Daily Roundup, Friday, April 30

• High-profile accidents put spotlight on workplace safety

We wouldn’t dare attempt to put a dollar figure on the value of a person’s life, but we’re pretty sure it isn’t $13,300. Yet that was the average fine levied in Massachusetts against workplaces where safety violations resulted in death, according to a report released Wednesday.

• Workplace Tragedies Point to Need for States to Take Lead in Workplace Safety

There are proactive steps states can take to address occupational safety hazards and ensure people do not have to sacrifice their personal safety in exchange for a paycheck.

• OSHA gets tougher

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration is hiring more inspectors, will visit work sites to check the accuracy of employee injury/illness reports, review employee medical records and talk to workers to see if companies are properly recording incidents.

• U.S. Outlines Plan to Curb Violations of Labor Law

In a move that will affect most American corporations, the Labor Department plans to require companies to prepare and adopt compliance plans aimed at ensuring they do not violate wage, job safety and equal employment laws.

• BP Oil Spill: Another Man-Made Disaster

BP has “one of the worst safety records of any oil company operating in America,” notes Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program.

• Obama won’t back off drilling plans, but pledges safeguards

President Barack Obama on Friday appeared unwilling to scrap plans to expand oil and gas exploration, but promised that the administration will carefully study what mistakes led to the explosion of an oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Cantwell wants more money to screen ill Hanford workers

A program to screen former workers at Hanford and other Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites for work-related illnesses is underfunded, according to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

• In adult films, condom question looms large

It’s just a 50-cent piece of latex, but depending on whom you ask, it will either kill or save the multibillion-dollar pornography industry.

• Tufts Medical stuck with fine

Tufts Medical Center has agreed to pay a $5,000 federal fine for failing to track nurses’ injuries.

• Tesoro to keep Anacortes refinery shut for 2Q

Tesoro Corp will keep its 120,000 barrel-per-day Anacortes, Washington, refinery closed through the second quarter this year, director of investor relations Scott Phipps told analysts on Friday.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, April 29

• How many more workers will die because of lack of workplace safety?

If you want to put a human face on the struggle families have with transparency and involvement in OSHA investigations, you should watch Tonya Ford’s testimony–it is very powerful stuff.

• Dying For Work, Literally

When one is looking at a statistic it is always worthwhile asking if the statistic is really measuring what you want to know. Take for example, a rating of dangerous jobs.

• OSHA to zero in on repeat violators

To reduce on-the-job fatalities, the government is launching an enforcement program to target repeat safety offenders and increase penalties.

• Mining injuries cost more workdays

Days missed because of serious injuries in the nation’s mines have spiked sharply this decade, a USA TODAY analysis of federal records shows.

• MSHA may get new authority

The Mine Safety and Health Administration could get some new authority following Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill.

• National Workers Memorial is unveiled

Holly Shaw, of Philadelphia, was among those gathered between a wind-whipped American flag and a chapel-turned-hazardous-materials classroom for the dedication of the National Workers Memorial on New Hampshire Avenue, designed to honor workers killed on the job.

• ‘Fight like hell for the living’

The names scrolled down on the film screen like silent movie credits, 388 reminders of why safety is important.

• Dramatic Video Gives Rare Look At Death on the Job in America

The chilling video of a Tulsa, Oklahoma man being pulled to his death in an industrial clothes dryer provides a rare look at a hidden national tragedy: more Americans die on the job every year than have been killed in the entire seven years of the war in Iraq.

• Report Shows Decline In Workplace Accidents

A new report from the Kansas Department of Labor shows a 10 percent decline in the number of accidents at the workplace.

• Global Effort To Reduce Steel Mill Deaths

This year alone, 16 steelworkers have been killed on the job worldwide, including one in Northwest Indiana in January.

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, April 28

• Workers’ Memorial Day: A Time for Action on Workplace Safety

Today, on Workers’ Memorial Day, it is important to remember that these tragic events are preventable, and workers deserve for them to be prevented.

• Recommit yourself to safety on Workers Memorial Day

The story in the evening newscast is as blunt as it is brief: “local man killed during workplace fall”, or “worker crushed by machine.”

• Senate Looking To Strengthen Mine Safety Laws

The head of Mine Safety and Health Administration is telling members of the Senate the government will now go directly to federal court to shut down mines that habitually ignore safety.

