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May Mine Inspections Lead to 300 Violations, One Safeguard

• The Mine Safety and Health Administration last month completed impact inspections at 15 mines in a dozen states, which resulted in the agency citing 300 violations and one safeguard.
• Of the 300 violations MSHA identified in May 2024, 62 were evaluated as S&S and five had unwarrantable failure findings.
• An S&S violation, or significant and substantial, is one that is reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness.
• The inspections occurred in mines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
• The Maryneal Quarry and Mill, a Texas mine owned by Buzzi Unicem USA, was the most-cited, with 83 citations and two orders.
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Amazon Cited Under New Minnesota Law

• Minnesota’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined a Shakopee Amazon facility $10,500 for worker safety hazards.
• The first of two citations come under a new state law that went into effect in August 2023 that requires warehouse distribution centers to communicate information about quotas and work-speed data to certain employees. 
• The Amazon warehouse was not providing a written copy of the quota to employees before they were expected to meet the requirement, OSHA said.
• The second citation was for failing to protect employees from ergonomic hazards while sorting, packaging and shipping products. 
• The state agency began an occupational safety and health program in January seeking to reduce the risk of workplace ergonomic injuries, and has been investigating sites and conducting employer outreach since then.
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Complaint Filed as Heat Hits Vermont Prison Officers

• The Vermont State Employees’ Association is filing a workplace safety complaint with VOSHA after several correctional officers were admitted to a hospital with heat stroke symptoms.
• Only two of the Granite state’s six prisons have air conditioning systems. Work on a $5 million program for new units is now ongoing.
• The Department of Corrections said in a statement that they are working to advance planning and funding for new AC units, and that they prioritize a safe and healthy environment for staffers and inmates.
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Houston OSHA Boss Stresses Need for Storm Plan

• OSHA’s Houston area director Mhekeba Hager said most companies don’t include inclement weather in their emergency action plans because the 
• “We (OSHA) would consider a storm or inclement weather to be an emergency at that point,” Hager told a local television station this week. However, he said the agency’s standard doesn’t enforce a detailed plan for storms.
• Earlier this summer, a teen working on a local construction site was killed as a storm came through the area. In May 2023, two construction workers were killed and seven others injured in another storm-related incident.
• The news report quoted a representative of the Workers Defense Project who said Texas is “the deadliest state for construction workers in the country.”
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Ohio Castings Maker Cited in Molten Metal Death

• Ellwood Engineered Castings has been cited for 11 serious violations following the January 2024 death of an employee while working at the bottom of a pit below the casting operation.
• OSHA found the Hubbard, Ohio company did not have an effective process for containing and managing leaks of molten metal heated to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The agency proposed more than $145,000 in penalties.
• The company is part of the privately owned Ellwood Group which owns more than 20 companies engaged in steelmaking, fabrication and other types of industrial manufacturing in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas,  Canada and Mexico.
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Safety Platform Eyrus Tops 1 Million Messages Monthly Sent

• Eyrus said this week that its users have now sent over 1 million safety text messages in one month.
• It said that a project site with more than 500 daily workers will send 50-100 messages per year to alert the workforce of site conditions that require a work stoppage.
• The major reason that general contractors had been unable to communicate with workers is a lack of worker contact info, it said.
• The Washington, D.C. construction tech startup is backed by investors including Autodesk and Motley Fool Ventures.
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