OSHA fines over one-million dollars have become more common. But here’s one with a twist: It’s not for workplace hazards — it’s for recordkeeping violations.
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Tags: million-dollar fine, national emphasis program, Recordkeeping
Ingredients for disaster: flammable materials, confined space, no emergency responders on site.
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Tags: Cabin Creek explosion, Chemical Safety Board, five workers killed, Xcel Energy
A federal agency says it’s overburdened and understaffed, and as a result, other investigations will suffer because of its work on the BP oil rig explosion.
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Tags: BP disaster, Chemical Safety Board, ConAgra Slim Jim explosion, Kleen Energy explosion
A cautionary note to pass along to employees who weld outdoors: Hot weather can add to the risk of an explosion.
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Tags: 2 workers killed, explosion, oil vapors
“Safety needs to come from the top.” You’ve probably heard that one before. However, a federal agency had to remind a public transit provider of that again in its report on what caused a fatal train crash in Washington, DC.
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Tags: National Transportation Safety Board, train crash, Washington DC Metro
As a safety pro, you’ve probably contemplated this question: Are minimum government regulations enough to keep my employees and/or customers safe? It’s a question that probably should be asked in connection with the sinking of a tourist-filled duck boat in Philadelphia that killed two passengers.
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Tags: duck boat crash, government regulations, keep employees safe
You’ve all heard the warnings: Let the professionals set off fireworks. The real dangers of these explosives become apparent when even the pros have problems.
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Tags: burns, fireworks, skin grafts
Where’s the best place to find a workers’ comp cheat? You might want to check out all the strip clubs in your area.
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Tags: Workers' comp
Twenty-five years ago, a workplace incident caused an employee to lose an arm. He struggled to learn to use a prosthetic limb and return to the job that he loved. That perseverance and courage may have cost Henry Lira his life.
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Tags: amputated, killed in wood chipper, lost arm
It must be a case of deja vu for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB). Five years ago it was investigating an explosion in Texas that killed 15 BP workers. Now it will investigate the Gulf explosion and spill that killed 11 BP workers.
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In the wake of the April 20 oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers, an article by ProPublica, an investigative journalism website, quotes former BP employees as saying management pressured or harassed them not to report safety problems.
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Tags: BP, David Michaels, injury logs, pressured not to report safety problems
OSHA has fined a Belvedere, IL, company $510,000 in connection with a December 2009 explosion that killed a bystander.
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Tags: bystander killed, explosion, NDK Crystals, willful violations
Here’s the latest workplace health hazard: keyboards. And part of the problem is what mice (the animal kind) are doing on your keyboards at night while you’re not around.
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Tags: E. coli, health hazard, keyboard
Here’s a reminder for workers that aluminum ladders and overhead power lines can be a deadly combination.
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Tags: aluminum ladder, burns, power lines
Federal mining safety officials will look into a worker fatality at a lime plant in Arkansas.
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Tags: crushed, mining safety, vacuum
Do you require employees in safety-sensitive jobs to report whether they use certain prescription medications? You may want to pass this story along to them as a reminder why it’s so important that they comply with your company’s policy.
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Here’s a reminder for maintenance and cleaning workers: It’s crucial that machines are locked and tagged out while they’re working on them.
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Tags: locked and tagged out, maintenance and cleaning, sausage-making machine
In the wake of a bizarre workplace fatality, here’s some advice for workers who manually move equipment weighing thousands of pounds: If the load starts to shift, just get out of the way.
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Tags: crushed by a safe, fatally crushed, manually move equipment
Sources have told a newspaper that federal authorities are interviewing current and former Massey Energy employees as part of a “sprawling criminal investigation” into the April 5 fatal explosion in the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.
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Tags: criminal charges, Massey Energy, miner fatalities, Upper Big Branch mine
Cal-OSHA is looking into a fatality involving a 19-year-old gas station employee.
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Tags: changing a light bulb, electrocution, severe grief reaction
No doubt that it was a workplace accident, so OSHA is investigating a fatality linked to a circus elephant.
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Tags: electrical, employee working alone, killed by elephant
The death of a construction worker in California provides lessons about trenching and forklift use.
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Tags: buried alive, falling, forklift, trench
An OSHA investigation will determine whether any safety protocols were broken in connection with the drowning of a trainer by a killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando.
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In the first year of the Obama administration, OSHA was busy handing out fines the likes of which hadn’t been seen for eight years. Here’s our rundown of 10 significant fines from the last 12 months, and what they mean for businesses:
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Tags: BP, Obama administration, OSHA fines, prison time, top 10
Authorities in Minnesota are asking the 759 businesses there that paid an OSHA fine in 2009 to examine their books carefully. They may be the victims of a check-fraud operation.
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Tags: fraud, Minnesota, OSHA fines
A U.S. company tried — but failed — to block release of a video showing release of a hazardous chemical and a resulting fire, arguing it would “raise substantial issues of national security.”
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Here’s proof that tragic workplace accidents can happen anywhere: An explosion at a refinery that was the recipient of several OSHA STAR awards has claimed the life of a worker.
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At least 10 companies with prior records of workplace safety violations have received millions in federal stimulus contracts in one state.
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Tags: cave-in, OSHA violations, stimulus contracts, trenches
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry and local authorities are investigating to find the cause of an explosion at a middle school construction site that caused serious injuries to eight workers.
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Tags: burns, construction site, explosion, serious injuries
A measure, just signed into law by President Obama, would prohibit chemical companies from classifying safety information as “sensitive” in an effort to keep it from becoming public. The new law is in response to a workplace explosion that caused two fatalities.
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Tags: Bayer CropScience, chemical companies, sensitive information
A dust explosion at a plant in Florida sent four workers to the hospital. One had to be airlifted to a burn center for critical injuries.
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OSHA has fined a waste processing company $207,800 after an investigation prompted by a fatality at the facility.
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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and OSHA interim administrator Jordan Barab have said that a new combustible dust regulation is one of their rulemaking priorities at OSHA.
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Tags: combustible dust regulation, Hilda Solis, Imperial Sugar explosion, Jordan Barab
A government agency says the February 2008 explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, GA, that killed 14 workers and injured 36 others, was caused by poor equipment design, maintenance and housekeeping.
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Tags: Chemical Safety Board, combustible dust, dust explosion and fire, Imperial Sugar explosion, poor housekeeping
A government investigation says a chemical company failed to recognize a hazard associated with its manufacturing process even after a number of near-misses.
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Tags: near misses, T2 Laboratories explosion and fire, U.S. Chemical Safety Board
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