Speaking of Safety
Most scaffolding-related accidents come from falls, but some come from improperly positioned planking, or planking in poor condition. Secure planking is an important part of scaffold safety. The United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics states that 72 percent of workers who were injured in a scaffolding-related accident in the past year can point directly to planking or its supports falling away.
Silica, present in concrete dust, is a hazardous material and is the focus of the new OSHA regulation 1926.1153. This information is an overview of the new updated standard. This regulation has a compliance date for general construction by September 23, 2017. The new OSHA respirable crystalline silica dust regulation offers several options for compliance and we want to help you understand those options.
Developing and implementing a plan of action on how you and your staff respond to an OSHA site visit is one of the most important things you can do to successfully survive an OSHA inspection. Hopefully after reading this article you will realize that an OSHA inspection is a very simple and easily understood procedure.
It’s the time of year when we start looking toward the tropics and wondering what this hurricane season has in store. That is why it is so important to equip and prepare yourself with the most recent and best possible information.
It isn’t very often that I have a day like the one I am about to describe. After all, it started off like most days. Hurry here, get this done. Get to the airport, turn in the car, get to the gate, catch the plane…all in a day’s work. During these moments while I am waiting at the airport or when I am actually in the air flying, I get to thinking about safety, where we are now, where we have been and where we are going.
EPA states their mission as “to protect human health and the environment.” To ensure this, EPA has the authority to enforce federal laws. In 2014, they levied $163 million in combined federal administrative, civil judicial penalties and criminal fines, and sentenced defendants to 155 combined years of incarceration.