• OSHA Agenda Proposes Injury and Illness Prevention Program

In addition to familiar topics such as cranes and derricks, diacetyl, beryllium and crystalline silica, OSHA’s spring 2010 regulatory agenda contains some new, high-priority items – a proposed Injury and Illness Prevent Program standard and a move to modernize the agency’s injury and illness reporting systems.

• Employers Should Be Safe At Work, Too

U.S. legislators and federal regulators are “celebrating” Workers Memorial Day by pushing more austere workplace safety laws, which could actually increase the danger faced by working Americans.

• AFL-CIO ‘Death on the Job’ Report: 5,214 Killed at Work in 2008

The AFL-CIO’s 19th annual workplace safety report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” also reports that in 2008, along with the 5,214, workers killed, another 50,000 workers died from occupational diseases, while at least 4.6 million workers were reported injured, unreported injuries could push that total to as many as 14 million workers.

• Study finds 62 work-related deaths last year in Massachusetts

The memorial list reads like a cross-section of working-class Massachusetts: a plumber in Quincy, a fisherman in Plymouth, a carpenter in Cohasset.

• Washington state refinery blast exposed gaps in federal law, OSHA chief says

Two days after a memorial service for the seven workers killed in an explosion at an Anacortes, Wash., oil refinery, the head of the federal agency that oversees worker safety said Washington state has a solid program for inspecting dangerous workplaces.

• Former Massey worker says he quit because of ‘poor’ conditions in mine

A former Massey Energy Co. employee told a Senate panel Tuesday that he quit because he was “scared” the mines he worked in were unsafe.

• OSHA Fines Lowe’s Stores For Records Violations

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. in Cincinnati with $40,000 in proposed penalties for continually failing to document and report employee injuries and illnesses.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, April 27

• Fixing OSHA: No Easy Task for the Obama Administration

On the list of federal agencies decimated by the Bush administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) deserves to be placed right near the top.

• Work safety woes rising, AFL-CIO leader says

As American companies try to keep pace with lower-cost global competitors, they are reducing jobs and other costs, and labor leaders say employers are compromising worker safety.

• Mine Enforcement ‘Broken,’ U.S. Regulator Main Tells Senate

A U.S. mine-safety system that let companies avoid civil penalties by appealing citations is “broken and must be fixed,” the administrator of the mining agency said in Senate testimony today.

• Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion

As families mourn the 11 workers thrown overboard in the worst oil rig disaster in decades and as the resulting spill continues to spread through the Gulf of Mexico, new questions are being raised about the training of the drill operators and about the oil company’s commitment to safety.

• Risk of On-the-Job Death Falling for Younger Workers

Younger workers are less likely to die on the job than older workers, but more likely to be injured and need emergency care, the CDC said.

• OSHA Expands Plan to Address Airborne Infectious Disease Hazards

A plan to explore the need for a safety and health standard on airborne infectious disease hazards has been expanded to include diseases transmitted via contact or droplet routes, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced.

• GAO reports nuclear workers face long delays on illness claims

Government nuclear employees who suffer from work-related medical conditions face long delays in settling claims, according to an audit by the Government Accountability Office.

• Safety high on the agenda for Workers Memorial Day

Miners are killed. If a worker dies at a job site where the company failed to correct violations the executives are guilty of a criminal offense. They can go to jail for life. Such is the law of the land – not here in the United States but in Canada, the vast country to our north.

• Contractor cited in Cowboys Stadium workers’ fall

Federal workplace safety watchdogs are citing a contractor for the fall of two of its workers at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

• Reviews obtained on ex-worker suing district over sexting case

Performance reviews of the woman who exposed an assistant principal suspected of sexually exploiting a student cite poor office conduct and attitude as reasons for her dismissal last May.

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Daily Roundup, Monday, April 26

• April the Cruelest Month for Workplace Disasters

April saw a methane explosion at the Massey Mine in West Virginia which killed 29 workers; a chemical explosion April 2nd at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington resulted in seven deaths; just last week another monstrous explosion and fireball injured dozens at the Transocean Ltd oil rig off the Louisiana Coast. Eleven workers remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead.

