Sunday, August 3, 2014

July OSHA News


This month’s draft powerpoint is falls in construction. I use this in the OSHA 10 Hour class for 75 minutes to 2 hours. I like using the CWPR ladder video as an exercise to focus on ladder training. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXit0ziMIAA


This year, I am tracking the Illinois worker fatalities. I can find 1 who died in June bringing the total to 45 for 2014. 

 

It was a good training month with 129 people trained. My goal for 2014 is 2500 people trained. The first seven months was 1201 people trained total

 

I am also working on a training ppts for tuckpointing, power transmission, tree trimming and logging safety so will be glad to come out and help out at no cost.

 

Here is the news for July

 

1) Thanks to Terry Krug, the confined expert, that caught that I didn’t use 19.5% for the lower acceptable limit for oxygen in the monthly quiz. Terry has taught confined space for years and is an excellent trainer. He can be reached at (630) 736-2063.

 

2) Midnight Rider director Randall Miller has been indicted of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass in the death of their worker Sarah Jones.


 

3) Glenn Florczak has passed away this month at home in Chetek, WI following complications after recent cardiac bypass surgery.  I worked with Glenn when at the OSHA training institute and setting up the new fall protection standard training. He was always a digger in facts and had so much experience.

 

4) Thanks Matt Stein. OSHA has released an updated version of their directive on respiratory protection. https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/Directive_pdf/CPL_02-00-158.pdf

The biggest change is how respiratory protection is affected by the new hazard communication standard. OSHA is now requiring hazard assessments for all Category 1 and 2 acutely hazardous chemicals (including ammonia among others) and all sensitizers (such as paints that contain isocyanates).

 

5) If you have an OSHA 10 hour card, this is what is needed for a 30 hour card. It's called 10+20. 

Per the Feb 2013 OSHA Outreach Training Program Requirements:

 

"Outreach Trainers may provide 20 additional hours to 10-hour students and receive 30-hour cards under the following conditions:

a.  The same outreach trainer must do all of the outreach training.

b.  All of the outreach training must be completed from the start of the 10-hour class to the end of the 30-hour class within 6 months.

c.  The 10-hour card must be returned to receive the 30-hour card."


 

6) This month’s featured question.  Where does it say low voltage does not need lockout?

If the voltage is unless 50 volts as some detection circuit are, then

there is no hazard to require lockout.

 

1910.333(a)(1)

 

"Deenergized parts." Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to

ground need not be deenergized if there will be no increased exposure

to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.

 

7) We can do much better. Illness and injury are preventable” OSHA’s Dr. Michaels


 

8) This 2010 article on "complacency" is how some companies actually think.

I see it as "blame the worker". The example of the bicyclist not looking is too simple. It is "he wasn't paying attention" and pulled out in front of the truck.

Therefore the employer is brainwashed to believe that unguarded machines wouldn't hurt some worker if they weren't complacent.

The worker in the confined space should have been paying attention when that invisible toxic gas came in the space using this nonsense.


 

It seems I go into a workplace every month where the culture is focused on complacency. EVERY one of them has numerous serious hazards that will hurt a worker and are OSHA violations. I think the recognition of hazards is diminished with this training. After all, the worker causes the accidents per these BBS specialists.

The best workplaces are where the workers participate in audits and in job hazards analysis, workers take several training classes, safety committee is active and works, and management is committed to safety. Over 100 of these places that I have worked with have no injuries for the year. Very few have BBS mindset. If you see one management system that works, it is not six sigma, but the Lean 5S+safety (6S).

A good intro to 6S is at EPA.


 

9) The CSB has been urging OSHA to write a combustible dust rule since 2006, when the board issued a landmark report that detailed 281 such incidents between 1980 and 2005 that resulted in 119 deaths and 718 injuries. Between 2008 and 2013, the CSB has found 50 more incidents involving 29 deaths and 161 injuries.


 

10) OSHA: Auburn OH company facing $816,500 fine after faking abatement data. “Formed Fiber Technologies apparently decided that production was more important than ensuring its workers’ safety. They provided false abatement documentation to OSHA. They knew how hazardous these machines were without proper safeguards and also knew exactly how to fix those hazards,” Dr. David Michaels

This should be criminal like the Walter Cardin case of 2013.


 

11) I am seeing many falling through the roof in 2014. Here some good tips from the UK on this issue.


 

12) OSHA has new policy memo on temp workers and their employers.


 

13) OSHA updates communication tower directive. The first requirement will knock out lifting people by a hoist.

“Engineered Hoist Systems: Have a registered professional engineer approve/stamp the engineered hoist system design. Engineered system specifications are to include the size and type of rope to be used, the ratio of rope diameter to sheave size, and inspection and maintenance procedures and schedules.”


 

14) It sure looks like OSHA will keep citing residential fall protection issues #1. Thanks Tom. Data from CPWR Data briefs June 2014.

• Among self-employed construction workers, the number of fatalities increased 27.8% from 2011 to 2012 while the increase among wage-and-salary workers was 4.4%.

• There were 199 fatalities in residential construction in 2012 — an annual increase of 37.2% compared to just a 3.0% increase in nonresidential construction.

• Fall fatalities in all construction increased 9.3% from 269 to 294 between 2011 and 2012, but jumped 81.5% in residential building construction from 27 to 49 deaths.

• In 2012, 222 Hispanic construction workers died on the job — a 12.7% increase from 2011, compared to an 8.7% increase for the overall construction industry.

 

15) OR OSHA is revising their confined space standard. I want to see the new sample permits.


 

16) The highest heat-related death rates were in cities and very rural areas; the most isolated areas also had the highest rates related to the cold and to storms, floods and lightning. Low-income counties had higher weather-related death rates than high-income counties. That could be due to people in poor rural or urban places lacking heating, air conditioning or help during blizzards or heat waves, the researchers said

 

I was surprised to see cold kills the most.


 

 

OSHA Citations in July

Penalty State Major Issues Business

 

1) $194,000 WY Fall protection, eye wash

2) $42,240 GA fall protection, Siding contractor

3) $85,146 CT falls, electrical, spray booth, aircraft parts mfr

4) $177,800 MA Storage, electrical, exits, Retail chain

5) $228,690 FL Willful fall protection, Residential contractor

6) $54,500 AL Willful, Fatal bridge fall, Bridge contractor

7) $49,000 AL Machine guarding, falls, noise. Mfr and temp agency.

8) $102.000 FL Trench cave-in. Trenching contractor

9) $50,051 OH Engulfment in grain bin. Grain elevator.

10) $45,200 NY Demolition collapse death. Demo contractor.

11) $214,200 TX Repeat Falls, Machine guarding, noise, Barge mfr

12) $52,500 OH Willful free climbing comtower

13) $53,480 TX Fatal fall condo construction.

14) $47,520 IL Repeat machine guarding, Rack mfr

15) $50,820 OH Repeat noise, respirators. Metal polisher.

16) $62,101 NE Ammonia incident, Grain coop

17) $816,500 OH False abatement to OSHA,

18) $57,140 OH Repeat Silica, Foundry

19) $47,600 MA Lead, silica, respirator, Rehab contractor.

20) $53,240. OH Repeat electrical, flammables, respirator, Retail chain

21) $158,000 NJ Repeat electrical, storage, Retail chain.

22) $101,300 NJ Repeat electrical, aisle marking, machine guarding, Airlines.

23) $53,000 NY Noise, PPE, Aluminum foundry

24) $70,290 MA Powerlines, Trench contractor

25) $83,930 GA Repeat fall protection, Roofing contractor.

26) $110,700 IL Repeat Forklifts, Retail Stores

27) $111,650 OH Repeat lockout, machine guardings and forklift, Packaging machinery

28) $161,100 NY Coke plant explosion

29) $120,560 NE Structural collapse at feed mill

 

 

Large Work Payouts

 

1) $2 million in damages to three plaintiffs who sued after they were injured in a 2007 elevator accident at the Louisiana Superdome.


 

2) $9.3 million to an asbestos plaintiff


 

3) $7.6 million for a scaffold accident. Cortes, who was working on a "construction and asbestos removal" project at leased warehouse space, fell when he was dismantling a scaffold, court documents show.


 

4) TX jury awards families of McDonald workers $27 Million. “This was a dangerous location, and McDonald’s knew it,” Chris Hamilton, an attorney for the Crisp and Ward families, said, according to Bloomberg, adding: “Yet they did nothing to prevent their senseless deaths.”


 

 

Major New Stories

 

1) OSHA Focusing on Protecting Temporary Workers


 

2) Workers died needlessly in the heat. Good map.


 

3) Selma AL workers are getting sick at their plant.


 

4) “A life so full of possibilities was lost and the fine for multiple serious violations was negotiated to less than the price of a junky used car”


 

5) "Burgos Construction has been cited seven times in the past two years for not providing fall protection for its employees engaged in residential construction.” That is a lot of times for one issue.


 

6) Tales from the front: VPP site kicked out contractor for not knowing the crane signals.

The safety director saw a contractor using non-standard crane signals at the facility. She asked the workers about some of the 19 crane signals. No one had crane signal training. They were told not to come back until they had taken an independent training class. So the large contractor wanted the four hour class today. You would think a large construction firm of 1500 employees would have had this training, but it goes to show that many are still behind a rule that came out four years ago.

 

 

2014 Safety Training at Non-Profits

           

CSC 10 Hour for Construction           August 5-6, 2014       

NIU 501 General Industry                 August 11-14, 2014   

CSC GHS                                           August 27, 2014        

TRMA Excavation Safety                  August 21, 2014        

TRMA Fall Protection                        August 28, 2014        

CSC Confined Space                          upon request   

TRMA Scaffold Safety                      August 20, 2014        

CSC Crane Signal and Rigging          upon request   

CSC 30 Hour construction                 August 5, 7, 12, 14, 2014

WDCC OSHA 10 Hour Industry       August 7-8     

           

                       

TRMA is Three Rivers Manufacturers Association    www.trma.org

NIU is Northern Illinois University OSHA Education Center http://www.nsec.niu.edu/nsec/

CSC is the Construction Safety Council in Hillside. Www.Buildsafe.org

WDCC is the Western Dupage Chamber of Commerce http://www.westerndupagechamber.com/

 

I usually teach only part of the 30 hour and the 500 series.