The Centers for Disease Control has issued guidance that recommends actions that non-healthcare employers should take now to decrease the spread of seasonal flu and 2009 H1N1 flu in the workplace and to help maintain business continuity during the 2009-2010 flu season. The guidance includes additional strategies to use if flu conditions become more severe and some new recommendations regarding when a worker who is ill with influenza may return to work. The guidance may change as additional information about the severity of the 2009-2010 influenza season and the impact of 2009 H1N1 influenza become known.
Actions Employers Should Take Now
- Review or establish a flexible influenza pandemic plan and involve your employees in developing and reviewing your plan;
- Conduct a focused discussion or exercise using your plan, to find out ahead of time whether the plan has gaps or problems that need to be corrected before flu season;
- Have an understanding of your organization’s normal seasonal absenteeism rates and know how to monitor your personnel for any unusual increases in absenteeism through the fall and winter.
- Engage state and local health department to confirm channels of communication and methods for dissemination of local outbreak information;
- Allow sick workers to stay home without fear of losing their jobs;
- Develop other flexible leave policies to allow workers to stay home to care for sick family members or for children if schools dismiss students or childcare programs close;
- Share your influenza pandemic plan with employees and explain what human resources policies, workplace and leave flexibilities, and pay and benefits will be available to them;
- Share best practices with other businesses in your communities (especially those in your supply chain), chambers of commerce, and associations to improve community response efforts; and
- Add a “widget” or “button” to your company webpage or employee websites so employees can access the latest information on influenza
Important Components of an Influenza Pandemic Plan
- Be prepared to implement multiple measures to protect workers and ensure business continuity. A layered approach will likely work better than using just one measure.
- Identify possible work-related exposure and health risks to your employees. OSHA has developed tools to determine if your employees are at risk of work-related exposures and, if so, how to respond
- Review human resources policies to make sure that policies and practices are consistent with public health recommendations and are consistent with existing state and federal workplace laws (for more information on employer responsibilities, employers should visit the Department of Labor’s and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s websites
- Allow employees to stay home if they are ill, have to care for ill family members, or must watch their children if schools or childcare facilities close.
- Explore whether you can establish policies and practices, such as flexible worksites (e.g., telecommuting) and flexible work hours (e.g., staggered shifts), when possible, to increased the physical distance among employees and between employees and others if local public health authorities recommend the use of social distancing strategies. Ensure that you have the information technology and infrastructure needed to support multiple workers who may be able to work from home.
- Identify essential business functions, essential jobs or roles, and critical elements within your supply chains (e.g., raw materials, suppliers, subcontractor services/products, and logistics) required to maintain business operations. Plan for how your business will operate if there is increasing absenteeism or these supply chains are interrupted.
- Set up authorities, triggers, and procedures for activating and terminating the company’s response plan, altering business operations (e.g., possibly changing or closing operations in affected areas), and transferring business knowledge to key employees. Work closely with your local health officials to identify these triggers.
- Plan to minimize exposure to fellow employees or the public if public health officials call for social distancing.
- Establish a process to communicate information to workers and business partners on your 2009 H1N1 influenza response plans and latest 2009 H1N1 influenza information. Anticipate employee fear, anxiety, rumors, and misinformation, and plan communications accordingly.
CSB Releases New Safety Video on Dust Explosion at Imperial Sugar
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board () has released a new nine-minute safety video on the combustible dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, which claimed the lives of 14 workers, injured 36 workers, and caused extensive property damage on February 7, 2008.
As CSB Chairman John Bresland noted in the video, “The accident at Imperial Sugar was the deadliest industrial dust explosion in the United States in decades. It illustrates the extremely serious nature of combustible dust hazards.”
At the meeting, the CSB recommended that OSHA move forward expeditiously with a new combustible dust standard, as the CSB first recommended in 2006, and urged Imperial Sugar and several trade associations to take other actions to reduce the hazard.
CSB investigators determined that the explosion resulted from ongoing releases of sugar from inadequately designed and maintained dust collection equipment, conveyors, and sugar handling equipment. Inadequate housekeeping practices allowed highly combustible sugar dust and granulated sugar to build up throughout the refinery’s packing buildings.
