Once again, fall-related violations were behind most of the biggest fines OSHA issued to construction companies in the second quarter of 2019.
One of the contractors, Shawn D. Purvis, has been charged criminally in relation to a death that occurred on one of his company's jobsites.
Multiple hazards at Ohio workplace: OSHA issued 23 citations and $183,738 in penalties to Ohio Gratings, Inc., for inadequate machine guarding and recordkeeping, failing to ensure that workers used personal protective equipment, and exposing workers to struck-by hazards and flammable liquids.
A CBS policy change angers safety advocates; the final frontier is the target of government regulations and a mining safety rule change gets reversed in court. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
California OSHA issued four citations and $68,438 in penalties to USF Reddaway Inc. after a worker was fatally struck by a tractor at a truck terminal. Inspectors found that the company failed to ensure operators were competent to operate terminal tractors and did not implement traffic controls. Visit OSHA's website for information on trucking industry safety.
OSHA has cited both a contractor and the operator of a natural gas processing plant in Houston, Pennsylvania, following a fire that killed one worker and left three others badly burned.
The agency cited Energy Transportation LLC, the company contracted to clean lines and vessels at the plant, for violations of the process safety management (PSM) standard, and for exposing employees to flammable vapor and liquid while they off-loaded waste material from a vessel into a mobile tank.
Food services operations where workers received free highly slip-resistant shoes showed a large reduction in workers’ compensation claims for slip injuries compared to food service operations where workers did not receive the shoes, according to research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.
Employees at a psychiatric hospital in Colorado were exposed to workplace violence and bloodborne pathogens, according to OSHA investigators, who fined their employer $32,392.
OSHA inspected Centennial Peaks Hospital in Louisville, an acute psychiatric treatment facility owned by UHS of Centennial Peaks LLC, after a complaint of workplace violence was lodged with the agency in December 2018.
A report on workers comp claims by Colorado teens sheds some light on what are common workplace injuries for young workers across the U.S.
Pinnacol Assurance, which provides workers’ compensation protection to 57,000 Colorado employers, analyzed its claims history for workers under 20. The company found that more than 380 Colorado teens were injured or became ill last year because of their summer jobs.
OSHA’s recent call for comments that may be used to help update its Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard highlights an area of growing concern for safety professionals: robotics-human interaction. When the agency’s Control of Hazardous Energy (LOTO) standard was issued in 1989, industrial robots were in use – primarily in manufacturing – but they bore little resemblance to their modern day counterparts. In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, industrial robots were capable of gripping objects, moving them from one point to another and performing assembly tasks.
Staff at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center say safety conditions have deteriorated so badly at the state-run psychiatric hospital that many are afraid to go to work.
Workers say staff members have been knocked unconscious, dragged across the floor by their hair and had feces and urine thrown at them. Recently, a nurse was hospitalized after being beaten by a patient.
