Excessive noise is prevalent across industries. From manufacturing to construction, agriculture to oil and gas, more than 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise each year.1 Wherever unsafe levels of noise exist, employers are responsible for providing hearing protection devices (HPDs).
The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) produces the American National Standard for Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment, ANSI Z358.1, to establish uniform minimum performance and use requirements.
Workplace fatalities have fallen by an average of 19.5 percent in the 29 states and District of Columbia that have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
Those surprising results from a study in the International Journal of Drug Policy run counter to post-legalization predictions that marijuana’s effects on motor skills and cognitive function would cause an increase in workplace accidents.
OSHA inspectors who arrived at a Florida construction site to investigate an employee’s near-fatal fall didn’t have to look far to find fall and other safety hazards at the project. Three of the four Florida-based residential contractors involved with the project earned citations for fall hazard-related violations. The four companies were cited for a total of 12 violations, with $220,114 in proposed penalties.
Mobile elevated work platforms, such as boom and scissor lifts, are powerful, durable and useful machines that help workers perform a wide range of tasks at height. Training on the safe use of these machines is crucial to decrease the risk of injuries, property damage, liability on the worksite.
OSHA releases its upcoming regulatory agenda, a treatment offers hope to those struggling with opioid addiction and contractors launch an effort to get motorists to drive safely in highway work zones. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
A Napa Valley grape company is contesting the violations that OSHA issued to it after the death of a worker in a field in October 2018.
Following an investigation into the death of 49-year-old Leon Marcelo Lua, OSHA issued citations for five safety and health violations – three of them serious - against De Coninck Vineyards in American Canyon. Proposed penalties: $38,000.
OSHA has issued a whopping 22 citations to Kumho Tire Georgia Inc., Sae Joong Mold Inc., and J-Brothers Inc. after a follow-up inspection found safety and health hazards at the tire manufacturing facility in Macon, Georgia. The three companies collectively face $523,895 in proposed penalties.
The spring 2019 regulatory agenda released by OSHA last week includes rulemakings in various stages that will be priorities for the agency in the near future.
Included on the agenda:
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.
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