OSHA Releases New Guidance for Opioid Emergencies

opioid

OSHA released new guidance on Sept. 24 to guide employers in case an employee has an opioid overdose in the workplace. The “Opioid Overdose Rescue with Reversal Medications” worksheet is designed to help workplaces recognize overdose signs and respond quickly.
The fact sheet recommends keeping FDA-approved reversal medications like naloxone or nalmefene on hand, storing overdose kits in visible, accessible locations similar to first-aid kits and training workers to recognize overdose symptoms such as slow or stopped breathing, blue lips or skin, pinpoint pupils and unresponsiveness.
It also calls for preparing workers to act immediately by training them to administer reversal medication, safely position the affected individual and provide care until first responders arrive.
Despite recommending employers treat overdose kits like first aid, the guidance does not create any new OSHA requirements under existing standards such as the Medical Services and First Aid standard or Recordkeeping regulation.

Scotland-based Sea-Cargo Aberdeen Ltd was fined £300,000 ($387,400) plus a £22,500 victim surcharge at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after admitting it failed to have a safe system of work in place when a worker was killed by a falling steel tube during an unloading operation in July 2023.
The worker was acting as a radio operator for a crane driver when steel tubes being lifted from the cargo vessel tilted and slid off their slings, with one striking and killing him.
Defense counsel Murdo MacLeod KC offered the company’s “sincere regret” and condolences to the worker’s family, describing the incident as an isolated one-off rather than reflecting a reckless attitude toward safety, and noted the company’s otherwise unblemished record.
Sheriff William Summers said the fine would have been £450,000 had the company not entered an early guilty plea, and granted Sea-Cargo Aberdeen 12 months to pay the £300,000 penalty in installments.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed $165,514 in penalties against Orlando-based T & T Pipeline Co. Inc. after citing the company with a willful violation for exposing employees to safety hazards, following the death of a worker in March.
OSHA investigators determined employees were replacing a drill bit on a horizontal directional drilling machine when the pipe stem began to rotate and fatally struck the worker.
The willful citation specifically addressed the company’s failure to protect employees from struck-by hazards while working on the drilling machine.
T & T Pipeline Co. has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.