Although U.S. OSHA updated its occupational silica standard in 2016 for the first time in 45 years, relatively few countries have followed suit. Aside from a handful of European countries, some Canadian Provinces and Mexico, most other countries do not have as stringent of a standard as the current U.S. Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.05 mg/m^3.
A government audit gives OSHA’s fatality and severe injury reporting regulation a failing grade; small construction companies get a new safety assessment tool and a survey uncovers shocking workplace violence levels in hospital emergency departments. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
Here’s a look at recent OSHA and state-level OSHA enforcement activities across the U.S., from Hawaii to Connecticut, in construction, manufacturing, food processing and other industries.
A Sauganash, Ill. city water department worker dies after an underground trench collapses around him during a routine project. A man dies after he was trapped in dirt up to his waist while working at a home construction site in Washington State. A Smithton, Pa. teenager dies when the walls of a 10-foot-deep trench collapse on him as he helps install a septic system.
A California roofing company that’s been investigated and cited for fall hazards on six different occasions over the past four years has done it again.
“California Premier Roofscapes has repeatedly put its workers at risk of potentially
deadly falls from heights, disregarding basic safety requirements to protect its
employees,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum.
Improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses
January 31, 2018
OSHA intends to issue a separate proposal to reconsider, revise, or remove other provisions of the prior final rule and to seek comment on those provisions in that separate proposal. A notice of proposed rulemaking to reconsider, revise, or remove portions of the rule is expected in 2018.
Honeywell Fluorine Products in Claymont, Del. recently received a visit from OSHA – but not for having an unsafe workplace.
The company’s management and employees received a Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) plaque and flag from Regional Administrator Richard Mendelson, in recognition of its safety achievements.
The steady stream of enforcement announcements issued by OSHA – which identified companies who commit major safety and health violations and revealed the fines levied against them – may have stopped on inauguration day, but a former OSHA official is getting the information out there, by posting it on his blog.
Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for construction employees, accounting for 350 of the 937 construction fatalities recorded in 2015 (BLS data). Those deaths were preventable. The National Fall Prevention Stand-Down raises fall hazard awareness across the country in an effort to stop fall fatalities and injuries. This year the Stand-Down is May 8-12.
