Safe Workplace and Safety News

There once was a nail without a job.
He'd done his duty proudly for years.
Then one day it was taken from him.
He was sure someone would notice and put him back to work.
But no one did.
Hope turned to despair.
Finally he decided he would be ignored no longer....

This innocent sounding introduction leads to serious head injury in a safety video titled "Nail" produced by the Extreme Group, in Halifax, Canada. It is one of three videos showing how safety hazards that are ignored can result in injury.

You can view all three videos at:

http://www.extremegroup.com/work/42

The Extreme Group, along with the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia , Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Worker's Compensation Board of PEI took home a Bronze Lion in the Product and Service, public health and safety category for the "Nail" television commercial at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Labels: Safety Training, safety videos, workplace safety

California's Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) Distributes Winning Teen Video Public Service Announcement to Theaters Statewide

The following is a press release from DIR. The video produced by Jose Villasenor, Jr., a high school student, is impressive. To view the video visit http://www.dir.ca.gov/youngworker/PSAcontest08.asp.

California's Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) announced the release of the winning video public service announcement (PSA) created by California teens, between the ages of 14-17, as part of a workplace safety contest. The PSA will be shown at theaters statewide.

"The purpose of the contest is to encourage California teens to take an active role in learning about safety and health and labor requirements in the workplace," said DIR Director John Duncan. "The contest raises much needed public awareness of workplace safety and child labor laws."

The winning 2008 PSA was created by Jose Villasenor, Jr., a student of Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst who creatively delivered his message with unique visual effects focusing on workplace safety and health.

Sponsored by DIR’s Divisions of Occupational Safety and Health and Labor Standards Enforcement, as well as the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation, the contest was opened to all California teens under 18, challenging them to create a 30-second video PSA centering on workplace safety and/or child labor laws.

Villasenor’s PSA will be aired during movie previews at Cinemark Theater in Yuba City, near his home town of Olivehurst, and at theaters through out California from June 27-July 24, which are peak months when parents and teens attend movies most frequently. The PSA will be seen on well over 60 screens averaging 370,000 monthly viewers.

Working teens must also know their employment rights on the job. Teens under 18 are required to obtain a work permit from the schools or school district; cannot perform dangerous work specified under the child labor law guidelines, and they must be paid the minimum wage of $ 8 per hour.

According to DIR’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement over $450,000 in penalties have been issued to businesses for violations of child labor laws last year. Nearly 90 percent of those fines were employers who failed to have work permits for the minors they employed.

DIR was established to improve working conditions for California's wage earners, and to advance opportunities for profitable employment in California.

Labels: safety videos, workplace safety

Here are some brief stories that caught my eye today...

Which OSHA Requirement Would You Toss? - This is an article in Occupational Hazards by David K. Ermer in which he proposes eliminating the requirement that MSDS's be retained for 30 years.

Occupational Health & Safety reports today that the International Labour Organization calls the declaration that came out of a meeting that preceded the 18 World Congress on Safety and Health at Work as a "'Major New Blueprint' for Global Safety". "The declaration says governments should consider ratifying the ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006, as a priority, and should ensure workers are protected by an adequate system of enforced safety and health standards."

Is A Handgun Considered PPE? - The police union at Princeton University filed a complaint with OSHA because the University did not provide them with handguns they felt they needed to protect themselves. Read this Daily Princetonian article to find out how OSHA ruled. (OSHA said "no".)

New ASTM Task Group Works on Standard for Safe Handling of Annealed Glass - "Recent accidents involving annealed glass along with requests from OSHA have led ASTM International to form a new task group that will work on the development of a proposed standard guide for the safe handling of annealed glass."

Labels: OSHA, osha information, safety politics, safety regulations

Last week the Huffington Post blog had a commentary about construction injuries that pointed out:

"Last week, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to address whether OSHA is adequately enacting and enforcing construction safety rules. "

"With as many as 1,250 deaths each year, construction workers face death on the job 20 times more often than miners and 10 times more often than police officers or firefighters. While 8 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed in construction, construction workers suffer 22 percent of workplace fatalities."