CSB Issues Report on Oleum Release from INDSPEC Chemical Corp.
In the report, the CSB encouraged companies that handle hazardous chemicals to follow proper management-of-change procedures, monitor deviations from written operating procedures, and implement appropriate safeguards to mitigate human errors.
The accident that took place on Saturday, October 11, 2008, forced over two thousand residents of Petrolia, Bruin, and Fairview, to evacuate or to shelter-in-place for approximately eight hours. Oleum, also known as fuming sulfuric acid, was released when a tank transfer operation was left unattended during weekend operations and an oleum storage tank overflowed. The oleum formed a toxic sulfur trioxide gas, which mixed with moisture in the air to form a dense, corrosive, sulfuric acid cloud that threatened the neighboring towns.
CSB Chairman John Bresland said, “The managers of companies that handle highly hazardous substances, such as oleum, need to exercise special care that appropriate process safeguards are in place. In this accident, the CSB found that for many years, operators had been using an auxiliary pump power supply that lacked safety interlocks to prevent tank overfilling.”
Owned by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation and located approximately 50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, the INDSPEC facility produces resorcinol, a chemical used for making tires and other products. The CSB report noted that three operators were involved in bulk liquid loading and unloading work from Monday to Friday. However, to maintain operations on a continuous, seven-day-per-week schedule, an operator would regularly perform work on weekends, transferring oleum from pressure vessels to storage tanks used to supply the resorcinol manufacturing process.
The CSB investigation determined that the normal power supply for the three oleum transfer pumps was equipped with a safety interlock, which would automatically shut off the flow of oleum when the receiving tank was full, preventing a dangerous overflow. However, the oleum storage building also had an auxiliary or “emergency” power supply that had been installed in the late 1970s. It was originally intended as a temporary way to keep the pumps functioning during interruptions of the normal power supply but eventually the emergency power supply became a permanent fixture. Facility management never installed interlocks for the emergency power and written operating procedures did not address how or when the emergency power supply should be used.
The CSB found that to save time on weekends, operators typically ran two oleum transfer pumps simultaneously, using both the normal (interlocked) and emergency (non-interlocked) power supplies. Current managers and engineers stated they were unfamiliar with the practice. The practice had not been considered or described in process hazard analyses or operating procedures for the transfer operations.
On the day of the accident, an operator began transferring oleum at about 11:45 a.m. using two pumps and both power supplies. Although he shut down one of the pumps, he evidently did not shut down the other pump, which was connected to the non-interlocked emergency power supply, before departing the facility at 2:15 p.m. One of the storage tanks began overfilling with oleum; about an hour later acid mist began escaping from a vent, and by 4:30 p.m. the mist was flowing from the building. Facility personnel were unable to control the release, and both the facility and the surrounding towns were evacuated.
“By installing the emergency power supply without the same safety devices as the normal power supply, former facility managers traded safety for efficiency,” said CSB Investigator Jeff Wanko, P.E., C.S.P., who led the investigation. “Facilities should evaluate changes, even those considered to be temporary, to determine their potential to cause an accident. That which is temporary can easily become permanent.”
The CSB case study report identified four key safety lessons for companies: thoroughly evaluating temporary process changes, ensuring uniform safeguards for different modes of operation, monitoring deviations from operating procedures, and ensuring hazard analysis teams have complete information to perform their tasks.
For more information, contact Daniel Horowitz at 202-261-7613 or 202-441-6074 cell or Hillary Cohen at 202-261-3601 or 202-446-8094 cell.
OSHA Proposes More than $360,000 in Fines Against Frit Car Inc. for Safety and Health Violations
OSHA is proposing $364,350 in penalties against Frit Car Inc., in Brewton, Alabama, for alleged safety and health violations. OSHA inspected the facility after four workers were overcome by vapors while working in a confined space on April 3, 2009.
The company is being cited with five willful violations with a proposed penalty of $315,000 relating to failing to have an assigned attendant outside a limited space work area; not having procedures for alerting emergency services for rescuing workers in a confined space; not having a procedure that would prevent unauthorized personnel from attempting a rescue; failing to train workers who perform work in a confined space; failing to ensure the entry supervisors verified that all the entries were known; and failing to train each member of the emergency response team in confined space rescue.
