Recently we witnessed an electrical work perform a lockout on a piece of equipment that was not starting during the start-up phase of the process. This piece of equipment was absolutely critical for the process to run safely so this worker and the facility personnel witnessing this as well failed to recognize a CRITICAL mistake…...
Validating your electrical meter BEFORE testing on the isolated circuit Read More »
March 12, 2021 MEMORANDUM FOR: REGIONAL ADMINISTRATORS STATE PLAN DESIGNEES THROUGH AMANDA EDENS Deputy Assistant Secretary FROM: PATRICK J. KAPUST, Acting Director Directorate of Enforcement Programs SUBJECT: Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) This Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides new instructions and guidance to…...
OSHA’s Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Read More »
A 32-year-old male employee was crushed by/caught in a rotating machine roller while attempting to package a mattress. The victim was in the process of operating the machine, rolling, and wrapping a twin-sized mattress with cellophane to prepare it for packaging and shipping when he was caught by the roller. Two machines function together to…...
Worker (32) was crushed in mattress packaging machine Read More »
2020 Overall 1910 MFC Top 10: Take note: Six (6) of the top ten are from HAZCOM, Machine Guarding, and Respirator standards. And sadly, the HAZCOM issues are NOT related to the new GHS changes, but the same old issues: No written…...
Most Frequently Cited Serious Violations – General Industry FY2020 Read More »
An account administrator at a securities firm was working overtime in a section of a vault. At 7:10 p.m., security personnel closed and locked the vault. The employee was working in a section of the vault accessible only with a swipe card. The security guard did not have a swipe card and did not access…...
Hazards of CO2 Extinguishing Systems (OSHA Bulletin) Read More »
Incorporated by Reference (IBR) is the act of including a second document within another document by only mentioning the second document. This act, if properly done, makes the entire second document a part of the main document. Incorporation by reference is found over 1,445 times in OSHA standards, with 949 being related to the General…...
Incorporated by Reference (IBR) database Read More »
GAO’s analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data showed that the number of recordkeeping violations OSHA cited fluctuated over 15 years. An April 2012 federal court decision (that effectively limited the time period for citing these violations) and a January 2015 expansion of OSHA’s rule for reporting severe injuries and illnesses coincided with…...
Actions Needed to Improve Reporting of Summary Injury and Illness Data (2021) Read More »
As I have said, this is all about the “environmental movement” to reduce the regulatory burdens on flammable refrigerants and not about worker safety! You can read OSHA’s own words about by they are proposing this change… OSHA is proposing several changes to the Flammable Gases hazard class (Appendix B.2). Most significantly, OSHA is proposing…...
OSHA’s position on making flammable gas subcategories 1A and 1B Read More »
Most insurers these days require this type of management program, although they may be called something else. The idea is that BEFORE a fixed system is removed from service, someone will notify the insurer about the removal from service. The insurer will then require a host of actions to be taken during the time the…...
Do you have a “RED TAG” program in place for your fixed fire protection systems? Read More »
We knew this was coming; I have been writing about it for several years and what we should expect with this revision. SAFTENG members can read what this HAZCOM revision could do to the PSM standard and Flammable Liquids standard. If OSHA adopts Part 2 of the UN’s GHS, what will Flammable Gases look like? ……...
OSHA proposing to update the HAZCOM standard to align with UN’s GHS 7th revision Read More »
We should NEVER accept damaged electrical wires – EVEN when they are inside an electrical cabinet! Case in point… A 30-year-old male employee was troubleshooting an issue with an injection molding machine and apparently was electrocuted when he contacted the frame of the loading conveyor. The company is a manufacturer of injection-molded, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)…...
Damaged electrical wire inside cabinet causes electrocution OUTSIDE of cabinet Read More »
To be blunt, the 2021 IFC does NOT require fire extinguishers on PITs (e.g., forklifts). The revision to the 2021 IFC merely gives storage (S) occupancies a NEW option for providing fire extinguishers. The new option is that when the S occupancy can meet certain requirements (as shown and explained below) they can put fire…...
Does the IFC 2021 require fire extinguishers on forklifts? Read More »
