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OSHA to Hold Combustible Dust WebChat on June 28, 2010

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:47:19 +0000

OSHA invites interested parties to participate in a Web Chat on June 28, 2010 at 1 pm ET on the workplace hazards of combustible dust. OSHA plans to use the information gathered in response to this Web Chat in developing a proposed standard for combustible dust.

Participants are requested to provide their name, affiliation, and e-mail address so OSHA can respond to comments or seek clarification.

Participants can access the Web Chat at http://www.dol.gov/dol/chat.htm. The Web Blog will remain accessible for additional feedback through July 7, 2010.

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OSHA Releases Chemical Exposure Health Data

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:45:25 +0000

OSHA recently released 25+ years worth of industrial hygiene sampling data as a part of the “Open Government” initiative.

OSHA takes industrial hygiene samples as part of its compliance monitoring program. Many of these samples are submitted to the Salt Lake Technical Center for analysis. Sampling data represent personal, area, and bulk samples for various airborne contaminants.

Personal sampling results represent the exposure to the individual who was actually wearing a sampling device. Area samples are taken in a fixed location and results may represent the potential risk from airborne contaminants or physical agents to workers in that area. Bulk samples were taken to verify if certain constituents are present and if so, in what concentration. Bulk samples are used individually or in conjunction with personal or area samples to help interpret the level of worker risk.

OSHA compliance officers do not:

Routinely visit every business which use chemicals known to be toxic.

Take representative samples of every employee and every activity on every day.

Always obtain a sample for an entire (8-hour) period or shift.

OSHA compliance officers do:

Target and visit certain industries based on National and regional emphasis programs.

Have limited time to conduct an inspection and cannot completely characterize all exposures for all employees, every day.

Use professional judgment and often attempt to evaluate worse case chemical exposure scenarios.

Develop a snapshot picture of potentially hazardous chemical exposures and use field evaluation tools to assess their significance: often comparing their measured airborne concentrations of chemicals against established standards.

Source: OSHA.gov

Free OSHA PowerPoint Presentation Templates

admin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:16:07 +0000

A number of free OSHA applicable PowerPoint templates are available on OHShub.com. Below you will find some of the major OSHA topics that you can download and tailor to suit your needs.

Note: All presentations are in .ppt (PowerPoint) format. For a free Office PowerPoint viewer, click HERE.

Bloodborne Pathogens (Bloodborne Pathogens .ppt (344))

Cranes (Cranes .ppt (161))

Egress, Emergency Action Plans, Fire Prevention, etc. (Egress, Emergency Action Plans, Fire Prevention, etc. (224))

Electrical – General Industry (Electrical (General Industry) (185))

Electrical – Construction Industry (Electrical (Construction Industry) (126))

Excavations (Excavations (131))

Fall Protection (Fall Protection (224))

Flammables (Flammables (144))

Forklift (Powered Industrial Trucks) (Forklift (Powered Industrial Trucks) (115))

General Safety & Health (General Safety & Health (267))

Hand & Power Tools (Hand & Power Tools (113))

HAZCOM (HAZCOM (175))

Machine Guarding (Machine Gaurding (115))

Materials Handling (Materials Handling (132))

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – General Industry (Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (203))

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Construction Industry (Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - Construction Industry (130))

Recordkeeping (Brief) (Recordkeeping (Brief) (86))

Recordkeeping (Recordkeeping (95))

Scaffolding (Scaffolding (102))

Stairs & Ladders (Stairs & Ladders (131))

Walking & Working Surfaces (Walking & Working Surfaces (128))

Disclaimer: All information contained in these presentations is believed to be accurate. This website and its content managers take no responsibility for inaccuracies.

NIOSH Offers Free Health Hazard Evaluations

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:09:10 +0000

Much in the same way that OSHA offers free onsite health and safety consulting services, NIOSH has a similar program for workplaces. A Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE), offered by NIOSH, is a study of hazardous materials or harmful conditions in the workplace. Taking the form of an interview, site visit and evaluation, or helpful information, the HHE provides the NIOSH findings and/or recommendations to the employer in the effort to reduce the hazard of issue.

To request a NIOSH HHE, click HERE.

