OSHA has fined a suburban St. Louis recycling company $195,930 in connection with the death of a worker who had been trying to clear a jam in a baler machine.
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Tags: baler, clear a jam, lock out and tag out, powered industrial trucks, recycling
OSHA is investigating the death of a young worker due to a forklift tipover at a facility in Denton, TX. The incident provides a reminder for workers of one thing not to do if a forklift they’re operating starts to overturn.
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Tags: death of young worker, forklift driver killed, forklift tipover
OSHA is suing Whole Foods Market Group to reinstate a fired employee with full back wages and benefits. The employee had expressed concerns to a supervisor about a sewage leak in the store. Three days later, the employee was fired.
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Tags: sewage leak, whistleblower, Whole Foods
The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement with an Illinois grain handling company in the deaths of two teens in July 2010.
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OSHA has revised its guidance on servicing tires to address current hazards and help workers safely perform maintenance on large vehicles.
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Tags: large vehicle maintenance, service wheels, tire explosion
Imagine this: You’ve been fined by OSHA. Not only that, the agency has alerted the media that your actions put your employees in danger. Do you respond, and if so, how?
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Tags: excessive OSHA penalties, OSHA press release, Remington Arms Co.
The title of the press release says, “OSHA encourages major retailers to provide crowd management measures.” A better word instead of “encourages” would have been “warns.”
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Tags: Black Friday, crowd control, OSHA warning, retailers, Wal-Mart trampling death
Sure, it’s great video for any TV reporter: Record your narration (what they call a “stand-up”) while work crews clear away storm debris in the background. But this TV reporter probably never expected to capture this on video:
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Tags: chainsaw, close call, YouTube
In September, an Allentown, PA, newspaper published a series of articles about employees at an Amazon.com warehouse working in severe heat. Now, the other shoe has dropped: An employee sued Amazon for exposure to cold conditions.
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OSHA has fined a Rochester, NY, recycling company in connection with the June death of an employee inside a compactor.
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Tags: compactor, crushed to death, lockout/tagout, recycling, repeat violations
What are OSHA inspectors targeting now? The agency has released its top 10 violations for fiscal year 2011.
Tags: fall protection, most frequently cited OSHA violations, top 10
Several OSHA investigators have been interviewing plant workers to find out what caused a grain elevator in Atchison, KS, to explode. The explosion killed six workers.
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Tags: Bartlett Grain, grain elevator explosion, Grain Handling Facilities Standard
Even without a combustible dust standard, OSHA can fine companies for failing to provide appropriate fire and explosion protection from combustible dust.
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Tags: combustible dust, fire and explosion, hearing conservation program, permissible exposure limits, respirators
The head of OSHA says the agency’s new hazard communication standard may be finalized in the early part of 2012.
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Tags: David Michaels, GHS, Globally Harmonized Standard, hazard communication
Some business leaders claim the reason the U.S. economy has been floundering is because of the number of new regulations imposed by the Obama administration. Bloomberg News has conducted an analysis of new regulations enacted by the last several presidents. The results may surprise some people.
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Tags: beryllium, Bloomberg News, combustible dust, diacetyl, federal rules, injury and illness prevention programs, Obama regulations
OSHA is increasing the amounts some companies pay for fines by extending its repeat violation policy to more situations. Now, the same violation at a different location within five years counts as “repeat.”
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Tags: maintenance, repeat violation, unintended startup of machinery
Cal-OSHA is investigating the deaths of two brothers who were working at a compost center in Lamont, CA. They were overcome by fumes in a confined space.
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Tags: CAL-OSHA, confined space, overcome by fumes, protective gear
While some lawmakers in Washington are harping on OSHA for creating too many regulations, a recent report says during the last ten years, there have been fewer new regulations produced by the agency than in any other period in its history.
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Tags: diacetyl, OSHA Inaction, Public Citizen, silica, small business, too many new regulations
A worker at a grocery store fell 11 feet onto a concrete floor and suffered broken bones and head trauma. Instead of calling 911, store management lifted the worker into a wheelchair and pushed him to a dock to wait for a relative to take him to the hospital.
