The agency's newest area office serves 17 central Texas counties and offers bilingual assistance to the predominantly Hispanic population.
Capital Safety, home of the DBI-SALA and PROTECTA brands, recently announced that it has added three fall protection training courses for the wind energy industry to its roster of training offerings, including Competent Person, Competent Rescuer, and Competent Rescuer Trainer.
NFPA has posted an online toolkit for firefighters to use to inform communities about holiday fire dangers.
Based on more than a decade of research by the National Floor Safety Institute, it is the first step in reducing pedestrian slip-and-fall injuries.
OSHA will hold a two-day Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH) meeting Jan. 19-20, 2010, in Washington, D.C., to address welding, scaffolding, and other safety and health issues in maritime industries.
OSHA has cited the company with three willful, four repeat, 19 serious, and one other-than-serious safety violations, as well as five serious and two other-than-serious health violations.
"If scaffolding parts had been inspected and replaced or repaired as needed, it is possible that this tragic accident and loss of life could have been avoided," said Eric Harbin, OSHA's area director in Austin.
"The need for fall protection was clear and recognized, yet this employer did not provide this basic, commonsense, and legally required safeguard," said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA's area director for Middlesex and Essex counties.
All workplaces in Singapore would be required to implement Fall Protection Plans by 2015 under the plan published Dec. 2. While fatal falls have declined by 60 percent from a decade ago, the plan is meant to reduce them further.
The agency began a health inspection in June after receiving information that fires had occurred in the Ohio plant, and that large amounts of dust from the manufacturing process had accumulated throughout the worksite.
The Connecticut-based company received citations for working around energized transmission lines that were not grounded and working within the minimum approach distance in a bucket truck that was improperly rated for the work being conducted, OSHA said.
The accident investigation, which was conducted by OSHA's Puerto Rico Area Office, resulted in citations for exposing workers to the hazards of hot water and steam condensate, not developing and documenting procedures to prevent the unintended release of hot water and steam, and not training workers on the safe application, usage, and removal of energy control devices.
"We want to ensure all construction companies -- big and small -- are prepared to effectively control the workplace hazards their employees may encounter," said Nick Walters, OSHA's area director in Peoria, Ill.
The fees for training and courses provided by the commission's Safety Section take effect Dec. 1 in three categories: per-person specialty courses/workshops, flat-rate full or half days once per month for a year, and hourly rates for as-needed training.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Gorilla Inc., of Flushing, Mich., has announced a voluntary recall of approximately 90 EXO-Tech safety harnesses. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
The Z359 Accredited Standards Committee said that an interpretation was not necessary because the scope of the committee and its projects and standards has always included rolling stock and therefore it is not exempt from the standard.
"An unprotected trench is a potential grave, since its sidewalls can collapse in an instant, crushing and burying workers before they have a chance to react or escape," said Brenda Gordon, OSHA's area director for Boston and southeastern Massachusetts.
Approved by ANSI on Oct. 27, the revised Z359.0-2009 is now available to download at no cost on ASSE's Web site.
New Place Carpentry, a New Haven, Conn., contractor with a long history of fall protection violations, faces a total of $308,500 in new fines from the OSHA for willful and repeat fall hazards following the agency's inspections at worksites in Plymouth and Methuen, Mass.
Over the past two decades, as recreational use of hot tubs has increased, so has the number of injuries, according to a recent study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. It found that from 1990-2007, the number of unintentional hot tub-related injuries increased by 160 percent, from approximately 2,500 to more than 6,600 injuries per year.