Articles Tagged with ''compliance''

When J. J. Keller launched the online regulatory reference service RegSense® in 2010, customers were thrilled to be able to quickly access current OSHA, DOT, EPA, and Hazmat regulations online. While the service grew in popularity, the team at J. J. Keller continued to search for ways to improve its features and functionality.

Being a Safety Advisor (OSHA) is not popular. Bosses hate you because you cost them money. Workers hate you because you nag them about earplugs and safety glasses. Everybody hates you because you are forever chasing compliance — chasing company compliance with Acts and Regulations; chasing worker compliance with site rules and practices; chasing, chasing, chasing.

A “time-out” instituted to eliminate mistakes during surgery is not being complied with by a significant number of medical personnel, according to a new study. “Methodology and Bias in Assessing Compliance with a Surgical Safety Checklist,” published in the February issue of Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, found that although surgical safety checklists -- such as the perioperative time-out -- have been shown to improve performance on a variety of patient safety measures, some of the items on it are being skipped.

According to the fiscal year 2013 Congressional Budget Justification document for OSHA, the agency proposes a total of $73,131,000 and 264 full-time employee equivalents (FTE) for federal compliance assistance, a decrease of $3,224,415 and 31 FTE below the FY 2012 enacted level. OSHA historically ramps up compliance assistance under Republican White House administrations, and de-emphasizes compliance assistance when Democrats control the White House.

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis last week announced a final rule to strengthen safety in the nation's most dangerous mines. The rule, which revises the Mine Safety and Health Administration's pattern of violations regulation in 30 Code of Federal Regulations Part 104, has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication.

One objection of mine to adding more OSHA standards is that the standards cited frequently (top ten in frequency) remain generally the same year to year. Sometimes they shift position in frequency order. Sometimes the numbers of citations trend up or down, but generally it all remains in a controlled range.

In the spring of 2010, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who announced her resignation January 9^th, 2013, put her name on the Department of Labor’s Regulatory Agenda Narrative, where she endorsed a strategy of “Plan/Prevent/Protect.”

Lately, I've been doing a fair amount of management training in the past few months. What I often see is safety folks, both full-time and part-time, who are struggling to do the compliance thing and a management team that is perfectly happy to let them struggle. Essentially nothing has changed in the 44 years I've been doing occupational safety. The problem is most basic---no one wants to see people hurt but neither do they see safety as a core element of their company culture.

After an unexpected release of hazardous materials that led to the temporary shut-down of Dover Chemical Co. and an adjacent highway in Ohio in May, OSHA has cited the company for 47 health and safety violations. Although no injuries were reported as a result of the incident, OSHA opened an investigation focused on the agency's standards for process safety management, known as PSM, at facilities that use highly hazardous chemicals.

OSHA has revised its system of measuring how effectively states are enforcing workplace safety and health regulations.