1. When to request an HHE from NIOSH

You are an employee, employee representative, or employer and the following apply:

Employees have an illness from an unknown cause.
Employees are exposed to an agent or working condition that is not regulated by OSHA.
Employees experience adverse health effects from exposure to a regulated or unregulated agent or working condition, even though the permissible exposure limit is not being exceeded.
Medical or epidemiological investigations are needed to evaluate the hazard.
The incidence of a particular disease or injury is higher than expected in a group of employees.
The exposure is to a new or previously unrecognized hazard.
The hazard seems to result from the combined effects of several agents.

2. When to request help from the OSHA Consultation Program

You are a small business owner and you want:

assistance in recognizing hazards in your workplace.
suggestions or options for correcting safety and health issues.
assistance in developing or maintaining an effective safety and health program.
to reduce workers compensation cost and improve employee morale..

The OSHA On-site Consultation Program:

is a free service.
is delivered by state (and territorial) governments using well-trained safety and health professionals.
is separate from enforcement.
is confidential. The company’s name, and any other identifying information provided about the workplace, plus any unsafe or unhealthful working conditions that the consultant uncovers, will not routinely be reported to OSHA enforcement personnel.
does not issue and citations, penalties, or fines.
will provide you a confidential, written report that summarizes the consultant’s findings.
requires the correction of hazards identified by the consultant(s).
under specific circumstances, employers with exemplary safety and health programs can be recommend for recognition and provided with an exclusion from general schedule inspections.

OSHA Provides New Electric Power eTool

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:38:49 +0000

Workers in the electric power industry are potentially exposed to a variety of serious hazards, such as arc flashes (which include arc flash burn and blast hazards), electric shock, falls, and thermal burn hazards that can cause injury and death. This eTool seeks to inform employers of their obligations to develop the appropriate hazard prevention and control methodologies designed to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.

Items addressed in the eTool include:

Overview

Scope

Generation vs. Transmission and Distribution

Medical Services and First Aid

Hazard Assessment and Job Briefing

Energized vs. Deenergized Work

Hazardous Energy Control

Grounding for Employee Protection

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Insulating Protective Equipment (IPE)

Enclosed Spaces and Working Underground

Overhead Line Work

Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Industry e Tool – Illustrated Glossary (02/2004)

Glossary of Terms

The eTool also serves to empower workers engaged in the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power to understand the steps their employers must implement in order to provide them with a safe and healthful work environment.

The full scope of the Electric Power eTool can be found HERE.

15,000 Workplaces Receive Letters from OSHA

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:29:54 +0000

OSHA recently sent out 15,000 letters to workplaces with the highest DART (days away, restricted, transferred) rates. (For a DART calculator, see OHShub.com’s post HERE). For every 100 full-time workers, the 15,000 employers had 4.5 or more injuries or illnesses which resulted in days away from work, restricted work or job transfer. The national average is 2.0.

Suggestions provided by OSHA to reduce the DART rate included:

Hiring an outside safety and health consultant
Talking with your insurance carrier, or
Contacting your state’s workers’ compensation agency for advice

A copy of the letter is available HERE.

For a list of the 15,000 workplaces, click HERE.

Source: OSHA.gov

Video Replay: OSHA Listens Public Meeting

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:26:08 +0000

On Thursday, March 4, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) held a public meeting, “OSHA Listens,” to solicit comments and suggestions from OSHA stakeholders on key issues facing the agency, including:

What can the agency do to enhance and encourage the efforts of employers, workers and unions to identify and address workplace hazards?
What are the most important emerging or unaddressed health and safety issues in the workplace, and what can OSHA do to address these?
How can the agency improve its efforts to engage stakeholders in programs and initiatives?
What specific actions can the agency take to enhance the voice of workers in the workplace, particularly workers who are hard to reach, do not have ready access to information about hazards or their rights, or are afraid to exercise their rights?
Are there additional measures to improve the effectiveness of the agency’s current compliance assistance efforts and the on site consultation program, to ensure that small businesses have the information needed to provide safe workplaces?
Given the length and difficulty of the current OSHA rulemaking process, and given the need for new standards that will protect workers from unaddressed, inadequately addressed and emerging hazards, are there policies and procedures that will decrease the time to issue final standards so that OSHA may implement needed protections in a timely manner?
As we continue to progress through a new information age vastly different from the environment in which OSHA was created, what new mechanisms or tools can the agency use to more effectively reach high risk employees and employers with training, education and outreach? What is OSHA doing now that may no longer be necessary?
Are there indicators, other than worksite injuries and illness logs, that OSHA can use to enhance resource targeting?
In the late 1980s, OSHA and its stakeholders worked together to update the Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) (exposure limits for hazardous substances; most adopted in 1971), but the effort was unsuccessful. Should updating the PELs be a priority for the agency? Are there suggestions for ways to update the PELs, or other ways to control workplace chemical exposures?

