OSHA releases its upcoming regulatory agenda, a treatment offers hope to those struggling with opioid addiction and contractors launch an effort to get motorists to drive safely in highway work zones. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
A Napa Valley grape company is contesting the violations that OSHA issued to it after the death of a worker in a field in October 2018.
Following an investigation into the death of 49-year-old Leon Marcelo Lua, OSHA issued citations for five safety and health violations – three of them serious - against De Coninck Vineyards in American Canyon. Proposed penalties: $38,000.
OSHA’s recent call for comments that may be used to help update its Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard highlights an area of growing concern for safety professionals: robotics-human interaction. When the agency’s Control of Hazardous Energy (LOTO) standard was issued in 1989, industrial robots were in use – primarily in manufacturing – but they bore little resemblance to their modern day counterparts. In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, industrial robots were capable of gripping objects, moving them from one point to another and performing assembly tasks.
Associated General Contractors of America tries to reduce risk to workers
May 29, 2019
Some 67 percent of highway contractors report that motor vehicles crashed into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). In response, association officials have launched a new radio and media campaign urging drivers to slow down and remain alert in highway work zones.
New York City continued its string of construction industry fatalities on Saturday, when a 49-year-old worker fell 30 feet to his death at a Madison Avenue worksite.
The city’s Department of Buildings issued a full stop-work order for the site after the incident, which occurred shortly before noon.
They tend to happen more on Mondays. They can occur in an instant. And trench deaths kill about 25 workers a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). About 75 percent of those deaths are due to cave-ins, which are largely preventable through cave-in protection and soil analysis. The remainder are mainly caused by struck-bys or electrocutions – also largely preventable.
Take longer shifts, add being new on the job and lacking a routine and you get an increased risk of injuries relative to those occurring during the first eight hours, according to a study published recently in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Furthermore, incidents occurring during long working hours were more likely to result in a death or involve multiple injured workers.
Cooperating with OSHA gets two employees fired – and their employer found guilty of retaliation; health experts want asbestos banned and the Association Health Plans program gets a defeat in court. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
An effort currently underway - timed to coincide with Construction Safety Week - is aimed at preventing fatalities and injuries from dropped objects.
Through its 2019 Safety at Heights campaign, the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) The campaign is providing employers and workers educational information at SafetyAtHeights.org.
A fall from the fourth floor of a building under construction claimed the life of a 24-year-old worker last month. News sources say Alexander J. Kanouse fell at approximately 8 a.m. while working at a jobsite in Madison. When first responders arrived, Kanouse was barely breathing and was bleeding profusely from a head wound.
