Tag: OSHA

September 23, 2022

It’s paramount to know the exact temperature on your jobsite to protect workers in hot conditions. At higher temperatures, a change of even a few degrees can be a warning sign that you need to alter their workday activities to […]

September 21, 2022

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Tuesday its preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2022. NSC Safety+Health Associate Editor Kevin Druley introduced Patrick Kapust, acting director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, who […]

September 6, 2022

Construction workers often face some of their industry’s most serious dangers – such as falls from elevation, being struck or crushed by equipment or other objects, and electrocution – but recent studies suggest another occupational concern is lurking silently at […]

August 29, 2022

In response to requests from interested parties, federal labor officials have extended the deadline to comment on its proposed revisions for the workplace lead-exposure standard by two months. It is now Oct. 28. The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Occupational Safety […]

July 26, 2022

At the moment, it’s not clear what kind of impact the legislation would have for contractors. “We would have to consult with our members to see what, if any, impact this [legislation] would have,” said Kevin Cannon, senior director of […]

July 21, 2022

OSHA has long had the ability to seek criminal referrals and issue heavy fines for workplace incidents that involve serious injury or death. Last week, it flexed that muscle. In response to what the Department of Labor organization called an […]

July 20, 2022

As temperatures and the risk of heat illness rise in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration reminds employers and workers not to ignore the dangers of working in hot weather – […]

July 18, 2022

OSHA is in the process of developing a federal standard to protect workers from exposure to dangerous heat conditions, which it currently doesn’t have. That — combined with summer weather and heat waves sweeping many parts of the country — […]

July 15, 2022

OSHA highlighted a June 28 incident as an impetus for its decision. In Jarrell, Texas, two workers, aged 20 and 39, died when the 20-foot trench they worked in collapsed on them. Shields to reinforce their trench could have saved […]

June 16, 2022

The dangers associated with heat related illness are well understood. However, deaths and serious illnesses continue to occur, and may increase in time, because of increased frequency of extreme temperatures. To emphasize its concern and take necessary action, OSHA is […]

May 31, 2022

San Antonio-based oil refining giant Valero Energy Corp. and three contractors working at its San Francisco Bay-area refinery face combined fines totaling more than $1.75 million for multiple state safety violations—including a number of willful and serious infractions—which ed to […]

May 9, 2022

Two Georgia contractors have received federal citations with proposed penalties of nearly $57,000 for their roles in an October 2021 bridge demolition collapse that killed one worker and injured another. An investigation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration […]

April 27, 2022

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has for a second time proposed increased injury and illness reporting for employers — as well as a change that would make that data public — and business advocates are again pushing back. OSHA […]

April 20, 2022

The U.S. Dept. of Labor is moving to revoke Arizona’s occupational health and safety plan and bring the state under federal standards as it says the state’s own standards have fallen short of federal requirements in a “pattern of failures.” […]

April 19, 2022

A federal investigation into how a 47-year-old carpenter was fatally injured on Oct. 6, 2021, at the Pinellas Gateway Express project in Clearwater, Florida found his employer violated safety standards by allowing workers to remain in a crane load’s danger […]

April 14, 2022

Between 2011 and 2019, 344 people died from work-related heat exposure, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Roughly 42%, or 144, of those fatalities were of workers in construction, repair or cleaning. Between 2015 and 2020, […]

March 31, 2022

Twenty-two million workers are exposed to hazardous occupational noise each year, a figure nearly equivalent to the population of Florida. To reduce noise hazards and protect workers’ hearing, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Kansas City […]

March 3, 2022

Exposure to some of these metals, such as arsenic, occur near or in hazardous waste sites or areas with naturally high levels in soil, rocks and water, according to OSHA. Others, like chromium, are used explicitly in construction, and OSHA […]

February 16, 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the employer involved in a February 2021 double fatality at a downtown Boston worksite and his successor company again for failing to provide employees with essential and required […]

February 15, 2022

The head of a Boston-based construction company that lost two workers in a fatal accident at a downtown Boston worksite last year now faces nearly $2 million in total fines after safety violations on a new project. Federal regulators hit […]