The U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s decision to reverse a policy of including the names of workers killed in the incidents it investigates is drawing fire from safety advocates. In a letter to the CSB, more than fifty organizations and individuals demand that the agency reinstate its policy of naming the fatally injured workers in its reports – something it had previously done since 2014. The CSB stopped the practice recently because doing so “may infer culpability on the part of the entity responsible for the operation of the facility where the incident occurred,” according to a spokesperson.
OSHA has cited Southern Tire Mart LLC – based in Columbia, Mississippi – for failing to protect employees from serious safety hazards after a worker suffered fatal injuries while attempting to mount a monster truck tire rim at the company’s retreading facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The company faces $341,195 in fines.
A Maine contractor who was indicted on manslaughter charges after the death of an employee – his own half-brother – maintains that he is not culpable because his workers are not his employees and he cannot compel them to use fall protection. Shawn D. Purvis, owner of Purvis Home Improvement Co. in Saco, pleaded not guilty to the charges in April.
Bus driver hours of service, slip resistant shoes and workers comp and regulations governing onshore oil drilling all made it into the news this week on ISHN.com.
OSHA has cited both a contractor and the operator of a natural gas processing plant in Houston, Pennsylvania, following a fire that killed one worker and left three others badly burned.
The agency cited Energy Transportation LLC, the company contracted to clean lines and vessels at the plant, for violations of the process safety management (PSM) standard, and for exposing employees to flammable vapor and liquid while they off-loaded waste material from a vessel into a mobile tank.
The sinking of a towboat in the Lower Mississippi River near New Orleans last March that killed two mariners is being blamed on the towboat company, in a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). A Marine Accident Brief issued by the agency said the company’s decision to ignore its own pre-employment hiring procedures led to an inadequately vetted pilot on board the Natalie Jean, a towing vessel on which he did not have previous experience.
The US Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) investigation into an Oklahoma blowout that killed five workers blames the incident on a lack of regulations governing onshore drilling safety as well as shortcomings in safety management systems and industry standards utilized by the industry.
The CSB’s final investigation report into the Pryor Trust gas well explosion in Pittsburgh County calls on regulators, industry groups, the state of Oklahoma and companies to address such gaps.
Workplace violence strikes in Virginia Beach, surprising data about medical marijuana and occupational fatalities and job burn-out gets some official recognition. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
Medical cannabis laws are associated with a 34% decline in workplace deaths for adults age 25 to 44, a new study finds.
The reason? Those workers might be drinking less alcohol and taking less pills due to legalization.
Workplace fatalities have fallen by an average of 19.5 percent in the 29 states and District of Columbia that have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
Those surprising results from a study in the International Journal of Drug Policy run counter to post-legalization predictions that marijuana’s effects on motor skills and cognitive function would cause an increase in workplace accidents.
