General Duty Clause Concern Much Ado About Nothing? This July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed modifications to its General Duty Clause to limit its application in inherently risky operations. The response to this proposal has been strongly negative, reflecting an “inherent misunderstanding” of the proposal, a law firm asserts. The proposal emphasizes that […]

One member of mining crew trapped after wall collapses Emergency responders were hoping to use an underwater drone to reach a miner trapped deep inside a flooded West Virginia coal mine. All other members of the crew were accounted for at the Rolling Thunder mine about 50 miles from the state capital of Charlston. The […]

Molecular biologist says lax protocols at biosafety lab led to exposure Becky McClain raised safety concerns while working at Pfizer’s Biosafety Level 2 lab in Connecticut in 2000. Three years later, she says the unaddressed issues led to her being exposed to a genetically modified lentivirus, leaving her disabled. Her exposure led to a decade-long […]

New data provides insights into awareness and enforcement of heat illness reg The Silver State has instituted its own heat illness prevention standard, which took effect in April. New data on Nevada OSHA’s heat illness “Dashboard” lists the complaints, inspections, citations, penalties proposed and workers’ comp data. Since enforcement began, 13 citations for noncompliance have […]

Death toll rises in Kentucky UPS plane explosion Twelve people are now confirmed to have been killed in Tuesday’s crash and explosion of a United Parcel Service airliner at the Louisville, Kentucky, airport. Fifteen people were injured, two critically, and several more are missing. Authorities have recovered the black box from the aircraft and reviewed […]

UPS plane explodes on takeoff at Kentucky airport A United Parcel Service jet crashed at the Louisville, Kentucky airport, causing an explosion, giant plumes of smoke and fire that spread a mile. The three crewmembers on board have been confirmed dead, as were four on the ground. Eleven others were injured from the surrounding area. […]

Brewery argument erupts into workplace fatality A contract employee at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville, Florida, is dead after an argument with another contractor worker turned deadly. Antoine Audry, 22, suffered stab wounds to the chest and was taken to a hospital, where he died. Autry was heard screaming that he had been stabbed and […]

Six workers died from H2S2 in August incident near Denver The Weld County, Colorado, coroner’s office says the six dairy workers who died this summer in a confined-space incident were killed by hydrogen disulfide. Five men and a teenager – 17 years old – were killed in an incident for which the circumstances have yet […]

State Plans, Unions Question General Duty Clause Carve-Outs A group of OSHA state-plan states have voiced objections to Fed-OSHA’s plan to exempt certain occupations from General Duty Clause protections. In July, the Feds moved to reinterpret the GDC to exclude known hazards that are “inherent and inseparable” from the nature of a professional activity. Among […]

How AI is Saving Lives, Not Taking Jobs In an opinion piece, the senior director for artificial intelligence for sustainability software company Cority contends that the unintended danger of automation isn’t automation itself, but the failure to keep human judgment and accountability in the loop. The future of safety isn’t a decade way, but is […]