Iowa Allows Teens in Hazardous Work

Iowa Workforce Development has granted waivers to two local employers to train 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to perform hazardous work, despite OSHA restrictions and serious safety concerns.
Local Cedar Rapids newspaper The Gazette obtained documents that show Iowa Workforce Development Executive Director Beth Townsend signed off on youth employment wavier applications filed by the two companies, with conditions, despite objections from the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing and Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Iowa Workforce Development said the objection came out of an initial review, and that it subsequently took additional steps to address specific concerns.
The workforce department said the intent of the waiver is to provide additional training opportunities for teens to gain hands-on skills for a limited amount of time, under close supervision and appropriate training and safety conditions, and with parental permission.
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West Virginia has registered its second mining death for the year to date, after a woman died on July 24 of injuries suffered at the Wyco Surface Mine, near the border of Raleigh and Wyoming counties.
It was the fourth death reported nationally this year. There were nine such U.S. deaths last year.
The July 12 accident involved power haulage, which is equipment such as shuttle cars, scoops, locomotives and front end loaders, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
According to MSHA, the mine is operated by Pocahontas Coal Co. LLC and controlled by Metinvest, a worldwide supplier of raw materials and steel products based in The Netherlands.
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The collapse in January of a steel aircraft hangar at the Boise Airport has been blamed on an “appalling disregard of safety standards” by the contractor.
Three men were killed in the incident and eight others were injured.
OSHA inspectors found that Big D Builders “ignored standard safety procedures and visible warning signs during construction,” according to an agency statement on Monday.
The hangar collapsed Jan. 31 while crews were building a 43-foot tall, 39,000-square-foot engineered steel hangar for the Jackson Jet Center.
From the first day of hangar construction, red flags presented themselves about the lack of the structure’s stability that the contractor should not have ignored or overlooked, David Kearns, OSHA area director for Boise, told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview Monday morning.
OSHA recommended fines totaling nearly $200,000 for contractor, Big D, for four violations — one willful and three serious — of federal safety regulations.
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New Jersey-based water tower painting company U.S. Tank Painting Inc. faces $485,580 in fines stemming from a January incident when a worker fell eight stories from a water tower in Berkeley Township.
OSHA safety inspectors determined U.S. Tank “did not make sure legally required fall protection was provided for workers climbing up and down the inside of an 8-story water tower,” according to an agency statement.
OSHA cited the company for three willful and 19 serious violations.
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