Occupational Safety

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Phoenix area residents are getting an eyeful of OSHA’s campaign to reduce construction industry falls in the form of billboards bearing stark personal messages, along with a reminder of the agency’s anti-fall motto: Plan. Provide. Train.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced that it met the deadline for making changes recommended after the deadly April 2010 Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine tragedy.

In September 2010, a 48 year-old male worker (Victim I) employed by a village Department of Public Works (DPW) and a 51 year-old male volunteer firefighter (Victim II) of the village Fire Department (FD) died after entering a sewer manhole.

VPP problems, the NTSB’s “Ten Most Wanted” and water woes in West Virginia were among this week’s most-read EHS-related stories on ISHN.com:

OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) have come under fire from the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General, which says the agency fails to ensure that only safe worksites remain in the program.

OSHA has launched a new educational Web resource which has extensive materials to help hospitals prevent worker injuries, assess workplace safety needs, enhance safe patient handling programs, and implement safety and health management systems. The materials include fact books, self-assessments and best practice guides.

A recent NIOSH study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine showed that more than 7.6% of working Americans reported that they were mistreated at their workplace in 2010, and this mistreatment was associated with a 42% increase in the number of missed work days, controlling for covariates.

In 2013, 42 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation's mines, an increase of six over last year. Of those fatalities, 20 were in coal mining and 22 were in metal/nonmetal mining, compared with 20 and 16, respectively, in 2012.

OSHA steps on toes with its grain bin safety initiative, demolition specialist exposes employees to asbestos and the year ends with an upsurge in U.S. mining deaths. These are among the top EHS-related stories featured on ISHN.com this week:

An Internet forum discussion… Sadly, there are not many that would. NFPA 70E arc flash is probably one of the most misunderstood safety requirements in industry today. When I do run in to companies that have enough knowledge to be dangerous, typically their span of PPE is a set of level 2 rubber gloves and training is a 30-second video of what an arc flash is.