"If the employer had implemented the recommended safety procedures by having proper machine guarding on equipment, these needless injuries could have been avoided," said Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA's area director in Mobile, Ala.
"There is no excuse for this accident," said Charles Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "This worker should not have been allowed to work in the machine without energy sources being locked out."
On April 13, the Food and Drug Administration published guidance for small egg producers to help them comply with a 2009 federal egg safety regulation designed to prevent Salmonella Enteritidis in shell eggs during production, transportation, and storage.
With the exception of three 13-year-olds, the 1,482 minors the company employed were 14 and 15 years of age.
Damaged, inoperable emergency lighting and a lack of hazard assessment certification were among other faults uncovered in a February inspection.
An inspection conducted under OSHA's Chemical Industry National Emphasis Program resulted in $153,000 in proposed penalties.
Enhancing the week's impact, the event is being held in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, April 28, which traditionally serves as a nationwide day of remembrance to recognize U.S. workers who die and become disabled each year on the job.
Each of the chemicals is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," the agency said, noting the additions would be the first program chemical expansion in more than a decade.
A systematic review of nursing handoff literature has determined that minimal research has been done to identify best practices, despite well-known negative consequences of inadequate nursing handoffs. The article was published in the April issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN).
"Although it is not possible to give a universal prescription for preventing stress at work, it is possible to offer guidelines on the process of stress prevention in organizations," NIOSH says.
"The investigation team will work tirelessly to evaluate all aspects of this accident to identify the cause of the disaster," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for MSHA.
“The CSB has 18 ongoing investigations. Of those, seven of these accidents occurred at refineries across the country. This is a significant and disturbing trend that the refining industry needs to address immediately,” said John Bresland, CSB chairman and CEO.
During FY 2009, field inspectors conducted 59 inspections of high-hazard federal worksites and found 336 violations of OSHA safety and health standards -- more than twice the number cited in 2008.
The Department of Justice, in an action initiated by the FDA, is seeking a permanent injunction against Chung’s Products LP ("Chung's"), an egg roll manufacturer in Houston; Charlie A. Kujawa, the company's president; and Gregory S. Birdsell, the firm's director of quality assurance.
“Our inspections have shown that the company has not fully addressed ongoing safety issues that expose employees to serious harm,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh. “Our actions today continue to send a strong message to this company that they cannot allow such hazards to exist which put the safety of their employees in jeopardy.”
"First, it's easy to understand how valuable and vulnerable our eyes are, so it's an easy platform for starting a persuasive safety conversation," said David Iannelli, senior product manager for Uvex.
It's clear that U.S. safety managers understand cash is a bad motivator of safer behaviors and performance on the job. Nine out of 10 potential customers he sees at industry trade shows accept that statement as a given, said Brian Galonek, CPIM, president of All Star Incentive Marketing of Fiskdale, Mass.
Today's on-site occupational health centers are the fruition of an evolution that began soon after the OSH Act was signed into law 40 years ago, when the chief task involved was treating work-related injuries. Medical surveillance was part of the package, then and now, but nonwork- related acute care and health management are now important components, said Stu Clark, executive vice president of Comprehensive Health Services Inc. (CHS), based in Reston, Va.
Are there people in your company who are working inflamed? Angry, hot around the collar, on guard, suspicious, untrusting, disbelieving, on edge, ready to react? All are potentially dangerous to their company's smooth functioning — and to their personal safety.
Cutting back on safety expenses could amount to gambling with not only the health and well-being of workers, but also with profits and perhaps the company itself.