A ten-year spike in workplace deaths is unacceptable and calls for urgent action, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) said today.
“As we prepare to gather with our families this holiday season, everyone who is committed to workplace safety will be thinking about the 5,250 U.S. workers who will never see their loved ones again,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of National COSH.
Last year saw the fewest U.S. mining deaths since such data was recorded, but events so far this year suggest that 2016 will not be nearly as safe for coal miners.
The fatal explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010 shocked the nation. It was the worst mine disaster in the United States in decades, with 29 coal miners losing their lives. Earlier this month, jurors in West Virginia sent a clear message that no mine operator is above the law when they found former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship guilty of conspiracy to willfully violate mine health and safety standards.
In a response to New York City’s alarming construction fatality rate, the Big Apple’s City Council is considering tough new legislation that would punish contractors who violate safety regulations.
Late last year, performances resumed in a Cirque du Soleil show after changes were made to the choreography and equipment used in the scene in which a performer died in a fall.
KCI Inc., Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant cited in employee's death
June 16, 2015
The death of a 52-year-old contractor, crushed by a conveyor carriage weighing nearly 4 tons at an automotive assembly plant, could have been averted if his employer followed federal safety standards, OSHA investigators determined.
Stronger safety measures may have saved the lives of two workers who died at a Pearl Harbor naval maintenance facility in December 2014 after being struck by a 7-ton buoy, which has led OSHA to order safety upgrades.
OSHA’s national Workers’ Memorial Day commemoration this year has a specific theme: toxic chemical exposure. The ceremony, which will take place April 28 from 2-3 p.m. at the Frances Perkins Building Auditorium in Washington, D.C., will include: