OSHA has a proposal to beat the heat

• OSHA’s proposal for a heat standard includes protecting workers from heat stress that could be triggered by temperatures forecasted to be as low as 78 degrees.
• The trigger temperature option is among the proposed standard’s details released by the agency.
• The federal government currently has no rules protecting private industry workers from heat stress.
• OSHA also announced a series of meetings with small business owners and operators on the heat standard starting Sept. 7 and continuing to Sept. 18, and outlined options for the rule as part of the preparations.
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Death of worker prompts aviation ground safety alert

• The death of an airline employee in December and another serious injury prompted the FAA to issue a safety alert to airlines in an effort to prevent more incidents.
• The safety alert reiterated  that  it is important for  workers  to  remain clear of operating  engines until they  are  shut down.
• The alert also comes as questions arise about U.S. aviation safety after a series of troubling near-miss incidents.
• OSHA recently issued Piedmont Airlines a citation for one serious violation in June for exposing ground crew workers to ingestion hazards while performing aircraft marshaling, wing-walking, and baggage-handling tasks.
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Disagreement with railway safety

• The major freight railroads have concerns over whether they will be allowed to discipline some workers who use a government hotline to report safety concerns.
• This has kept the railroads from following through on the promise they made in March to join the program after a fiery Ohio derailment prompted calls for reforms.
• Unions and workplace safety experts say the idea of disciplining workers who report safety concerns undermines the purpose of creating such a hotline because workers won’t use it if they fear retribution.
• A former OSHA official said it’s “dangerous companies always try to blame all unsafe conditions on workers — that it’s the unsafe workers — when the statistics are really clear that it’s unsafe conditions that cause almost all injuries.”
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Texas firm cited after crane collapse

• OSHA cited a Texas construction company after a worker died in a crane collapse in March.
• The agency cited Farmersville-based S&D Erectors Inc. for four willful violations and proposed $262,977 in penalties in connection with the death of the mobile crane operator at a work site in Aubrey, Texas.
• S&D exposed its workers to dangers by overloading the crane, failing to have an accident prevention program in place, failing to regularly inspect the work site, and failing to meet federal safety standards for crane inspections.
• The company can contest the citation and penalties.
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