Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) have called on OSHA to demand stricter safety requirements in its negotiations with BP regarding $90 million in fines.

In a letter to OSHA, the senators ask the agency to require BP to:

• report any process safety incident that occurs at a site under its control, regardless of the number of workers injured or killed. Currently, companies must report incidents to OSHA only if one or more workers are killed or three or more are sent to hospitals.
• record all injuries and illnesses of workers at sites under its control, regardless of whether they are employed by BP or by a contractor. Companies don’t have to report contractor injuries or deaths unless they directly control the employee’s work.

All 15 workers who died in an explosion at BP’s Texas City, TX, refinery in 2005 were contractors.

BP faces $90 million in fines for 862 safety violations after a follow-up inspection at the Texas City refinery and another inspection at a BP refinery near Toledo, Ohio.

When a safety incident causes deaths or serious injuries, should OSHA be able to impose tough new requirements on the company? Let us know what you think by leaving a reply below.

OSHA is investigating how a crane boom crashed into the second floor of a residential house in Akron, OH.

A crew was removing a 125-foot tree from Tracy Brubaker’s backyard, when a crane tipped and fell onto her home. She was just arriving home when the crane hit her house.

No one was injured, but these photos show the significant damage to the second story of her house. Her two cats escaped during the incident. No report on whether they’ve been found.

It took almost six hours for crews to stabilize the crane and remove it from the house.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a free publication, Preventing Worker Injuries and Deaths from Mobile Crane Tip-Over, Boom Collapse, and Uncontrolled Hoisted Loads (click here).

Last week, when Indiana joined roughly a dozen other states in explicitly allowing employees to bring guns to their places of employment (provided they have permits and keep them locked in their cars), one huge Indiana employer reacted swiftly.

ArcellorMittal, a multinational steel giant, thumbed its nose at the new law. It told employees at its two Indiana plants they were to leave their guns at home. Period. Its rationale: Federal law trumps state law.

The company didn’t say which law it was referring to, but the Indiana Manufacturers Association, which fought the law for years, told the South Bend Tribune the issues are property rights and workplace safety laws:

“Property owners are guaranteed in the Constitution the right to control their own property,” said Ed Roberts, legal counsel for the organization. “And they’re required by the state to do what they can to keep employees safe.”

There are exceptions to the new law — including schools, prisons and child care facilities — but Bloomberg Businessweek says banks and airports aren’t among them. Those perceived oversights also have opponents up in arms.

More legal challenges are bound to come — from those who want the law repealed, and possibly from ArcellorMittal employees who are now hearing one thing from the state and another from their employer.

What’s your take? Feel free to comment below.

In slightly over two months, the agency has fined seven USPS facilities all over the country almost $2.3 million for various safety violations.

April 30: A Providence, R.I., facility is hit for $558,000, primarily for electrical and lockout/tagout hazards. Employee complaints precipitated the investigation.

May 10: A Bedford Park, Ill., processing center is assessed $210,000 for electrical and protective equipment hazards. Again, employee complaints led to the inquiry.

May 10: A Denver distribution center is fined $217,000. OSHA said employees were testing live electrical equipment and without adequate training or PPE.

June 8: A Pittsburgh processing facility is billed $299,500 for electrical hazards, inadequate training, failure to protect employees from arc-flash hazards and electrical current, and failure to use appropriate safety signs and symbols.

June 8: On the other side of the state, two Philadelphia facilities are fined $497,000. OSHA found inadequately trained employees working without PPE.

June 21: In Portland, Ore., a processing and distribution center is fined $77,500 for electrical hazards, lockout/tagout violations and inadequate PPE.  Employee complaints led to the investigation.

June 28:  A Scarborough, Me., facility is fined a whopping $430,000 for exposing workers to electrical hazards, arc flashes and arc blasts.

With the U.S. Postal Service already having trouble making ends meet, this new trend can’t be helping.

But OSHA’s message seems clear: No matter how tight money is, scrimping on safety is never acceptable.

