Jordan Barab

Five years after a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas killed 15 persons, destroyed much of the city, and launched reforms in the way the federal government oversees the safety of the nation’s chemical facilities, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last week told us that he cares more about the concerns of the chemical industry than he does about the millions of Americans living in the shadow of hazardous chemical facilities.

Just last week, a California worker was buried alive under tons of soil in an unprotected 17 foot deep trench and two weeks ago an unidentified 34-year old South Dakota construction worker was crushed to death in a 10 to 15 feet deep trench. Unfortunately, par for course in these United States. Why, I don’t know.

When Spring is in the air, this man’s fancy turns to (where else?) the 2018 Spring Regulatory Agenda to discover what movement OSHA will be planning to move forward (or backward) to protect American workers from injury, illness and death in the workplace.

The employee who died in a workplace accident Saturday morning at a chemical plant in North Carolina has been identified, according to WSOC. The victim, identified as 43-year-old Clint Miller, fell 10 feet into an open tank at about 4 a.m. during a loading operation while working at AkzoNobel in Salisbury. “He mixed compounds. He mixed chemicals,” said Clint’s mother, Sandy Miller.

OSHA and the Beryllium industry have reached a settlement regarding changes in OSHA’s Beryllium standard for general industry. The changes, which mostly focus on clarifications of “ancillary requirements” dealing mostly with regulated work areas, hygiene (cleaning of workers and equipment) and medical management, will be phased in in two major stages.

Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and Tesla is a seriously strange and driven guy. That can be a good thing in some circumstances and even amusing if it’s your next door neighbor or crazy uncle. But when you own a major car company, it can mean workers getting hurt or killed. Last May we wrote about a report chronicling Tesla’s poor safety record.

Criminal charges have been dropped against Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), according to Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), for causing the deaths of 47 people when 73 cars of highly combustible crude oil derailed in the small Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic in 2013 turning the downtown into a raging inferno.

Keating Twp, PA — Two workers were killed when a helicopter performing maintenance on power lines crashed late Sunday afternoon 1.5 miles north of Smethport Borough in Keating Township. The fatalities confirmed by State Police at the Kane barracks and McKean County Coroner Michael Cahill.

Ever since 9/11 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, chemical plant security has been a top concern for national policy makers, the petro-chemical industry and the environemental community. But most of the concern has been about the threat of physical attack — bombs, missiles, etc.

OSHA has fined Tower King II Inc. $12,934 for the death of three workers who were attempting to install a new antenna on a communications tower in Miami. This is the maximum fine for one serious citation. OSHA has no standard specifically targeted to cell tower worker safety and used the General Duty Clause, which requires employers to maintain a safe workplace and is used when there are no relevant OSHA standards.