OSHA is reminding employers that they must
provide cave-in protection whenever their employees work in excavations five
feet or deeper. The warning follows an investigation into the Jan. 10, 2007,
death of an employee at the Tamarack Country Club, Greenwich, Conn., who was
killed in a cave-in while installing drainage pipes in an unprotected six-foot
deep trench on the club's golf course.
ASSE Governmental Affairs committee chair Thomas
F. Cecich, CSP, CIH, of Apex, N.C., testified today on the benefits of OSHA's
cooperative programs before a Senate subcommittee.
Half
of employers with 1,000 employees or more in the United States had an incident
of workplace violence in 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in a
study conducted for NIOSH.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has formally begun its probe of last week's deadly wall collapse at a Tri-Star Mining strip mine in Barton, Md.
OSHA signed an agreement April 6, 2007, with the
Building Construction Trades Department (BCTD), AFL-CIO, Laborers’
International Union of North America, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
to settle their challenge to OSHA’s hexavalent chromium standard (BCTD, et al.,
v. OSHA, Case No. 06-2433 (3d Cir.).
OSHA is making available its look-back study for
the agency's construction standard on excavations. The Regulatory Flexibility
Act of 1980 directs OSHA to review and evaluate the effectiveness of its
standards and the impact those standards have had on lowering injuries,
illnesses and fatalities in the workplace.
Several New York City building trades are
calling for stricter enforcement of safety rules and training, according to a
report broadcast yesterday on New York Public Radio.
Basic Elements of an Employer’s
Program to Provide a Safe and Healthful Work Environment, is one
of a series of standards that focus on construction and demolition operations,
and establishes minimum elements of a program for protecting the safety and
health of employees involved in construction activities.
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