After losing seven-and-a-half fingers in an industrial accident, 53-year-old Manuel Rosario said he, not his employer, was to blame.

It happened last week at the Long Island (NY) aerospace company, Hughes-Treitler.  Rosario said the machine he was working on slammed shut before he could pull his hands away.

He lost all his digits except two thumbs and part of his right pinkie.

But he said in an interview, “You have to be strong and take care of what happened to you.”

Of course, OSHA is now investigating the accident. And it seems doubtful that its attitude toward the company will be as forgiving.

The heat.

Workers are required to wear boots, gloves and Tyvek coveralls — a thick suit that protects them from chemicals and oil.

But all that protective gear increases the chances for heat stroke.

High temperatures in the last ten days in the cleanup area have ranged from 91 to 94 degrees. One night the low only dropped to 80. The heat index has risen as high as 110.

Dozens of workers have already been treated for heat stroke, which, if not caught early enough, can lead to death.

Some people are working 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week in the cleanup effort.

BP has set up guidelines for cleanup workers to prevent heat stroke:

• Work begins early in the day to take advantage of cooler temperatures.
• Shaded rest areas are provided at all work areas.
• Workers are required to drink liquids and take rest breaks.
• Workers have received training about the hazards of working in the high heat.

But while OSHA has the pedal to the metal, it doesn’t want hell-for-leather motorists doing the same thing — at least not where workers could be endangered as a result.

A road and bridge construction company in Miami found that out the hard way. When workers closed off a lane on a major Florida highway, they posted a new and reduced speed limit sign.

Only problem: They didn’t remove or cover the existing speed limit sign.

It seems doubtful that motorists figured they could choose between the two posted speed limits, but OSHA wasn’t having it. Calling it a “blatant disregard for the safety and health of workers” and a “willful violation,” OSHA slapped the company with a $63,000 fine.

A newly added two-hour component focuses on workers’ rights. Among the topics it covers in detail:

• how to file complaints about your employer
• your right to refuse any work you think is too dangerous, and
• assurances that if you do either of the above, you’ll be protected by whistleblower provisions.

The workers’ rights component is now a required part of every 10- and 30-hour class.

“For too long, workers have avoided making claims of unsafe work conditions out of fear of losing their jobs,” OSHA head David Michaels said in a release. “We are confident that this new training will embolden workers to speak up when they find work practices that endanger their lives and the lives of their co-workers.”

Is OSHA opening a can of worms by trying to “embolden” workers, or is this needed to address chronic under-reporting of injuries. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

It all started with the Las Vegas Sun’s series of articles after several construction workers died on big building projects along the city’s infamous strip. The Sun won a Pulitzer journalism prize for its reporting.

Judges gave the Public Service award to the Sun, “for the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations, leading to changes in policy and improved safety conditions.”

Now a West Virginia newspaper has leveled criticism at OSHA for the number of inspectors that cover the state in the wake of an employee death at a DuPont plant.

Carl Fish died one day after being exposed to phosgene from a leaking transfer hose at the plant in Bell, WV.

In the Sustained Outrage blog for The Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward Jr. writes, “12 OSHA officers must cover the entire state, inspecting power plants, steel mills, logging operations and all other workplaces except coal mines. Only nine of those 12 are full-time inspectors. It would take the OSHA office in Charleston nearly 100 years to inspect every workplace” in West Virginia.

Ward notes the last time the DuPont plant was inspected was five years ago.

Earlier this month, KCET-TV in California, through its So-Cal Connected program, aired a report based on an investigation of Cal-OSHA.

“Many of the inspectors who enforce California’s worker safety laws say the system is strained if not broken,” KCET’s report said. Specifically, the investigation calls into question the practice of significantly reducing the OSHA fines paid by companies found to be in violation of safety regulations.

The Sun’s report caught the attention of federal OSHA. Among its priorities is to check on the 26 state workplace safety agencies.

Do you agree with the media reporting of the last few years that state and federal OSHA programs are understaffed and largely ineffective? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

You can also take our poll on OSHA inspectors on our home page.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Labor Department officials and officials from other states have descended on Nevada to scrutinize how it investigates workplace accidents.

