Safe Workplace and Safety News

A fairly long article in yesterdays issue of Occupational Hazards Magazine looks at what can be expected from OSHA in 2007 under their new administrator Edwin Foulke Jr. Opinions seem to vary depending on the viewpoint of those expressing them, in particular when talking to OSHA critics. The article quotes Joel Shufro, for example:

"Labor advocates such as Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), agree that the strong focus on compliance assistance has been on the agenda ever since the Bush administration has come on board. But Shufro claims such strategies have made the agency "become increasingly irrelevant to workers' everyday lives."

After reporting the opinions of those critical of OSHA, the article then says:

"Other critics are more sympathetic to OSHA and to Foulke, but they also agree that the agency needs to do more when it comes to standard-setting."

"Michael Thompson, president-elect for the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), agrees that the process of updating standards has come to a "stalemate" for the last couple of years."

"'State-of-the-art scientific and data research that is ongoing indicate that certain standards need to be urgently updated,' says Thompson."

Whatever your position on OSHA's past record and current direction, this article provides interesting reading as it speculates on what directions OSHA should take in 2007.

Labels: OSHA

The Department of Energy maintains an online list of links to safety and health tools, programs and procedures developed by Department of Energy Voluntary Protection Program participants. These include:

• A Hazardous Materials Information Resource System


• DOE Hanford's Automated Job Hazard Analysis Program


• River Corridor Project's 360-Degree Photograph TechnologyNew


• Kansas City's Job Hazard Analysis System


• Argonne's Job Hazards Questionnaire


• Savannah River's SAFE-T Construction Safety Program


• OSHA's: Safety and Health Management Systems eToolNew


• Hanford's: General Employee Training VPP Survey


• Idaho's: Maturity Path for Employee Safety Teams

Plus many other tools, proceedures and programs that can help you with your safety and VPP efforts.

Labels: Safety Training, VPP Implementation

Who should pay for safety gear such as gloves and safety boots? If safety gear is considered a "tool of the trade" some industries have employees pay for that safety gear. While most employers provide safety equipment such as ear plugs, safety glasses and hard hats, this is not true of all industries. In construction workers are commonly required to provide their own hard hats and in the chicken processing industry workers typically provide their own puncture proof gloves.

Unions have sued the government to implement new rules that would require employers to provide needed safety gear. Read about it on Bloomberg News. The opening paragraph of this article states:

"For almost eight years, labor unions have been waiting for the Labor Department to finish a rulemaking that would make it clear employers are supposed to pick up the tab for safety equipment for millions of workers."

The article explains:

"The controversy has a long history. When the initial protective equipment rule was issued in 1994, it said employers had to 'provide' various safety gear. But unlike a series of health-related OSHA standards, it didn't say who should pay the bill, and not every company did."

Labels: PPE, safety regulations

After applying for the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program, and meeting the requirements, the most common result is for the facility to start at the MERIT level. After a few years of working to improve safety programs and the workplace culture, the facility will then move up to STAR.

A case study of Kuparuk in the January 21, 2007 issue of Petroleum News Magazine shows how a facility can apply to VPP and enter the program with STAR status. The article tells about the following incident:

"When companies apply for the OSHA VPP, 'they are often categorized as merit … and over the next two, three years you work on improving your programs and your culture and then you reach star,' which is the highest rating, said Ken Donajkowski, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s vice president of health, safety and environment.

Kuparuk started out reaching for star rating, and wasn’t afraid to say so, said Donajkowski, relating an incident that occurred when the OSHA reviewers were on their way to Kuparuk for their on-site visit in August. One of them pulled a flyer out of the seat pocket in the charter plane and the flyer said something to the effect of Kuparuk — reaching for star.

The reviewer looked at the ConocoPhillips health, safety and environment director in the seat next to him and said, 'Reaching for star — most companies are glad to get merit and achieve star in a couple of years.'

'We’re that good,' the HSE director responded.

'Well, we’ll just see about that,' the OSHA reviewer said."

Read the complete article to find out what happened.

Labels: VPP, VPP Safety Articles and Papers

OSHA offers more options for partnerships than the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). Fr example, SHARP is an option for smaller companies and organizations. The OSHA web site describes SHARP this way:

"The Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) recognizes small employers who operate an exemplary safety and health management system. Acceptance into SHARP by OSHA is an achievement of status that will single you out among your business peers as a model for worksite safety and health. Upon receiving SHARP recognition, your worksite will be exempt from programmed inspections during the period that your SHARP certification is valid."

Spruce Park Auto Body in Anchorage, Alaska employs 27 people and has been a long-time member of SHARP.

The OSHA web site describes their experience this way:

"Spruce Park received its first OSHA Onsite Consultation visit in October 2001 after hearing about the program from an Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Program enforcement officer. The company’s introduction to Consultation was so influential, and sparked such a deep level of interest and commitment among the Spruce Park management team, that it began requesting annual Onsite Consultation walkthrough visits to ensure that the establishment’s worksite was healthy and safe."

