Month: September 2022

Nearly 800 Individuals Attend CVSA Annual Conference and Exhibition

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by CVSA

Nearly 800 individuals representing law enforcement, the motor carrier industry, and transportation safety associations and organizations attended the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in Rapid City, South Dakota, Sept. 18-22. The annual conference was held in the home state of the Alliance’s outgoing president, CVSA President Capt. John Broers with the South Dakota Highway Patrol. CVSA members and non-members gathered at the conference to work together to improve commercial motor vehicle safety, eliminate roadway crashes, and improve inspection and enforcement uniformity, consistency and reciprocity throughout North America.

The conference kicked off with the general session on Sept. 19. Updates were provided from each country of the North American alliance. Salvador Monroy Andrade, director of international affairs for Mexico’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, provided an update on behalf of Mexico. Joel Turner, chair of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators Committee on Compliance and Regulatory Affairs provided an update from Canada. And Robin Hutcheson, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), provided a U.S. update.

The week included region, committee and program meetings. There was also a meeting of jurisdictions that use performance-based brake testers (PBBTs) and an information session titled, Don’t Know Much About Driver Fatigue.

CVSA also held its annual awards luncheon. Kylla Lanier, deputy director for Truckers Against Trafficking, presented the TAT Champion Award to CVSA. CVSA President Capt. Broers presented recognition plaques to members of the Alliance who were leaving their leadership roles. He also announced the three individuals he selected for the President’s Award – CVSA staff member Chris Turner; Jack Van Steenburg with FMCSA; and Andrea Sequin with Schneider. The International Driver Excellence Award (IDEA) was presented to Ruth McDonough of Hittman Transport Services and the 2022 North American Inspectors Championship Jimmy K. Ammons Grand Champion Michael Trautwein, with the Houston Police Department, spoke at the awards luncheon. In addition, CVSA Class I Members and Class II Local Members voted Capt. John Hahn, with Colorado State Patrol, into the position of CVSA secretary.

Each year, at the annual conference, the proceeds from conference raffles are donated to a charity selected by the current president. CVSA President Capt. John Broers selected the Seventh Circuit CASA Program as the recipient of funds raised from this year’s conference raffle. The Alliance raised more than $3,000, all of which will go to the Seventh Circuit CASA Program, a volunteer-based agency of court-appointed special advocates who provide a voice for abused and neglected children involved in the court system.

Mark your calendar for next year’s annual conference, scheduled for Sept. 17-21, 2023, in Grapevine, Texas.

McCraren Compliance can help you understand and comply with FMCSA, USDOT and ADOT and ensure your drivers and your vehicles operate safely and efficiently.

Call us Today at 888-758-4757 or email us at info@mccrarencompliance.com to schedule your free FMCSA Compliance Assessment.

Preventing and addressing health impacts in the mining community

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by MSHA

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) works to prevent mining injuries, illnesses and fatalities, and promote safe and healthful workplaces for all U.S. miners. The agency name and its mission statement make clear that protecting both miners’ safety and health must be a priority.

At MSHA, we take seriously our mandate to conduct inspections; investigate hazard complaints; offer education, training, and compliance assistance; and work together with labor and mine operators to correct safety hazards and prevent accidents. When a near miss or accident occurs, those are visible events that easily capture one’s attention and quickly lead to efforts to focus on safety. However, health hazards that can make miners sick are harder to identify, analyze and address. Moreover, some of the worst occupational illnesses – such as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (black lung disease), silicosis and cancer – develop over time based on miners’ exposure levels and other environmental factors.

 

Miners Health Matters Mine safety and Health logo
Photo property of MSHA 
Through the Miner Health Matters campaign, MSHA will conduct enforcement and outreach efforts to ensure miners working in potentially dangerous mining environments take proper precautions to limit exposures to silica and other dangerous toxins. And MSHA personnel will continue to directly communicate with miners about their rights and the importance of protecting their health whenever we have the opportunity.