The Sun ran a series of articles last year — for which it won a Pulitzer Prize — detailing serious problems with worker safety in Nevada. During an 18-month stretch, 12 construction workers were killed on the Las Vegas Strip.

Acting OSHA head Jordan Barab had warned state officials that the feds planned to intensify their monitoring of state plans.

OSHA’s only enforcement tool is complete takeover of a state agency, something it’s never done. But OSHA observers say this intervention is the most dramatic in a state plan since 1991, when the feds strongly considered taking over North Carolina’s state plan.

A report is expected to be issued in about a month.

Michaels, a professor at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, detailed his views in Congressional testimony two years ago.

To paraphrase, he saw the agency as weak, unmotivated, understaffed, heavily impeded and generally ineffective.

Here are a few excerpts, which clearly signal his views on recordkeeping, ergonomics, rulemaking and the General Duty Clause, among other topics:

• “Preventable work related injuries and illnesses … are unacceptably high. Furthermore, the true incidence of these conditions is far higher than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
• OSHA enforcement does not appear to be effective in further reducing injury rates. …  Statistical analyses indicate that (any reported) decrease can be attributable to changes in OSHA recordkeeping rules.
• “For most hazardous chemicals, OSHA’s standards are either inadequate or totally absent. One could write a book about the hazards that OSHA has failed to regulate adequately.”
• “The primary blame (for OSHA’s failure to issue appropriate health standards) rests in a system that makes OSHA standard setting inordinately difficult and resource-intensive.”
• “OSHA has abandoned the general duty clause. It is time for the agency to start using it again.”
• “Ergonomic injuries cost employers $15-20 billion annually in workers’ compensation costs alone, yet this number one workplace safety and health problem is not even mentioned on OSHA’s most recent regulatory agenda.”
• “OSHA doesn’t have the staff to work on more than one or two standards at a time, and … each standard takes years to complete. Unless things change radically, only a handful of the thousands of chemicals in daily use in American workplaces will ever be the subject of an OSHA standard.”

There’s no question that OSHA will change radically if Michaels is approved by the Senate and moves his agenda forward — an aggressive approach that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and interim OSHA head Jordan Barab appear to have already set in motion.

Do you expect OSHA to make your job tougher in the coming years? Tell us what you think in the Comment 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.

A Wall Street Journal article discusses the backgrounds of some of the selections.

President Obama’s latest choice, Joseph Main to oversee the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), continues a strong trend toward choosing labor over management and increased regulation over the Bush administration’s more hands-off approach.

Main was for many years a union official and mine-safety advocate. He began his career working in coal mines.

If approved, he’ll join Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who had a well-documented pro-union background, and temporary OSHA head Jordan Barab, who previously worked for the AFL-CIO and who was fiercely critical of Bush’s labor policies.

In contrast, previous Labor Secretary Elaine Chao worked for Citicorp and BankAmerica and was considered anti-regulation and a staunch ally of business. Previous OSHA head Edwin Foulke Jr. was a management-side labor lawyer.

Main would be the first confirmed head of MSHA since 2004. Richard Stickler, who filled the post under President Bush, was a controversial former Bethlehem Steel executive who was installed as a recess appointment after failing to win approval from the Senate.

Mining-association groups say they expect Main, if approved, to be tough. But, they add, they know him and can work with him.

He may have his work cut out for him. Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group, says the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has a backlog of 13,000 mine-safety disputes.

What do you expect from President Obama’s nominees? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

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.

A former OSHA inspector has told a TV station in Houston that he had to “game the numbers” when the agency came under Congressional pressure for not conducting enough inspections.

Ronnie Benavides, who worked for OSHA for more than a decade, told KHOU-TV that he felt pressured to be more aggressive, to do more inspections and write more citations, even if they had to be fabricated.

Benavides detailed one inspection in particular. A construction worker fell 29 floors to his death.

He said he and other OSHA inspectors who went to the site to investigate went overboard. He said they cited contractors for things that weren’t violations.

