Thursday August 26, 2010

Southwest Missouri Safety Company received its accreditation today from the EPA.  This allows SWMSC to conduct both the initial Renovator training as well as the refresher course required every three years.  Classes will be conduct at our training center located at 1607 N State Highway CC in Nixa, MO.  We will be able to travel to other locations to conduct the training as well.

For more information regarding the Initial Renovator Course, click here, or call 417-576-4508/417-631-2357.

This course was developed by the U.S. EPA, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to train renovation, repair, and painting contractors how to work safely in housing with lead-based paint and comply with EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Rule, and HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule. Below are links for the initial renovator model training course materials.

This course supersedes the lead-safe work practices courses titled Lead Safety for Remodeling, Repair, and Painting (EPA 747-B-03-001/2) and Minimizing Lead-based Paint hazards During Renovation, Remodeling, and Painting (EPA 747-B-00-005/6) (more…)

(Two OSHA inspectors provided these tips at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ 2010 annual conference.)

1. Don’t make me wait. It just tells me you’re not ready. Nothing you can do at the last minute is going to make much difference anyway.  (However, you do have the right to ask for up to an hour to have your Safety Manager or Safety Consultant get to your workplace.)
2. It’s best to be open with me.
3. Don’t try to block my line of site by bringing a bunch of employees along on the walk-through. I’ll wait until I get to see what I want to see. Some of us use digital cameras. Some of us even videotape the inspection.
4. Be prepared to answer questions. Have all required OSHA documents, including those outlining safety plans, ready for me.
5. Don’t discourage employees from talking to me. I’ll talk to them one way or another. I find ways to slip employees my business card, and once I do, they usually call. If necessary, I’ll get a subpoena to talk to your employees.
6. Don’t lie to me. That makes me angry.
7. Think about hazards, not just standards, when you evaluate your workplace for safety. I look for hazards, not standard violations.
8. Have your training documents in order. I do look at them. If you have Hispanic employees, make sure you have documentation that they understood your safety training.
9. Plan ahead and designate a person or people who will meet with me. Make sure the person is prepared. It doesn’t matter to me whether you have a full-time safety manager or not. That doesn’t make me any tougher or easier on a company.
10. Check out OSHA’s Field Operations Manual for inspectors. It’s a great resource to prepare any company for the possibility of an OSHA inspection.

Click Here for OSHA’s Field Operations Manual

Effective immediately, OSHA has changed the requirements regarding the minimum days a 10 hour and 30 hour OSHA class can be held.

Going forward conducting the 10 hour class in 1 day is no longer allowed.  Click here for more info

This is a result of a tremendous amount of fraud that has occurred.  Several individuals and company trainers have been falsifying their class submissions to OSHA regarding the length of the class and the students attending.  OSHA is currently conducting audits on all trainers to assure integrity in the program.

Our customers can be assured that SWMSC has conducted its classes to exceed the training requirements and that none of our students or clients need to be concerned with our audits.

We are the leader in training and safety in Southwest Missouri, contact us to find out why.

SWMSC is in the final stages of receiving our accreditation from the EPA to begin conducting Lead Renovator Certifications.  This process had been very detailed, requiring hours of effort from our staff and management.  The EPA will be in our training center on August 10th to audit our facilities as well as conduct an evaluation of our ability to conduct the “Hands-On” portion of the curriculum.  (more…)

Kansas City Chiefs’ Thomas Jones speaks out for ‘Stay Out-Stay Alive’ campaign

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that Kansas City Chiefs’ running back Thomas Jones has become a spokesman for the agency’s annual “Stay Out-Stay Alive” public safety campaign, launched in 1999 to warn outdoor enthusiasts, especially children, about the dangers of playing on mine property. Each year, dozens of people are injured or killed in recreational accidents at active and abandoned mine sites. (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a historic new standard, addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction and replacing a decades old standard. The significant number of fatalities associated with the use of cranes and derricks in construction and the considerable technological advances in equipment since the publication of the old rule, issued in 1971, led the Labor Department to undertake this rulemaking. (more…)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced that it is issuing a new rule addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction, which will replace a decades-old standard. Approximately 267,000 construction, crane rental and crane certification establishments employing about 4.8 million workers will be affected by the rule published today. (more…)

BALTIMORE – Referring to ASSE as OSHA’s “older brother,” Assistant Secretary of Labor Dr. David Michaels repeatedly said the agency welcomes and needs the help of industry safety professionals to tackle the most pressing issues he has encountered in his first six months as OSHA chief. Directing his comments to the Safety 2010 attendees filling the Baltimore Convention Center Ballroom for Monday’s afternoon Plenary Session, Michaels touched on everything from recent enforcement activity and “wrong-thinking” incentive programs to the need for updating Permissible Exposure Limits and the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

After outlining OSHA’s recent activities and what he called an “aggressive” regulatory agenda, Michaels said, “We know we do not have – nor will we ever have – enough inspectors to go to every workplace in the nation.” Instead, he called on employers to adopt the agency’s new enforcement strategy on their own: (more…)

When the body is unable to cool itself by sweating, several heat-induced illnesses such as heat stress or heat exhaustion and the more severe heat stroke can occur, and can result in death.

Factors Leading to Heat Stress (more…)

December 16, 1998

Mr. Dennis Vance
Safety Specialist
711 Low Gap Road
Princeton, WV 24740

Re: 1926.403(e); 1926.405(g)(2)(iii); 1926.416(e)(1).

Dear Mr. Vance:

This is in response to your letter of March 20, and your follow-up letter of October 9, concerning the use of electrical tape to repair minor damage (abrasions and cuts of limited depth) on the outer jacket of an extension cord. We apologize for the lateness of this reply.

Generally, electrical tape may be used to cover superficial damage to cord jackets (more…)