Health-Focused Initiatives:

  • Under 30 Code of Federal Regulations Part 90, coal miners who have already developed pneumoconiosis can exercise rights that allow them to continue working in healthier parts of the mine. MSHA will work to reduce barriers that may prevent coal miners from choosing to exercise their Part 90 rights.
  • MSHA will publish a proposed rule to better protect all miners from exposure to respirable crystalline silica and to update the existing respiratory protection standards.
  • In June 2022, we announced a Silica Enforcement Initiative to better protect miners from health hazards related to repeated overexposures of silica. The initiative includes inspections, sampling, compliance assistance and direct conversations with miners about their rights to report health hazards.
  • Protecting miners from the risks associated with COVID-19 is especially difficult in underground mines and places where miners were traveling and working closely and without adequate ventilation. MSHA has developed coronavirus guidance and hosted vaccine clinics for miners and their families. These clinics have also provided hundreds of masks and COVID tests in mining communities.
  • The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, signed into law by President Biden on Aug. 16, helped to secure federal black lung benefits for miners with black lung disease and their families. Generations of coal miners who sacrificed so much to power our country can rest assured that their benefits are not in jeopardy. If a miner or other beneficiary has questions about benefits through the federal Black Lung program, beneficiaries can call the Department of Labor at 800-347-2502 or email DCMWC-public@dol.gov.

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

U.S. DOL launches black lung regulations awareness initiative

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by MSHA

Initiative emphasizes miners’ health, protection of rights as workers
 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an effort to raise awareness of regulations that give coal miners with development of pneumoconiosis, or black lung, the right to work at a section of a mine with lower levels of dust without having their pay reduced or fearing discrimination or termination.

Part 90 of the Title 30 Code of Federal Regulations protects miners diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, a disease caused by inhaling dust. The regulation applies to all miners at the nation’s surface and underground coal mines, including loadout facilities and preparation plants.

The department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration is launching its Part 90 educational initiative to inform these workers of their eligibility for free medical exams if they believe they have black lung. Mine operators will pay for the exams, which will be approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. If diagnosed, miners with black lung have the right to work in a section of a mine with low dust levels.

The Part 90 initiative is part of MSHA’s broader “Miner Health Matters” campaign to ensure that miners’ health is considered as important as miners’ safety. In addition to raising awareness, the campaign includes enforcement and outreach efforts to ensure miners working in potentially dangerous environments take proper precautions to limit exposures to silica and other dangerous toxins.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is showing that Miner Health Matters by helping the nation’s miners protect their health,” said Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Christopher J. Williamson. “This initiative will help make sure mining industry workers know their rights and how to exercise them to reduce their exposure to the dangers of high levels of coal dust.”

To make information easily accessible, MSHA has updated its web site to highlight miners’ rights to protect their health and to understand and use the Part 90 program.

Assistant Secretary Williamson will discuss the Part 90 program and other efforts to protect miners on Sept. 30 at the 2022 conference of the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics in St. Louis.

Read Assistant Secretary Williamson’s blog about how MSHA is working to protect miners’ health.

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

MSHA – Mine Fatality #17

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by MSHA

MINE FATALITY – On August 4, 2022, a mine manager died while performing maintenance on a bulldozer.  While kneeling on the bulldozer’s track, the victim accidentally engaged the lever that put the bulldozer in reverse.  The bulldozer track moved the victim to the rear of the bulldozer where he was run over.

Accident scene where a mine manager died while performing maintenance on a bulldozer.
Photo property of MSHA
Best Practices:
  • Operators should train miners on safe maintenance procedures:
  • turn off the engine
  • block equipment against motion
  • Operators should make sure miners are in a safe location in relation to machine parts that can move.
Additional Information:

This is the 17th fatality reported in 2022, and the seventh classified as “Machinery.”

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

US Department of Labor to hold virtual meeting to solicit public input on OSHA whistleblower program improvements

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by OSHA

Photo property of OSHA

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, to solicit public comments and suggestions related to OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program.

This is the tenth in a series of meetings on how the agency can improve the whistleblower program.

Open to the public, the meeting will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET via telephone and virtually via Teams. The agency will provide Spanish language translation during the meeting. Those interested in joining or participating in the meeting must register in English or Spanish by Oct. 12, 2022. There is no fee to register.

OSHA is seeking comments on:

  1. How can OSHA deliver better whistleblower customer service?
  2. What kind of assistance can OSHA provide to help explain the agency’s whistleblower laws to employees and employers?