OSHA in the Houston area may have been under particular pressure to boost inspections.

In 2005, an explosion at the nearby Texas City BP refinery killed 15 workers.

Critics said OSHA wasn’t aggressive enough in enforcing safety at the plant.

OSHA denied any allegation that citations were manufactured.

The agency said more inspections were conducted in the Houston area in response to a building boom there.

The United Steelworkers Union told KHOU that it welcomed OSHA getting more aggressive, saying it’s long overdue.

After an investigation by New York City’s School Construction Authority, Larry Fontanez admitted selling between 50 and 60 fake OSHA 30 cards last summer, according to the New York Daily News.

An investigator posed as a worker looking for fake cards. He found them, complete with Fontanez’s signature, for $250 — half of the $500 for a 30-hour training course.

The card was purchased without the employee ever taking any classes.

Fontanez faces eight counts of criminal possession of a forged document. OSHA has suspended his license.

Certified Painting Co., Inc., of Alsip, IL, faces $225,000 in fines for 17 alleged violations — eight willful and nine serious.

That’s bad enough. But this is the 16th time the company has been inspected by OSHA since 1976. It’s been cited for more than 100 safety and health violations.

In the latest case, Certified has cited for failure to:

• have proper carbon monoxide monitoring devices
• provide and ensure workers were using personal protective equipment
• provide required hygiene facilities
• ensure workers conducted required hygiene practices after possible exposure to lead or other hazardous materials
• provide U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets and have a lifesaving skiff immediately available at locations where employees were working over or adjacent to water
• provide proper fall protection for employees working on scaffolding
• maintain a safety and health program
• provide a required training program before employee exposure to lead, and
• conduct regular inspections of the job site by a competent person.

You can read more about OSHA’s citations against Certified here.

Jose Angel Vera was performing an aerial stunt about 20 feet above the floor of a large tent at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, AZ.

As he was descending, he fell from the rafters onto the asphalt-covered ground, hitting his head, according to KXNV-TV.

The ground was asphalt.

He was taken to a local hospital where he died about 15 minutes after the incident.

Vera was a member of Aerial Artistry, a five-member acrobatics team. Vera performed acrobatics for 16 years.

OSHA is investigating because Vera was working at the time of the incident — in other words, it’s a workplace accident.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 contains $80 million for “the enforcement of worker protection laws and regulations, oversight, and coordination activities.”

The Secretary of Labor would be able to divide the funds among OSHA, the Employment and Standards Administration, and the Employment and Training Administration.

President Obama has called for a reinvigorated OSHA that would put more emphasis on enforcement of existing safety regulations.

The Senate has its own version of the bill. The two bills will have to be reconciled, with a final version passed by both houses of Congress.

We’ll keep you posted.

Now, OSHA is investigating.

Another element of this case makes it even more bizarre: The promoter, George Eisenhart, had defended his industry’s safety record in the news media just days before his death.

A statement from the Monster Truck Racing Association says Eisenhart walked in front of a moving vehicle in such a way that the driver didn’t have enough time to react, according to CNN.

Eight days before Eisenhart’s death, a six-year-old boy was killed by flying debris at a monster truck show in Tacoma, WA.

The promoter talked about the safety of monster truck shows in an interview with a Madison TV station just before the event.

Yes, says OSHA.

ESIS, Inc., a global risk control services company, asked OSHA whether it’s acceptable to keep required written safety programs in electronic form only.

Traditionally, programs such as those for bloodborne pathogens, hazard communication and permit-required confined spaces have been kept in separate binders where employees can refer to them, as required by OSHA standards.

In its request for clarification of OSHA rules, ESIS also noted that keeping forms on a company intranet can provide significant benefits in consistency, ease of use, and accuracy in maintaining and updating these materials in a timely manner.

OSHA agreed that companies could benefit by keeping these programs on an employer’s Intranet, as long as the program meets all other requirements of the standard in question.

Employers must make sure employees know how to easily access the electronic records.

