In addition to being able to show that a good-faith effort was made to acquire respirators, an employer will need to implement a hierarchy of controls, said acting OSHA chief Jordan Barab.
Deborah Friberg, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed Health and Hospitals, has helped her staff set and meet ambitious goals in establishing an electronic infection surveillance system, improving hand hygiene compliance, and reducing MRSA and catheter-related blood stream infections, APIC said.
Inspections conducted over the past several months by OSHA's area office in Andover, Mass., also identified various chemical, mechanical, and electrical hazards--41 violations in all, with proposed penalties totaling $138,000.
Tsunamis and earthquakes in Asia in the past three weeks underscore the need to ensure hospitals are protected against natural disasters, the agencies said Wednesday as they marked International Day for Disaster Reduction 2009.
In April, a fire at the facility sent three workers to a local hospital. The resulting inspection revealed nine alleged willful, four serious, two repeat, and two failure-to-abate violations.
The board concluded Wednesday that the American Petroleum Institute's Recommended Practice 1162 should explicitly identify 911 emergency call centers as emergency response agencies included in pipeline operators' public education programs.
"Improperly utilized fall protection equipment is just as deadly as failing to use fall protection at all," said OSHA Area Director Rosemarie Ohar. "Workers who lack adequate and effective fall protection are just one slip, trip or misstep away from a potentially fatal plunge."
"The identified violations leave employees at the refinery at risk of accidents that could result in injury or possible death," said Patricia Jones, area director of OSHA's office in Avenel, N.J.
The investigation found 32 serious violations, including failing to evaluate the worksite for exposures to hydrogen sulfide, develop procedures for waste stream processing, develop decontamination procedures, and train workers on the hazards associated with confined space entry on barges.
Five minutes after the worker was instructed to exit the excavation, one of its sidewalls collapsed. Had the worker still been in the excavation, he could have been crushed or buried by the cave-in, an inspector noted.
"Employers should not assume that OSHA will not conduct inspections because much of this work is done at night," said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA's area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. "We will conduct inspections where and when we must to ensure that employers implement and maintain effective controls to minimize this hazard to their workers."
Although there is a decline in the domestic production of meth in recent years, vigilance is warranted because of the destructive nature of the drug and the environmental hazards caused by meth labs, the agency said.
The department says more than 500 of the 922 traffic crashes in South Carolina last year were run-off-road incidents, and at least one ROR fatality occurs in the state every day.
"An unprotected trench is a potential grave," said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA's area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. "Its walls can collapse suddenly and with great force, burying workers beneath tons of soil and debris before they can react or escape.”
NHTSA and Oklahoma State University are the Federal Highway Administration's partners for the research, which will be the federal government's biggest study of motorcycle safety since 1981.
OSHA is on the fence about it. According to the director of its Enforcement Programs Directorate, the agency’s determination of coverage would be made on a case-by-case basis.
One of the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the United States, atrazine can be applied before and after planting to control broadleaf and grassy weeds.
When asked if it was acceptable to throw out items contaminated with blood or body fluids in either septic systems or normal garbage, the OSHA director said, “It is the employer's responsibility to determine the existence of regulated waste. This determination is not based on actual volume of blood, but rather on the potential to release blood (e.g., when compacted in the waste container).”
"The more than 7,000 tons per year of sulfur dioxide reductions secured by this settlement will produce significant and measurable public health benefits for downwind communities," said EPA’s Cynthia Giles.
"This rule is a significant step forward in protecting people’s health when they travel," said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water.