ASSP provides guidance for OSHA
- Leaders in the American Society of Safety Professionals outlined potential improvements from OSHA to help improve workplace conditions for employees.
- President Christine Sullivan suggests that OSHA needs to better use the data collected from companies to do a better job using predictive analytics to focus their efforts.
- President-Elect Jim Thornton said that safety professionals should require safety professionals to ensure requirements are properly followed and will be able to provide different control for compliance.
- Senior Vice President Pam Walaski advised that OSHA revise its regulatory model to better incorporate standards and perhaps lessen the fines with the process.
Administrative law judge upholds OSHA citations
- An administrative law judge with the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission affirmed OSHA’s citations and $24,290 in penalties issued to Eustis Cable Enterprises, a Vermont, telecommunications contractor.
- The fines come on the heels of the death of an employee at an Andover, New York, worksite.
- A company work crew did not have a ladder or other appropriate tools with them to reach the machine.
- A foreman went out onto the strand and lost his grip on the wire, the climbing belt slid up his back and cinched at the neck and he was asphyxiated.
Man avoids jail time for sales of fake N95 masks
- A man in suburban Phoenix man sold thousands of counterfeit N95 masks during the pandemic, but he will not face jail time.
- Mark Forrest Cohn, 68, of Chandler, Arizona, imported N95 masks from China in October 2020 that appeared to be manufactured by 3M.
- Cohn has been sentenced to one year of probation and must pay restitution of more than $8,000.
- His sentence was part of an agreement to plead guilty to one felony count of entry of goods by means of false statements.
Workers killed after scaffold collapses
- Three people were killed in Charlotte, North Carolina after scaffolding collapsed.
- Two other people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
- Three people were killed when they fell 70 feet, according to the local fire department.
- OSHA halted work to begin an investigation.