New rules govern how workplaces handle dangerous chemicals

• The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries filed a formal update to workplace safety rules designed to prevent catastrophes at oil refineries.
• The updated rules govern how workplaces handle dangerous chemicals, known as process safety management.
• The revised rules now in effect include conducting thorough reviews to identify the most effective hazard control methods, regular assessments of processes affecting equipment durability, and planning and analysis that prioritize.
• Human factors such as staffing, training, fatigue, and task complexity will now be considered more rigorously.
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Illinois contractor faces fines

• OSHA found that a contractor in Illinois exposed employees to falls while framing houses under construction in Savoy.
• Inspectors observed employees at Miller Building Systems LLC, standing, climbing, and walking about the roofs, beams, and top plates while framing homes without any protection from falling, at heights greater than 18 feet above the ground at a subdivision.
• OSHA inspectors were met with hostility when they approached the worksite, according to reports.
• The agency cited three willful and four serious violations and proposed $278,452 in penalties due to both inspections this summer.
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OSHA investigates death of Texas truck driver

• An independent truck driver, who was picking up a load of gravel, was involved in the accident and was crushed to death in Hidalgo County, Texas.
• Deputies observed the tractor had been crushed, and the driver, identified as 46-year-old Luis Rivera Jr. of Mission, Texas, was dead inside the cab of the vehicle.
• La Joya fire Chief Leroy Salinas called the fatality a “freak accident” as the driver was trying to unload gravel into the pit in a “jackknife position,” causing it to fall and take the truck with it.
• OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration have been contacted to investigate the accident.
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Major fertilizer firm ordered to pay $200,000 fine

• Nutrien Ltd., the largest producer of potash and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in the world, was ordered to pay $200,000 over a workplace injury.
• The company pleaded guilty in Moosomin provincial court to one violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 2020. A second charge was withdrawn.
• The charges were in connection with an incident at Nutrien’s Rocanville mine in southeastern Saskatchewan.
• The worker suffered a serious injury after stepping into an unguarded floor opening, investigators said.
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