February 4, 2010: On a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board tonight approved urgent safety recommendations on gas purging safety at a public meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina following extensive testimony and public comment. The draft recommendations, which were...
ConAgra Foods Inc. has agreed to pay $106,440 for workplace safety violations at a snack foods plant where four workers died after a natural gas explosion last summer, state regulators said on January 12, 2010. Most of the citations against ConAgra Foods involved...
On October 21, 2009 federal OSHA published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) as a preliminary step in the development of a combustible dust standard. According to OSHA, since 1980, more than 130 workers have been killed and more than 780 injured in...
During the last 10 years I've taught quite a few courses on NFPA 70E. By far, the biggest area of pushback and resistance deals with my recommendation that qualified persons wear hazard risk category (HRC) 2 flame resistant (FR) clothing as daily wear. The common...
Improper electrical wiring - failure to properly ground equipment - has been a chronic problem with US installations in Iraq. On September 1, a contractor for the US State Department was electrocuted while showering in Baghdad. Failure to properly ground equipment is...
Guardian Equipment has an excellent ANSI Z358.1 Safety Shower/Eyewash checklist and it's free (versus $71.00 for ANSI Z358.1 standard): http://www.gesafety.com/literature/litrequest.shtml Jon
On June 22, 2009 OSHA Region IV initiated a Regional Emphasis Program (REP) focusing on health hazards related to operations involving scrap and waste materials, including recycling/reclaim facilities. Area offices in Region IV will be conducting inspections of...
A client at a large steel mill recently contacted me concerning my article on performing a confined space assessment: http://www.workplace-safety-nc.com/articles/conf-space-assessments.html One of OSHA's 3 criteria to be considered a confined space is: Has limited or...
A rupture in a high pressure ammonia line at a North Carolina chicken processing facility resulted in one employee fatality: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1577451.html Ammonia is frequently used as a refrigerant in the food industry. Facilities containing a...
I was interviewed by David Crabtree of WRAL following the June 9, 2009 ConAgra explosion in Garner, North Carolina. Click here to listen to the interview: http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/5318387/ Jon