March 30, 2010 by Fred Hosier

Another state will soon allow workers to keep guns in their vehicles’ locked trunks and glove compartments in companies’ parking lots.

Indiana’s new law will take effect July 1, 2010.

In an opinion piece in the Northwest Indiana Times, lawyer James Jorgensen says the new law could adversely affect employers and the workplace.

He points to Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2007, there were 16,840 nonfatal assaults and violent acts in the workplace. The same year, 11% of workplace fatalities were homicides. Homicide has been one of the top four causes of workplace deaths since 1992.

Jorgensen points out, correctly, that OSHA considers workplace violence as an occupational hazard.

And even though OSHA doesn’t have a workplace violence standard, the agency can invoke the General Duty Clause to fine employers for workplace violence that causes injury or death.

Jorgensen’s advice: Companies need to adopt workplace violence policies with clear statements of consequences for violations.

All industries have hand/finger injuries. From heavy machinery production to bakeries to general office work, one look at your yearly injury log will reveal hand injuries. Take a deep breath and start trying to work through this issue.  Start from the posture that you will be reducing both the number of injuries and the severity of those injuries.

http://ohsonline.com/Articles/2010/08/01/Foundations-of-Hand-Protection.aspx

For example, simple home maintenance can avert a number of potential problems. Cleaning lint filters in the clothes dryer before every load and cleaning the dryer vent line each year can prevent dryer fires. Shockingly, there are more than 15,000 dryer-related fires each year.

Placing a barbecue grill too close to the house can be another way to cook up accidents. It’s estimated that 6,500 barbecue grill fires cause as much as $27 million in property losses each year.

Some injuries can be prevented by just choosing a different tool for a difficult task. Consider using a can opener instead of a kitchen knife the next time you open those frustrating anti-theft plastic clamshell packages. And did you know that a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife? A dull blade leads to slips.

Did you know that:

• 86,000 people fall each year because of their pets?
• Power-mower injuries cause 80,000 hospital visits each year?
• Poison ivy is getting more potent and harder to identify?
• More people are injured using hand tools than power tools?

Many of these injuries can be prevented with simple fixes that take just moments but rarely make it to our to-do lists.

Consider these small tasks:

• Moving the grill 10 feet from the house or shrubs can help protect you from a larger fire if the grill tips or the fire flares.
• Feeding the cat before making dinner can stop it from milling around the kitchen when you’re cooking. A baby gate can keep the dog out of the kitchen altogether.
• Most mower injuries are caused by stones or other things kicked out by mower blades moving at high speed. Clearing the yard of debris before mowing can help.
• Can’t recognize poison ivy? The oil that causes people to react to poison ivy won’t penetrate long sleeves and pants or vinyl work gloves.

By drawing attention to home-safety risks that are easy to overlook but not too hard to prevent,  you will have a safer home all year round.

This article is provided courtesy of the North American Precis Syndicate.

“Many of our permissible exposure limits are based on 1950s-era science that we now realize is inadequate to protect workers in 21st century workplaces,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA David Michaels. “We must assure the protection of workers currently exposed to well-recognized chemical hazards for which we have an inadequate PEL or no PEL at all. I am hopeful that this forum will assist us in achieving that goal by helping us to identify those chemicals on which we should be focusing our efforts.”

The forum will allow stakeholders to identify harmful chemicals and explain why OSHA should focus on these chemicals in developing long- and short-term solutions for reducing workers’ exposure.

Ref

http://osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=18174

Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP)
One policy change is OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which concentrates resources on inspecting employers who have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations. Enforcement actions for severe violator cases include mandatory follow-up inspections, increased company/corporate awareness of OSHA enforcement, corporate-wide agreements, where appropriate, enhanced settlement provisions, and federal court enforcement under Section 11(b) of the OSH Act. In addition, this Instruction provides for nationwide referral procedures, which includes OSHA’s State Plan States.

Click here to view a graphic that depicts whether or not a case would qualify for SVEP.

