The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced it will host a Feb. 17 "public listening session" to hear comments and "relevant new research" it should consider in a final hours of service rule. Trucking and shipping interests are firmly against the FMCSA proposal, however.
OSHA announced that it has proposed a total of $220,000 in fines against Oberdorfer LLC, which manufactures aluminum castings.
The proposal would eliminate the potential POV procedure, which involves written notification that a potential POV exists at a particular mining operation. No longer would mine operators receive advanced warning.
Alpha Natural Resources is paying that much to acquire Massey, which has been battling MSHA for years, especially about the Upper Big Branch investigation. The combined companies own more than 110 mines and have 5 billion tons of coal reserves.
OSHA issued seven citations to The Acadia Hospital in Bangor but said its inspection found at least 115 instances between 2008 and 2010 where employees of the psychiatric hospital and clinic were assaulted by patients.
"OSHA will not allow companies to endanger the safety and health of its workers as a means to reduce business expenses," said Clyde Payne, OSHA's area director in Jackson, Miss.
The investigation found that the roof of the facility did not have the required strength and structural integrity for repair work to be performed.
"Overexposure to respirable crystalline silica can cause a disabling, nonreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease," said Paula Dixon-Roderick, director of OSHA's Marlton Area Office in New Jersey.
The worker died after he was pulled into the running nip points of a paper roller while hand-feeding paper into the roller.
There were more grain entrapments in 2010 than in any year since they started collecting data on entrapments in 1978, according to researchers at Purdue University.
The highest possible achievement in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs has been earned by San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp.'s Mandan, N.D., refinery.
OSHA's inspection found a variety of emergency response, respirator, electrical, and chemical hazards.
Every Member State except Sweden already requires hands-free devices if they are used while driving, but the European Transport Safety Council's recent report recommends a complete ban on mobile phone use, including hands-free.
"This company was well aware of what it needed to do to protect its workers from a well-known hazard but failed to provide that protection," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels.
Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich also announced the new structure of what was MMS: Two independent agencies, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Air carriers affected by the final rule must establish initial and recurrent CRM training for crewmembers within two years of the effective date of the rule.
"This basic principle, that protection needs to be provided equally to all workers, argues against exempting certain classes of workers or occupations from fall protection rules where there are technological feasible, practical, and affordable means of preventing fall injuries," said Dan Shipp, president of ISEA.
In all, the company was cited for eight serious violations and one other-than-serious violation following the July 2010 explosion that caused two deaths.
OSHA's San Antonio Area Office initiated a safety and health inspection on July 28, 2010, at the company's facility following a complaint that employees were being stuck by hypodermic needles while sorting trash that was to be recycled.
MSHA officials met Tuesday night with families of the 29 miners killed in the April 2010 explosion to discuss their theory about its cause, with a mining machine being the focus.