OSHA’s Standard Interpretation Letter on this topic is available here.

However, because of the emphasis placed on the Employee Free Choice Act during the hearing, not one Senator asked Hilda Solis about OSHA.

The “card-check” legislation would make it easier for unions to organize in the workplace.

Solis and Obama have backed the legislation in the past. Many Senate Republicans oppose it.

So what do we know about Solis’ position on OSHA?

She’s viewed as a supporter of more funding for a stronger OSHA that would put more emphasis on enforcement than the Bush administration has.

In the U.S. House, she voted “no” on a resolution to strip the Labor Department’s enforcement authority over ergonomics rules submitted during the Clinton Administration. Those rules were thrown out in 2001 and would have forced businesses to take steps to prevent work-related repetitive stress disorders.

For the moment, we’ll have to wait for Obama’s appointment of an OSHA administrator to get a better feel for the new administration’s workplace safety policies. Obama has called for an invigorated OSHA, but a federal budget crunch may limit extra funds for the agency. And it appears the union legislation is a higher priority at the moment.

American Bridge, based in Pennsylvania, faces $90,000 in fines after an employee fell 70 feet to his death from a girder at a construction site.

The victim fell at the site of the Highway 62/641 bridge being built over the Tennessee River below Grand Rivers, KY. He was wearing a harness and lanyard but wasn’t anchored.

OSHA is citing the company with one willful violation for failing to eliminate employee exposure to fall hazards and failing to ensure that employees properly used personal protective equipment while working above heights of 6 feet. That carries a $70,000 penalty.

The agency is also issuing four serious citations to the company for:

• using pulleys that weren’t guarded on the winch gear
• failing to barricade the swing radius on the cranes
• not securing material against accidental displacement, and
• failing to use conforming fall protection systems.

Each of those citations carries a $5,000 penalty.

OSHA said American had a fall protection plan, but management failed to enforce its own policy.

Upshot for companies: It should be less of a surprise when an OSHA inspector visits than it was seven or eight years ago.

What types of companies are getting hit?

• Those with high injury rates
• Industries with high fatality rates
• Industries that OSHA designates as having major health and/or safety hazards, and
• Companies that have been inspected before and were found to have serious or willful violations.

According to OSHA’s statistics for FY2008 (Oct. 2007 through September 2008), 80% of violations issued were categorized as either serious, willful or repeat.

The number of willful violations (those where there was intentional disregard or plain indifference to OSHA rules) increased 25% from 2007 to 2008. During the same period, repeat violations increased 4%.

Out of 38,591 inspections, 121 resulted in fines of over $100,000. Twelve inspections resulted in criminal referrals.

OSHA’s areas of emphasis include these industries: landscaping; oil and gas field services; residential building construction; commercial and institution building construction; and highway, street and bridge construction.

OSHA also placed inspection emphasis on these hazards which cause fatalities: falls from elevation, trenching, struck-by incidents, forklift incidents and electrical problems.

For more information, click here.

It’s not likely, according to a Standard Interpretation Letter (SIL) released recently by OSHA.

A concerned baseball fan, Robert Van Laanen, wrote a letter to OSHA regarding the dangers of new wooden bats shattering.

The fan was concerned that increasing numbers of shattered bats might pose more hazards to players and spectators.

Van Laanen wanted to know if OSHA could press professional baseball to change back to sturdier wooden or metal bats.

The answer: Probably not.

In a response signed by the Director of Enforcement Programs, Richard Fairfax, OSHA said the answer depends on whether pro athletes meet the definition of “employee” under the Occupational Safety and Health Act or whether they’re independent contractors.

OSHA rules might apply only if they’re employees.

Fairfax’s letter goes on to note that the employee or contractor determination would need to be made on a case-by-case basis.

And even if they were considered employees, OSHA doesn’t have any specific, applicable standards that address protection for pro athletes.

What does this all boil down to? This statement: “In most cases, however, OSHA does not take enforcement action with regard to professional athletes.”

Leave it to OSHA to take a nine paragraph letter to say “No.”

