Agency launches ‘instance-by-instance’ citation policy
- OSHA has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.
- OSHA Regional Administrators and Area Office Directors now have the authority to cite certain types of violations as “instance-by-instance citations.”
- These are cases where the agency identifies “high-gravity” serious violations of OSHA standards specific to certain conditions where the language of the rule supports a citation for each instance of non-compliance.
- These conditions include lockout/tagout, machine guarding, permit-required confined space, respiratory protection, falls, trenching, and for cases with other-than-serious violations specific to recordkeeping.
More support for cannabis workers
- NIOSH is offering free health hazard evaluations for all cannabis processing facilities to prevent accidents.
- The agency receives between three and four HHE requests from cannabis facilities per year.
- There are expected to be more requests of this nature in the future as the industry matures.
- Cannabis operators, employees, and unions can email the CDC for more information about the program.
Duct tape leads to fatality
- Great Lakes Polymer Technologies LLC, a Kansas plastics manufacturer, failed to make sure the required safety procedures were followed, leading to the death of a worker, OSHA said.
- The employee suffered fatal injuries when he became entangled in a rotating part inside a bagging machine while trying to clear a jam, a federal workplace safety investigation found.
- Investigators found that duct tape over the safety interlock prevented the machine from shutting down. The victim was caught by the machine and pulled into its rotating bars.
- OSHA proposed penalties of $292,421 after the agency previously cited the company for similar violations at the facility.
Changes to Combustible Dust Program
- OSHA issued a revised Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program.
- Any combustible material can burn rapidly when in a finely divided form, and if the dust is suspended in the air in the right concentration, it can become explosible.
- The purpose of the revised emphasis program is to continue OSHA inspections of facilities that generate or handle combustible dust likely to cause fire, flash fire, deflagration, and explosion hazards.
- The NEP was revised based on enforcement history and combustible dust incident reports.