• Mock funeral procession in L.A. seeks to draw attention to worker fatalities

A mock funeral procession made its way through L.A.’s Pico Union and Koreatown neighborhoods Saturday as part of a “memorial day” rally honoring workers injured or killed in the workplace each year.

• Mine, Refinery Victims to Be Honored Wednesday

OSHA’s Dr. David Michaels, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will speak on Wednesday at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., where a National Workers Memorial will be unveiled and victims of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion and the Tesoro refinery explosion and fire on April 2 in Anacortes, Wash. will be honored.

• Turning Green Jobs to Gold, Safely

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a new report that highlights how the organization is Turning Green Jobs to Gold, Safely.

• Preventing the Next Mine Disaster: UNIONIZE

Coal mining is dangerous business and the people of the Appalachian Coalfields, from Tennessee to West Virginia to Pennsylvania, have come to expect disasters out of the mining industry.

• After spill, local officials question safety of oil drilling

An oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico moving toward Louisiana’s shore is drawing attention to what local officials fear would happen in Northwest Florida if oil drilling were allowed off Florida’s shore.

• API issues new refinery safety standards aimed at reducing risks

The American Petroleum Institute issued two new refinery safety standards on Apr. 22 that it said will help refiners reduce risks at their installations.

• Federal records from past injury investigation offer glimpse at risks SeaWorld killer-whale trainers face

Four years ago, a killer-whale trainer at SeaWorld San Diego suffered a torn ligament when an orca bit him on the ankle and pulled him underwater for nearly 30 seconds.

• OSHA cites company for 60 violations

Scovill Fasteners Inc. of Clarksville, Georgia was cited with 60 safety and health violations, amounting to $133,350 in proposed penalties.

• Man should’ve filed for workers’ comp before suing, company says

A Williamson, W.Va., man and his wife have filed suit against GCR Tire Center and Phoenix Coal-Mac Mining, alleging the man sustained severe injuries after a side rim slammed into him.

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Daily Roundup, Friday, April 23

• Younger People Have More Workplace Injuries

Younger people in America’s workforce are twice as likely as older workers to suffer an injury on the job that requires treatment in an emergency room, a new CDC report suggests.

• Nelson calls for Interior investigation into offshore drilling practices

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to investigate offshore drilling practices after a massive oil fire this week on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico left 11 workers missing and thought dead.

• Oil Rig Blast Renews USW Call for Tougher Safety Regs

The United Steelworkers (USW) again called for an overhaul of health and safety within the oil industry following the explosion yesterday on an oil drilling rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the fourth oil industry incident in a little more than two weeks that has killed or seriously injured workers.

• Mountaintop Coal Rules May Send More U.S. Miners Underground

A U.S. crackdown on mountaintop mining in Appalachia may force coal producers to rely increasingly on underground sites such as the Massey Energy Co. mine where 29 workers were killed this month in West Virginia.

• Inspectors found negligence at West Virginia mine months before blast

Federal safety inspectors who visited Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine early this year said senior managers showed “reckless disregard” for worker safety by telling a foreman to ignore a citation the mine had received for faulty ventilation, according to the inspectors’ handwritten notes.

• OSHA Announces Severe Violator Enforcement Program

OSHA announced a Severe Violator Enforcement Program today that will be in effect in 45 days and also said it is administratively raising the dollar value of its penalties, suggesting it would raise them higher still if it could.

• BP pledges to clean up Gulf of Mexico spill

The company was fined a record $87 million by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to correct safety hazards after the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion killed 15 workers.

• Lawn tractor accident severely injures South Berwick man’s feet

Police are using an incident on Wednesday in Kittery, Maine, involving a 21-year old nearly having his feet cut off in a riding lawn mower accident to remind people, as the accident victim was doing, to always wear safety gear when operating heavy machinery.

• Firefighters respond to explosion at Seattle plant

Seattle firefighters responded Thursday to reports of an explosion at a Seattle metal-recycling plant.

• Worker fatally pinned in tractor accident

A Douglas County, Ga., construction worker died Wednesday when his head was pinned by a tractor at a baseball stadium.

