Facility Safety

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Compared to the roles of a power-line worker, bounty hunter, or coal miner, working in an office may not seem very dangerous. What's the worst that could happen -- a papercut or two? As The Office's Dwight Schrute would say, FALSE!

A 31-year-old engineer was fatally injured on May 27, 2014, when his head was struck by an unguarded rotating gear arm on a piece of bakery equipment at Alpha Baking Co. Inc. OSHA has cited the Chicago baking plant for six serious safety violations following the tragic incident.

As temperatures drop and consumers begin cranking up their heating systems, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have launched a new online toolkit to help local fire departments educate the public about the associated risks of carbon monoxide (CO) in the months ahead.

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) is proposing to reaffirm two industry standards for gas and vapor monitoring equipment. ANSI/ISEA 102-1990 (R2009) American National Standard for Gas Detector Tube Units—Short Term Type for Toxic Gases and Vapors in Working Environments established the performance requirements for gas detector tube units and components, which detect flammable, combustible, oxygen depleting and toxic gases.

Central Transport LLC has been cited for 16 safety and health violations, including five repeat, one willful and two serious safety violations, at its trucking terminal in Hillside. An OSHA inspection found repeat and willful violations that involved defective powered industrial vehicles and lack of fall protection. Proposed penalties total $145,420.

One in three American schoolchildren attends school within the danger zone of a hazardous chemical facility, according to a report by the Center for Effective Government. The advocacy group has produced a new interactive map of the 48 lower states that illustrates the high-risk areas.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a safety bulletin called “Key Lessons for Preventing Incidents from Flammable Chemicals in Educational Demonstrations” based on three recent serious incidents in Nevada, Colorado, and Illinois where children were burned while observing laboratory demonstrations involving flammable liquid methanol.