The action follows an inspection last week that found numerous "deficiencies and discrepancies," all in violation of the requirements of the site's state-issued permit.
The Yakima, Wash.-based company agreed to spend more than $85,000 within the next year for safety improvements and to purchase new communications and rescue equipment for local fire departments.
The 126-acre site in Pennsylvania will hold a 300-room hotel, 200,000 square feet of retail space, 3,000 slot machines, a meeting and convention area, and a variety of dining, shopping, and entertainment venues.
The total penalty amount is the result of citations for seven repeat violations, 19 serious violations, and 10 other-than-serious violations found during an inspection initiated by a complaint.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have joined their efforts to provide important information about the recall of certain peanut butter and peanut-containing products that are associated with the recent Salmonella Typhimurium outbreaks through a new social media Web page at www.cdc.gov/socialmedia.
U.S. Reps. George Miller, D-Calif., and John Barrow, D-Ga., have reintroduced a bill to force OSHA to issue a regulation intended to prevent combustible dust explosions. U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, who chairs the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of Miller's Education and Labor Committee, joined them.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced that he has created a team at the Department of Transportation to coordinate the department's role in President Obama's economic recovery program. The team will ensure that economic recovery funding is rapidly made available for transportation infrastructure projects and that project spending is monitored and transparent.
OSHA is proposing $108,000 in penalties against Tippins Contracting Co. for seven safety violations that exposed its employees to possible injury or death at two construction sites.
The public now has until March 9 to weigh in on the agency's proposal to add hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to the federal universal waste program.
After failing to pay a $342,000 penalty by the Oct. 19, 2008 deadline, MSHA now seeks to collect $505,012--which includes unpaid civil penalties, additional penalties, interest, and administrative fees.
"There is no excuse for employees to work in such conditions," said C. William Freeman III, OSHA's area director in Hartford, Conn., the office that conducted the inspection.
In several EU countries, Labor Inspectors lack concrete guidance and must devise their own investigation methods and interpretations. It would be desirable to have a formal method that could be applied by all investigators. Besides, such formal methods should enable underlying causes to be discovered as soon as possible.
An investigation began after OSHA inspectors witnessed employees working on a scaffold without using fall protection equipment at a worksite in El Paso.
"A lack of fall protection and training leaves employees just a slip or a misstep away from a deadly or disabling plunge," said Robert Kowalski, area director of OSHA's office in Bridgeport, Conn., which conducted the inspection.
Part of the aim of the partnership is to develop educational training programs relating to fall protection, silica, and equipment operation hazards.
The publications were developed to educate employers and employees on preventing injuries and illnesses from hazards associated with deck and spud barges.
The edcuational program for ASSE's conference and exposition, Safety 2009, includes three sessions devoted to safe confined space entries and two sessions about construction safety issues.
The site offers news updates as changes are made, answers to frequently asked questions, articles, and an opportunity to pose questions to hearing conservation experts.
The company, which performs industrial painting on bridges and other construction projects throughout the state of Illinois, has been inspected by OSHA 16 times and cited for safety and health violations more than 100 times since 1976, according to the agency.
OSHA will hold an informal public hearing on the proposed cranes and derricks in construction standard on March 17.