OSHA Compliance Posts

The majority of OSHA’s Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) were adopted in 1971, under section 6(a) of the OSH Act and only a few have been successfully updated since that time. There is widespread agreement among industry, labor, and professional occupational safety and health organizations that occupational safety and health organizations that OSHA’s PELs are outdated…...

In the past several years OSHA has renewed their efforts in trying to get their “Injury and Illness Prevention Plan” (I2P2) on the table for discussion/rule making. To many safety professionals this may be a “new movement”, but in reality this effort dates all the way back to 1995. Recently, OSHA has said they are…...

Last week I wrote about keeping safety simple by building upon the safety foundation that OSHA has provided and as I expected there were some that were insulted by my position on behavior based safety. Some thought I was some kind of “big government” person, which for those that know me are chuckling right now…....

An employee entered a hot liquid asphalt tank to cut out a section of piping when they became trapped by the tar substance. The employee suffered severe burns to his legs and feet following an 8-hour rescue. As a result of the September 2013 incident, OSHA cited the company with 10 serious safety and health…...

Call me a simple man educated in Western TN and KY, but to me, safety is VERY SIMPLE and I like to keep it that way. I have been around for 25 years in the Emergency Response field and safety profession and I have had the opportunity to work for some truly world-class companies and…...

Here’s a safety riddle for you: What do 1910.307(g)(4)(i), Hazardous Locations, Zones, and Professional Engineers have in common? Answer:  They are ALL required when your facility has Hazardous Locations using “zones” rather than divisions (e.g. Class I, II, and III areas) to classify an area. In 2007 OSHA did a major revisions of their Electrical…...

I was doing some research for as client and came across this information, which I think is something many of us have been struggling with. The source is MN-OSHA, which is a state OSHA plan and these plans can be MORE stringent than federal OSHA – but they can NOT be lesser. Which means that…...

The Industrial Commission of Arizona (“Commission”) has received inquiries concerning a “Final Notice” document that has been received in the mail from the “Labor Standards Compliance Office” with an address of East Thistle Drive in Phoenix, Arizona. This document, believed to be a sales solicitation or advertisement, states that there is a fee of $295.00…....

Alaska’s Occupational Safety and Health Review commission hands downs a PRCS decision regarding a “Fish Bin Chiller Alley” at a seafood processing plant.  A CSHO stated this corridor, meeting the criteria below, was not only a CS, but it was a PRCS: corridor approximately 60 feet long and 5 feet wide within the corridor there…...

Following an incident where a machine operator’s arms were crushed, OSHA cited the manufacturer, whose products are for the oil and gas industry, with eight willful, egregious violations. The company created a dangerous work environment by failing to guard machines, which exposed workers to life-threatening hazards. Proposed penalties total $560,000. OSHA began the September 2013…...

In August 2013, a 32-year-old machine helper entered a large wire mesh manufacturing machine to retrieve a fallen metal bar, and he was struck and killed by a part that feeds the wire into the machine’s welding area. The light curtain that would have automatically turned the machine off before he entered the danger zone…...