The facility is also being cited with 17 serious safety and health violations with $47,950 in proposed penalties. The safety hazards include several deficiencies in the company’s enclosed and limited space program, hazards associated with poor housekeeping, no guardrails on walkways, unsuitable eye wash and shower facilities, inoperable safety interlocks on a baler machine, no tongue guard on a bench grinder, and a damaged tool. The health violations concern hazards associated with several deficiencies related to noise overexposure, the employer’s respiratory program, and a damaged welding lead on the mobile service truck.
Two other-than-serious citations with a $1,400 proposed penalty are being issued to the company for recordkeeping deficiencies and not properly storing air-supplied air respirators after usage.
OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health. A serious citation is issued when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.
“This incident could have resulted in fatal consequences because Frit Car management knowingly violated OSHA safety and health standards,” said Kurt Petermeyer, director of OSHA’s Mobile Area Office.
OSHA Proposes $231,600 in Penalties Against Los Amigos Tortilla Manufacturing Co.
OSHA is proposing $231,600 in penalties against Los Amigos Tortilla Manufacturing Co., in Atlanta, for safety and health violations. OSHA is proposing $207,000 in penalties for the company’s failure to correct seven violations identified during an inspection in 2008. These include the company’s failure to establish an energy control program to ensure that machinery would not start up while employees are conducting maintenance or servicing on a machine or piece of equipment.
In addition, the company failed to correct electrical hazards and dangers created by using machinery that lacked protection to prevent employees from being pulled into moving parts. The company also failed to ensure that employees were trained in the use of fire protective equipment, use of power trucks, and the safe use of hazardous chemicals.
Eight serious violations with proposed penalties of $24,000 resulted from the most recent inspection in 2009, which found that the company exposed employees to several electrical hazards, employees did not use personal protective equipment, and management failed to provide employees with protection from hazardous machinery and chemicals. One other-than-serious citation with a $600 proposed penalty is being issued for the company’s failure to post its 2008 annual summary of injuries and illnesses.
“OSHA’s previous inspections made Los Amigos fully aware of the needed changes to its safety and health program,” said Andre Richards, area director of OSHA’s Atlanta-West office. “All employees have a right to a safe workplace, and it is irresponsible of an employer to continue exposing its employees to work hazards.”
OSHA Proposes More than $111,000 in Penalties Against Quinco Steel Inc.
OSHA has cited Quinco Steel Inc., of Chicago Heights, Illinois, with proposed penalties totaling $111,100, for alleged willful, serious, and repeat violations of federal workplace safety and health standards. OSHA conducted a comprehensive safety and health inspection at the Michigan Avenue bridge construction site in Chicago where Quinco Steel Inc., was providing steel erection work.
Quinco Steel has been cited with two willful violations, with proposed penalties of $70,000, for failure to use proper fall protection while conducting steel erection activities over 15 feet and while operating an aerial lift.
The company has also received citations for 11 serious violations, with proposed fines of $32,700. Some of the violations address the company’s failure to ensure workers were wearing personal floatation devices while working over water; improper storage of compressed gas cylinders; failure to conduct a proper lead exposure assessment at the worksite, and failure to provide proper personal protective clothing and respiratory gear.
OSHA also issued a citation for one repeat violation with a proposed fine of $8,400 for the company’s failure to ensure workers abide by safety regulations while working within an aerial lift. OSHA issues an employer a repeat violation when that employer has been cited in the past and the agency finds a substantially similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule, or order at any other of the company’s facilities in federal enforcement states.
“It is extremely important that companies ensure safety and health procedures are initiated and enforced while employees work over water and at great heights,” said Gary Anderson, OSHA’s area director in Calumet City, Illinois. “OSHA’s intention and purpose are to make sure workers return home, safe and healthy, at the end of every shift.”
OSHA cites Steelplex Corp. for Repeat Workplace Safety and Health Hazards
OSHA has cited Steelplex Corp., for alleged workplace safety and health violations found at a Clifton, New Jersey, worksite. The proposed penalties total $78,400.