Submit comments at the Federal eRulemaking Portal and identify using Docket No. OSHA-2018-0005. The deadline for submitting comments is Nov. 2, 2022. Read the Federal Register notice for details.

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

Demolition Fatality

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by OSHA

Demolition company in fatal Government Center garage collapse in Bostonfaces nearly $1.2M in fines for willfully exposing workers to hazards

JDC Demolition Co. Inc. failed to train workers adequately, ignored worker’s safety concerns

BOSTON – A heavy equipment operator doing demolition on the eighth  floor of the Government Center garage in downtown Boston died on March 26, 2022, when the partially demolished floor collapsed, and the 11,000-pound excavator and its operator fell 80 feet. It was the employee’s first day on the job.

An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that Brockton-based contractor JDC Demolition Company. Inc. failed to adequately train its workers on the demolition plan and safety management system to help them recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.

Specifically, on the morning of the collapse, another heavy equipment operator, who had started demolition on a concrete beam on an upper floor bay, told the foreman they had concerns about the floor’s safety. Despite the employee raising safety concerns to the foreman, a second employee was assigned to operate the excavator. That worker, the deceased, never received a safety briefing and was not trained to follow the engineer’s demolition plan.

OSHA also found that JDC Demolition deviated from the demolition plan by imposing unsafe loads, in the form of heavy equipment, on the partially demolished seventh, eighth and ninth floors. The demolition plan prohibited the placement of heavy equipment on partially demolished floor bays.

As a result, OSHA cited the company for eight egregious-willful violations, two serious violations and one other than serious violation of workplace safety standards and proposed a total of $1,191,292 in penalties. The willful citations address the training and loading violations; the serious and other than serious violations are regarding the inadequate accident prevention program, uncovered floor holes and insufficient recordkeeping.

View the JDC Demolition Company Inc. citations.

“JDC Demolition Company Inc. knew the heavy equipment on the partially demolished floors were over the weight limits and still allowed a worker, unaware of the hazards, to do demolition work,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston. “This willful and egregious disregard for safety cost a workers’ life and exposed other employees to potentially fatal hazards.”

OSHA also cited John Moriarty and Associates Inc., the demolition  project’s general contractor, for four serious violations, with $58,008 in proposed penalties, for failing to ensure that:

  • Partially demolished precast concrete floors were of sufficient strength to support the imposed load of mechanical equipment.
  • Employees were trained to recognize and avoid overloading of floors during demolition.
  • Cover or secure floor holes.
  • A competent person had adequately inspected the jobsite during demolition.

View the John Moriarty and Associates Inc. citations.

Both employers have 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

Severe Violator Enforcement Program Updated

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by OSHA

Program focuses on employers who repeatedly disregard workers’ safety, health

WASHINGTON – To strengthen enforcement and improve compliance with workplace safety standards and reduce worker injuries and illnesses, the U.S. Department of Labor is expanding the criteria for placement in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

The new criteria include violations of all hazards and OSHA standards and will continue to focus on repeat offenders in all industries. Previously, an employer could be in the program for failing to meet a limited number of standards. The changes will broaden the program’s scope with the possibility that additional industries will fall within its parameters.

Since 2010, the Severe Violator Enforcement Program has focused on enforcement and inspection resources on employers who either willfully or repeatedly violate federal health and safety laws or demonstrate a refusal to correct previous violations. In addition to being included on a public list of the nation’s severe violators, employers are subject to follow-up inspections.

“The Severe Violator Enforcement Program empowers OSHA to sharpen its focus on employers who – even after receiving citations for exposing workers to hazardous conditions and serious dangers – fail to mitigate these hazards,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker. “Today’s expanded criteria reflect the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to ensuring OSHA has the tools it needs to ensure employers protect their workers or hold them accountable when they fail to provide safe and healthy workplaces.”

Specifically, the updated criteria include the following:

  • Program placement for employers with citations for at least two willful or repeated violations or who receive failure-to-abate notices based on the presence of high-gravity serious violations.
  • Follow-up or referral inspections made one year – but not longer than two years – after the final order.
  • Potential removal from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program three years after the date of receiving verification that the employer has abated all program-related hazards. In the past, removal could occur three years after the final order date.
  • Employers’ ability to reduce time spent in the program to two years, if they consent to an enhanced settlement agreement that includes use of a safety and health management system with seven basic elements in OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.

