The serious violations include failing to provide required machine guarding to prevent workers from coming into contact with rotating parts on drill presses, ensure that employees are trained on the use of energy control procedures, and prevent slip and "struck-by" hazards by ensuring walkways are kept clean and dry.
Preliminary data indicate a 14 percent decrease in citations and orders issued at these mines—74,373 in 2010 compared to 64,186 in 2011.
The proposed voluntary guidelines would apply to communications, entertainment, information gathering, and navigation devices or functions that are not required to safely operate the vehicle.
Comments are due by March 16. Numerous comments already in the docket say there's no need to enact a new federal safety standard.
OSHA's Englewood Area Office opened an investigation at a work site in Wheat Ridge on Aug. 30 and a second investigation on Sept. 8 at a site in Colorado Springs, following reports that workers were installing sewer pipes without adequate protection from possible cave-ins.
In effect for six more months, until Sept. 15, 2012, are measures giving compliance assistance requests top priority and reducing penalties up to 10 percent.
"Publix is well aware of the hazards the cleaning crew was exposed to, yet took no steps to safeguard employees by controlling the conveyor equipment's energy source," said Brian Sturtecky, OSHA's area director in Jacksonville, Fla.
The explosion occurred when a pressure vessel containing compressed gas, including oxygen and hydrogen, exploded while the two workers were transferring hydrogen and oxygen gas from one cylinder to another.
After receiving a complaint, OSHA opened an inspection focused on the agency's process safety management standard for facilities that use hazardous chemicals. Proposed fines total $76,500.
A work-related musculoskeletal disorder is an injury in the arms, legs, head, neck, or back that is caused or aggravated by work tasks such as lifting, pushing, and pulling.
NHTSA’s examination of 16 BMW recalls issued in 2010 found evidence of a number of instances where the automaker failed to report safety defects to the agency in accordance with federal law.
FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee plans to complete a letter report about the key remaining issue, potential driver harassment, by its June 2012 meeting.
The department's FY2013 budget request would cut MSHA's funding slightly and raise OSHA's slightly. Continued support for VPP and more funding to investigate whistleblower claims are highlights of OSHA's budget.
OSHA began an investigation Aug. 8 after an employee was struck in the head by the boom of a crane that was being used to unload fish on the Pacific Princess tuna fishing vessel.
The goals of the initiative are to increase enforcement efforts and provide resources, online materials, training, and consultation to prevent injuries and deaths in confined spaces.
During an inspection begun in August based on a referral, OSHA found that an employee had been injured and hospitalized as a result of a defective truck-mounted crane.
The rule would require each railroad or contractor with safety-related railroad employees to develop a training program designating the qualifications of each employee and then submit that program for FRA approval.
"Some mines require targeted, enhanced enforcement methods. The formation of OAASEI will enable MSHA to better manage and coordinate its use of special enforcement tools against the most serious violators of the Mine Act," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
The agency's new training website offers training materials based on its regulations and developed in house. And in the future, the agency will offer training curricula that allow users to earn certificates of completion.
"The sizable fines proposed here reflect not only the seriousness of these conditions but the fact that several of them are substantially similar to hazards identified at nine other Wal-Mart locations in New York and eight other states," said Arthur Dube, OSHA's area director in Buffalo.