Today's Safety News

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Summertime activities can bring people into close proximity to burn hazards in the form of fire pits, campfires and outdoor grills. Dr. Richard Gamelli, director of the burn unit at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. said burns due to fire can happen easily and quickly, especially when alcohol has been abused or children are present.

A special enforcement emphasis program launched by OSHA this month will temporarily bring additional investigators from throughout the U.S. to North Dakota, in an effort to reduce the high fatality rates in the state's oil and gas and construction industries.

The number of people overdosing from opioid prescription painkillers is staggering, killing 45 people each day. Twenty-three percent of the workforce has misused prescription painkillers, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, making opioid use a serious threat to employee safety. Even when employees are taking opioid painkillers at the correct dosage with a valid prescription, subtle impairment may compromise workplace safety.

Wildfires can strike in any state, particularly during the summer months. Fires are currently burning in Washington, Oregon, California and Utah and more states are under high watch for wildfires. Simple preparedness steps can help save lives.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reports it has thus far found no record of a formal, industry approved inspection performed on any of the chemical storage tanks at Freedom Industries prior to the massive leak which occurred on January 9, 2014.

"The cost of providing fall prevention equipment is nominal compared with the senseless loss of life.” Casey Perkins, OSHA's area director in Austin, made that comment in reference to an accident at a condo construction site in Canyon Lake, Texas in which a worker fell 29 feet to his death.

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has received American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval for ANSI/ISEA 101-2014, American National Standard for Limited Use and Disposable Coveralls - Size and Labeling Requirements.

A construction company honored last year for its safety program has banned seven of its workers from a New York City worksite, after a flying jack hammer chisel from the project shattered a window in a neighboring building and injured a woman.

OSHA has entered into an agreement with McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises Inc. and James T. Lind, company president, resolving a lawsuit alleging a worker was wrongfully terminated for filing an OSHA complaint. OSHA inspected the Pennsylvania industrial park and terminal facility after the worker raised safety concerns.

Three employees of Sabina Farmers Exchange Inc. in Wilmington, Ohio were found working inside a grain storage bin while a mechanical sweep auger, a machine used to push grain remaining at the bottom of a storage bin toward the bin's opening, was operating.