An employee of a contractor sued BP for mental anguish in connection with the 2005 explosion that killed 15 at the oil company’s Texas City, TX, facility.
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Tags: BP Texas City, emotional injury, explosion, mental anguish
Can an employee get injured by just sitting in a vehicle and driving?
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Tags: back pain, driving, truck drivers
Almost one year after a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by “Black Friday” shoppers, OSHA has issued crowd control guidelines for retailers. And Wal-Mart contested the fine associated with the case.
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Tags: crowd control, trampling death, Wal-Mart
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates almost 4,000 deaths in the U.S. were related to swine flu between April and mid-October.
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Tags: flu deaths, H1N1, swine flu
Safety pros know that even the best safety gear doesn’t prevent worker injuries all by itself. But do workers know that? Do they feel their PPE makes them invincible?
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Tags: Injuries, invincible, PPE, safety gear
A seafood processing plant faces $66,800 in OSHA fines after a worker was crushed to death in an ice machine.
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Tags: crushed in ice machine, lock out, power down
Do any of your employees walk to work? The group, Transportation for America, has released its ranking of the most dangerous large metropolitan areas for pedestrians.
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Tags: cities for walking, most dangerous, Transportation for America
A year ago, the federal government announced new hours-of-service rules for commercial vehicle drivers. Now there’s word that they’re about to change again.
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Tags: commercial motor vehicle, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, hours of service
Nonfatal workplace injuries among private industry employers in 2008 fell 8% from the previous year.
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Tags: Hilda Solis, injury and illness rate, workplace injuries drop
“I’m working myself to death.” Officials in Japan take that notion seriously and are holding companies accountable. The latest case involves a restaurant manager.
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Tags: karoshi, overtime, overwork, working myself to death
Public health experts say company sick-time policies may be helping H1N1 (swine) flu spread more easily.
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Tags: H1N1, paid sick days, swine flu
The National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) is calling on OSHA to lower the permissible exposure limits for noise in workplaces.
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Tags: National Hearing Conservation Association, noise PEL, permissible exposure limit
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
As new labor and safety leaders in the Obama administration have shown they would like to require companies to address ergonomics for employees, support for government regulation comes from a safety and health organization.
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Tags: AIHA, ergonomics, Jordan Barab, musculoskeletal disorders
OSHA has proposed $87.43 million in fines against BP for the company’s failure to correct hazards uncovered after the 2005 explosion at its Texas City, TX, plant that killed 15 people and injured 170 others.
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Tags: 2005 explosion, BP, largest OSHA fine, Texas City plant
OSHA has released its preliminary list of the top 10 most frequent workplace safety violations for 2009.
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Tags: fall protection, frequent workplace safety violations, hazard communication, scaffolding, Top 10 safety violations 2009
Imagine this. A machine in your workplace has a sharp blade that chops things. Do you really have to tell employees not to stick their hands near the blade when the machine is running?
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Tags: common sense, machine guard, warning sign, Workers' comp
Is Minneapolis safer than Denver? How about New York City versus Seattle? Forbes magazine has ranked the top 10 safest cities in the U.S.
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Here’s a cautionary story for workers. John Capanna had a bright future at the age of 20. He was already a crew chief for his employer — a good job. Then, a workplace explosion burned over 90% of his body.
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As a safety pro, you’ve probably met a number of non-believers when it comes to warning workers about hazards. “What are the odds of that happening here?” they might ask. Now you can tell them, thanks to a new Web site.
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Employees across the country have a message for their co-workers during this H1N1 flu season: Don’t come in if you’re sick.
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Tags: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, H1N1, swine flu
Here’s proof that workplace injuries happen in the service industry, too. And those injuries can lead to workers’ comp claims.
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Tags: back injury, casino dealer, service industry, workers' comp claims
Now that OSHA is keeping an eye out for incentive programs that discourage workers from reporting injuries, what can you do to encourage safe practices?
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Tags: encourage safe practices, incentive programs, report injuries
The construction industry knows it’s a frequent OSHA target. Now we know that darkness won’t keep OSHA inspectors from their rounds.
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Tags: construction, night construction, silica
A restaurant faces a $50,604 fine in the death of a 17-year-old employee who was parking cars. But this fine wasn’t from OSHA.
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Tags: child labor, death of 17-year-old, FLSA, parking valet death
Most companies have all the work-related hazards they need, thank you. They see no need to introduce additional hazards not normally associated with whatever work is involved. But one company’s unusual gimmick has set the stage for what promises to be an interesting workers’ comp decision.
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Tags: chimp attack, hazards, Workers' comp
OSHA added something new to its Web site this week.
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California requires people using a cell phone while driving to use a hands-free device. Now, the state’s governor has had to tell his wife that the law applies to her, too.
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Tags: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, hands-free device, Maria Shriver, using cell phone while driving
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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Next time you want to address proper ladder use and fall protection with workers, you might want to use this story about a man who fell to his death when he was trying to reach a light fixture.
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Tags: died from fall, fall protection, jury-rig
An explosion at a worksite may cost an employee his leg, if attempts to reattach it fail.
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Tags: explosion, gas fumes, sever worker's leg
It’s long been a subject of debate among safety pros: Do safety incentive programs reduce injuries, or do they encourage workers not to report when they get hurt? It seems OSHA has weighed in on the issue, buried within a directive for its inspectors.
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Tags: national emphasis program, Recordkeeping, safety incentive programs
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is questioning President Obama’s choice to head OSHA.
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Tags: David Michaels, OSHA nominee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Several business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit challenging OSHA’s per-employee penalty policy for safety gear violations.
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Tags: lawsuit, National Association of Manufacturers, per-employee violation, PPE, safety gear
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