Occupational Safety

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After five consecutive years of decreases, construction deaths rose five percent last year, propelling the construction industry into the top spot in terms of work-related fatalities per industry in 2012.

OSHA has issued 14 notices of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, following an inspection at Boston's Logan International Airport. The inspection was begun earlier this year as part of OSHA's Federal Agency Targeting Inspection Program.

OSHA has cited Best Logging, a company based in Ripley, for 14 alleged serious and four other-than-serious violations – including tree felling hazards – found at a Rock Castle, W.Va., work site. OSHA's February inspection was initiated following the fatality of a worker, who was struck by a tree during logging operations.

A preliminary total of 4,383 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2012, down from a revised count of 4,693 fatal work injuries in 2011, according to results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2012 total represents the second lowest preliminary total since CFOI was first conducted in 1992.

A lawsuit filed by the Indiana Department of Labor alleges that Indiana Bell Telephone Co., an AT&T subsidiary, “has a practice and policy” of suspending employees after they report work-related injuries.

OSHA has cited Azteca Milling LP in Edinburg for seven serious safety violations following a February incident when a worker inside a grain silo, attempting to move clumped corn byproducts, was engulfed, asphyxiated and then died.

Both a contractor and a restaurant have been cited by OSHA in the death of a restaurant employee, who died in a Feb. 19^th explosion and fire at the business. The incident was caused by an uncontained natural gas leak released from an underground 2-inch natural gas transmission pipeline.

The number of U.S. miners killed in underground coal roof falls has been dramatically reduced since 2007, and fatalities resulting from retreat mining have been virtually eliminated, according to figures from the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

NIOSH’s personal protective technology (PPT) program is being revised to reflect recent studies and changes in national priorities related to PPE for healthcare workers.

In 2012, the Healthcare and Social Assistance (HCSA) sector was amongst the largest industry sectors in the U.S. employing an estimated 19.4 million workers (13.5% of the total workforce)[1]. On average, over the last decade, U.S. healthcare workers have accounted for two-thirds of the nonfatal workplace violence injuries in all industries involving days away from work [2].