Many facilities utilize golf carts as a means of transportation while traveling on-site. Some are used indoors as well, which, in my professional opinion, increases risks in their use. Unfortunately, many workplaces do not view the use of golf carts as a hazard, much less a serious hazard, and therefore, they fail to control the hazards these devices pose. I have seen my share of accidents and near...

The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) Program identified and regulated the security of high-risk chemical facilities using a risk-based approach. Pursuant to section 5 of the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014. Authorization had been granted for CFATS until July 27, 2023. Congress did not act to reauthorize the program in time and, as such,...

Please remember, these principles were proposed over 100 years ago! Mr. Heinrich may not have been 100% correct in all his beliefs, but I would go as far as to say that if a business today were to embrace his principles from the 1920s, it would see significant improvements in both culture and performance.  Industrial executives do not need to know all the details of an accident prevention method, but...

SAD! AED flagged for expired parts before HISD student’s death, per yearly inspection But we see it more often than not. A company invests in AEDs and then does not maintain them, leading to a false sense of safety. We usually get pushback when we write them up in audits, as the business will claim there is no OSHA standard requiring inspection/maintenance of AEDs. So my friend and former right-hand...

A jury trial is set for the former employee charged in the February home explosion that killed one volunteer firefighter and injured 13 more people. He is facing a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and three other misdemeanors relating to the unlawful transfer, release, maintenance, and control of liquid petroleum gas. The worker, 67, has been released on a $5,000 unsecured bond and is prohibited...

This week, EPA finalized a rule to ban some uses of CTC that have already ceased and establish robust workplace protections, including a Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP), including an inhalation exposure concentration limit, direct dermal contact controls, and related workplace exposurecontrols, and prescriptive controls, for uses not prohibited to address the unreasonable risk to human...

OSHA has released comprehensive data collected on more than 890,000 workplace injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces in calendar year 2023, including incident-level details on the conditions and circumstances of injury and illness events. Federal electronic recordkeeping and reporting requirements require certain employers to use OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application to submit injury and...

There has been a lot of armchair quarterbacking regarding the decision to Vent & Burn the VC railcars in East Palestine, OH. My personal and professional opinion, knowing what I knew at the time, was that V&B was the correct decision. These decisions are always challenging to make, but failing to perform V&B on these cars left the potential for a BLEVE (of sorts) to occur. I have posted...

The gas main explosion caused 30 homes in Wessington to be evacuated. A company and contractor have been fined after a gas main explosion led to the evacuation of 30 homes in a village. Residents were forced to leave their properties on 21 June 2022 after a worker struck the underground gas main while installing fencing, causing the explosion. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the blast led...