The vast majority of employers DO do the “right thing” and OSHA and our workforce would best served if they focused on the bad apples (especially those hiring illegal aliens who do not know anything about safety).

OSHA may be “puny” relative to other government agencies but it is far from puny for its regulated community jurisdiction, particularly, for safety professionals and our employers, when the leadership of OSHA is all about radical left wing political agenda.

Last week the Politico Playbook daily newsletter noted the coming retirement of Rep. George Miller (D-CA) by saying the 40-year veteran of Congress was one of the last of the Democratic “Watergate babies”… “part of a post-Vietnam 70s generation filled with moral certitude.”

Occupational safety regulation needs to emerge from the 19th century concept that employers have to right to privately injure employees, and instead use the sunshine of modern public transparency to spotlight employer’s risk based safety performance.

OSHA and the MSHA are back in business, a PSM case study in India and construction safety in NYC were among the EHS-related stories featured on ISHN.com this week:

Four Arkansas companies have been cited by OSHA as a result of a crane collapse in March that killed one worker and injured eight others. OSHA cited Precision Surveillance Corp., Bigge Crane and Rigging Co., Siemens Power Generation Inc. and Entergy Operations Inc. for 26 safety violations after one Precision Surveillance worker was fatally injured when a crane collapsed at the Arkansas Nuclear One Power Plant.

OSHA has ordered Palumbo Trucking Inc. of North Branford, Conn., and owner David Palumbo to withdraw a retaliatory lawsuit filed against two former workers of the commercial motor carrier who raised safety concerns, pay them $60,000 in damages and take other corrective actions.

An unapproved C-clamp used to attach a load to the hook of an overhead crane slid off a 2,600-pound press brake ram as it was lifted, causing the ram to fall to the ground and pin a worker, resulting in his leg being amputated at the knee.

A worker at a Georgia glass company suffered a finger amputation and crushed hand while removing a glass mold from a bottle-shaping facility – leading to an OSHA inspection and citations.

OSHA has cited Caviness Beef Packing Ltd. in Hereford, Texas, with 25 safety violations. Proposed penalties total $120,000 for deficiencies in its process safety management program and various workplace hazards.