With OSHA’s new Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment (Fall Protection Systems) standard comes some clarification as to when “stairs” must be provided vs. using a ladder. In the new standard, paragraphs (b)(7) through (9) specify when and where employers MUST provide standard stairs, and under what conditions employers may use spiral, ship, or alternating tread-type stairs. […]
This weeks video is all about “seeing is believing”! The video is from a series of training videos made back in 1947 for the US War Department to training workers in the factories making war products. These videos may be old, but they are timeless as the chemistry of flammable liquids and gases have NOT
OSHA’s new Fall Protection standard for General Industry has a lot of MAJOR changes (for the better!) that we will be dealing with over the next several years (up to 20 years for some). One that caught my eye was the new requirements for our maintenance personnel who may be doing work on low-sloped roofs
Tomorrow OSHA will publish their new standard Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment (Fall Protection Systems) in the Federal Register. This means that 60 days later (January 17, 2017), the standard will be EFFECTIVE, with some provisions having delayed enforcement dates. This rule, in the making since the 1990’s, will essentially change the way FALL PROTECTION in
As you have figured out I am all about having a “safety process” rather than a bunch of “safety programs” and one thing I learn in my Six Sigma days is that a “safety process” MUST function exactly like our quality processes to be as successful. This means we HAVE TO continually “sample” our safety
This month we saw CAL-OSHA issue citations to a roofing company after two of its employees were literally blown off an asphalt tanker and ten (10) feet to the ground. Both workers sustained serious burns to large portions of their bodies. But after hearing all the comments about “safety is just common sense” I wonder
Each year about this time I get at least one phone call from a member/client about their annual “holiday inspection”; trust me when I say the term “holiday” has absolutely no relation to the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays! However, their CMMS has spit out a work order that calls for a piping circuit to be
One of my all time favorite, and most reliable, sources of safety information is the FM Global Data Sheet library. And as I have said for several years now, EVERYONE can get FREE access to this library. If you work for a company that does not want to spend the money on published safety standards
Respondent owned and operated a chemical manufacturing facility that produces anhydrous ammonia at a quantity of approximately 1,500 tons per day. The produced ammonia is used on site for the production of granulated fertilizers. Ammonia (anhydrous) is identified at 40 C.F.R. Part 68.130 as a toxic regulated substance with a threshold quantity of 10,000 pounds.
Yesterday morning around 3:30 am, hazmat crews detonated explosives and ignited the flammable contents of two tank cars, one was propane and one was butane, involved in a train derailment in MN. The explosions were designed to pierce the hulls of two cars, one carrying propane, the other butane. Incident Command determined that the “vent
WARNING! Viewer Discretion is advised. This week’s video shows a worker climbing a fixed ladder while holding onto blueprints (NO 3-point contact with ladder). As he climbs he falls from the ladder to a platform. The platform has a top rail, but does NOT have a mid-rail, allowing the worker to fall from the platform
