OSHA has issued $206,945 in fines to a power plant, and one of its contractors after a hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas leak killed two workers and injured four others inside a PRCS last August. The power company was fined $77,605, while the contractor that was performing maintenance at the plant was fined $129,340. OSHA says […]
The summer of 2015 we got the much anticipated OSHA standard: Confined Spaces in Construction. And as OSHA has stated, this standard was meant to cover permit-required confined spaces (PRCS) in the construction industry, but also to “correct” some of the conflicts in the general industry PRCS standard (1910.146). In my August 2015 postings, we
The following sections describe who uses the information collected under each requirement, as well as how they use it. Employers and employees would use these information collection requirements when they identify a confined space at a construction worksite. The purpose of the information would permit employers and employees to systematically evaluate the dangers in confined
At approximately 12:10 p.m. on January 21, 2014, Employee #1, Employee #2, a 36-year-old male, and a coworker, a 39-year-old male with a truck washing business, were engaged in cleaning out the interior of the tanker trailer. The equipment involved was a 6,500-gallon tanker trailer which was pulled in for interior cleaning. This tanker trailer
This month OSHA published a FATAL FACT #16-2018 to raise awareness of confined space hazards on farms after a farm maintenance worker died after entering an 8,000-gallon polyethylene storage tank. At the time of the incident, the tank contained liquid whey, known to produce carbon dioxide gas as it decomposes. A broken ball valve inside the tank needed to be
Ever wonder why OSHA saw fit to define entry as: … as soon as any part of the entrant’s body breaks the plane of an opening into the space. Here is a 2001 fatality involving a worker reaching into a PRCS and died…
It is 24 years after OSHA promulgated it’s Permit-Required Confined Space standard and then in 2015 OSHA promulgated their Confined Spaces in Construction standard and yet we continue to see more “would-be rescuers” dying in Permit-Required Confined Spaces as do actual “entrants”. We can only hope that one-day worker training and awareness will end the “would-be
At 2:00 p.m. on June 13, 2017, two employees, a father and son team, were replacing a pump. The son was overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas and became unconscious. As the father retrieved his son from the pump lift station, he fell and a suffered blunt force trauma injury. Both father and son died. OSHA
OSHA has cited US Environmental Inc. for 12 safety violations, including willfully exposing workers to confined space and fall hazards. The company faces proposed penalties of $333,756. Investigators inspected the facility on May 31, 2017, and found that the company failed to implement rescue procedures for employees in confined spaces; provide protective equipment when working in
On Oct. 11, 2012, a worker, 62, was killed at a tuna processing facility while he was loading a 35-foot-long Retort (see here for example of a retort). A co-worker, who mistakenly believed the worker was in the bathroom, filled the retort with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned it on, according to a
At approximately 11:00 p.m. on March 27, 2017, Employee #1 was cleaning a mixing tank. The power was turned on and Employee #1 was struck by the agitator and killed. OSHA issued the following citations: NOTE: all of the citations are under contest
OSHA has cited a Nebraska grain-handling cooperative for failing to protect workers from grain bin entrapment and engulfment hazards. The company faces $373,911 in proposed penalties. On May 4, 2017, OSHA responded to reports of a worker partially entrapped in a grain bin. Investigators found the worker had entered the bin to clear clumps of
