Articles Tagged with ''serious injuries & fatalities (SIFs)''

Christopher Cantu, a 22-year-old worker in Corpus Christi, Texas, was killed Tuesday when a 2,600-pound metal tank fell on him. Sources say it was Cantu’s third day on the job.

OSHA is investigating the death last week of an Illinois construction worker who died after being struck by a 70-pound falling beam at a worksite.

OSHA has cited Phoenix Industrial Cleaning for 28 serious safety violations following the death of a worker who fell from ladder inside of a storage tank, apparently after being overcome by methylene chloride vapors at a chemical manufacturing facility in Wheeling, Ill. on Nov. 29, 2012.

OSHA remains underfunded, understaffed and unarmed with penalties high enough to deter violations, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual report on occupational fatalities in the U.S., which provides background analysis in addition to the data.

A “wildlife casting agency” that provides the services of wild animals to the movie industry and photographers has been cited for two safety violations after one of its employees was mauled to death by grizzly bears last year.

The death toll from the Bangladesh factory building collapse rises, a U.N. report on occupational rates surprises, and OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels puts occupational health and safety into perspective in a speech on a solemn occasion. Here are the week’s top OEHS-related stories as featured on ISHN.com:

...Sadly, we have more to reflect on this year than we would have liked. Our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones in the April 17 fertilizer plant fire and explosion in West, Texas. Among the 14 dead and approximately 200 wounded were heroic paramedics and firefighters, and plant workers who - in a scene reminiscent of 9/11 — rushed toward the fire, desperately trying to cool the fire to give time to warn and evacuate residents.

OSHA has cited First Choice Energy of Minot with nine serious safety violations for exposing workers to unsafe conditions at an oil field drilling and fluid disposal operation in Stanley. The inspection was prompted after a worker was killed after being caught in the agitator of an oil field vacuum truck storage tank on March 14.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data last week showing that the final count of fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2011 was 4,693 -- the third lowest annual total since the fatal injury census was first conducted in 1992.

A report focusing on the nearly 150 worker deaths in North Carolina in 2011 demonstrates the effect of lax enforcement and weak fines, according to the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), which issued the document.