OSHA offers guidance for young employees

• OSHA is advising young employees about their rights, their employer’s responsibilities, and ways to stay safe on the job.
• Employees, including young workers, have the right to work in a safe place, receive safety and health training in a language that they understand, and ask questions if they don’t understand instructions or if something seems unsafe.
• The employer is required to provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards, follow all OSHA safety and health standards and provide training about workplace hazards and required safety gear.
• At the federal level, OSHA’s sister agency, the Wage and Hour Division, enforces such requirements, and OSHA refers stakeholders to federal and state wage and hour child labor law resources that should help them understand what rules apply.
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Maryland OSHA finds violations after fines

• The Baltimore County Fire Department’s response to a three-alarm fire in Reisterstown last summer was hampered by a lack of equipment, uncoordinated leadership, and little training, exposing firefighters to potential death or serious injury.
• The Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) found 11 serious violations of the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Act and one “other-than-serious” violation in the county fire department’s response to a fire at an Advanced Auto Parts store on Reisterstown Road in July.
• Authorities arrested and held a 19-year-old without bail that week for first-degree arson for allegedly starting the fire.
• The report violations, none of which carry a financial penalty, said the responding rescue crew was not equipped with retrieval equipment.
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Man dies, another injured working in water main accident

• A construction worker died and another was injured after an accident while working on a water line in Denton County, Texas.
• Two people were working on a water line along Main Street in Providence Village when they became trapped at about 12:15 p.m.
• The men were both hospitalized, one in critical condition and the other in serious condition.
• One of the men died about an hour later. He was identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office as 29-year-old Jesus Perez Vasquez. A cause of death has not yet been provided.
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Update on OSHA’s respiratory program

• OSHA’s standard on respiratory protection (1910.134) is one of the agency’s most frequently cited each fiscal year.
• Whenever there is a respiratory hazard or potential for a respiratory hazard at a worksite, all employers are required to establish a written respiratory protection [program
• Hazard identifications can also be made simply by reviewing your Safety Data Sheet (Section 8) to see what the manufacturer’s recommendations are.
• Implementing a respiratory protection program involves a lot of preparation, planning and maintenance.
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