OSHA program boosts information

• Employers may be familiar with the OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) because they use it to submit their own data on injuries or illnesses in their workplace.
• The ITA can also be used to view data submitted by peer organizations across the industry, making the ITA a valuable resource for data analytics.
• OSHA is already leveraging data analytics and ITA data to identify trends and patterns in work-related injuries, develop new safety standards, and identify targets for enforcement efforts.
• Employers who get ahead of these issues by utilizing the available ITA data can mitigate risk and potentially decrease their OSHA recordable injuries, inspections, and citations.
  Read more

Mississippi farm faces fines after South African worker dies

• Bare Bones Farms of Greenwood, Mississippi, is facing $90,182 in OSHA fines for willful and serious safety violations following the death of a teenage South African worker, who suffocated in a grain bin.
• The 19-year-old, 2 coworkers and their supervisor climbed into a storage bin to unclog it when the soybeans inside shifted, trapping and then engulfing them in seconds.
• When emergency responders arrived, they cut a hole in the storage bin’s side to free the workers but needed 5 hours to recover the deceased worker, according to OSHA.
• Three of the workers involved in the incident were South African citizens brought to work in LeFlore County, Mississippi, under the H-2A temporary agricultural workers visa program.
  Read more

OSHA signs new partnership for Illinois Hard Rock

• OSHA signed a strategic partnership to promote the use of best practices for protecting the safety and health of workers and others during the construction of the Hard Rock Casino project in Rockford, Illinois.
• The strategic partnership will promote safety and health practices during the construction of the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, Illinois.
• General contractor Ringland-Johnson will oversee the construction of a 166,500-square-foot casino, restaurants, live music venue, and support space.
• More than 1,200 tradespersons are expected to work on the project through its scheduled Aug. 31, 2024 completion.
  Read more

Combatting child labor

• The U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched new initiatives to combat exploitative child labor.
• The challenges largely are the result of “an influx in migrant children from Latin America fleeing violence and poverty, a majority of whom do not have a parent in the United States.”
• The DOL’s focus on undocumented immigrants, human trafficking, and related issues has been manifest for several weeks in the OSHA daily Workplace Safety Reminder.
• OSHA has been regularly posting tweets concerning these issues since the announcements were made.
  Read more