OSHA initiated its investigation on March 18, 2009, following a fatal workplace accident when a worker fell approximately 30 feet from the top of structural steel. As a result of the investigation, the company has been cited with one repeat citation with a penalty of $70,000, and three serious citations that carry a combined penalty of $8,400. Steelplex Corp., is a steel erection contractor that employs 12 employees.
The repeat citation contains one repeat violation of employees exposed to fall hazards while engaged in steel erection activities.
“This company was previously cited for workplace hazards and did not take the necessary steps to be in compliance, resulting in this avoidable tragedy,” said Lisa Levy, area director of OSHA’s office in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. “By establishing and maintaining effective safety and health management systems, future accidents can be prevented.”
The serious citations contain three serious violations including a hand-operated power tool missing the guard; an employee exposed to an electrocution hazard while using a power tool and extension cord; and an employee exposed to an electrocution hazard while using a damaged extension cord.
Northeast Earth Mechanics Inc. Faces $55,000 in Fines Following Cave-in
OSHA has proposed a total of $55,000 in fines against Northeast Earth Mechanics Inc., of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, for alleged willful and serious violations of safety standards following a cave-in at a sewer installation worksite in Littleton, New Hampshire.
An OSHA inspector opened an inspection upon observing a Northeast Earth Mechanics Inc., employee working in an apparently unprotected 10- to 11-foot deep excavation. Five minutes after the worker was instructed to exit the excavation, one of its sidewalls collapsed. Had the worker still been in the excavation, he could have been crushed or buried by the cave-in.
“This is a textbook example of how an excavation can become a grave in seconds,” said Rosemarie Ohar, OSHA’s area director for New Hampshire. “This worker was fortunate—this time. However, worker safety cannot and must not be a matter of luck. Never permit one of your employees into an excavation until its walls are guarded against collapse.”
OSHA issued Northeast Earth Mechanics Inc., one willful citation, with a proposed fine of $49,000, for not guarding the excavation against collapse, and three serious citations with $6,000 in fines for not supporting an undermined section of sidewalk to prevent its collapse into the excavation, no safe means for workers to exit the excavation, and lack of confined space training and equipment.
OSHA standards require that all excavations 5-feet or deeper be protected against collapses before workers enter them.
OSHA Fines Superior General Contracting $50,000 for Lack of Asbestos Safeguards
OSHA has cited Superior General Contracting of Cheektowaga, New York, for 10 alleged serious violations of workplace health standards at an Amherst, New York, jobsite. The contractor faces a total of $50,000 in fines for not providing all required safeguards for its employees who were exposed to asbestos-containing pipe insulation during a residential remodeling job.
“This employer should have taken steps to identify and measure the level of asbestos, provide workers with proper respirators and protective clothing, and properly clean up and dispose of asbestos-containing and potentially asbestos-containing debris,” said Arthur Dube, OSHA’s area director in Buffalo. “Inhalation of asbestos fibers may lead to serious lung disease and other disorders, which makes it essential that effective protective measures be in place and in use whenever workers are exposed to asbestos on the job.”
Specifically, OSHA found that Superior General Contracting did not monitor to determine asbestos exposure levels, use wet methods to clean up debris, provide HEPA vacuum cleaners to collect debris and dust, ensure the prompt cleanup and disposal of debris in leak-tight containers, ensure appropriate respirator use, require the use of protective clothing, perform all work in a regulated area, provide employees with appropriate training, and assure that the work was overseen by a competent person with the knowledge and authority to identify and abate hazards.
“One means of preventing hazards such as these is to implement an effective safety and health management system so that employers and employees are working together to proactively assess, identify and eliminate hazardous conditions,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York.
OSHA Fines Sealcoating Inc. $38,100 for Silica Hazards
OSHA has proposed a total of $38,100 in fines against Sealcoating Inc., of Hingham, Massachusetts, chiefly for silica-related hazards identified during restoration work on bridge M-12-28 on the southbound side of I-93 in Melrose, Massachusetts.