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Daily Roundup, Thursday, April 22

• 11 Missing Following Oil Rig Explosion

Rescue teams in the Gulf of Mexico are searching for 11 missing workers a day after an enormous explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

• Explosion on Gulf Coast Oil Rig Underscores Daily Dangers for Maritime Workers

An April 20, 2010 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico once again illustrates the hazardous and sometimes deadly work conditions that maritime workers face on a daily basis, say the Houston Maritime Injury Lawyers, Arnold & Itkin LLP.

• BP Already in Safety Spotlight

The fire at an offshore drilling rig doing work for BP PLC comes as the company already faces intense scrutiny in the U.S., five years after an explosion and fire at its Texas City, Texas, refinery killed 15 people and injured scores more.

• Massey, Peabody Mines Targeted in Stepped-Up Probe

Massey Energy Co., operator of a mine where 29 workers died in an explosion this month, led a list of 57 coal mines subjected to new U.S. inspections based on previous safety violations, the Labor Department said.

• 7 Sneaky Disruptions That Can Negatively Impact Your Work

As web workers and small business owners, the personal and business sides of our lives often overlap.

• Metal Maker Takes a Stand on Worker Safety

Hydro Extrusion Americas, a global supplier of aluminum and aluminum products, halted all work at its North and South American locations for a half hour last month. The purpose was to focus intensely on job safety.

• Feds detail errors in fighting fatal fire

Houston firefighters who punched ventilation holes in the roof of a burning residence worsened a wind-driven blaze last spring that killed two of their colleagues during a “fast attack” response criticized for lacking coordination, communication and basic knowledge of fire dynamics, according to an exhaustive investigation by federal safety officials.

• Some box seats at Qualcomm deemed unsafe

The state agency that oversees workplace safety, in reviewing the death of a game-day employee at Qualcomm Stadium, ruled that more than a dozen box seats need barriers to prevent falls.

• Scovill Fasteners plant cited for 60 safety and health violations

Inspectors found a number of deficiencies at the plant including unguarded power presses, failing to develop lockout/tagout procedures for energy sources, lack of training for forklift operators, improper personal protection equipment for employees handling acids and caustics, and failing to provide a written hazard communications plan.

• Crewman says cargo load ‘scared’ the captain

As the Northern Belle left Seattle earlier this month, the crew was uneasy about the amount of cargo packed into its holds, according to one of three people who survived when the boat sank in the Gulf of Alaska on Tuesday.

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Daily Roundup, Wednesday, April 21

• A preventable epidemic: Latino deaths on the job

Every day in this country, 14 workers lose their lives in preventable workplace tragedies. Here in Texas, and across the nation, one community of workers is maimed and killed in greater proportions than any other in America.

• OSHA, Mexican consulate sign agreement to protect Latino workers

The Consulate General of Mexico in Houston has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promote safety and health rights in the workplace for the Latino community, particularly those working in the construction industry.

• Mine probe: Time for openness

Inquiries into what went wrong at the Upper Big Branch Mine causing the deadly April 5 explosion should be conducted in full public view, for a number of reasons.

• Fire Truck Crash Leads To New Recommendations

Federal officials said Massachusetts firefighters should be required to wear seat belts and that they should be better trained on how to operate air brakes before being allowed to drive a fire truck.

• First-Ever Fines Issued for Failure To Report Infections

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued fines of $101,485, $31,520 and $2,710 to Alta Bates Sutter Medical Center, the Oakland Police Department and the Oakland Fire Department, respectively, for failing to report a patient with bacterial meningitis and protect staff members.

• NJ Construction Worker Falls to His Death First Day on the Job

While working on renovations to a hotel, Graham Stirling, 43, of Toms River fell four stories to the ground below.

• Deep Water Horizon Oil Rig Explosion

An explosion in an oil drilling rig, named as Deep Water Horizon, caused anarchy in the Gulf of Mexico nearly fifty miles away from the coast of Louisiana.

• OSHA Cites Werner Construction Inc. After Employee Is Killed

OSHA cited Werner Construction Inc. of Norfolk, Neb., for willful and serious violations of the OSH Act following the investigation of a worker killed when caught in a roadway belt paving machine’s screw conveyors.

• OSHA examines fall at Taunton factory

Officials with the Massachusetts office of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration are looking into Monday’s fall that seriously injured a machinist at textile company Harodite Industries.

