Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Several years ago, a hazardous materials manager with the Chicago Fire Department received an urgent call from a chemical manufacturing facility. Contractors had been working on decommissioned chemical processing tanks when something went horribly wrong. One of the contractors had become trapped inside a tank. When emergency responders arrived, they asked for the worker’s name […]
Kerry Schimelfenig is the business development manager at Protective Industrial Products (PIP) and a passionate safety trainer and advocate. He encourages organizations to take a holistic approach to workplace safety, which means embracing everything from policies to technology to help protect workers. Proper training, however, is key. In his role at PIP, he partners with […]
Fostermation Inc., a Meadville, Pennsylvania, metal components manufacturer, paid $14,700 to settle six serious and one other-than-serious Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations, the agency announced May 12. An investigation by OSHA and the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division into a minor-aged worker’s fingertip amputation in May 2024 found that the employer […]
Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine construction safety and health. Building involves various tasks and projects performed by laborers representing multiple trades using all kinds of tools and equipment. That variety of work comes with various health […]
The Department of Labor (DOL) has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the Western District of Texas against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for wrongfully terminating an employee who fell while delivering mail and reported the work-related injury, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced May 8. An OSHA investigation found that the USPS violated […]
Fall hazards are common in almost every facility or on every job site. Unfortunately, struggling to meet minimum OSHA fall protection requirements is also common. Fall protection violations have been the leading cause of citation from OSHA since 2010, with violations regarding ladders, scaffolds, and fall protection training requirements also ranking in the top 10 […]
Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine emergency preparedness for farm workers. For farm workers, there are many emergencies and hazards that may occur. To prepare for these events, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends that […]
Researchers used a risk assessment framework to examine patterns of construction accidents in a report published April 18. “Unraveling the evolutionary patterns of construction accidents: a risk assessment framework based on average mutual information theory” appeared in Scientific Reports, a Nature Portfolio journal. The researchers found that fatal psychological and physiological factors in construction accidents […]
On March 4, an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) citation issued following an explosion and worker fatalities during pipeline “pigging” operations. The ALJ’s decision became a review commission final order on April 4. The ALJ vacated the agency’s General Duty […]
It’s a busy and uncertain time for federal workplace safety policies, and the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) is working alongside other industry stakeholders to protect and advance key EHS programs. As the senior director for policy at ISEA, Dan Glucksman is helping lead the charge. In his role, Glucksman heads the organization’s legislative and […]