OSHA Compliance Posts

Experienced safety professional will often admit it took them years before realizing that a “general industry” workplace can fall under construction standards (1926) and vice-versa.  I know I was well into my career before I came to understand this and once it was explained to me I could see how my maintenance team could fall…...

Cal/OSHA is reminding all employers to protect their outdoor workers from the risk of heat illness, as temperatures in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California are expected to reach the 80s today and into the weekend, with record highs expected in some areas. “While California’s heat illness standards are the toughest in the…...

OSHA revised its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to align with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) and published it in the Federal Register in March 2012 (77 FR 17574). Two significant changes contained in the revised standard require the use of new labeling elements and a standardized format…...

The Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which became effective on June 18, 2010, is intended to focus enforcement efforts on recalcitrant employers who demonstrate indifference to the health and safety of their employees through willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations relating to significant hazards.  The SVEP replaced the Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP), a program also intended…...

The Bill H.R. 632 was introduced in the House of Representatives this month (2/13/2013) is to authorize the Department of Labor’s voluntary protection program and to expand the program to include more small businesses.  The bill requires the Secretary of Labor to establish a program of entering into cooperative agreements with employers to encourage the…...

Cars, pickups, dump trucks, delivery vehicles, 18-wheelers as wells as fork trucks and heavy construction equipment all have something in common.  OSHA investigated eight worker deaths in New England in 2012 due to backovers and three more involved working on or near vehicles.  The count does not include several public sector workers not investigated by…...

Based on the results of the NIOSH quantitative risk assessment [Park et al. 2004], NIOSH recommends that airborne exposure to all Cr(VI) compounds be limited to a concentration of 0.2 µg Cr(VI)/m3 for an 8-hr TWA exposure, during a 40-hr workweek. The REL is intended to reduce workers’ risk of lung cancer associated with occupational exposure…...

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There are not many safety professionals who have been audited that do not already know exactly what the title means!  I do not know where this numbers game originated from, but I can say this with 100% certainty… it is a MAJOR PROBLEM in our profession and does more damage than any solid audit could…...

On February 14, 2007, OSHA published a final rule revising the electrical installation standard for general industry. The revised standard became effective on August 13, 2007. This standard is intended to reduce the risk of injury and death caused by unsafe electrical installations.  Subpart S contains installation requirements that apply based on the time period…...