OSHA Administrative Penalty Information Bulletin
The other policy change is the overall increase in penalties and calculation procedure for all inspections. OSHA is implementing several changes to its administrative penalty calculation system. Many of the agency’s current penalty adjustment factors have been in place since the early 1970′s, resulting in penalties which are often too low to have an adequate deterrent effect. Administrative penalty adjustments will therefore be made to several factors which impact the final penalty issued to employers. These factors include:

1.    History Reduction (Time frame increased from 3 to 5 years)
2.    History Increase  (Possible increase of 10 %, No History if cited within the past 5 years)
3.    Repeat Violations (Time frame increased from 3 to 5 years)
4.    Severe Violator Enforcement Program (See above)
5.    Gravity-Based Penalty (see chart below)
6.    Size Reduction (10 – 20 % decrease from the past policy)
7.    Good Faith (current policy retained with minor exceptions)
8.    Minimum Penalties (Minimum of $500 for Serious and $250 for posting requirement)
9.    Additional Administrative Modifications to the Penalty Calculation Policy

Gravity-Based Penalty: Before Credits OR Increases Applied
Current—————————————–> New
High/Greater:  $5,000 or $7,000———–> $7,000
Medium/Greater:  $3,500——————–> $6,000
Low/Greater:  $2,500————————-> $5,000
High/Lesser:  $2,500————————-> $5,000
Medium/Lesser:  $2,000———————> $4,000
Low/Lesser:  $1,500————————–> $3,000

Employers need to be aware of the current OSHA policies. The agency will be targeting industries that have high fatality, injury and illness rates. Be aware of the list of “high emphasis hazards” and address the hazards before it leads to the Severe Violator Enforcement Program and/or higher penalties.

An important stipulation pointed out in the article is that “having the information around employees is not the same as providing training.” In other words, you can’t expect an employee to learn valuable workplace skills with passive training, such as providing a manual and telling the employee to read it.  As an employer, it is your responsibility to adequately train employees which includes determining what “adequate training” entails and how to effectively pass that information on to every employee.  Talk with the Conney Safety Support team for more information on workplace training or for training solutions.

Noting many PELs are based on science that is nearly 60 years old and are inadequate to protect today’s workers, OSHA administrator David Michaels asked for help in identifying chemicals to focus on. “We must assure the protection of workers currently exposed to well-recognized chemical hazards for which we have an inadequate PEL or no PEL at all,” Michaels said in a press release.

In the first two years of OSHA’s existence, the agency established 400 PELs, according to the agency. Since then, OSHA has established PELs for only 29 chemicals, and most PELs have remained unchanged despite NIOSH and consensus organizations strengthening their own recommended exposure limits.

Chemical nominations are being accepted until Aug. 27.

Regardless of where the fire breaks out, the first order of business is to get the vehicle safely stopped well off the road as quickly as you can.

Quickly call for police and fire department assistance, or get someone to call for you. If there is any danger at all that the cargo might explode, stop all traffic and clear the area for 2,000 feet. Leave the fire fighting to the fire department – opening cargo doors might result in a dangerous flare-up.

Tire fires are usually the result of extreme heat buildup. If possible use plenty of water, thoroughly dousing the tire to cool it off. If water is not available, use your dry chemical extinguisher or dirt. Be on the alert for the fire starting up again.

Fires in the engine compartment can result from electrical shorts or leaking fuel. Dry chemical is the best possible extinguishing agent. If possible, disconnect one of the battery cables to eliminate the possibility of further electrical involvement.

Auto body fires can usually be easily controlled. If the fire might was caused by a short, disconnect one battery cable. Use dry chemical or water to control the fire. If fire spreads, let the fire department handle it.

If there’s any doubt at all about being able to control the fire, call the emergency services quickly. Especially when fire threatens a fuel tank, don’t take chances – stop traffic and clear the area. Vehicles are replaceable – people are not.

You would think that all 14 states have “state run occupational safety and health plans” (as opposed to the more common federally run OSHA programs), however, this is not the case.  Some of these states on this list are federally run programs, but do add some stipulations which require additional compliance (such as this issue regarding mandatory safety committees).

Check out this article and see if your state requires mandatory safety committees. You might be surprised!