Sure, OSHA has been more “business-friendly” in the last eight years. But it hasn’t been a paper tiger. New statistics on the agency’s citations and penalties for fiscal year 2008 show just the opposite. And with a new administration in January, OSHA is set to issue even more fines.

What’s tripping up companies when OSHA inspectors visit?

These are the top 10 most frequently cited standards in fiscal year 2008 (Oct. 2007 through Sept. 2008):

1. Scaffolding, general requirements, construction (29 CFR 1926.451) [related topic page]
2. Fall protection, construction (29 CFR 1926.501) [related topics page]
3. Hazard communication standard, general industry (29 CFR 1910.1200) [related topic page]
4. Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), general industry (29 CFR 1910.147) [related topic page]
5. Respiratory protection, general industry (29 CFR 1910.134) [related topic page]
6. Electrical, wiring methods, components and equipment, general industry (29 CFR 1910.305) [related topic page]
7. Powered industrial trucks, general industry (29 CFR 1910.178) [related topic page]
8. Ladders, construction (29 CFR 1926.1053) [related topic page]
9. Machines, general requirements, general industry (29 CFR 1910.212) [related topics page]
10. Electrical systems design, general requirements, general industry (29 CFR 1910.303) [related topic page]

OSHA assessed the highest penalties for these standards in fiscal year 2008 (October 2007 through September 2008):

1. Fall protection, construction (29 CFR 1926.501) [related topics page]
2. Scaffolding, general requirements, construction (29 CFR 1926.451) [related topic page]
3. Electrical, hazardous (classified) locations (29 CFR 1910.307) [related topic page]
4. Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), general industry (29 CFR 1910.147) [related topic page]
5. Excavations, requirements for protective systems, construction (29 CFR 1926.652) [related topics page]
6. Machines, general requirements, general industry (29 CFR 1910.212) [related topics page]
7. General duty clause (Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act)
8. Powered industrial trucks, general industry (29 CFR 1910.178) [related topic page]
9. Walking-working surfaces, general requirements (29 CFR 1910.22) [related topic page]
10. Process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals (29 CFR 1910.119) [related topic page]

This information is for all types of industries combined in states where federal OSHA conducts safety inspections. You can search for most frequently cited violations in your industry or a state that has its own OSHA program here.

OSHA investigated M&B Metal Products in Leeds, AL, after a roof collapse at the manufacturing plant.

M&B faces 44 alleged safety and health violations

The willful violation for accumulation of explosive paper dust comes with a $44,000 fine. The company also faces another $117,950 for 42 serious violations, including exposing employees to struck-by, electrical and noise hazards. It was also cited for one other-than-serious violation.

Oak Mountain Construction Co., which was performing repairs on the roof support system when it collapsed, received two serious safety violations with $5,000 in penalties for exposing employees to fall hazards and not conducting inspections to identify fall and roof collapse hazards.

In March, OSHA reissued its Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program to increase enforcement within specific industries that have experienced frequent dust fires and explosions.

For more information about combustible dust safety from OSHA, click here.

With a new administration coming to the White House, it’s likely companies will see some changes from OSHA. Among the possibilities: higher fines for workplace fatalities and injuries.

President-elect Obama has supported the Protecting America’s Workers Act as a Senator.

The bill would increase OSHA penalties:

• maximums for serious and repeat violations would go from $7,000 to $10,000
• top fines for willful violations would increase to $100,000 from $70,000, and
• fines for workplace deaths would be a minimum of $50,000, a maximum of $250,000, and up to ten years in prison.

OSHA fines low by comparison

Elected officials who support increases in OSHA fines say they would act as a deterrent to companies that want to skimp on safety. While responsible companies, like yours, are paying for all the necessary safety tools to prevent injuries, other bad actors see an occasional employee injury as just the price of doing business because it’s cheaper that way.

Elected officials also argue that current fines aren’t enough of a deterrent. Some examples:

• Employee dies at railroad crossing, company fined $2,250
• Trench cave-in kills two employees: company fined $11,200, and
• Fatal electrocution: company fined $37,000.

