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OSHA announced earlier yesterday that they have released the final rule for the protection of the safety and health of shipyard workers. The rule was published in today’s edition of Federal Register. The rule updates all the existing requirements and reflects the major advancements in the industry practices and technology. The rule also provides better protection from hazards that were not addressed previously, like control of hazardous energy. This new rule is expected to prevent nearly 350 serious injuries this year. OSHA collaborated with the maritime industry to make this final rule. Shipyard work is extremely dangerous and it is of immense importance to craft a rule that protects the health and safety of the workers while at the same time takes the employers concerns about implementation into consideration. This final addresses 14 workplace safety and health categories, and it also updates and clarifies all those shipyard employment standard provisions that have gone unchanged sin...

Hilda L. Solis the Secretary of Labor announced that 15 new members will be appointed to the Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. An open meeting will be held on the 19th and 20th of April at the Department of Labor’s headquarters in Washington. In January, the MACOSH charter was re-established by Secretary Solis, and this will be the first meeting held by the committee. Experts in the issue of maritime safety and health, the members of the committee will all serve two year terms and will represent the best interests of labor, management and the occupational safety and health professions. The MACOSH committee in turn will act as advisors to OSHA as far as protecting the safety and health of workers in the maritime industry is concerned. The MACOSH meetings will provide the public with the chance to participate in the committee’s activities on various issues related to safety and health of the shipyard, long-shoring and maritime workers. The maritime industry ...

Flight attendants are among those who are urging senators and other figures of authority to reject the amendment that was passed by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, which states that OSHA protection would be eliminated for those who work in aircraft cabins. This amendment, if successfully passed, would go ahead and eliminate any coverage that flight attendants and other crew members have so desperately been trying to seek from the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget appropriation. Currently, the FAA has some sort of jurisdiction over airplane cabin safety and health issues. However, FAA has not really created or enforced any set of standards or regulations and this leaves flight attendants and travelers unprotected. Some of the cabin hazards that flight attendants and passengers might face include: biohazards, air quality, noise, temperature and humidity. Many labor groups like the AFL-CIO claim that with OSHA protection, the number of injuries and illnesses caused due to these haza...

The very idea of Democrats and Republicans coming together and enacting a legislation for the sole purpose of protecting American workers from on-the-job injuries and fatalities seems inconceivable. But this is exactly what happened almost 40 years ago. On the 29th of December, 1970, President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) Act into law. This act was a compromise that sought to assure that every man and woman in the nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources”. The OSHA Act has been successful in saving many thousands of lives. If the workers had the same risk of death as they had in 1933, the death rate would have gone up by 40,000 more workers per year. However, the OSHA Act has not been properly updated since the time it became law. OSHA has become hopelessly overmatched and struggles to look after 21st century workplaces with 20th century tools. Each year, nearly 5,000 American workers pay the price for this, with thei...

The Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States, has recently fined the MillerCoors company with a hefty fine of $63,500 for an ammonia leak that sent two employees to the hospital. You will be shocked to know that nearly 2,000 pounds of toxic anhydrous ammonia leaked when an ammonia line had ruptured at the Coors Brewing plant on the 12th of July. The OSHA investigators had found that while two workers were busy working on the faulty ammonia system, an uncontrolled release occurred during the regular maintenance operations. Luckily, these employees escaped with serious injuries. They were then rushed to the Lutheran Hospital, where they were promptly treated. OSHA’s area office director in Englewood, Mr.John Healy, said that, "Employers must be diligent in ensuring that employees and the public are not unwittingly exposed to serious hazards caused by inadequate maintenance of systems controlling highly hazardous chemicals”. He f...