Contractor fined $25K after two fell 20 feet off Maine bridge last year

The contractor that built a new overpass in Brewer, Maine has been fined $25,000 by Fed-OSHA after two employees fell onto the highway last year when the wooden structure they were standing on collapsed, injuring them when they fell and landed on debris. They had been removing cross braces that were connected to an outer beam on the bridge, when the beam suddenly twisted as the two removed it, causing the wooden platform on which they were standing to collapse. Bangor Daily News

Dozens of Washington lawmakers sign letter urging support of Hanford employees

A bipartisan group of 66 Washington lawmakers have signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to withdraw a challenge to the Washington State law which protects Hanford Nuclear Reservation employees. The law classifies some diseases associated with work at a nuclear facility are presumed to have been caused by exposure at work, and eases the process for employees to access benefits. Before the law passed, they had to prove their disease was not caused by exposure from elsewhere. Washington State Wire

Audit: Fed-OSHA left glassworkers at risk to silica

Long-term exposure to respirable crystalline silica can cause lung cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease, according to Fed-OSHA. The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General has found more employees are being exposed to respirable silica after having conducted an audit of Fed-OSHA, which says the most severe exposures to crystalline silica result from abrasive blasting, which is used for etching or frosting glass. Additionally, crystalline silica exposure can occur in the maintenance, repair and replacement of the linings of refractory brick furnaces, such as those used to manufacture glass. USGNN

Boston construction worker falls 6 floors to death

An employee of a subcontractor fell approximately six floors to his death last week at the construction site of a 42-unit, seven-story residential building in East Boston, according to Fed-OSHA. The fatal fall occurred in a stairwell shaft at the site near Maverick Square. WCVB (Boston)

Engineering report says Hard Rock collapse ‘was waiting to happen’

Steel beams supporting the 16th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel project, which collapsed two years ago in downtown New Orleans, were so “grossly underdesigned” that the deadly collapse of the unfinished building “was waiting to happen,” according to an unreleased Fed-OSHA engineering report. Independent engineers who reviewed blueprints and other construction documents said the 2018 changes to the structural steel of the building could have contributed to its collapse, which crushed three construction workers to death and injured several others. WWL

Fed-OSHA cites company after complaints about nutrition production facility

Fed-OSHA has issued 24 serious safety and health violations and proposed more than $300,000 in penalties to a subsidiary of Balchem Corp. after complaints about conditions at a Missouri nutrition production plant. Cited violations include amputations due to lack of adequate machine guarding and hazardous energy control procedures, lockout/tagout and toxic and hazardous chemicals, such as ethylene oxide and methylene chloride, because of inadequate process safety management procedures and monitoring. FeedStrategy