Occupational Safety

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Several rides at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim remain closed in the wake of seven safety citations issued against the resort by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA).

Fatality and injury rates in 2012 were the lowest in the the history of U.S. mining, according to statistics released recently by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).  “MSHA at a Glance,” with updated information on inspections, violations, mines and miners, as well as injury and fatality rates, is available on the agency’s website, www.msha.gov, under “Fact Sheets.”

Rox Coal Inc., which operates the Geronimo Mine in Somerset County, Pa., has been found in violation of a mandatory electrical hazard safety standard by an administrative law judge with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The ALJ deemed the violation “quintessentially flagrant” and ordered the company to pay a $110,000 civil penalty.

With spring storms capable of bringing with them high winds and a considerable potential for damage, it is important to be prepared for power outages – especially in the workplace, where they can result in accidental electrocutions.

Business and civic leaders, the labor community, economists, and educators are talking about the future of the American workforce. As the saying goes, the future begins now. News stories abound about the “skills gap”—in nursing, manufacturing, engineering, computer technology and other fields—that require postsecondary technical education and training.

Now that the weather in many parts of the country has warmed up, more people will be working outdoors, whether professionally or on projects of their own. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is reminding homeowners and anyone else who’ll be doing a digging project to call 811 first.

Combustible dust, mine safety and silica are some of the subject of bills that are currently making their way through – or are stuck in – the legislative and regulatory pipelines. Aaron Trippler, Government Affairs Director for the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), provides a rundown in his “Happenings on the Hill:”

In 2011, 919 workers in Canada lost their lives to a disease or injury they incurred from work-related causes. Even more disturbing, is that eight of those who died were teenagers; twenty-six were between the ages of twenty and twenty-four years. There are close to three work-related deaths each day in Canada - each one leaving a trail of pain for the families impacted by the loss of a husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter.

A trainee at a Las Vegas-based energy company died in September of last year after falling 75 feet from a horizontal ladder being used as a temporary platform between a transmission tower and a live 500-kilovolt transmission line.

Recommendations for school safety just issued by a Sandy Hook Advisory Commission may well be considered by schools nationwide, according to Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting.