OSHA NEws June 2021

OSHA News for June 2021 Hello, This was a fast month. I got to do more audits and training. The newsletter is early since I will take vacation this weekend for a week. This month is the new OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard on Covid. It will apply mostly to healthcare where they are working with Covid patients. I plan to teach it July 8 via nsec.niu.edu. I am seeing some accidents related to the bright sun. Driving slower and wearing sunglasses can help. I had five people pass the CHST and ASP exams. I have been working on studying materials for the exams. ASP is only a 60% pass rate. I have the Covid antibodies. I wanted to get the test since the vaccine didn’t cause much reaction. John OSHA News. 1) A Senate committee approved President Joe Biden‘s nominees for three U.S. Labor Department leadership roles, including occupational safety chief, advancing them to the full chamber, the panel announced Wednesday. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted 13-9 for Doug Parker to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; 2) OSHA is hiring. All OSHA jobs via USAjobs. https://www.usajobs.gov 3) OSHA was at Chemtool before the explosion for a complaint inspection. https://wrex.com/2021/06/15/weeks-before-fire-federal-investigators-from-osha-visited-rockton-chemtool-plant/?fbclid=IwAR1XGeerpaex9XlOvFqZ5N9JGajgRgJVuEN3rIEl_785Eg3rRoYFpa4d_SM 4) A link to the OSHA ETS on Covid. https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets?fbclid=IwAR36lRrZ3SGacHMdCam9-DsUh9Ri9-tc_aLaLtbeUEML9qb0_9x-i2aRw3U 5) Recruiting a Hurdle to Biden’s Goal of Doubling OSHA Inspectors Emphasis on finding multi-lingual candidates 155 new field agents proposed for fiscal 2022 BGov, By Bruce Rolfsen and Fatima Hussein | June 7, 2021 1:26PM ET President Joe Biden’s goal of doubling OSHA’s inspection force to roughly 1,500 by 2024 faces daunting challenges—from recruiting and training people with the needed skills to convincing lawmakers to pay for the new positions. The pandemic wreaked havoc on health-care workers and non-English-speaking immigrant workers in the manufacturing, agriculture, and meatpacking industries. The administration’s plans to increase inspectors is driven by frustration with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s inability to respond to an overwhelming number of worker complaints. OSHA will now need to focus on hiring multilingual staff with an array of technical skills and understanding of workplace dynamics, said Rebecca Reindel, director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO. The buildup would also cost tens of millions of dollars annually and require a long-term financial commitment, according to the president’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal. As of April, OSHA had 748 inspectors, officially called compliance safety and health officers, according to the agency. In the field, they’re supervised by about 200 area office directors and assistant directors. At its current staffing level the agency is limited in how many inspections it can do that aren’t in response to immediate reports of injuries or hazards, said Tom Galassi, who retired from OSHA in 2018 as head of its enforcement directorate. “By doubling the number, OSHA will get the capability that they’ve long needed,” Galassi said. https://assets.bwbx.io/.../iIy.../iXU8g2jd.DqQ/v0/620x-1.png OSHA staffing FY 2022 Budget Proposal The proposed $664.4 million appropriation for fiscal 2022 would essentially take OSHA’s peak budget during the Obama administration—$564.8 million in fiscal 2012—and adjust it upward for inflation. The 2022 enforcement budget would grow 10% from fiscal 2021 to $254.6 million. Over the coming fiscal year, OSHA would create 155 new inspector positions and add 52 other jobs, including assistant area directors and technicians. Altogether, OSHA’s enforcement staff would grow to 1,545 positions in 2022, a 15% increase from 2021’s 1,338. Another 85 inspector positions were funded for fiscal 2021 by a Covid-19 relief bill, the American Rescue Plan Act, passed in March. Once the new inspectors are in the field, they’ll likely respond to severe injury and hospitalization reports from employers, while inspectors with three or more years of experience will handle inspections that require more planning, such as checking factories for machine hazards and chemical processing plants, according to OSHA’s spending plan. The increasing ranks of inspector should enable OSHA to boost inspection numbers. In 2022, OSHA projects conducting 36,984 inspections, a 19% boost over the 31,013 projected for 2021. positions approved, about 440 more than at the end of the George W. Bush presidency. Then, spending cuts mandated by Congress took their toll and by 2020 staffing had declined to 1,865 positions. Biden’s nominee to lead the agency, Doug Parker, told senators during his May 27 confirmation hearing that recruiting and training new staff was his “top priority.” “We have to be able to build trust with the communities that are most affected by worker health and safety issues, and most affected by injury, illness, and death,” Parker said. “And then we also have to be able to deliver the goods once those workers have the trust in us to come forward and take the risks that are involved in complaining about a workplace that’s unsafe,” he added. 6) OSHA page in heat stress https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure?fbclid=IwAR1d5pCOslhugf26VhDjMXrBdcQYRdGK50g7ZPQ6LQLTUI67QN0uOtoiX6A Other Major News Stories. 1) #covid update. Less hospitaliztions. Last night: US reported 7,319 cases, 393 deaths, and 12,633 current hospitalizations. Compared to one week ago: 7,856 cases, 219 deaths, and 14,232 current hospitalizations. 53.55% of US population has received one dose of a multi dose vaccine versus 53.46% prior update. 45.35% of US population has been fully vaccinated versus 45.24% prior update. Data source: CDC. Week over week comparisons are used because the volatility in weekend reporting data. Vaccine data is compared to the previous report which is updated every weekday. 2) 120 years ago a firework explosion in Paterson NJ killed several. https://nj1015.com/the-paterson-fireworks-explosion-of-1901/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR1TLTrLC69eea2405p22_x2KLDP4Qa6B1u1YR3uJz8MGnNuplfP9Rwn5dk 3) Bryon nuclear is closing. I spent many inspections there. https://www.shawlocal.com/sauk-valley/news/government/2021/06/19/exelon-files-to-close-byron-nuclear-plant/?fbclid=IwAR1Am06svm2p_IBqFsB4PtmLZa3qj0t-b4TjkEgyuFu2-IyEFli7roP_VUs 4) Amazon and National Safety Council announced a five-year partnership to invent new ways to prevent the largest category of workplace injuries in the U.S., musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Amazon and NSC have been working together for months on this first-of-its-kind collaboration. 5) $222 million verdict in steam scalding death. https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article251828923.html?fbclid=IwAR2HmMIwNiHteQE3Eor1vmsNWpTXyF4v2C9kPUHeO0QiqgDh3_g1jRAEUBQ 6) Recent OSHA Citations State Inspection Number Employer City Issuance Date Initial Penalty NC 1511684.015 H M Woodworking, Inc. NEWTON 06/07/2021 $47,700.00 CA 1505064.015 Monterey Mushrooms, Inc. WATSONVILLE 06/04/2021 $75,000.00 KS 1516900.015 Pyramid Foods COFFEYVILLE 06/04/2021 $40,961.00 CA 1492143.015 Copper Harbor Company, Inc. SAN LEANDRO 06/03/2021 $50,995.00 CA 1505656.015 O'Reilly Auto Enterprises, LLC MORENO VALLEY 06/03/2021 $45,900.00 ID 1514446.015 Tamarack Mill, LLC NEW MEADOWS 06/03/2021 $40,549.00 IL 1515481.015 J. L. Clark, LLC ROCKFORD 06/03/2021 $107,284.00 KY 1505686.015 EMERSON ELECTRIC CO. RUSSELLVILLE 06/03/2021 $84,000.00 MD 1522695.015 Jose Flores ODENTON 06/03/2021 $75,725.00 NJ 1508830.015 Fidelity Paper & Supply Corp. EAST HANOVER 06/03/2021 $40,551.00 NV 1516337.015 Circa Resorts, LLC LAS VEGAS 06/03/2021 $61,440.00 OH 1513536.015 Sygma Network, Inc. COLUMBUS 06/03/2021 $109,224.00 WI 1505481.015 Didion Milling, Inc. CAMBRIA 06/03/2021 $676,808.00 CA 1494585.015 GHC of Pleasanton, LLC PLEASANTON 06/02/2021 $66,875.00 GA 1506061.015 Foundation Food Group, Inc. GAINESVILLE 06/02/2021 $54,612.00 NY 1506710.015 Meloon Foundries, LLC SYRACUSE 06/02/2021 $68,266.00 CA 1483234.015 PLM Operations, LLC MODESTO 06/01/2021 $50,000.00 Safety Training at Non-Profits (Check Sites for Starting Dates) CSC 7115 lockout July 12 at CSC OSHA 511 online July 12-15 Machine Guarding NIU Online July 9, 23 NIU is Northern Illinois University OSHA Education Center http://www.nsec.niu.edu FREE machine Guarding https://www.nsec.niu.edu/nsec/course-schedules/free-courses/free-machinery-courses/index.shtml CSC is the Construction Safety Council in Hillside. Www.Buildsafe.org TRMA is Three Rivers Manufacturers Association www.trma.org NSC is National Safety Council http://www.nsec.niu.edu/nsec/ Global OSHA is https://www.globalosha.org/ I usually teach only part of the 30 hour and the 500 series. I have been teaching many 10/30 hour class for private companies. I have taught people this year. I teach evenings, weekends, early mornings too. I teach in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana. All presentations are put on slideshare.net for free downloading. I put this presentation at this link. https://www.slideshare.net/johnanewquist/ I use your feedback to make changes to make correcti