Reinforced plastic tarps, commonly called “Blue Roofs,” provide temporary protection for the roofs of homes and other buildings damaged during severe weather such as a hurricane or tornado.
However, when employees access roofs to install these tarps, they are at risk of falls, electrocutions, and other hazards.
OSHA has issued a new fact sheet containing steps that employers can follow to help keep workers safe.
This article by Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Altamont Enterprise is a rare summary of a court case involving an employer challenge of an OSHA citation related to the gruesome death of a day laborer who was dragged into a wood-chipper on May 4, 2016. The employer, Tony Watson, owner of Countryside Tree Care, is contesting citations totaling $141,811 related to the death of Justus Booze, a 23-year old day laborer halfway through his first day on the job.
Tree harvesters and processor attachments equipped with hydraulic bar saws cut with great power and speed.
When a chain breaks, if a resulting whipping action projects a chain shot link, the link often has a mass, velocity and resultant energy, in some cases enough to reach an operator in a cab, which has potential to cause damage, harm or severe injury.
This may be complicated by the remote nature of forestry operations.
A Pennsylvania company willfully exposed its workers to confined space and fall hazards, according to OSHA, which has assessed US Environmental Inc. proposed penalties of $333,756 for a dozen safety violations.
The Downingtown company is an integrated industrial energy services firm that serves the energy, petroleum, natural gas, petro-chemical, power, chemical, manufacturing and engineering sectors.
Investigators inspected the facility on May 31, 2017, and found that the company failed to implement rescue procedures for employees in confined spaces; provide protective equipment when working in confined spaces; and provide employees with fall protection training and equipment.
OSHA and Marshall Pottery, Inc. in Marshall, Texas have reached a settlement agreement including a penalty of $545,160, after the death of an assistant plant manager.
On April 16, 2017, investigators determined that the manager was servicing a kiln and became trapped inside when it activated.
What is systematic review?
There are many different types of occupational safety and health questions and a variety of scientific methods to answer them. Systematic review is one method for comprehensively reviewing a body of scientific literature. It is an explicit and transparent process to identify, select, synthesize, and critically appraise the scientific literature relevant to a specific question.
Hundreds of people gathered in Farmington, West Virginia on Sunday to commemorate a 49-year-old mining tragedy that killed 78 miners. The solemn ceremony held at Flat Run Memorial honored victims of the November 20, 1968 Farmington mine disaster in the Consol No. 9 coal mine north of Farmington and Mannington.
There were 99 miners at work that day when an explosion rocked the mine. The blast was strong enough to be felt in Fairmont, almost 12 miles away. Fires caused by the blast burned for over a week.
The MSHA gets a new leader, the high cost of work-related cancer in Europe and a new NIOSH robotics/worker safety center were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
RSS
