OSHA watch

OSHA issues cranes and derricks guidance

Washington – OSHA has issued a guidance document to help small businesses comply with the recently promulgated cranes and derricks standard for construction.

OSHA sends 10,000 letters to grain handling facilities on protecting workers from engulfment hazards in grain bins

OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels recently sent more than 10,000 letters to grain handling facilities reminding them of their responsibility to comply with the Grain Handling Facility standard. These letters were sent in response to a dramatic increase in the number of workers engulfed and suffocated in grain bins.

NAHB provides guidance on changes in OSHA's fall protection requirements

NAHB has created a new guidance document to help association members understand the key changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's residential construction fall protection directive.

Starting on June 16, those engaged in residential construction need to follow 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M Fall Protection Regulations.

Recent fines

• OSHA fined E.N. Range Inc. $201,600 and cited the company for exposing workers removing lead pellets at a gun range in Oley, Pa., to dangerously high levels of lead.
• OSHA issued $337,500 in fines to Superior Energy Services Inc. and five subsidiary companies, citing them with 38 violations of the OSHA recordkeeping standard.
• OSHA cited Prologix Distribution Services-East LLC with 14 safety and health violations and fined the company $239,000 after a worker was seriously injured at the company's Doral, Fla., facility.
• OSHA cited Cimbar Performance Minerals with 20 health and safety violations and fined the company $214,550 for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals and excessive noise levels at the company's Cadet, Mo., ore crushing facility.
• OSHA fined U.S. Minerals LLC $83,000 and issued the company seven citations for risking the safety of workers at its Baldwin, Ill., facility by failing to ensure that machines were isolated from their energy source and rendered inoperative before workers serviced them.
• OSHA cited Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream, N.Y., and fined the facility $4,500 after a nurse at the hospital was attacked and severely injured while performing normal duties that included providing group therapy sessions to psychiatric patients.