We’re just getting heated up on the huge debate that will hound development of OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels’ number one standard priority, the so-called I2P2 injury and illness prevention program standard, aka the “find and fix” rule.
From the Houston Chronicle: “Rather than a collection of random incidents, (recent) deadly disasters and the congressional inaction that generally follows illustrate a seriously flawed system of federal oversight in the United States.”
"There's a new sheriff in town," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis warned during her 2009 swearing-in ceremony. Sure enough, during the past year and a half, OSHA investigators have issued citations for egregious violations in 17 cases.
The Labor Department has filed an enterprise-wide complaint against the U.S. Postal Service for electrical work safety violations. The complaint asks the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to order the USPS to correct electrical violations at all of its facilities nationwide. This complaint marks the first time OSHA has sought enterprise-wide relief as a remedy. Within the past five years, OSHA has conducted more than 900 inspections at USPS facilities across the country and has issued more than 600 citations.
OSHA is on the warpath. The agency is issuing record-setting fines; every week fining companies hundreds of thousands of dollars; scaring companies into spending more on safety to stay out of trouble. Here are recent examples of OSHA’s new high-profile enforcement:
In a high profile enforcement cases, OSHA recently cited SeaWorld of Florida LLC for three safety violations, including one classified as willful, following the death of an animal trainer in February. The total penalty is $75,000.
OSHA has cited Asphalt Paving Specialists Inc. for alleged safety violations resulting in an employee being injured at its Davie, Fla., worksite in March. Penalties total $62,200.
The company is being cited with one serious violation for failure-to-abate with a proposed penalty of $60,000. In June, an inspection revealed that the company failed to provide blood monitoring every six months for workers exposed to high levels of lead concentrations, after the same hazard had been cited in an earlier inspection.
A three-member assessment team led by Mr. Johnnie Banks from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying to the scene of last Monday’s anhydrous ammonia release at the Millard Refrigerated Services, a warehouse and distribution center in Theodore, Alabama, 15 miles south of Mobile.