OSHA has issued a final rule that revises 14 provisions in the recordkeeping, general industry, maritime, and construction standards that may be confusing, outdated, or unnecessary. The revisions are expected to increase understanding and compliance with the provisions, improve employee safety and health, and save employers an estimated $6.1 million per year.
Detecting drones near airports is one thing. Taking them out is another, prohibited, thing.
That’s the message the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is communicating to U.S. airports who, frustrated by the incursion of drones into their airspace, are or are considering installing devices which could detect the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
As high school and college students get ready to put away the books and start summer jobs, OSHA hopes its #MySafeSummerJob program will help keep them safe in their new endeavors.
#MySafeSummerJob offers information for both employers and employees about occupational safety for young people – who generally have less experience and training and a lower awareness of hazards than older workers.
It is not new news that agriculture has excessive worker injury rates. Nor that senior farmers and adult farmers in the South experience some of the highest occupational injury and mortality in the nation. There were an estimated 58,385 work-related adult farm injuries (more than six every hour) in 2014. In 2016, 417 farmers and farm workers died from a work-related injury.
After an investigation by OSHA, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has awarded $40,000 for lost wages, pain and suffering, and punitive damages to a former employee of Fairmount Foundry Inc. The employee claimed that the Hamburg, Pennsylvania, iron-casting company terminated him for reporting alleged safety and health hazards to OSHA.
For Peggy Frank, a Los Angeles letter carrier, any federal or California safety rule ordering her employer—and all other firms—to protect workers from the hazards of excess heat didn’t work.
Frank, a 63-year-old grandmother, collapsed and died from California’s monstrously high heat while delivering the mail in Woodland Hills, a section of Los Angeles, last summer. The temperature in that particular neighborhood the day she died? 107 degrees.
A fire that endangered the 24 crew members aboard a cargo ship was caused by the crew’s lack of adherence to the company’s safety management system, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigated the incident. The NTSB also pointed to guidance about hotwork from the marine chemist as a contributing factor to the fire aboard the Chipolbrok Moon.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on average, over 600 people die from complications related to extreme heat each year in the United States - more than tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, lightning or any other weather event combined.
Heat-related deaths and illnesses are preventable, but it’s important to identify the warning signs and to react swiftly and appropriately when they arise.
The HIP Network is a voluntary public/private partnership established to increase both employers' and employees' awareness of the hazard of heat illness and the importance of heat illness prevention measures to prevent fatalities and serious illnesses in California workplaces.
After an analysis of 25 OSHA heat-related illnesses — 14 fatal and 11 nonfatal — the Centers for Disease Control suggested that employers start screening their workers for heat stress when the heat index reaches 85 degrees Fahrenheit rather than the 91 F OSHA currently recommends. Heat stress covers a wide variety of potential illnesses, including life-threatening heat stroke.