Tips & Updates about OSHA & Hazwoper Training Courses | Safety Tips

Dentists are trained and educated to solely care for patients. However, Most dentists, hygienists or administrative personnel will tell you that multitasking is the key to any job. Not only are they responsible for patient care but are also responsible for the safety management. Safety management is absolutely essential for any business, and this includes the dentistry field as well. It doesn’t matter whether your safety management program is handled by an experienced safety coordinator or whether it is an OSHA compliance coordinator, what matters is that your safety management program should never be compromised due to your busy schedule or basic lack of knowledge. Does your dentist practice come with its fair share of unnerving irregularity, like a bunch of dirty needles lying around? A pile of dusty Material Safety Data Sheets just lying around? The weekly spore testing documentation that is just not available? Yes, all of us experience these inconsistencies, which is why having a s...

It is fairly old news that OSHA has partnered with NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and NETS (Network of Employers for Traffic Safety) to release new guidelines as far as the reduction of motor vehicle crashes involving employees are concerned. This document suggests the various actions that employers can take in order to ensure that vehicles in the workplace and other areas are safe for their employees. These guidelines however are not regulatory but merely advisory. However, OSHA requires employers to comply with the various hazard-specific safety and health standards, and employers can be cited for not taking the necessary preventive measures to avoid motor crashed involving their employees. But the document also concentrates on the significant costs of crashes to employers at the workplace, as well as to employee’s private lives. Motor vehicle crashes are estimated to cost an employer $60 billion per year. An average crash would cost an employer nearly $16,500...

OSHA has recently cited Millar Refrigerated Services in Theodore for serious health and safety violations. These 16 violations were found following an incident in which 152 workers were exposed to and overcome by ammonia vapors. Proposed fines are $52,500. In August last year, anhydrous ammonia leaked out of a pipe located on the roof of the company’s facility. The company personnel became aware of this leak when a crane operator fell unconscious by the ammonia vapors while evacuating his crane can on board the ship that was being loaded. The vapor carried all the way across the ship canal to a site being used by the BP workers and Patriot Environmental workers who were responsible for the decontamination of equipment in the cleanup efforts of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. 152 workers from different companies were hospitalized due to ammonia vapor exposure and 4 were placed in the intensive care unit. The company has been cited for 7 serious violations with $45,500 fines in propose...

Off late it has been observed that state-based OSHA worker safety programs conduct fewer inspections and fine less than their federal counterparts. In today’s time, when worker safety has become all the more important, it has been observed that the unit that enforces worker safety laws at the state and municipal levels has been conducting fewer inspections and is not giving out penalties for violations. The state level OSHA was hit hard due to the untimely death of its Director, Richard Palo, in 2009. Because of this and a number of drop outs, workplace inspections have plummeted. Unlike the Federal OSHA that has jurisdiction in public as well as private sectors, the state-based CONN-OSHA can only inspect public sector agencies. Federal OSHA was responsible for investigating an explosion at the Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown. This disaster killed 6 workers. The number of violations caught and fines given out has brought a lot of attention to this Federal unit.

Cal/OSHA, also known as the Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Occupational Safety and Health or DIR/DOSH, reminds all employers in California to post a summary of work related injuries and accidents that occurred in 2010. This log has to be presented at their place of business. The log is available on the official website of Department of Industrial Relations and gives a complete overview of the type and severity of injuries and illnesses that take place at the workplace. All the employers are expected to post the summary from 1st of February through 30th of April for employee review. All the employees, including the former ones, along with their representatives have complete right to review the Cal/OSHA Form 300A at any time. The 300A form requires the employers to fill in each and every detail and report the number of injuries every year. This should be done even if no work related injuries have occurred at the work place. The nature of the accident or illness has t...