Cal/OSHA has cited a Riverside, California construction company $66,000 for serious workplace safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker when a 17-foot-deep trench he was in collapsed. Cal/OSHA determined that Empire Equipment Services, Inc. did not properly classify the soil and failed to correctly slope the excavation.

OSHA has cited Derek Williams – operating as Elo Restoration Inc. – for exposing employees to fall hazards at two separate worksites in St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, Florida. The roofing contractor faces $116,551 in penalties. OSHA initiated an inspection as part of the Regional Emphasis Program on Falls in Construction.

Excuse the length of this depressing exercise, but I’ve been away for a couple of weeks and unlike me, workplace death takes no vacation. The usual falls, machinery deaths, vehicle accidents. Also several sanitation workers lost their lives over the past several week, as well as retail workers shot on the job.

A blistering report on small farm safety, Samsung Electronics apologizes for work-related illnesses and a dire warning about the effects of climate change on human health. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

A California construction company that dismantled a trench box while an employee was still working inside, causing him to be fatally crushed, has been cited by Cal/OSHA for safety violations. The agency determined that general contractor Bay Construction Co. committed willful-serious safety violations by unsafely removing a linear support rail that fell and killed the worker.

A survey conducted earlier this year by a Canadian bank found that nearly 40 per cent of British Columbia (B.C.) homeowners were planning on renovating their homes. And while that’s great news for the construction industry, it’s important to be aware of the health dangers that asbestos-containing building materials in older homes pose to contractors and their crew.

A construction worker was killed at a Brooklyn, New York worksite on the day before Thanksgiving by a piece of sheet metal that fell from an unapproved forklift. News sources say 44-year-old Over Paredes of Newark, New Jersey was working on the roof of a six-story condo development when a manual forklift that was hoisting part of a metal-framed wall topped onto its side, releasing the metal.

A look back at a mining disaster that led to landmark mining safety regulations; why a group of Philadelphia contractors has “Eggs with OSHA” and the benefits of the Internet of Things to oil and gas industry safety. These were among the occupational safety and health stories featured this week on ISHN.com.

It’s a pretty big breakfast meeting and it takes place every four months or so. Approximately 200 members of the General Building Contractors Association’s (GBCA) Philadelphia chapter get together with OSHA representatives three times a year to learn more about improving safety in Philadelphia area construction projects.

From east to west, north to south, both federal OSHA and state-level agencies say busy conducting investigations and issuing citations to companies who violate safety regulations. This review of recent cases indicates a variety of citations issued, for confined space, fall and trenching hazards, among others.