A fall left a worker submerged in a giant tank of peanuts. Fortunately, he lived to tell about the experience.
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Tags: giant tank of peanuts, grain handlers, self-contained breathing apparatus
The head of OSHA says after 40 years, the agency needs a fundamental transformation in the way it addresses workplace hazards, and its relationship to employers and workers. David Michaels says it’s time for OSHA to “take a different road.”
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Tags: David Michaels, future of OSHA, OSHA at 40
The federal government has reported the smallest annual total of workplace deaths since the census of occupational injuries was started.
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Tags: 2009 workplace deaths, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hilda Solis, workplace fatalities
OSHA shows it’s serious about stepping up action against companies accused of firing workers for making complaints about safety.
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Sure, a $16.6 million OSHA fine sounds like a lot of money. But that might be only the tip of the iceberg in the case involving an explosion at a Kleen Energy construction site.
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Tags: explosion, federal lawsuit, Kleen Energy
While BP still works on cutting off the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, another safety matter waits in the wings for the company: settling citations issued by OSHA for two of its refineries.
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Tags: BP, OSHA, Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Patty Murray, Texas City refinery
Uh oh. An OSHA inspector shows up at your business. He uncovers a violation, and you don’t dispute it. How do you limit your company’s financial liability?
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Tags: excavation, lower OSHA fines, OSHRC, willful violation
It should come as no surprise to a company that it will face a retaliation complaint if it fires a whistleblower who complained to OSHA about workplace safety.
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As Wal-Mart fights an OSHA general duty clause (GDC) fine about retail crowds, the agency has issued another citation under the catch-all regulation involving workplace violence.
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Tags: General Duty Clause, health care, hospital, workplace violence
Two businesses in California were shut down by state officials who said outdoor workers were exposed to high heat without shade or water.
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Tags: business shut down, California, heat illness
As many as 70 construction workers may have received OSHA 30-hour certification cards without completing the required training.
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Tags: conspiring to defraud OSHA, construction workers, fake OSHA cards, training
The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart has spent $2 million so far fighting a $7,000 OSHA fine in connection with the trampling death of a worker. Equally interesting is that OSHA has also devoted lots of resources to make sure this fine sticks. Why? Because the outcome of this case could have wide reaching effects on all sorts of companies.
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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
Recently, we received a comment from a reader who was tired of reading so much negativity about OSHA. So that led us to wonder: What do people in charge of safety at their companies really think about OSHA, especially given its new focus on enforcement?
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OSHA has placed 20 to 25 of its inspectors at the staging areas for cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While early concerns centered around exposure to oil and fumes, OSHA officials are finding another problem:
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Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, heat stroke, OSHA
It’s full-speed ahead for OSHA, which is trying to make up for what it views as eight lost years during the Bush administration.
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OSHA has an explicit new message for the millions of workers who participate in the agency’s outreach training program: We’re on your side.
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Tags: David Michaels, Injuries, OSHA
It’s not a secret anymore that OSHA under the Obama administration will focus more on enforcement than employer assistance programs. But a U.S. senator has introduced a bill to make one such program for companies a permanent fixture at OSHA.
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Tags: focus on enforcement, Sen. Michael Enzi, Voluntary Protection Program
A South Dakota company now faces $1.61 million in citations.
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Tags: confined spaces, engulfed and smothered, Fatality, million-dollar fine, South Dakota Wheat Growers
Just how many injuries would workers hide to see a company’s CEO look silly while dancing? It’s an interesting question given OSHA’s current opinion about safety incentives and a company involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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Tags: BP oil rig disaster, David Michaels, Deepwater Horizon, safety incentives, Transocean
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
Workplace cameras captured a practice used by several workers at a Cintas laundry facility in Tulsa, OK: They’d climb onto large conveyors to dislodge stuck piles of clothing going into industrial dryers. One camera also recorded Eleazar Torres Gomez as he was pulled into one of the dryers — an incident that led to his death.
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Tags: Cintas, David Michaels, dramatic video, incentive programs, pulled into dryer
A subcontractor faces an OSHA fine in connection with an incident on the roof of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium that seriously injured two workers.
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Here’s a story you can share with employees and supervisors about why lockout/tagout is so important:
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A woman is suspected of bilking construction companies in California out of $500,000 by posing as an OSHA inspector.
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Tags: CAL-OSHA, construction companies, posing as OSHA inspector
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
A worker reports an injury. An investigation shows the injury was caused because the worker ignored a safety rule. Under company policy, the employee is disciplined. Now, other workers aren’t reporting injuries because they don’t want to be disciplined. What do you do?
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Tags: disciplining workers, OSHA cracking down, reporting workplace injuries
“Unscrupulous employers often consider it more cost effective to pay the minimal OSHA penalty and continue to operate an unsafe workplace than to correct the underlying health and safety problem. The current penalties do not provide an adequate deterrent.”
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Tags: David Michaels, death of an employee, OSHA penalty, prison time, Protecting America's Workers Act
OSHA is investigating an incident in a Pennsylvania supermarket in which 11 people were sickened by carbon monoxide produced by workers renovating the store.
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A crane operator who crashed into a 105-foot light pole that killed a worker didn’t receive proper training, according to OSHA.
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A former buildings inspector has been arrested for selling fake safety certificates for required OSHA training.
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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
OSHA has issued several citations to the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in Oregon in connection with an incident in which an employee was killed by a falling tree.
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Tags: goggles, hard hat, helicopter, killed by falling tree
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