With the recent crane related deaths and injuries in New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Dallas, there is a growing focus on construction related injuries and deaths, in particular crane related injuries and deaths.

If you'd like more information about tower cranes, one resource is the SMART Association web site. SMART is an association of Washington State businesses who work together to provide companies with the resources necessary to manage and control risk.

Labels: Construction Safety

OSHA cites Medley, Fla., manufacturer with 12 safety violations and proposes more than $64,000 in penalties.

OSHA finds the company willfully endangered employees by ignoring fire department warning

OSHA is proposing $64,250 in penalties following an inspection of Konie Cups International's Medley, Fla., manufacturing plant, which revealed 12 alleged safety violations.

OSHA is proposing one willful violation with a $49,000 penalty. Despite an earlier warning given to the company by local fire officials, OSHA discovered during its inspection that an exit door was locked and the key not easily accessible to all employees in case of an emergency. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

The company is receiving seven serious safety violations with penalties totaling $12,750. Employee safety was at risk because liquid propane tanks were stored near an exit route and too many tanks of the explosive gas were stored inside the building. Other problems included electrical hazards, slip and fall hazards, lack of eye protection, lack of a hearing conservation program, exposing employees to amputation hazards and lack of an established lockout/tagout program to prevent machines' unintended startup.

OSHA also has cited Konie Cups International for four other-than-serious violations with proposed penalties of $2,500.

"If a fire occurred in this plant, employees could die because this employer chose to ignore basic safety precautions," said Darlene Fossum, OSHA's area director in Fort Lauderdale.

The company has 15 business days to contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The site was inspected by staff from OSHA's Fort Lauderdale Area Office, 8040 Peters Road, Building H-100, telephone 954-424-0242.

Labels: OSHA Citations, OSHA Fines

The Toronto Star reports that hiding workplace injuries produces financial rewards for companies.

An investigation by the Toronto Star revealed that job safety numbers are under-reported in order to cut employer costs. The article in Sunday's edition states:

"The provincial government's highly touted campaign to improve workplace safety is rewarding companies for hiding injuries and rushing the wounded back to work.

A Toronto Star investigation has found that since 2000, companies have reported thousands of seriously injured Ontarians as having missed no time off work.

Some companies pressure or bribe workers not to report major injuries at all.

Some pay the wounded full salary to do degrading make-work jobs.

Others, such as construction giant Aecon Group Inc., have lied to make injuries look less serious."

Read the entire article at: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/451322

Labels: Industrial Health, Industrial Safety, workplace safety

SEOUL, Korea, June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Driving a safety culture across organizations, extending it beyond the workplace and keeping it top of mind with a commitment to collaboration and sharing are critical for keeping employees safe, according to a DuPont-sponsored survey of signers of the World Safety Declaration (WSD).

The survey results are the basis for the 2008 WSD Report, "Instilling a Safety Culture Across Continents: How Collaboration, Commitment and Accountability Help Organizations Achieve Measurable Results in Workplace Safety," which was issued by DuPont at the XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work. The WSD was created by DuPont in 2005 to provide companies with a framework to find common ground in identifying and improving workplace safety.

Among the leading areas of progress reported by WSD signers:

• Driving safety cultures across companies represents the greatest area of improvement, but continues to be an ongoing challenge as organizations strive to keep safety top of mind


• Driving line management accountability for safety was next, indicating that companies are effecting a shift in their organizations


• Reducing occupational accidents and injuries remains the bottom line focus of all safety programs.

"We are very pleased with the 2008 report and the survey results, in particular, because they reinforce the growing focus of safety as a cultural practice in companies around the world," said Mark P. Vergnano, group vice president -- DuPont Safety & Protection. "Safety is a practice that knows no boundaries, in language or country. It is inherent to DuPont
and to a growing list of companies. We will continue to strive to help others to better protect their employees, their customers and their communities."

Held every three years, the World Congress brings together several thousand key leaders and influencers of workplace safety policy from industry, government and labor who present and discuss emerging safety research, trends, best practices and innovations in the workplace. Today's World Day for Safety and Health at Work was established by the International Labour Organization in 2003 to emphasize the prevention of illness and accidents at work.