The contractor was cited for 11 alleged repeat and serious violations of workplace health and safety standards following a nighttime inspection conducted in July of this year as part of OSHA’s Boston North Area Office’s efforts to target inspections to construction worksites—such as road resurfacing and bridge repair—where silica is generated.
“Employers should not assume that OSHA will not conduct inspections because much of this work is done at night,” said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA’s area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. “We will conduct inspections where and when we must to ensure that employers implement and maintain effective controls to minimize this hazard to their workers.”
Crystalline silica, a basic component of soil, sand, granite, and many other minerals, can be inhaled when workers chip, cut, drill, or grind objects that contain the substance. It has been classified as a human lung carcinogen, and breathing crystalline silica dust can cause silicosis, a disabling or even fatal lung condition.
OSHA found employees at the jobsite exposed to excess silica levels while jack hammering concrete, no controls to lower exposure levels, failure to evaluate employees’ exposure levels, an inadequate respiratory protection program and training, and no fit-testing of respirators. These conditions resulted in the issuance of seven serious citations, with $20,100 in proposed fines.
In addition, four repeat citations, with $18,000 in fines, were issued for conditions similar to those cited by OSHA following an April 2009 inspection of a Sealcoating Inc., jobsite in Springfield, Massachusetts. These include lack of a site-specific respiratory protection program, employees wearing respirators without having first obtained medical clearance, ineffective hazard communication training, and lack of an effective hearing conservation program.
Annese Electric Faces $35,000 in Fines for Unguarded Excavation
OSHA has proposed a $35,000 fine against Annese Electric of Weymouth, Massachusetts, for an alleged willful violation of excavation safety standards at a worksite at the intersection of Jackson Road and Buena Vista Street in Ayer, Massachusetts.
OSHA’s inspection found Annese Electric employees installing electrical conduits for telecommunications lines in a 7-foot deep trench that lacked protection against a collapse of its sidewalls into the trench. The workers in the trench faced the imminent dangers of crushing injuries or death if a collapse occurred.
“An unprotected trench is a potential grave,” said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA’s area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. “Its walls can collapse suddenly and with great force, burying workers beneath tons of soil and debris before they can react or escape. The fact that no collapse had yet occurred in no way relieves the employer of the responsibility to provide and ensure this basic and legally required safeguard.”
As a result of its inspection, OSHA has issued Annese Electric one willful citation for the unprotected trench.
NPPTL Seeks Stakeholder Input for the 2010 PPT Program Stakeholder Meeting Agenda
The NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program will host the 3rd Annual Stakeholders’ Meeting on March 2 and 3, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh Airport. The meeting will include user-oriented discussions structured to assist NPPTL in providing personal protective technology-related information and training, and for NPPTL to receive user input into their program planning. NPPTL is seeking stakeholder input and feedback in setting the agenda topics to meet these goals.
The topic areas that have been identified as potential discussion topics and training sessions are listed below. After reviewing this list, stakeholders are encouraged to respond with their thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and comments so that NPPTL will be able to include the subject topics PPE users most want to hear about.
- End-user benefits of respirator certification training sessions
- Respiratory protection
- Overview
- Color coding elements for filters
- Differences between surgical masks and N95s
- CBRN protection
- Care and maintenance of respiratory protection
- Fit testing
- The NIOSH Certified Equipment List
- Protective Clothing
- Permeation issues
- Needs
- Hearing protection
- Fall protection
- Surveillance projects
- Physiology
- Communications from NPPTL – what channels of communication work best for you? What information do you need / want?
- New PPT Technology (NIOSH-funded grants)
- Why users should be involved in development of PPE approval requirements
- Prioritizing PPT research
Written comments are being accepted from October 2, 2009 through 5:00 p.m. on October 23, 2009. Material submitted to NIOSH should reference docket number NIOSH-192. Electronic comments should be formatted as Microsoft Word with the reference to docket number NIOSH-192 included with your submission and submitted to:
NIOSH Docket Office
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Docket Office, Mail Stop C-34
Robert A. Taft Laboratories
4676 Columbia Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45226
Telephone: 513-533-8611
Fax: 513-533-8285
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