerous overall.

Also, studies show that hands-free devices don’t make cell phone calls while driving safe.

What’s the difference between talking on a hands-free phone and speaking with someone else in a car? Unlike the passenger sitting next to you, the person on the other end of the call is oblivious to what’s happening around the driver on the road. The passenger provides another pair of eyes and can help keep the driver alert.

Do you think a total ban on cell phone use while driving is necessary? Does your company have a policy banning your employees from using cell phones while driving for business? Does that ban include hands-free usage? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The NSC has set up a Web page with resources and data at http://distracteddriving.nsc.org.

We polled our editors of safety publications at Progressive Business and came up with this list:

10. More research on dangers of nano-particles to exposed employees. Among the new studies, one that showed long, thin carbon nanotubes exhibited the same effects as long, thin asbestos fibers when injected into mice.

9. The National Institutes of Health says the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is no longer limited to hospitals. Outbreaks of one strain — community-associated MRSA — have turned up in athletes, prison inmates, the military, daycare attendees and those who live in communal conditions such as college dormitories.

8. MSHA proposes and enacts a flurry of new mining rules in the wake of previous years’ mining disasters, such as Crandall Canyon, including: a policy letter on underground communication and tracking devices; a new final rule that increases the pounds per square inch that pressure seals must withstand in an explosion; a proposal to test miners for drugs and alcohol; and a final rule requiring additional safety equipment for rescue teams at underground mines.

7. California gets serious with heat stress on the job. The company that hired a pregnant teen who died of heat stroke this spring after working in a vineyard without enough shade or water was hit with the highest fine ever issued to a farming operation in the state. Merced Farm Labor’s license was also revoked until Aug. 24, 2011 after the death of Maria Jimenez.

6. The employer payment for most types of PPE rule takes effect. OSHA started enforcing the new rule May 15, 2008. The only exceptions: non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear; shoes or boots with built-in metatarsal protection requested by an employee; logging boots; and everyday work or ordinary clothing used solely for protection from weather.

5. An explosion at an Imperial Sugar Refinery near Savannah, GA, kills 14 people and injures dozens more. The blast destroyed a packaging plant. The cause, ignition of dust, placed an emphasis on workplace ignitable dust hazards.

4. Amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act to place burden on employers. The revision may dramatically increase the number of employees who can legally qualify as disabled. Action step for employers and those in charge of safety: Instead of an open-ended light-duty assignment that might define a worker as disabled, re-assess the returning worker’s condition every two weeks.

3. Distracted drivers prove fatal and costly. A Sept. 12 collision between two trains in California killed 25 people. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating, but preliminary information shows the locomotive engineer of one train was using his cell phone to text within 30 seconds of the accident. In the wake of the crash, the Federal Railroad Administration enacted a new rule banning railroad employees from using cell phones (except in emergencies) and other electronic devices on the job. In another case, International Paper Co. agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle a personal injury lawsuit after one of its employees used her cell phone while driving for work. The employee hit another car, and its driver had to have an arm amputated as a result.

2. Now OSHA can multiply PPE and training fines by the number of employees. Under a new rule, OSHA can issue per-employee citations for those types of violations starting Jan. 12, 2009.

1. President-elect Barack Obama promises an “invigorated” OSHA. Obama supported the Protecting America’s Workers Act as a Senator. The bill would increase OSHA penalties. Obama has also called on OSHA to issue standards “in a timely and more effective manner.” While the financial crisis may delay some reforms the new administration may want, some changes can be made by just shifting existing funding.

Vote for your top safety story or nominate one of your own in the Comments Box below.