The United States Court of Appeals for The Sixth Circuit says it does. More than fifty years ago, Congress passed, and President Nixon signed into law, the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, 29 U.S.C. § 651 et seq. Throughout the next half century, challenges to the constitutionality of the Act have been uniformly rejected. […]
With an apparent increase in the number of homes and businesses suffering from “gas service” explosions, I will ask the question: Should the USA adopt the UK’s regulatory approach to “gas service” construction and maintenance? I am used to working with flammable gas in chemical plants and we have layers of protection built-in to our
This is from a state OSHA plan that has released its State Emphasis Program (SEP) for Heat-Related Hazards. In this SEP there are some great questions we can ask of our own Heat-Related Injury and Illness Prevention Plans to see if our plan is meeting basic OSHA compliance. Here are a couple of KEY points
Scenario: In your letter, you state that your client’s driver was driving a company vehicle, on the clock, and traveling on a public roadway. The driver was traveling between service calls near an intersection when a four-car collision occurred as the result of another car coming from the wrong direction in the same lane. After
If there is one device that causes more electrical issues in workplaces, it has to be electrical extension cords. There are few audits in our 20+ years of business where we did not find multiple concerns around the use of electrical extension cords. These issues generally center around either their IMPROPER use or the cords
So much to learn from this video. OSH practices need to understand the concept of Layers of Protection: Prevent, Protect, and Mitigate through our Hierarchy of Controls. GUARDING to PREVENT exposure to hazardous energy, NO LOOSE clothes around power transmission devices (even well-guarded devices) to PROTECT workers, E-Stop to MITIGATE the consequences when #1 and
Most of us have some form of “ventilation” used as an “engineering control” in our workplaces. This is sound advice from our friends “across the pond” in the UK… Note: although they are on a different continent and at a different latitude and longitude, airborne contaminants behave the same as in other countries on this
I challenged a product recently on a LinkedIn post. My challenge was based on a video advertisement and caused me to question the product and what it could do to OSHA and IBC codes related to steps/stairs. One of the company reps, Rick Corbin, contacted me and gave me more information, and I stand corrected.
There was some legal advice given today on a social media site regarding documenting our safety training with sign-in sheets, so if OSHA ever asked for records to show an employee was “trained”, the employer would be able to show the sign-in sheet. The advice even contained the statement: Your safety training in this respect
The heat index is based on the relative humidity. When this relative humidity is HIGH, it significantly reduces the ability of our sweat to evaporate off our skin. This sweating and evaporation process is how our bodies are cooled. Our Heat-Related Illness Prevention Plan’s “action temperature(s)” MUST be based on the HEAT INDEX – not the
The last article for my ESRWPs series. As I have been focused on volt meters and their proper use, this last article will discuss the necessary maintenance on these meters. Another reason why the meters need to be provided AND maintained by the employer. Are the meters at your facility in preventive maintenance (PM) program?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has notified the SBA Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) that OSHA intends to convene a Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) panel (commonly known as an “SBREFA” panel) on a possible “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” rule in the next several weeks. OSHA’s possible
