“OSHA has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.” — Department of Labor press release, January 26, 2023 There are two common complaints about OSHA citations and fines after a fatal [...]
“My life experience confirms that the U.S. government frequently overclassifies data.” — Michael Hayden When it comes hazardous (classified) locations—electrical classification—even seemingly sophisticated technical facilities often get it wrong. The issue isn’t with the class, or the group, but with the division. Getting the division wrong, though, can render a facility more hazardous than it should [...]
“The guard shall be such that it does not offer an accident hazard in itself.” — 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(2) Machine guarding It’s hard to imagine any safeguard that doesn’t pose its own burden. Safety shoes are heavy and make a worker less nimble. Side shields on safety glasses impair peripheral vision. Interlocks introduce the prospect [...]
“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.” — Daniel Keys Moran Last summer, we talked about the Chemical Safety Board’s compilation of incident data since their reporting rule became effective in March 2020. Companies experiencing catastrophic releases that result in one or more fatalities, one or more in-patient hospitalizations, [...]
“The battle of getting better is never ending.” — Antonio Brown There’s an old joke about someone looking for their keys under a streetlight. A passerby offered to help but after a while, asked, “Are you sure this is where you lost them?” “No, I lost them over there in the park.” “Then why are [...]
“It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Very, very, very often said.” – Daniel D’Addorio The end of one year and the beginning of a new year is often a time of reflection and planning. Reflection on what we did right [...]
“The potential changes to particular provisions of the current PSM standard that OSHA is considering include: 8. Clarifying paragraph (e) to require consideration of natural disasters and extreme temperatures in their PSM programs, in Response to E.O. 13990.” — OSHA, 20-Sep-2022 call for Stakeholder comments I grew up in the Midwest. I’ve lived in Joplin, [...]
“There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.” — Erma Bombeck This time of year is full of holiday wishes. It’s as though, as the year comes to an end, we are desperate to squeeze in the caring and kindness that we failed to get to all [...]
“The entire health care system is now being organized around machines instead of human beings. Not prioritized to reduce human suffering, but rather to optimize a computerized recordkeeping system. This is a tragedy.” — Carolyn Jourdan Imagine for a moment that you are a new PSM coordinator. The person who had the job before you [...]
“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.” — George Orwell Yesterday afternoon, I was asked what I knew about the granary explosion that happened in Poland, killing two workers. I hadn’t heard of it, but my thoughts immediately went to NFPA 652, the [...]
