Facility Safety

RSS

Last week a team of CSB investigators deployed to the Terry Lee Wells Discovery Museum (The Discovery) in Reno, Nevada, where a flash fire on September 3 injured children and adults viewing a science demonstration.   Nine people – eight of them children – were transported to the hospital for evaluation of burn injuries, and one child with more serious burns was admitted to the hospital for treatment.

In the wake of two Manhattan fires that occurred within two days - leaving one person dead and another seriously burned -- the Eletrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) is reminding the public about the dangers of overloaded circuits and improper power cord use.

Workers at Diversified Fabricating, Inc. were exposed to iron oxide fumes at levels higher than the permissible exposure limit and a host of other hazards, earning the Oneonta, Alabama company 23 OSHA citations and $73,000 in proposed penalties.

In an effort to help improve cooking safety, the Fire Protection Research Foundation (Foundation), an affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), has released a report to help establish future standard test protocols for new and emerging technologies designed to prevent cooking fires. Currently, no such standards exist.

A worker at a Youngstown, Ohio steel mill suffered multiple fractures to his pelvis Feb. 27^th when he was crushed between two machines because the company failed to protect workers from moving machinery parts, according to OSHA.

In a prominent home-page statement on its web site, BP said it “strongly disagrees with the decision issued today by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and will immediately appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Following the death of a worker at Behr Iron & Steel Inc.’s recycling facility in South Beloit, OSHA has cited the company for seven willful and one serious safety violations. The company operates under the name Behr Iron & Metal.

OSHA boss Dr. David Michaels tried to ease the fears of Voluntary Protection Program supporters who complain his agency has forsaken VPP for other priorities in his speech at the annual meeting of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association (VPPPA) held Aug25-28 in National Harbor, MD, near Washington DC.

A judge in New Orleans federal court today released a ruling that British oil giant BP acted with gross negligence in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, which killed 11 workers, injured 16 others caused a massive a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) September 2 levied $1.4 billion in penalties against Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) for thousands of violations leading up to a September 9, 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif.that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes, according to a press release from the CPUC.