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OSHA has cited Complete Liquidations, doing business as The Furniture Exchange, with four repeat and 13 serious violations at the company’s warehouse in New Brunswick. OSHA’s July investigation began in response to a complaint, and resulted in proposed penalties totaling $71,280.

As a result of perceived poor industry process safety performance over the past decade, and due to recent notable accidents (West, TX and Richmond, CA), the White House issued Executive Order 13650 - Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security on August 1, 2013. The EO set up an OSHA/EPA/DHS Working Group to develop action plans over the next six months.

A rule to establish standards for combustible dust that’s been in the works since 2009 is scheduled to move closer to completion in 2014, with a proposed draft regulation due this spring. Worker safety advocates and agencies like the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) have expressed frustration over OSHA’s failure to make faster progress in making a combustible dust regulatory change.

An explosion during a chemistry class science experiment last week sent two students from a Manhattan high school to the hospital with burns to their face, hands and neck. One of them, 16-year-old Alonzo Yanes, is in critical condition in the burn unit of a local hospital. The other sustained first degree burns.

Terrell's Potato Chip Co. Inc. faces $115,500 in OSHA fines after being cited for 23 violations of workplace safety standards at its manufacturing plant in Syracuse, NY. The inspection was conducted under the agency's Site-Specific Targeting program.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will vote on the draft regulatory report of the August 6, 2012, fire at the Chevron refinery that endangered 19 workers and sent more than 15,000 residents to the hospital for medical attention at its public meeting on January 15.

The West Fertilizer plant explosion in Texas garnered a great deal of attention from ISHN.com visitors. Also on their reading list: temp worker safety, confined space tragedies and arc flash hazards. Here are the most-read Facility Safety stories of the year:

OSHA has cited Houston-based Piping Technology and Products Inc. for four repeat and three serious violations after a worker was injured in June from being struck by a broken die piece on a mechanical press. Proposed penalties total $199,800.

Despite the government shutdown the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) did manage to conduct special impact inspections at nine mines during October that resulted in 120 citations and ten orders being issued.

Following an explosion at its facility that killed three people, a West Virginia metal recycler has agreed to implement extensive, company-wide safeguards to prevent future accidental releases of hazardous chemicals from its facilities.