In preparation for July 4th celebrations, OSHA is urging employers in the fireworks and pyrotechnics industry to protect their workers from hazards while manufacturing, storing, transporting, displaying and selling fireworks for public events.
Late last year, performances resumed in a Cirque du Soleil show after changes were made to the choreography and equipment used in the scene in which a performer died in a fall.
Historically, dropped objects have played a principal role in oil and gas incidents. This situation should not be tolerated or allowed to continue. We must eliminate this type of incident. Dropped objects is a collective issue and not just an operator or a rig owner’s problem; it is a common problem for everyone in our industry.
The main hazards associated with working at height are people falling and objects falling onto people below. These may occur as a result of inadequate edge protection, or from objects in storage being poorly secured.
Federal regulators’ adoption of industry consensus standards shows their desire to keep up-to-date with worker safety risks posed by electricity, including highly dangerous arc flashes that cause thousands of burns each year, according to Business Insurance, a bi-weekly magazine and daily news website.
A journeyman lineman with Marshall Municipal Utilities in Missouri was airlifted to a hospital after he suffered an arc flash injury on the job on June 8, according to the Marshall News.
When people are working at height it's essential to consider the risk of objects falling onto somebody or something below. Any hand-held equipment such as drills or saws can be dropped or knocked over the edge of a platform or walkway. Materials such as nails, pieces of wood and debris can also represent a significant hazard.
During the demolition of a building, a complaint was lodged with UK Health and Safety Executive inspectors, who visited the site and found a worker stripping slates from a fragile roof without any safety measures in place to prevent a fall, or mitigate any potential life-threatening effects as a result of such a fall.
Targeting some of the most common causes of workplace injury and illness in the healthcare industry, OSHA announced that it is expanding its use of enforcement resources in hospitals and nursing homes to focus on: musculoskeletal disorders related to patient or resident handling; bloodborne pathogens; workplace violence; tuberculosis and slips, trips and falls.
The most populous state – and some would argue, the most progressive when it comes to worker safety issues – has a compliance officer-to-worker ratio well below that of federal OSHA.