Safety

OSHA is proposing penalties of up $49,200 for two manufactures and two distributors in Florida for failure to protect employees from exposure to formaldehyde and failure to communicate hazards of products to downstream users. According to the news release issued on September 8, 2011, OSHA inspected the Florida firms based on a referral from Oregon’s […]

An MSDS or material safety data sheet is the backbone of a compliant hazardous chemical management system. Unfortunately, MSDSs rarely get the respect they deserve, at least not until the day it is urgently needed in an emergency or is requested by an OSHA inspector. By that time it is often lost in a sea […]

Just because summer is at a close, don’t put away your shovel and rake quite yet.  Harvest has just begun and there is still a lot of work to do outside.  We’ve got the tips to make your gardening projects and yard work hurt a whole lot less. Ergonomic Gardening Tips To avoid lifting, rake leaves onto a canvas tarp.  […]

By Blake McGowan, CPE Demonstrating the value of your ergonomics initiative and calculating the return on investment (ROI) for specific engineering improvements have become common requests for many safety professionals. Unfortunately, many of us struggle to even begin to justify improvements, let alone choose a meaningful calculator to demonstrate the benefits of improving workplace conditions. […]

OSHA unveiled a new tool today to help companies determine if employee injuries and illnesses are recordable or not. Called the OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor, it is powered by elaws®, interactive e-tools provided by the Department of Labor that provide information about federal employment laws. Essentially, the OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor is an optimized injury and illness […]

OSHA announced today that it will be surveying 19,000 employers nationwide about their safety practices in order to guide future rules, compliance and outreach efforts. Called the Baseline Survey of Safety and Health Practices, the survey will be used to support OSHA’s implementation of I2P2, the Injury and Illness Prevention Programs Standard. You can read […]

OSHA is planning on publishing a final rule in August that will align the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). It’s not clear what affect (if any) that alignment will have on the NFPA and HMIS chemical hazard rating and labeling systems. One issue of […]

Staying compliant with OSHA and the EPA can be difficult and maddening. Still, the complexity of agency regulations and the opaque manner in which rules are sometimes published and enforced are not a reliable defense when it comes to compliance violations. Organizations must take responsibility for understanding the rules and regulations under which they operate. […]