DOJ notes the plea is related to felony guilty pleas already entered by the company and its president, who pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for disposing pesticide waste down the sewers of the city of St. Joseph, Mo.
The DOT summit on the topic will start Sept. 30, but you can submit comments or questions now via www.regulations.gov.
Employers must organize the work "to allow the use of mechanical or other means to avoid the need for the manual handling of loads by employees in the workplace," according to the regulations.
The Federal Railroad Administration's directive was ordered by Congress and affects states with the highest number of incidents in 2006-2008. Texas, Illinois, and California top that list.
The February 2008 explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Georgia sparked attention and concern about combustible dusts. The company's computer-based training teaches workers about dust, food safety, emergency preparedness, and heat stress.
Illinois has became the newest state to receive approval from OSHA to administer its own occupational safety and health plan for public employees in the state. A notice appears in the Sept. 1st edition of the Federal Register.
Heberle Disposal Service Inc., a Rochester, N.Y., solid waste collection company, faces an additional $304,200 in fines from OSHA for failing to correct hazards cited during a 2008 inspection and for new and recurring safety hazards at its Alvanar Road worksite.
We've focused mostly on regulations and PPE--things that are usually pretty visible. Let's move on and look at reducing the need for PPE.
"We believe that this agreement represents a fair and just resolution of this matter and, hopefully, will serve as a warning to all businesses that generate wastewater that they must abide by all requirements of their discharge permits," said U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy.
According to DOJ, the company's six plants in the state are illegally emitting massive amounts of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter.
DOL agreed with critics who said the proposal to have OSHA and MSHA issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking whenever they develop a health standard for toxic substances or hazardous chemicals is unnecessary and adds delay.
An agency inspection identified dozens of instances throughout the plant where workers were exposed to possible lacerations, amputation, and crushing injuries from unguarded moving parts of mechanical power presses and other machinery as well as a lack of specific procedures to prevent the accidental startup of numerous machines during set-up, maintenance, and repair.
A short tutorial added to the agency's Web site explains the requirements for these mine emrgency chambers and links to the rule requiring them.
"It's critical that companies report the storage and release of toxic chemicals--if they don't, public safety is jeopardized in an emergency," said Edward Kowalski, EPA's Director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle.
In 1992, with the Joint Commission first requiring accredited hospitals to prohibit smoking within the hospital, only 3 percent did, but 15 percent said they were pursuing a smoke-free campus policy.
Tributes poured in today for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who chaired the Labor Committee and left his mark on tobacco regulation, mental health parity, job training, food labeling, higher education grants, miners' safety, and access for disabled Americans.
The Federal Railroad Administration's final rule says the largest U.S. railroads must train individuals to supervise the installation, adjustment, or maintenance of CWR track. A review of accidents found repairs weren't following the carriers' engineering standards.
But in rejecting the 2004 request, the agency said it is now making a comprehensive review of the lighting standard and studying the feasibility of many regulatory changes.
The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) recently announced Gerber Products Co. has agreed to settle findings of hiring discrimination against 1,912 rejected minority and female applicants for entry-level positions. The agreement settles the department's allegations that Gerber engaged in hiring discrimination against minority and female applicants for one year.
An Aug. 18 Safety Alert warns construction companies and utilities that machines used to cut trenches may be equipped with safety devices that do not function as designed.