"Employees of Spruce Park fully support the company’s safety and health culture – even without special incentive programs used by many companies to persuade employees to work more safely. Lewis Charles Perrault, President of the company, noted that commitment to safety and health is exemplified during monthly departmental meetings, which include a standard agenda-item covering company-wide safety and health issues. This provides a regularly scheduled forum for safety and health information sharing among employees and between management and employees. To further reinforce the company’s safety and health philosophy, and to encourage buy-in among all employees, regular safety and health meetings are held where workers have an opportunity to voice their safety and health concerns and receive assurance that real action will be taken to resolve issues brought to the table."

"Working over time with the Alaska Onsite Consultation Program, Spruce Park was accepted into OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). The SHARP program recognizes small employers who operate an exemplary safety and health management system. While in SHARP status, employers are exempted from OSHA’s programmed inspection list. Having now been in the program for several years, Spruce Park’s SHARP status was last renewed for a two-year period in December 2003."

Labels: OSHA, SHARP, workplace safety

Do you work in the industrial safety industry, or have been interested in entering this industry? The employment forecast is bright according to a white paper put out by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News. In their January issue they report that, based on a survey conducted last fall, employment in safety related fields should be stable for the next year... with neither significant growth nor decline.

You can read a summary of the white paper online. To request the complete white paper e-mail info@clearseasresearch.com or contact Renee Love at (248) 786-1581.

Labels: employment, Industrial Safety, workplace safety

We have added two new features that will make reading this blog easier. They are at the top of the left column on this page.

The "Add Feed" button provides a quick way to add an RSS feed to any of the more popular feed readers including Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, AOL, NewsGator and MSNLive. When you roll your mouse pointer over this button a list of available RSS readers appears. Click on the one you use. If you are not signed into your account, you will be asked to lock in. The "Safe Workplace OSHA Voluntary Protection Program" RSS feed will be added automatically.

The second new feature allows you to receive new posts by email through a service called "FeedBlitz". Enter your email address in the box to the left and click on the "Subscribe Me!" button. Feedblitz will monitor this blog and email you a copy of any new posts.

Labels: Safety Blog

OSHA's informational guide Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following an OSHA Inspection (PDF) has been updated and is now available for download from the agency's Web site.

The pamphlet contains information on the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, or SBREFA, which gives small businesses assistance in understanding and complying with regulations and more of a voice in the development of new regulations. The revised guide can be printed directly from the agency's Web site; printed copies are available through OSHA's publications office.

Labels: OSHA, OSHA Inspections

Who is participating in the OSHA VPP program?

Are you proposing a VPP program for your facility, but management wants to know the extent to which other companies have embraced this program? The OSHA VPP Recent Approvals page will give you the information you need. It lists all of the new STAR, MERIT, and STAR DEMONSTRATION members for each month in 2006.

Labels: OSHA, VPP

Employers and employees involved in working in and around above ground storage tanks will benefit from a new fact sheet, a product of the Safe Tank Alliance with OSHA.

The fact sheet, titled Fall Prevention for Above Ground Storage Tanks, describes how to ensure employee safety by recognizing fall hazards, developing prevention priorities, and using protective equipment. In addition, the fact sheet highlights safe climbing practices, specialized training, and other safety and health tips.

Labels: OSHA, safety, workplace safety

OSHA has created a VPP Corporate Pilot program designed to allow corporations that are committed to VPP, and that are interested in achieving VPP recognition at facilities throughout their organization, a more practical and efficient means to accomplish this goal. The pilot program meets the needs of large corporations by eliminating the redundancy in the VPP application and onsite evaluation processes while maintaining the quality and integrity of the VPP program.

How Does It Work?

An interested corporation submits a Corporate VPP Application to OSHA describing how standardized corporate-level policies and programs consistent with VPP criteria are applied at facilities throughout the organization. Once the application process is complete and accepted by OSHA, individual facilities on need to submit facility specific information. There is no need to submit information contained in the Corporate VPP Application.

More information about the VPP Corporate Pilot

The initial participants for the VPP Pilot are:

• The Dow Chemical Company
• General Electric Company
• Georgia-Pacific Corporation
• International Paper
• The United States Postal Service
• Washington Group International

Labels: OSHA, VPP

An article in the December issue of Concrete Products Magazine compares and discusses the various standards for labeling hazardous materials with the new global requirements. Four labeling system are compared: GHS SDS, ISO MSDS, ANSI MSDS and OSHA MSDS.

The article points out that adopting global standards would be advantageous because it would eliminate the multiple standards in use within the U.S. The article states: "While a few changes would be in order to comply with the proposed standard, DOT labeling requirements for hazardous materials transportation are nearly identical to those of GHS. Since OSHA is not harmonized with current DOT standards, changing HCS to incorporate GHS criteria would ensure consistency of DOT and OSHA requirements."

Labels: global hazmat classification, hazard identifcation, rtk labels, safety labeling