• Man killed at Motiva named, died of massive head injuries

Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will have six months to determine the cause of the accident about 8:30 a.m. that resulted in the death of a rigger working for Becon Construction Co. A crane boom is suspected of snapping, causing it to fall, crushing the man.

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Daily Roundup, Tuesday, April 20

• Beyond the Mining Tragedy: Safety for All Workers

You’re right that the deaths of 29 miners in West Virginia show the need for stronger oversight (“Lessons From the Big Branch Tragedy,” editorial, April 14). But this is part of a bigger story.

• Wage & Hour Enforcement Data Goes Online

The Department of Labor has created an online database that allows the public to search for enforcement actions against employers.

• New York State Senate panel votes down farm labor bill

A hotly-debated bill to expand farmworker rights was defeated today by the state Senate Agriculture Committee.

• City adds worker-safety position

After the City of Poughkeepsie paid $500,000 to the estate of a public works employee killed on the job, a new coordinator will work to ensure safety regulations and measures are being met.

• City, State DOTs Ask Albany to Help Keep Road Workers Safe

On Monday DOT marked National Work Zone Awareness Week with a new PR campaign and a call for state legislators to adopt penalties for drivers who endanger road workers — and, ergo, city pedestrians and cyclists.

• Hospital, police and fire fined for meningitis scare

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and the Oakland, Calif., police and fire departments have been issued more than $135,000 in citations by state regulators for failing to limit exposure to emergency workers who assisted a patient with bacterial meningitis, authorities said.

• OSHA fines American Packaging following worker’s death

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited American Packaging Corp. in Columbus with 29 alleged serious violations of federal workplace health and safety standards and is facing fines of more than $127,000 following an investigation into a worker’s death.

• Company Fined $63,700 After Employee Loses Three Fingers

OSHA has proposed $63,700 in penalties against Daehan Solution Alabama LLC in Hope Hull, Ala., for safety violations.

• Peninsula Gas Station Death Under Investigation

California Division of Occupational Safety is investigating the death of gas station employee who died after apparently being shocked while working on a light fixture.

• Crane boom crushes Port Arthur refinery contractor

A crane boom that apparently snapped and fell has crushed to death a man who was working on a $7 billion refinery expansion project in Port Arthur, Texas.

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Daily Roundup, Monday, April 19

• Serious problems found at Massey mines since blast

Federal inspectors have found more than 60 serious safety violations at Massey Energy operations since the explosion that killed 29 miners, adding to fallout from the disaster that includes a wrongful death lawsuit by one of the men’s widows.

• Massey CEO’s Pay Soared As Mine Concerns Grew

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was paid $17.8 million last year even as some of the coal mines he supervised accumulated safety violations and injuries at rates that greatly exceed national rates.

• Companies now criminally liable in worker deaths

Corporations can be convicted in Arizona of criminal offenses related to the death of workers, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.

• Road construction picking up

According to AAA and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Safety and Education, deaths from crashes in work zones has increased 50% in Delaware from 2004 to 2008, even though in the same time period, the number of lives lost nationwide decreased.

• Court Upholds OSHA’s Power to Protect Workers

The saga began when Eric Ho, a contractor in Houston, hired 11 immigrant workers in 2003 to remove asbestos from a building but did not train them or provide them with respirators. After a city inspector issued a stop-work order because of asbestos violations, Ho directed employees to work at night behind locked gates.

• Florida: Coalition pushes for public sector to meet OSHA standards

A coalition of Florida organizations is relaunching an effort to improve occupational safety and health protections for the state’s public sector employees.

• More Police Needed to Cut Work Zone Fatalities

Increasing the police presence at highway and transit construction sites nationwide is the best way to cut the hundreds of work zone fatalities that take place every year, the Associated General Contractors of America said today.

• The Drug-Free Workplace vs. Medical Marijuana

Employers that operate in the 14 states where pot is now legal as a prescription painkiller are struggling to reconcile zero tolerance drug policies with a patient’s right to get high.

• SW suburban distributor fined $61K for safety violations

OSHA found damaged or inoperable emergency lighting, as well as exit signs that were not illuminated and a damaged fall protection lanyard that was not removed from service.

• Worker Dead After Explosion At Westmont Auto Shop

A 28-year-old worker is dead after an explosion Midas auto repair shop in west suburban Westmont.

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