Occupational Safety

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An Illinois business owner was taken into custody by a U.S. Marshall Oct. 27 after he failed to to correct serious trenching hazards and pay the OSHA penalties that had been assessed against him.

A new employee of a Maui zip-line course was trying to capture a customer coming in from the previous platform when she fell 125 feet into a ravine. The zip-line customer's momentum pulled both Patricia Rabellizsa and another worker off the platform.

Despite being cited by OSHA following a 2013 trench collapse, a follow-up inspection found that C & G Refrigeration Inc. of Hanover, Pennsylvania, was still exposing its employees to trenching hazards to potentially deadly trenching hazards while they performed underground utility work at a residence.

The eight miners who died in accidents in U.S. mines from July 1 to Sept. 30 are “a harsh reminder of why mines must be vigilant in ensuring effective safety programs and fostering a culture of safety first,” Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joseph A. Main said.

The owner of a construction company was killed and a police officer injured yesterday in a trench collapse in suburban Detroit. News sources say 59-year-old Leland Rumph, owner of Rumph Construction, was digging a trench into a sewer in Grosse Pointe Woods when the trench collapsed, burying him up to his neck in heavy clay in the 20 foot deep hole dug by a backhoe.

The percentage of positive drug tests among American workers has increased for the first time in more than a decade, fueled by a rise in marijuana and amphetamines, according to an analysis of 8.5 million urine, oral fluid and hair workplace drug test results by Quest Diagnostics.