Video replays of this event are available below:

Session 1

Session 2

Fact Sheet: Aligning HAZCOM with GHS

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:26:38 +0000

OSHA is proposing modifying the Hazard Communication Standard (HAZCOM) with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). Over 40 million workers in more than 5 million workplaces are expected to be impacted at a total cost of approximately $97 million per year to implement (costs to decrease to $42 million per year after initial period of familiarization).

HAZCOM currently:

Requires chemical manufacturers and importers to label containers and prepare MSDS’s
Requires employers to have a HAZCOM program for workers who have exposures or potential exposures

GHS will:

Adopts a standardized method of hazard classification leading to an increase in quality and consistency of information provided to employees and employers
Classifies chemicals by their health and physical hazards
Specifies hazard communication specifics for labelling and MSDS’s
Agreement at an international level

Major changes to HAZCOM:

Specific criteria for classification of health and physical hazards of chemicals and mixtures
Manufacturers and importers must use standardized labelling methods that include signal word, pictogram, and hazard statement
MSDS’s will have a specific 16-section format
Workers must be trained within 2 years of the final rule on the recognition and understanding of the GHS labelling and MSDS system

Benefits of GHS:

Prevent 43 fatalities per year
Prevent 585 illnesses per year
Save $754 million per year

Source: OSHA.com

MSD’s to be Added Back to OSHA 300 Log?

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:24:28 +0000

OSHA is proposing to revise its Recordkeeping regulation (29 CFR part 1904) to restore a column to the OSHA 300 Log that employers would use to record work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The 2001 Recordkeeping final regulation included an MSD column, but the requirement was deleted before it became effective. The proposed rule would require employers to place a check mark in the MSD column, instead of the column they mark now, if the case is an MSD and meets the general recording requirements of the Recordkeeping rule. The rule also proposes, for this recordkeeping purpose only, a definition of MSD that is identical to the one contained in the 2001 final Recordkeeping rule. In addition, OSHA proposes an entry for the total number of MSDs on the OSHA 300A form, the form that employers use to annually summarize their work-related injuries and illnesses (see 29 CFR 1904.32).

In 2003 OSHA deleted the MSD provisions (column and definition) from the 2001 Recordkeeping rule. However, after further consideration and analysis, the Agency believes that information generated from the MSD column will improve the accuracy and completeness of national occupational injury and illness statistics; will provide valuable and industry specific information to assist OSHA in effectively targeting its inspection, outreach, guidance and enforcement efforts to address workplace MSDs; and will provide useful establishment-level information that will help both employers and employees readily identify the incidence of MSDs.

OSHA stresses that the purpose of this rulemaking is solely to improve data gathering regarding work-related MSDs. The proposed rule does not require employers to take any action other than to check the MSD column on the OSHA 300 log if a work-related MSD case occurs that meets the general recording requirements of the Recordkeeping regulation. Unlike OSHA standards, the proposed rule does not require employers to implement controls to prevent and control employee exposure to an identified occupational hazard.

Source: OSHA.gov

OSHA Publishes Hexavalent Chromium Booklet

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:07:34 +0000

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently published Hexavalent Chromium, a booklet outlining industry requirements for hexavalent chromium standards. Workers exposed to this toxic chemical can develop lung cancer and damage to the nose, throat and respiratory system.

Inhaling the chemical’s fumes can cause allergic reactions or asthmatic symptoms, such as wheezing and shortness of breath. Hexavalent chromium is used in pigments, metal finishing, wood preservatives and fungicides. Workers may also be exposed to hexavalent chromium fumes generated during welding of chromium metal alloys.

“Hexavalent chromium is a powerful lung carcinogen and exposure to this chemical must be minimized,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA David Michaels. “OSHA provides guidance on its standards to ensure that employers and workers know the best ways to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.”

The booklet explains OSHA’s hexavalent chromium standards in a reader-friendly format and is a companion document to the Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Hexavalent Chromium Standards published in 2006. Requirements for exposure limits, exposure monitoring and determination, protective work clothing and equipment, medical surveillance, communication of hexavalent chromium hazards and recordkeeping are described.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

Source: OSHA.gov