For a complete copy of the 2008 World Safety Declaration Report visit:
http://www.worldsafetydeclaration.com

Labels: safety management, workplace safety

Rise in city construction deaths and accidents 'unacceptable'

OSHA is taking new steps to combat the rise in construction fatalities in New York City, where 20 employees have died in construction-related accidents since January.

For two weeks beginning today, OSHA is bringing a dozen additional inspectors into the city to conduct proactive inspections of high-rise construction sites, cranes and other places where fatalities and serious accidents have been occurring. Additionally, ongoing inspections will continue under existing local emphasis programs, or as a result of complaints, referrals or accidents.

OSHA will review its findings to gauge the impact of these additional inspections and determine what other steps might need to be taken to address this deadly trend.

"There is no one - among regulators, employers, employees, unions and trade associations - who will accept these lost lives as the byproduct of work in a dangerous industry," said Louis Ricca Jr., OSHA's acting regional administrator in New York. "We must all commit to maintaining safety as the number one job priority each and every day."

Richard Mendelson, OSHA's area director in Manhattan, added: "The number and frequency of construction-related deaths and accidents in the city, and their associated human cost, is unacceptable. We're using every available resource and tool - enforcement, outreach, education, persuasion, even peer pressure - to better identify and proactively eliminate hazards, and to compel employers and employees to do likewise."

In addition to enforcement activities, OSHA is pursuing other measures to drive home the importance of construction safety to employers, employees and the construction industry. Since May, OSHA has been sending copies of violation citations issued to employers on city construction sites to the employers' insurance or workers' compensation carriers, and to construction project owners and developers, in order to raise their awareness of occupational hazards found on city job sites. Citations involving training violations at union sites will be sent to the unions representing the workers and to their training funds.

OSHA will continue its ongoing alliance with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), under which OSHA and DOB cross-train their inspectors and managers on each agency's construction safety standards, regulations and procedures, with a focus on the most common construction hazards likely to harm employees. OSHA also plans to hold outreach meetings with unions and the construction industry to garner their feedback on construction safety issues and elicit their support in reporting hazards and encouraging compliance with safety standards.

OSHA operates a vigorous enforcement program, conducting more than 39,000 inspections in fiscal year 2007 and exceeding its inspection goals in each of the last eight years. In fiscal year 2007, OSHA found nearly 89,000 violations of its standards and regulations.

Labels: Construction Safety

Graphic Products has started shipping their new DuraLabel PRO 300 label and sign printer. This is a high resolution, 300 dpi, high speed industrial printer. It is suitable for printing self-adhesive safety and informational signs and labels such as: arc flash labels, RTK labels, OSHA safety signs, pipe markers, tamper evident labels and more.

The unique feature of this new label printer is that it combines high resolution printing with high speed printing. In the past high resolution label printing was slow. But, by incorporating high speeding digital processing the DuraLabel PRO 300 gets labels to start coming out of the printer sooner, resulting in faster printing.

The DuraLabel PRO 300 uses the continually growing line of DuraLabel PRO supplies. From continuous vinyl in over 30 colors, to specialty supplies such as oily surface labels and low temperature tapes. They are six types of die-cut RTK labels and a unique two-color continuous vinyl tape is only available for DuraLabel PRO printers. Supplies are available for making everything from reflective parking lot signs to small shrink tube labels for wires.

The DuraLabel PRO 300 is the industrial label printer that gets the job done... and gets it done right. Visit the DuraLabel PRO 300 web site for more information www.DuraLabelPRO.com

Labels: Arc Flash, rtk labels, safety labels, safety signs

I've mentioned OSHAcademy in a previous post a long time ago. But this online safety training is so good I thought I should mention i t again... and besides it's free!

OSHAcademy online courses are developed by Steven Geigle. I took many of his online safety courses when he was with the OR-OSHA, and they were excellent. He has brought those same courses to OSHAcademy, plus added many new ones.

