The U.S. Chemical Safety Board announced yesterday that Dr. Kristen Kulinowski will serve as the agency’s Interim Executive Authority following the resignation of Chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland.
The family of a hotel employee who drowned in a flooded elevator during Hurricane Harvey is suing her employer for what they say was a preventable death.
A lawsuit filed this week in Texas claims that the death of 48-year-old Jill Renick, an Omni Houston Hotel employee, was due to gross negligence on the part of the hotel. The suit also names Otis Elevator as a defendant, citing the absence of flood sensors on the hotel’s elevators.
The Inspector General (IG) issued a somewhat bizarre report yesterday on “management challenges” at the Chemical Safety Board. The IG is required by the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 “to report what we consider the most serious management and performance challenges facing the CSB.”
Emergency eyewash systems and drench showers should be easy to access and readily available with tepid water. But as many safety facility managers will attest, these potentially life-saving fixtures aren’t always easy to provide in locations where they are required.
A New Jersey energy company has wracked up 25 safety violations in the wake of an employee fatality that occurred at the company’s Springfield, New Hampshire plant in November 2017. The EWP Renewable Corp. employee suffered fatal injuries after he was pulled into a conveyer.
Many manufacturers use one of two options to clear the air of welding fumes – filter the dirty air and recirculate clean air inside the facility, or exhaust the dirty air outside and provide clean replacement air from outside.
We’ve all heard the phrase “what a difference a day makes,” yet when it comes to industrial safeguarding, the concern isn’t days, hours or even minutes. It is the milliseconds it takes for a machine operation to stop after a stop signal is given.
Excessive rain caused by Hurricane Harvey was a key factor in the fire and subsequent hazmat release at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which has released its final investigation report into the August 31, 2017 incident.
The report notes that in the days leading up to the incident, an “unprecedented amount” of rain fell at the plant due to Hurricane Harvey, causing equipment to flood and fail.
Welding and welding safety are nothing new to us all. In fact, welding of different types has been around since the 1800’s. While welding equipment today has dramatically improved, has respiratory protection for welders improved to the same degree?
Workers depend on the right tools to get the job done. And workers depend on their employers to ensure they’re equipped with the right tools, the right conditions, and the right processes to get the job done safely.