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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a pair of six-figure penalties issued to two employers for fall violations, including citations for a fatal fall.
On June 21, the agency revealed it cited a Strasburg, Pennsylvania, framing contractor for two willful and five serious violations, exposing workers to falls as high as 14 feet while working at a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) facility. OSHA proposed penalties of $247,269.
OSHA also announced the conclusion of its investigation into the fatal fall of a contract employee at a Robbinsville, New Jersey, frozen food manufacturer—an investigation that identified a wide range of potentially fatal workplace hazards. The agency cited CJ TMI Manufacturing America LLC with 36 violations and proposed $368,513 in penalties.
The agency reported that a contract employee suffered fatal injuries in December 2021 when the worker fell 11 feet while using a scissor lift to replace a freezer drain. OSHA’s investigation found a damaged and inoperable snap hook on the lift’s safety chain and that the company did not inspect the lift before work began.
The agency said it also found the employer exposed workers to:
“The company must address and correct a substantial number of hazardous conditions identified during our inspection so that nobody else has to risk their life,” Paula Dixon-Roderick, OSHA’s Marlton, New Jersey, area director, said in an agency statement.
OSHA also placed CJ TMI in the agency’s severe violator enforcement program (SVEP). Employers placed in the SVEP are subject to mandatory follow-up inspections and increased agency pressure to abate cited hazards.
CJ TMI manufactures frozen dumplings, wontons, and noodles for the Twin Marquis and Chef One brands, according to OSHA.
OSHA cited Level Edge Construction LLC for exposing employees to fall hazards at PennDOT’s Luzerne, Pennsylvania, salt storage stockpile.
“Level Edge Construction’s disregard for required and well-known fall protection measures places its workers at risk for serious and fatal injuries,” Mary Reynolds, OSHA’s Wilkes-Barre area director, said in a statement. Reynolds pointed out that falls are the leading cause of worker deaths in construction.
OSHA’s construction industry fall protection standard (§1926.501) remains the agency’s most frequently cited standard, cited 5,295 times in fiscal year (FY) 2021.
OSHA initiated an inspection on December 19, 2021, in response to a complaint alleging Level Edge Construction exposed employees to fall hazards at the Luzerne facility.
The citations arose from the company’s failures to protect workers from falls as they performed carpentry work from elevated surfaces; protect workers from falling or flying objects by providing required eye, face, and head protection; and train workers on scaffold-related hazards.
The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) requires pictograms on labels to alert users of the chemical hazards to which they may be exposed. Each pictogram consists of a symbol on a white background framed within a red border and represents a distinct hazard(s). The pictogram on the label is determined by the chemical hazard classification.
Do your employees know how to handle hazardous materials safely? Here are 11 basic rules all employees who handle hazardous materials should know and follow.
Why reinvent the wheel when there are so many ready-made safety observances to link up to? The National Safety Council (NSC) publishes an annual list of safety meeting topics. Here are some highlights.
The State of Safety and Beyond Survey gathered the insight of 314 environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals about how their organizations are dealing with current safety challenges and what they’re expecting in the future. These concerns run the gamut from the very real threat of COVID-19 to perennial issues such as training, leadership, safety […]
While we hope that fire extinguishers never have to be used, they still need to be inspected and maintained to ensure they are working properly in case an emergency occurs. In the Sure-Fire Guide to Fire Extinguisher Inspections, you will: Learn how often fire extinguishers should be inspected. Get a paper copy of KPA’s Monthly […]
Industry standards help set the foundation for a safety management system (SMS) that protects workers, but data gathering is the engine that drives it. The Intelex Insight Report “Safety Management Systems: Building a Foundation on Data,” explains what resources are available to help you create a system and identifies key SMS data-gathering components needed. Learn […]
Using the right tool to complete a task or project makes all the difference. For example, contractors wouldn’t use a drill to push in a nail, they’d use a hammer. The same holds true when it comes to general medical record documentation vs employee and occupational health recordkeeping. General healthcare practitioners focus their work on […]
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