Facility Safety


Ohio Comp Agency Changing Claims Management's Focus

Preventing disability rather than managing it will be the new model for the claims management system of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. An April 29 forum will discuss how to identify workers at risk of long-term disability.

A Fresh Approach to Foot Protection

Occupational foot protection is very often ignored until a serious injury occurs. Safety professionals should take the following steps to ensure their facilities and employees are following best practices when it comes to foot protection.

the logo of NIOSHs WorkLife Initiative

NIOSH E-Newsletter Offers WorkLife Initiative Update

Three centers of excellence funded in 2006 and 2007 are researching beneficial approaches to make the workplace safer and healthier for health care workers and other groups.

Avoiding Serious Accidents Can Be Easy

When combined with a well-designed safety plan, industrial safety barriers greatly minimize the risks associated with a host of potentially disastrous accidents that threaten the safety and productivity of virtually any fast-paced industrial environment.

Controlling Hot Work Fire Hazards

Hot work continues to be a leading cause of industrial fires, consistently in the top five across all industries, and it has been responsible for many of industry's most severe fire losses.

Developing Your Culture

Anyone can write a safety program, but it takes a real commitment on the behalf of everyone involved to create and implement a complete safety culture. The goal of developing a safety culture is to instill the qualities that motivate workers to strive to achieve safety excellence and can be developed only if all on staff work together. Just as a group is only as strong as its weakest member, your staff is only as safe as the least-concerned worker.

Computer Applications

Would an online engineering analysis of fall protection anchor points really work? Who needs it? OH&S Editor, Jerry Laws, asked those questions before seeing a demo of the Anchor Point Evaluation Program from Fall Protection Professionals, Inc.'s Jeffrey B. Reep, P.E., the Green Bay, Wis., company's senior structural engineer and developer of the program. What he demonstrated was the initial release, which evaluates the steel supports of fixed or mobile anchoring systems. Timber and concrete add-on modules are scheduled to be released later this year, Reep said.

Hispanic TV Station Earns 'Estrella de OSHA' for Safety

"Telemundo KVDA-TV 60 is the nation's first broadcaster of Hispanic programming to earn VPP star recognition," said OSHA's Region VI Administrator Dean W. McDaniel. "The station's outstanding efforts include zero injuries and illnesses over the past three years."



OSHA Cites Mississippi Contractor Following Worker Fatality

OSHA has cited LandCoast Insulation Inc. for three alleged safety violations following six injuries and one employee fatality last November when a scaffold collapsed inside a boiler at Mississippi Power's Plant Daniel in Moss Point.

Construction Services Firm Establishes ASSE Scholarship, Internship

The first recipient of the award--to be announced in early April--will receive a $5,000 safety and health scholarship, an internship that includes salary and living expenses, and an opportunity to attend ASSE's annual PDC, being held this year in San Antonio at the end of June.

New DOT Video Counters Those Trying to 'Beat' Their Drug Test

"By complying with these 10 steps, collection site personnel will communicate to employees and employers that their collection site is following DOT procedures for ensuring collection site security," says the agency's Office of Drug & Alcohol Policy & Compliance.

Hurricanes, Safety Culture, Kidnapping: Ready for RIMS 2009?

Online registration closed March 23, and admission to the April 20-22 expo is fairly expensive. But this event at the Orange County Convention Center, shown here, is a must for risk managers and insurers.

Civil Engineers Release 'Study Guide' to Improving America's Infrastructure

A report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) shows that with ingenuity and the right amount of commitment on the part of the nation's leaders and the American people, the infrastructure crisis we face is a solvable problem.

Bank Employee Reports Suspected Fraud, Suffers Retaliation; OSHA Steps In

"This order reaffirms both the right of employees to raise concerns regarding violations of Securities and Exchange Commission rules and the Labor Department's commitment to take the necessary steps to protect that right," said Ken Atha, OSHA's regional administrator in San Francisco.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson

Latest Toxics Release Inventory Shows Increase in PCBs

"This information underscores the need for fundamental transparency and provides a powerful tool for protecting public health and the environment," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Serving the public’s right to know is the crucial first step in reducing toxic chemicals in the places where we live, work, and raise children."

Penn Medicine Multi-Pronged Approach Reduces Bloodstream Infections

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) fell by more than 90 percent during the past three years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to a multi-pronged approach combining leadership initiatives, electronic infection surveillance, checklists to guide line insertion and maintenance, and implementation of the Toyota Production System to encourage best practices in line care.

Tewksbury Post Office Delivers Safety, Health

Among the site's areas of excellence are proactive efforts to identify and correct hazards to carriers encompassing community involvement, analysis of route hazards, and implementation of a motor vehicle logbook system for vehicle safety.

Metal Forgings Manufacturer Cited for Serious Safety Violations

A Dec. 23, 2008, incident in which two employees were injured when they were struck by a 700-pound forging that shot up in the air while they were attempting to free it from a malfunctioning die on a power press led to the second of two agency inspections.

MSHA Fines Hiawatha Coal Co. Nearly $342,800 for Rollover Accident

MSHA recently announced it has issued penalties totaling $342,800 to Hiawatha Coal Co. for a powered haulage accident last year at the Bear Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah. A miner was seriously injured in that accident.

Chemical Releases Spur Investigation, Lead to $44,000 in Penalties

The W. Va.-based company was cited for failing to ensure that operating procedures addressed special or unique hazards of the process, failing to conduct adequate inspections on process equipment, and failing to ensure that proper respiratory protection and personal protective equipment were utilized during an emergency response, among other things.

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