All of OSHAcademy safety courses are free. There is a small fee if you wish to get a certificate to verify course completion. You may study online or print each module, study the material off-line, and then return to submit module quiz. The simple format, ability to study anytime and anywhere, online or off-line, with opportunity to communicate with a real instructor gives you complete control of the study process.

The following are some of the courses that are offered:

Course 700: Introduction to Safety Management Eight modules.

Course 701: Effective Safety Committees Eight modules.

Course 702: Effective Accident Investigation Eight Modules.

Course 703: Train the Safety Trainer Eleven modules.

Course 704: Hazard Analysis and Control Seven modules.

Course 705: Hazard Communication Program Six modules.

Course 706: Conducting a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) Six modules.

Course 707: Effective Safety Committee Meetings Seven modules.

Course 708: OSHA 300 Recordkeeping Seven modules.

Course 709: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Seven modules.

Course 711: Introduction to Ergonomics Five modules.

Course 712: Safety Supervision and Leadership Eight modules.

Course 716: Safety Management System Evaluation Twelve Modules

Course 720: Preventing Workplace Violence Eight modules.

Course 722: Ergonomics Program Management Eight modules.

Visit the OSHAcademy for more information (http://www.oshatrain.org/)

Labels: Safety Training

This article comes from today's edition of the Dallas News. The article is about a crane accident that took place last Thursday. It states:

"Two of three workers hospitalized after a crane accident at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium have been released from the hospital, officials said today."

"Thursday’s accident happened about 2 p.m. between the stadium’s dual arches just outside the northeast end zone. The workers were assembling a crane when a cable connector “failed” on the erecting crane, which allowed the cables and some other parts to fall, according to a written statement from Manhattan Construction, the project’s contractor."

This accident is drawing attention in the news both because it is crane accident, and because it is the third "high profile" accident that has taken place during the construction of the new stadium.

Read the complete story in the Dallas News

Labels: Construction Safety

A current article in Occupational Health & Safety magazine tackles the subject of Budgeting for the Safety Miser.

Linda Johnson Sherrard, Technical Editor of Occupational Health & Safety, writes: "I admit it, I'm a budget miser who is horrible at developing realistic needs analysis. I always hold funds to the last minute, expecting some dire happening or equipment break that needs immediate assistance. I try to obtain at least one meaningful piece of equipment or diagnostic monitoring every year and keep my resources up to date. The costs of a new safety program (or refreshing an older, established one) can be staggering: You have to section it off for several years in order to obtain the items you need."

In this short article she offers a number of bullet points for estimating your safety budget. Read the article here: http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/63420

Labels: safety management, workplace safety

The hot days of summer are here. Throughout the country, thousands of employees who work outdoors face the potential dangers associated with overexposure to heat. Factors such as working in direct sunlight, high temperature and humidity, physical exertion and lack of sufficient water intake can lead to heat stress.

"During the warm season, it is important to understand that exposure to heat can cause serious illness or death," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. "We encourage employers and employees to take advantage of OSHA's many free resources that offer advice on how to stay healthy while working outside."

Exposure to heat can cause heat cramps and rashes. The most serious heat-related disorders are heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Symptoms include confusion; irrational behavior; loss of consciousness; hot, dry skin; and abnormally high body temperature. Drinking cool water, reducing physical exertion, wearing appropriate clothing and regular rest periods in a cool recovery area can lessen the effects of working in summer heat.

Protecting Workers from the Effects of Heat is a fact sheet explaining heat stress and how it can be prevented. The fact sheet Working Outdoors in Warm Climates provides recommendations on how to protect employees from exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) and offers information on insect-caused illnesses such as West Nile Virus and Lyme disease. Employers and employees will find more practical tips for guarding against UV radiation in Protecting Yourself in the Sun, a pocket-sized card addressing skin cancer, describing its varied forms, and suggesting ways to block UV rays.

These outdoor work-related publications and others are free and can be downloaded from the Publications page on OSHA's Web site or ordered from the publications office at 202-693-1888. More information can be found on the Web sites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Labels: Industrial Health, OSHA, Safety Training