S+H Staff

Washington – A new report cites a lack of safety management, ineffective regulatory oversight and poor safety culture as factors in the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Washington – Despite slight increases to funding levels for both OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the fiscal year 2012 budget bill (H.R. 2055) restricts the agencies’ pursuit of some rulemakings.

Washington – After several close calls during which a government shutdown loomed, Congress finalized a budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2012, providing some occupational safety and health agencies with a slight funding increase.

A 56-year-old cleanup worker at a food mill was killed when he fell into a manlift shaft.

I’m running behind schedule. Nothing bad will happen to me. I won’t be up there long. Everybody does it this way. Thoughts like these might run through a worker’s head before he or she decides to take a safety shortcut. No matter the rationalization for the behavior, not following proper procedures can have disastrous results – hence the phrase, “shortcuts cut life short.”

Broken wire ropes can lead to serious incidents in a mine, cautions the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Wire ropes often break due to shock loading – when a load is applied to a rope that has developed slack as the result of a stopped or slowed load.

While running up a flight of stairs on an icy morning, merging from one lane to another during rush hour or sliding centimeters past an open file cabinet at the office, every day we narrowly avoid incidents that could result in a serious injury. When these incidents take place on the job, it can serve as a warning that a serious incident is waiting to happen.

Ammonia is a colorless gas with a pungent odor that has a number of occupational uses, such as a refrigerant; cleaning and bleaching agent; or additive in fertilizers, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Although exposure in typical environmental concentrations is not considered hazardous, exposur

On Dec. 29, 2008, a staff research assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, was working with a syringe containing t-butyl lithium, a highly flammable compound that ignites on contact with air. The plunger on the syringe somehow became dislodged and the chemical ignited, setting the assistant’s synthetic sweater on fire.

Lead is commonly used at many construction sites, particularly in demolition, salvage, removal, encapsulating, renovation and cleanup. The hazardous substance can pose a risk to workers if they are not properly protected.