Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration; CP staff The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is initiating enhanced measures to protect workers better in hot environments and reduce the dangers of exposure to ambient heat. While heat illness is largely preventable and incidents widely under reported, thousands of workers are sickened each year by workplace heat exposure, agency officials contend. In…
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3M Personal Safety Division launches Center for Respiratory Protection
From exposure assessments to respirator selection to fit testing, a written respiratory protection program has multiple requirements companies must meet. To help health and safety managers find the resources they need to develop and implement a successful, Occupational Safety and Health Administration-compliant program, 3M Personal Safety Division has announced the online Center for Respiratory Protection.
Read MoreIncident reduction secondary in rewrite of OSHA reporting, anti-retaliation rules
By Don Marsh
An Associated Builders & Contractors-led lawsuit filed last month adds perspective to the curious Occupational Safety and Health Administration case noted here in April, where United States Steel Corp. found itself on the defensive for a zero tolerance policy on delayed workplace injury reporting. The ABC action spotlights anti-retaliation measures the agency applied to the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker.
Read MoreConstruction interests compound court challenges to OSHA silica rule
Associated Builders & Contractors, Associated General Contractors of America American Road & Transportation Builders Association and four peer groups plan to join eight state affiliates petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s final rule on crystalline silica exposure. Released in late March, it sets a threshold of 50-micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour shift, compared to a longstanding 250-microgram level for the construction industry.
Read MoreOSHA underscores fall prevention in ‘Plan, Provide, Train’ protocol
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched a campaign at www.osha.gov/stopfalls, contending that prevention of falls—accounting for 291 of 828 total fatalities in construction during 2013—hinges on three simple steps:
Concrete Contractors revise Safety Manual, Management Plan
The American Society of Concrete Contractors has recently updated its Safety Manual and Safety Management Plan to reflect changes in Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations and concrete construction practices. With ASCC Safety & Risk Management Council (SRMC) oversight, the programs were written by and for concrete contractors with the goal of helping the industry as a whole.
OSHA tightens timelines for reporting severe injuries, fatalities
A revised rule, effective January 2015, details new deadlines for employers to notify Occupational Safety and Health Administration when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye, and updates the list of employers partially exempt from agency record-keeping requirements.
Read MoreOSHA extends compliance date for crane operator certification requirements
Source: Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA has confirmed a three-year extension, to November 2017, of the deadline for crane operator certification requirements in the Cranes and Derricks in Construction final rule, published in 2010. The agency has also extended by the same period a rule holding employers responsible for ensuring crane operators are competent to run their equipment safely.
Read MoreBacking accident prevention kicks off online driver training series
In advance of an online driver training series to be formally released this month at the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo, the RMC Research and Education Foundation has posted on YouTube a preview of a two-lesson module addressing truck backing safety. The series will offer participants e-learning lessons 24/7, with backing accident prevention to be followed by lessons on equipment lock out/tag out procedures, plus slip, trip and fall prevention—topics that lead Occupational Safety and Health Administration citation activity among ready mixed producers. The lessons were shot at NRMCA producer members’ plants and at onsite pours so viewers relate to how a concept applies directly to their circumstances.
Read MoreOSHA to hear more on electronic injury, illness records submission
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has extended to mid-October the comment period on a proposed rule for tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. A proposal published in November 2013 would add to the agency’s recordkeeping regulation specific requirements for electronic submission of information employers already maintain.
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