FAA Fines Airline for Violating Fatigue Rules
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a civil penalty of $153,000 against an airline for operating 17 flights without giving pilots or flight attendants the required minimum amount of rest.
Read MoreWorksafeBC: Former BC Premier Didn’t Ensure Safety at Worksite
A WorkSafeBC report into a roofer’s fatal fall at former Premier Gordon Campbell’s summer residence in Halfmoon Bay, BC, says the premier, who was prime contractor for a renovation there, failed to provide adequate safety measures.
Read MoreDiesel Exhaust Exposure Linked to Lung Cancer
Researchers have found a link between lung cancer deaths and heavy worker exposure to diesel exhaust in non-metal mines in the United States.
Read MoreIndonesia Seeks Outside Window Cleaning Ban for Maids
The Indonesian Embassy is calling for a ban on outside window cleaning by Indonesian maids after eight women fell to their deaths from high-rise towers in Singapore between January and early May 2012.
Read MoreHelp Your Workers Cut Obesity Down to Size
As workers age, they deal with declining vision, hearing, strength, agility and reduced ability to process information. But there is one more factor that can amplify the deficits relating to aging—being overweight or obese.
Read MoreRail Company Fined Over Level Crossing Deaths
Network Rail in England has been fined the equivalent of nearly $1.6 million and ordered to pay $95,000 in costs after admitting health and safety breaches that contributed to the deaths of two young teenage girls.
Read MoreOSHA Requests Concrete Comments
OSHA is seeking comments from employers regarding how to prevent injuries and deaths among workers involved in reinforcing concrete activities in construction, general industry, agriculture and the maritime industry.
Read MoreConstruction Superintendent Sentenced for Misleading Investigators
A construction site superintendent from South Dakota has been sentenced to six months’ house detention with electronic monitoring for willfully violating an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation with regard to the fatal fall of one of his workers.
The 29-year-old victim, Carl Beck, fell 42 feet (nearly 13 meters) while helping install a motel roof in the Pittsburgh, PA, area in 2009.
Superintendent Robert Christopher Kennedy, 60, pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to protect employees with anchored safety lines attached to harnesses. He also directed another person to put fall protection on the roof after the fatality, to make it look as though fall protection measures had been in place prior to Beck’s fall.
When an OSHA investigator arrived on the job site to interview Kennedy about the death, Kennedy misled him to believe that fall protection was properly secured to the roof before the accident occurred, by using pictures of the roof taken after the fall protection gear was placed there.
Christopher Franc, of C.A. Franc Construction—the company for which Beck worked, was fined $539,000 by OSHA. Franc himself was sentenced to three years’ probation, including six months of home detention. He was also ordered to cover Beck’s funeral expenses.
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Read MoreOSHA Embraces Global Chemical Labeling System
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that its plans to align its Hazard Communication Standard with the United Nation’s Globally Harmonized System of Classifying and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) will benefit workers by reducing confusion about chemical hazards.
Read MoreUnusual Incident Claims Worker’s Life
The construction industry experiences a large number of struck-by injuries and fatalities, but an unusual incident recently took the life of a young father of two children.
Victor “Bo” Towery, a 34-year-old heavy machine operator employed by A & A Grading and Hauling in Bessemer City, NC, died after being struck by an excavator set into motion by a large pipe that bumped one of its control levers.
Towery, of Clover, NC, was standing in front of the five-ton excavator when it moved, crushing him. He was alive at the scene, but died later in hospital. He had worked for A & A Grading and Hauling for six years.
OSHA is investigating the fatality. It notes that struck-by incidents are a leading cause of construction industry fatalities.
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