Regulations

When companies determine that their employees need some type of safety training, the knee-jerk reaction is most often, “Well, get them an OSHA 10 or 30.” They say “10 or 30” because they usually don’t know how much training their workers are required to have. The idea that a 10 or 30 hour...

If your employer is on the ball, you’ve probably seen the signs while walking around your facility: Permit Required Confined Space – Do Not Enter.  It sounds dangerous, but what does it mean?  I’ve heard many mistaken answers to this question, or at least answers that are only partially...

We often focus here on what you need to do to keep your employees safe and to ensure your company is compliant with the law, but at some point in time, some of you are going to be involved in an OSHA inspection and the outcome may not be as favorable as you’d like.  In this post, we’re...

You’ve heard all the horror stories, right?  OSHA comes into a factory or onto a construction site and things are such a mess they immediately shutdown all operations.  Work stops.  That steel beam being lifted into place by that crane?  Leave it hanging.  Those trucks full of concrete? ...

Sometimes, when questions seem like they should have obvious answers, we need to dig a little deeper to make sure we’re not making assumptions. When it comes to what OSHA considers a hole in the roof, it would be easy to say, “A hole is a hole.” I mean, we all know what holes look...

The moment you see or hear the word "mezzanine" in your workplace, your thought should immediately turn to fall protection. In general industry, the minimum height at which fall protection is needed is 4’. Because mezzanines are typically used to store goods or machinery up off the floor...

Unprotected skylights are dangerous and kill people each year. It’s too often that a worker trips, leans, or backs into one of these glass death traps and plummets to the ground below. For this reason alone, protecting these hazards need to be top of mind. OSHA has listed how to provide a...

It happens to the best of us! Your inspecting the work site and you discover an issue of non-compliance. This is what happened to a recent customer. They had four spots on their roof that were clear OSHA violations. OSHA requires that workers exposed to a fall hazard MUST have fall...

Does this look familiar?

HVAC units are commonly found close to the edge of your roof. Why we insist on putting them there may make sense to the architect or mechanical installer. However, it poses a serious risk to all who need to maintain it.

You're not comfortable sending your...

OSHA regulations can be tricky. There are regulations that apply to specific industries and others that apply to any type of workplace that meets certain criteria. Since the wording of some regulations is vague or imprecise, there are often interpretations of the regulations and exceptions to...

Every day thousands of you are exposed to a fall hazard in the workplace.

Often times someone has already put forth the work to implement fall protection for you according to OSHA regulations.

But is that really enough?

Ever since the OSH Act in 1970,...

This infographic shows the effectiveness of OSHA over the years in reducing the number of workplace fatalities. While demonstrating that fact, it also shows that OSHA has been far less effective than other countries at reducing workplace fatalities. I'm sure that the comparisons are not...

Reading OSHA Standards:

As safety consultants, our job is to help employers and employees understand the OSHA inspection process and inform them of their rights during these inspections.

I saw via Injury Boards web site that OSHA has released their Top 10 Safety Violations for 2009 (and were not even done with 2009 yet!)  The findings are not positive in that the number of top 10 violations has increased almost 30 percent over the same time period in 2008. 

Of particular note...

I know you mother probably taught you not to lie, but I guess some people just can resist it in order to make a buck. 

Thats the question that OSHA wants you to start asking.  Not only will they want you to ask...

In March, OSHA released a report detailing what they call the true cost of not protecting employees.  This report goes far beyond the usual business case for safety that most of us are taught to make when we first assume a title that includes the word “safety”.  In that business case, we are...

Its that time of year again where OSHA published their annual update on what kinds of fines were levied in the previous year.  Kee Safety notes that Fall Protection and Machine Guarding are near the top again.

Unfortunately not a lot changes in these lists from year to year.  Fall protection...

Photo Courtesy of Team Safety Inc

As consistent readers of this blog may have noticed, there is a lot of attention paid to fall prevention and protection. This is no accident. While falls account for a great...

On April 22, 2010, David Michaels issued a memo to the OSHA Regional Administrators outlining changes to OSHAs penalty policies. Some of these administrative changes are being made now and will end with the advanced reprogramming of government computers and updating OSHA Information System...

It has long been lamented by those trying to rein in employers with poor safety performance, that OSHA has not had the teeth to enforce regulations the way they need to be enforced.  From understaffing to penalties that are miniscule compared to penalties imposed by other government...

OSHA is implementing a new Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) and increasing civil penalty amounts in an effort to address urgent safety and health problems. The SVEP allows OSHA to focus enforcement on recalcitrant employers who endanger workers with indifference to their safety...

By now, hopefully you’ve heard the OSHA news that made a big splash toward the end of 2014: As of January 1, 2015, new reporting requirements are in place.  Who has to report and how they have to report has not changed, but what needs to be reported...

OSHA is raising its penalties. This is the first time that OSHA raised its penalties since 1990. A serious violation, one that may cause death or serious injury is raised from a maximum of $7,000 to $12,000, with the average fine $3,000-4,000, up from $1,000. The maximum penalty for a willful...

OSHA has their own education centers across the United States.  Most of them are located at major US universities and colleges.  The entire listing of education centers has been added to the network!

Search for OSHA Training in the Simplified Safety Network.