A worker, who was not wearing work gloves when he was injured, sued his employer, claiming that the employer did not instruct him that wearing leather gloves was a mandatory safety precaution.

The employee started working for SMS Rail Lines in February 2006 as a boom truck operator and railroad track laborer. As required, he passed a written test before he could work on railroad tracks. He was taught how to set railroad track spikes during the on-the-job training. Read the rest of this entry »

September 9, 2011
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its annual inspection plan under the Site-Specific Targeting* 2011 (SST-11) program to help the agency direct enforcement resources to high-hazard workplaces where the highest rates of injuries and illnesses occur.
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WASHINGTON – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today issued a directive on Enforcement Procedures for Investigating or Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence. The directive establishes uniform procedures for OSHA field staff for responding to incidents and complaints of workplace violence and conducting inspections in industries considered vulnerable to workplace violence, such as healthcare and social service settings, and late-night retail establishments. Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to the costs in pain and suffering to workers and their families, workplace accidents have a major impact on your bottom line. The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index for 2010 estimates that employers nationwide pay over $1 billion per week for direct workers’ compensation costs alone.

But that’s only half the story, since costs of workplace injuries and illnesses include both direct and indirect costs. Read the rest of this entry »

The CDC reports 2000 workplace eye injuries per day. Almost $4 billion in lost wages and productivity were the result in a recent year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Seen simple-to institute tips from research studies and safety professionals could make an immediate and lasting impact.

Eye Injuries: How do we solve a $300 million problem and prevent injury to 800,000 workers? Read the rest of this entry »

Safety should not be viewed or stated simply as a priority, says James Roughton, Safety Professional with a MS in Safety, a CSP, CRSP, CHMM, CIT, CET, and Six Sigma Black Belt. The priorities of a company can change over time, and even on short notice, but values do not. To say that safety is a priority means that it will change based on the needs or urgencies of the moment and will not always be on the top of your priority list.

Roughton suggests 9 steps safety managers can take to make safety a greater value to management and to front-line employees and to build a stronger safety culture.

1. View and present safety as a continuous process instead of a compliance requirement. Read the rest of this entry »

Attention multi-family property owners/managers, painters, contractors and other members of the regulated community: EPA has published the final rule for the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (LRRP) in the August 5, 2011 edition of the Federal Register. The changes made to the LRRP go into effect on October 4, 2011.

The good news is: EPA will not require clearance and dust wipe testing!

There are several changes which will directly affect your job sites. These are summarized below. Read the rest of this entry »

More than one out of every five OSHA inspections result from employee complaints. Is your industry one of the top 10 that generate the most complaints?

Here’s the list of the top 10 industries with workplace complaints to OSHA in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 (the first number is the Standard Industrial Classification — SIC, the second is the number of complaints in the two-year period): Read the rest of this entry »

OSHA’s intense focus and scrutiny of the residential construction industry reveals the lack of awareness and compliance amongst home improvement contractors, remodelers, builders and trades. Last year OSHA named the industry a target for enforcement and they said they will aggressively pursue contractors in this sector.

Residential contractors have never been in the cross hairs like the commercial sector. OSHA training, like OSHA 10 and 30, are usually mandated for commercial firms working on public projects. Residential contractors have not been required through enforcement to adopt the policies of the agency and have little or no experience of how to comply. The recent rash of injuries and deaths on residential work sites has led to this new focus. Read the rest of this entry »

As a construction company began work on the shell of a three-story building, a representative of the local utility showed up and said, “You can’t continue working here with those power lines so close by. They have to be moved, deenergized, or insulated.”

Despite the warning, the construction company proceeded with the work without taking any steps to protect workers from the power line hazard.

In order to build the structure, workers hoisted rebar from ground level to the third floor through a second-floor window, and then through a hole between the second and third floors. The rebar was passed up through the hole lengthwise and then angled 45 degrees away from the power lines. Had the bars been standing straight, however, they could have touched the power lines. Read the rest of this entry »