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Ask employees, “How many of you have been to a funeral for someone who was killed in a motor vehicle accident?” About 80 percent to 90 percent usually will put up their hands. Now ask, “How many of you know someone personally who’s been killed in a workplace incident, not just here, but anyplace you have worked?” Fifty percent to 70 percent of the hands will drop.

At about 1:20 p.m. on March 23, 2005, a series of incredibly powerful blasts at BP’s Texas City refinery, ignited during the restarting of a hydrocarbon isomerization unit, killed 15 workers and injured approximately 170. Many victims were in or around trailers located near an atmospheric vent stack that blew when a distillation tower flooded with hydrocarbons was overpressurized. Workers were injured in trailers as far as 479 feet away, and trailers damaged as far as almost 1,000 feet from the explosion.

Two survivors of a West Virginia mine blast have since committed suicide, the Associated Press reported.

House Resolution 5242, the Small Business Paperwork Amnesty Act, was recently revived in Congress.

The Department of Labor is recognizing Oct. 16-22 as Drug-Free Work Week and is encouraging all employers to participate.

The American Safety & Health Institute (ASHI), an association of professional safety and health educators, has introduced a buy-one-get-one-free offer on new CPR/AED, first aid and bloodborne pathogens instructor packages for compliance with 2005 emergency medical care guidelines.

A investigation in California by Cal-OSHA and the Oakland Tribune revealed that the contractor building the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s $1 billion replacement segment concealed worker injuries by not recording them when they occurred.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has released a revised American National Standard Institute (ANSI) A10.44-2006 standard, Control of Energy Sources (Lockout/Tagout) for Construction and Demolition Operations.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced that he will meet next week with a ten-man tunnel crew from the Architect of the Capitol (AoC) to hear complaints that they are not receiving adequate medical treatment for possible exposure to asbestos in the Capitol complex’s utility tunnels.

C.R. Meyer, a general contractor based in Oshkosh, Wis., is the first company to achieve "Star" status under OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) Challenge Pilot.