The updated program instruction replaces the 2010 instruction, and remains in effect until canceled or superseded.

Read Assistant Secretary Parker’s blog on the Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

MSHA – Mine Fatality #21

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by MSHA

MINE FATALITY – On September 9, 2022, a dredge operator drowned while working in a dredge pond.

Accidemt scene where a dredge operator drowned while working in a dredge pond
Photo property of MSHA
Best Practices:
  • Make sure a competent person conducts workplace examinations before miners begin work to identify conditions that may adversely affect safety.
  • Make sure miners wear life jackets or belts where there is danger of falling into water.
  • Make sure miners maintain communication when working alone.
Additional Information:

This is the 21st fatality reported in 2022, and the second classified as “Drowning.”

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

Preventing Workplace Violence

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

NSC releases report and playbook

Original article published by Safety + Health

wp-violence.jpg

Itasca — New guidance from the National Safety Council is aimed at providing organizations with information and solutions to effectively mitigate and address workplace violence.

Nearly half of U.S. employers report they’re unprepared to prevent and respond to incidents on the job – even as workplace violence becomes more frequent, according to NSC. Recognizing this critical gap in safety preparedness, the nonprofit organization – through its Work to Zero initiative – recently released a report and playbook: Workplace Violence: Using Technology to Reduce Risk.

“Research shows that overt acts of workplace violence rarely occur out of the blue, but too often the catalyst for implementing effective means of prevention comes in the wake of tragedy,” said Paul Vincent, executive vice president of workplace practice at NSC. “This report provides business leaders and safety managers alike with a foundation for understanding the top workplace violence trends and industry-specific risk factors, while offering a playbook to prevent on-the-job assaults and fatalities before they occur.”

In addition to calling for more legislative action to address this national issue, the report details key steps employers can take to reduce workplace violence risk, including:
Creating a workplace violence prevention task force. In addition to bringing a multidisciplinary understanding of risk assessment, this group is likely to have a rapport with employees, making it ideally equipped to perform trainings on sensitive safety topics.
Conducting regular tabletop exercises or simulations to engage key stakeholders, identify gaps in existing prevention plans, and clarify worker responsibilities in emergency situations.
Using technology to help prevent workplace hazards. Notably, the report outlines the benefits and applications of 10 key technologies, such as digital floor plan mapping, virtual reality training and weapon detection systems.
Fostering a workplace culture in which psychological safety is prioritized, and where all workers feel empowered to voice concerns and initiate broader safety conversations.

“Employees serve as the eyes and ears of their organization, and their role in preventing workplace violence cannot be overstated,” said Emily Whitcomb, director of the Work to Zero initiative. “This report not only details how employers can implement the latest safety technology into their workplace, but identifies specific steps leaders can take to enhance employee engagement enterprise wide. Together, these safety solutions can make the difference between a high- and low-risk workplace.”

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

Help prevent workplace violence

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

Original article published by Safety + Health

Workplace violence led to nearly 18,000 deaths over a recent 27-year period, according to a recently published report from NIOSH and two other federal agencies.

A total of 17,865 workers were victims of workplace homicides from 1992 to 2019 – with a high of 1,080 in 1994. In 2019, workplace homicides totaled 454 – a 58% drop from the 1994 total. Follow these do’s and don’ts from NIOSH to help prevent workplace violence.

Do:

  • Attend employer-provided training on how to recognize, avoid and respond to potential workplace violence situations.
  • Report perceived threats or acts of violence to your supervisor.
  • Follow existing workplace policies.
  • Remain aware of and support co-workers and customers if a threatening situation occurs.

Don’t:

  • Argue with a co-worker or customer if they threaten you or become violent. If needed, go to a safe area (ideally, NIOSH says, a room that locks from the inside, has a second exit route, and has a phone or silent alarm).
  • Underestimate a threat. Take each one seriously.
  • Ignore odd behavior. Report it.

Indicators of Workplace Violence, 2019

National Crime Victimization Survey

McCraren Compliance assists employers in protecting their workers, starting with a comprehensive Work-site Analysis, Hazard Prevention, Controls, and Safety & Health Training.

Please contact us today at 888-758-4757 to learn how we can provide mine safety training and consulting for your business.