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Tags: broken bones, emergency services, employee fall, General Duty Clause, head trauma, Market Basket, repeat citation
A man who posed as a government inspector to extort tens of thousands of dollars from construction companies has been sentenced to prison.
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Tags: extortion, fake inspector, OSHA inspection, prison sentence
OSHA says it’s trying to level the playing field with new rules for residential construction. But some builders say the new rules are having the opposite effect: They’re tilting the field in such a way that cheaters are prospering, and those who comply are in danger of falling over the edge.
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Like Sammy Hagar, you may not be able to drive 55. But no matter how quickly you’d like to get where you’re going, chances are you’ll stay well under 100 the next time you’re on the open road. The question is why.
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Imagine this: A worker at your company is killed on the job. OSHA issues your company a fine. You make changes in your safety program to prevent a similar incident, and OSHA drops the fine completely. Not possible? It is.
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Tags: dump truck, Indiana OSHA, INDOT, OSHA drops fine
OSHA has ordered a farmer-owned cooperative to increase safety training for grain bin employees and pay a $550,000 fine.
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Tags: farm coop, OSHA settlement, rescue drills, safety consultant, Safety training, trapped in soybeans
Two co-owned trailer manufacturing companies in Texas face a combined $949,800 in OSHA fines following an investigation that was prompted by employee complaints.
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Tags: days away from work, employee complaints, eye injuries, hearing test, toxic fumes
Was the death of a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando due to a benign act by a killer whale or because of willful disregard for employee safety? That question is being asked in the appeal of an OSHA fine.
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Tags: Dawn Brancheau, fatal whale attack, General Duty Clause, SeaWorld, Tilikum
A supermarket is facing OSHA fines after an inspection found night shift employees were locked in and not allowed to leave the building without the employer’s permission.
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Tags: employees locked in, locked exits, Mermaid Meat Co., obstructed exits, supermarket, Triangle Shirtwaist fire
A newspaper has investigated reports about working conditions at an Amazon.com warehouse that serves one-third of the country. Employee claims point to extreme indoor heat, closed doors when it was hot, work rates that couldn’t be sustained and firing threats when workers couldn’t keep up in the heat.
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Tags: Amazon, closed doors, extreme heat, firing threats, heat index, heat stress, Integrity Staffing Solutions, OSHA inspection, paramedics, The Morning Call
A new OSHA directive outlines the types of businesses and the reasons why inspectors will review a company’s workplace violence prevention efforts.
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Tags: General Duty Clause, healthcare, high-crime areas, OSHA directive, retail, working alone, workplace violence
Bostik, Inc., a manufacturer of adhesives, faces $917,000 in OSHA fines for 50 citations following the agency’s investigation into a March 13, 2011, explosion that injured four workers at the company’s Middleton, MA, plant.
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Tags: acetone, Bostik Inc., explosion, OSHA fine, process safety management
Just how dangerous are the jobs at your company?
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Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics, dangerous jobs, fishing, transportation, workplace fatalities
Twenty years ago, 25 workers died in a chicken plant fire in North Carolina. The tragedy caused a large upgrade of the state’s occupational safety agency. How is North Carolina OSHA doing now?
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Tags: blocked doors, fire, Imperial Food Products, North Carolina, OSHA inspectors
A company with 14 affiliates spread across the country has agreed to pay a $34,750 fine to settle OSHA citations. That doesn’t sound too bad for a big, nationwide construction company. But it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
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Tags: 30-hour OSHA course, construction company, enterprise-wide settlement agreement, fall protection, OSHA citations, safety program
An OSHA investigation has found that Union Pacific Railroad retaliated against three employees for reporting safety issues and injuries. Now the railroad will have to pay a price.
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Tags: OSHA, retaliation, safety issues, Union Pacific Railroad, whistleblower
It’s a safety lesson that needs to be told to workers again and again: If you’re not trained to do so, don’t attempt an emergency rescue at work, especially if it involves entering a confined space.
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Tags: confined space, construction employee, emergency rescue, MIOSHA, sewer
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