OSHA fines lacking despite more heat investigations

• OSHA has inspected about 4,700 workplaces more than a year into its heat stress emphasis program but only issued comparatively few citations for heat-related violations.
• The agency has focused on educating businesses and issuing warning letters that stop short of citing employers.
• OSHA has issued more than 400 hazard alert letters to employers, advising them on ways they can protect workers such as ensuring rest breaks, having cool water on hand, and acclimatizing new hires.
• The agency doesn’t yet have a specific standard for heat stress prevention, leaving the agency to depend on heat-related requirements for employers to provide workers water and train construction laborers about on-the-job hazards.
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DOT worker injured in North Dakota

• A North Dakota Department of Transportation worker was seriously injured after being struck by a truck while patching a highway in northeastern North Dakota.
• Levi Smaage, 25, from the town of Michigan, was working on U.S. Highway 2 about 2 miles east of Lakota when he was struck by a passing International 4000 truck driven by Randall Pike, 58, of Emerado, around 1:30 p.m. Monday, according to the Highway Patrol.
• The International 4000 also hit an unoccupied DOT pickup, patching equipment and a DOT International 7600 plow truck driven by another worker, before coming to rest in the median of the four-lane highway, authorities said.
• Smaage and Pike were taken to a Grand Forks hospital. The driver of the International plow truck wasn’t hurt.
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Construction worker injured at Fontainebleau Las Vegas

• A construction worker was injured at Fontainebleau Las Vegas and was in stable condition.
• No specific details are known about the worker’s injury or the circumstances around it, and the resort declined to answer questions.
• “We can confirm that there was an incident involving a construction worker that occurred at the site of Fontainebleau Las Vegas this morning,” Nevada OSHA told KSNV.
• The employee is currently in stable condition. The investigation is ongoing, and we have no additional comment at this time.
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OSHA offers Spanish edition of safety handbook

• OSHA published the Spanish language version of its Small Business Safety and Health Handbook.
• The handbook summarizes the benefits of an effective safety and health program, features self-inspection checklists to help employers identify workplace hazards, and reviews important workplace safety and health resources for small businesses.
• Along with providing recommendations on implementing a safety and health program, the handbook offers a general overview of housekeeping, recordkeeping and reporting, and posting required safety and health information at the workplace.
• The self-inspection checklist section covers more than 20 different items, from compressed gas cylinders, electrical safety and ergonomics to walking-working surfaces, workplace violence prevention and young workers.
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