Compare those fines to some issued by other federal agencies.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can fine a TV or radio station up to $325,000 for indecent content.

In other words, having a potty mouth on TV can garner a fine that’s ten times worse than when a person dies or is seriously and/or permanently injured at work.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fines for incidents in which no employees were injured or killed are also higher than OSHA fines. Some recent examples:

• Company dumps untreated hazardous wastes: Owner could face up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 if convicted
• Company fails to inspect its diesel fleet for compliance with smoke control rules: $114,000, and
• Mishandling hazardous waste and used batteries leads to $190,000 penalty for another firm.

So, we’d like to hear from you on this issue. We all know that some companies put their employees’ lives at risk every day by not taking proper safety precautions. Here’s the question: Should the federal government increase OSHA fines for deaths and serious injuries? Would this be a deterrent to companies that don’t pay enough attention to worker safety? You can let us know what you think by dropping us a note in the Comments Box below.

For more information on the Protecting America’s Workers Act, click here.

How OSHA chooses which companies it inspects isn’t a total mystery. One target: Companies with injury rates that are higher than their industry’s average. Now is a good time for companies to benchmark their injury rates. Reason: The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released its annual Workplace Injuries and Illnesses report.

The report contains total OSHA-recordable and DART (injuries that involved days away from work, job transfer or restriction) rates by industry.

The overall DART rate for 2007 was 2.1 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers.

It’s also good to know industries with the largest average DART rates. OSHA will often focus inspections on those industries with National Emphasis Programs (NEPs).

Among the industries with higher DART rates:

• Air transportation, 7.3
• Couriers and messengers, 6.8
• Warehousing and storage, 5.5
• Nursing and residential care facilities, 5.2
• Beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, 5.0
• Food manufacturing, 4.4
• Primary metal manufacturing, 4.3
• Wood product manufacturing, 4.1
• Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing, 3.9, and
• Plastics and rubber products manufacturing, 3.7.

Company size and state-by-state

What are some other ways you can benchmark your injury record?

Medium size companies have higher total recordable injury and illness rates:

• 1-10 employees: 1.9
• 11-49 employees: 3.8
• 50-249 employees: 5.3
• 250-999 employees: 4.7
• 1,000+ employees: 4.5.

The report also contains injury rates for 43 states. Some states with high injury rates: Washington, Montana and Maine. States with low rates: Louisiana, Delaware and Virginia.

BLS says the total OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses rate declined from 4.4 cases for 100 workers in 2006 to 4.2 in 2007.

For more information, click here.

The Las Vegas Sun’s focus on workplace safety shouldn’t come as any surprise given that 12 workers were killed in industrial accident over the last 19 months during the construction boom on the Las Vegas strip.

But the Sun doesn’t rely just on its local statistics to make its case. It calls for major OSHA reforms based on an average of 15 worker deaths and 11,000 injuries per day in the U.S.

The Labor Department regularly applauds slight annual decreases in the fatality and injury rates.

But, in the fifth of a five-part editorial series, the paper asks, “can it really be a success that more than 5,400 people are killed every year on the job and more than 4 million are injured?”

The paper’s answer, as you may have guessed, is no.

And it has some ideas on what should be done.

Several areas to address

The Sun says Congress should address six areas:

• OSHA’s budget: Congress should make a financial commitment to the agency, whose budget hasn’t kept up with the rate of inflation, to give OSHA the money it needs.
• Regulation: Congress needs to peel back hurdles to enacting new workplace safety and health regulations.
• State OSHAs: Congress should either find a way to provide oversight and additional money for state OSHAs or end the state programs.
• Philosophy: Inspectors should have the power to shut down a dangerous work site, and the agency’s penalties should be dramatically increased — including making criminal those willful violations of safety laws that result in injury.
• Standards: Congress should turn standard-setting for toxins and hazards over to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
• Statistics: Congress should mandate a full accounting of workplace injuries. Some estimates say the actual number of workplace injuries could be three times higher than what the government is currently reporting.

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