MSDSonline Environmental, Health & Safety Blog

Back in August of this year, Dave Schmidt, an economist in OSHA’s Office of Statistical Analysis, released details about OSHA’s $1 million, one year National Emphasis Program (NEP) for injury and illness recordkeeping at a National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) meeting, and on Oct. 1, OSHA officially announced  that it was initiating this NEP.

The purpose of the NEP will be to protect workers by investigating certain employers for possibly under-recording workplace injuries and illnesses. The NEP will focus on industries with high injury and illness rates.

“Accurate and honest recordkeeping is vitally important to workers’ health and safety,” said acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab. “This information is not only used by OSHA to determine which workplaces to inspect, but it is an important tool employers and workers can use to identify health and safety problems in their workplaces.”

The inspections will consist of three components: a records review, employee interviews and a limited safety and health inspection of the workplace.

1. Records review

• Of ALL available records for each employee sampled (medical records, Workers’ Comp, absentee records, audiograms, etc.)
• Of the OSHA 300 Log, 300A Summary and 301 Incident Report (or the equivalent) to verify accuracy

2. Interviews

• With the recordkeeper, management, employees and health care providers
• To find out about current incident recordkeeping processes
• To determine whether incentive and disincentive programs might be set up in such a way that deters reporting

3. Limited safety and health inspection of the workplace

• To determine if recorded incidences correlate with actual work environments
• Will simultaneously address any observable safety violations

OSHA stated that this NEP will help the agency work with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which have both cited concerns about the accuracy of recorded workplace injury and illness estimates.

Incident Management Assistance
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The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently revised the personal protective equipment (PPE) standards concerning requirements for eye- and face protective devices, and head and foot protection for general industry, shipyard employment, longshoring and marine terminals. The final rule, which becomes effective Oct. 9, 2009, “Is another step in OSHA’s efforts to update or remove references to outdated national consensus and industry standards,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.

According to the Federal Register notice, one of the changes includes “deleting editions of the national consensus standards that PPE must meet if purchased before a specified date.” The revisions to the standard require employers to follow guidelines from the most recent editions of applicable national consensus standards, standards set by groups like the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The changes give the regulation sustainability, keeping it current as consensus standards evolve through time, and they also simplify compliance and enforcement.

“Workers exposed to occupational hazards requiring head, foot, or eye and face protection will now be provided protection based on a standard that reflects state-of-the-art technology and materials,” said Barab.

So, what does this mean for you if you’re the employer? Well, in an interview with EHS Today, from the article titled “OSHA Updates PPE Standards to Reference Consensus Standards,” the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) President Daniel K. Shipp summed it up nicely, he said, “It’s no great change. Companies will continue to use the same eye and face protection and head protection equipment they had been using that meets the current standard.” Shipp also concurred that the proposed changes will help to keep the regulation relevant in the future. He said, “We think the way that OSHA is proposing to update the standard will make it easier for the standard to stay up to date now with the state-of-the-art [advances] as new consensus standards are published.”

Visit OSHA’s Web site to read the complete new release or click here to read the final rule in the Federal Register.

If you’re considering purchasing new PPE, you can find a variety of products from trusted suppliers at MSDSonline’s Safety Mall.

– The MSDSonline Compliance Team

President Barack Obama recently announced his intention to nominate David Michaels, PhD, MPH, as assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  A permanent administrator hasn’t been in place since the resignation of Edwin Foulke Jr. in November 2008.   View the OSHA org. chart.

Michaels is an epidemiologist and research professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.  According to a White House statement, “He has conducted numerous studies of the health effects of occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, including asbestos, metals and solvents, and has written extensively on science and regulatory policy.”

Continue reading ‘Obama Announces Intention to Nominate Dr. David Michaels to Oversee OSHA’

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) recently released a safety video titled “Combustible Dust: An Insidious Hazard,” which demonstrates the dangers of accumulating combustible dust particles and how they lead to catastrophic explosions that kill and maim workers and damage surrounding communities. 

The video illustrates how combustible dust buildup lead to three major accidents that the CSB has investigated and it includes actual news footage and photographs from the events.

Combustible dusts are solids that have been ground down into small bits, fibers, particles or flakes that have the ability to ignite into flames when suspended in air under certain conditions. They exist in a variety of industries from sugar manufacturing to metal processing to recycling operations. Many times companies don’t realize the dangers that these particles present until it’s too late.  According to OSHA, more than 130 workers have been killed and more than 780 injured in combustible dust explosions since 1980.

OSHA has recognized the dangers of these explosive particles for some time and earlier this year announced its plan to initiate a comprehensive rulemaking on combustible dust.  In a statement made on April 29, 2009, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said, “Over the years, combustible dust explosions have caused many deaths and devastating injuries that could have been prevented. OSHA is reinvigorating the regulatory process to ensure workers receive the protection they need while also ensuring that employers have the tools needed to make their workplaces safer.” 

For details about current OSHA standards related to combustible dust as well as fact sheets, explanations and guidelines for preventing explosions, visit the OSHA Web site.

To access the new CSB combustible dust video you can visit the CSB Web site or you can view it on You Tube here.  We think it does a great job of detailing the effects of this preventable workplace hazard and it does it in a captivating way.

– The MSDSonline Compliance Team

Do you have employees that primarily work outdoors?   Is so, know this…outdoor workers are at particular risk of developing skin cancer due to prolonged, often, year-round exposure to ultraviolet rays.  According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, outdoor workers experience twice the amount of nonmelanoma skin cancers (basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas ) as indoor workers.

The Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America recognizes this danger and has been building awareness about these dangers to its members for years through sun-safety awareness posters and anecdotal and informational newsletter articles like this one:  “Skin Cancer and Construction Laborers: Something New Under the Sun”.

Those Harmful Rays
The sun emits two types of UV light that we need to be concerned with when it comes to skin protection: UVA and UVB.

Continue reading ‘Outdoor Workers are Twice as Likely to Develop Skin Cancer’