Avoiding Heat Stress on the Job  

The stress of working in hot weather is a concern for many as summer approaches. For the thousands of workers exposed to the oftentimes lethal combination of heat, humidity and physical labor, a few precautions can go a long way to preventing many heat-related injuries or deaths.

OSHA's Heat Stress QuickCard offers a good first step in acquiring prevention information. The card is also available on-line in Spanish. Copies of the laminated card can be ordered, at no cost, through the agency's publications page or by calling 202-693-1888.

Visit OSHA's Safety and Health Topics page on heat stress to learn more about this hazard and ways to avoid it.

Three More OSHA Standards Added to Revised Shipyard Industry Document  

Fire Protection in Shipyard Employment, contamination issues related to Hexavalent Chromium and Employer Payment for Personal Protective Equipment are three additions to OSHA's "Shipyard Industry Standards" guidance document. This new resource revises the existing "Shipyard Industry Digest" and incorporates new shipyard employment requirements that have been finalized since the booklet was last published.

A PDF of the guidance can be found
here: http://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA_shipyard_industry.pdf
or download: Shipyard Industry Standards

Mandatory Respirator Selection Provisions Added to Existing Respiratory Protection Standard  

Assigned Protection Factors, a new guidance document, provides employers with information for selecting respirators for employees exposed to contaminants in the air.

A limited number of copies are available for ordering from OSHA's publications page or by calling 202-693-1888.

A PDF of the guidance can be found
here: http://www.osha.gov/Publications/3352-APF-respirators.pdf
or download: 3352-APF-respirators.pdf

OSHA Publishes New Deck Barge Safety Guidance Document and Spud Barge Fact Sheet  

Slips, trips and falls, fire and falling overboard are among the major safety topics addressed in two new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) online publications designed to protect maritime industry employees.

The Deck Barge Safety Guidance Document was developed to educate employers and employees on preventing injuries and illnesses from hazards associated with deck barges. Other topics mentioned in the document are machinery and equipment, confined or enclosed spaces and training. The Spud Barge Safety Fact Sheet lists three methods that can prevent the spuds, which are vertical steel shafts that hold deck barges in place, from accidentally dropping or slipping. The fact sheet also offers safety measures for employers and employees working on barges and towing vessels. Both publications were produced as a result of a 2006 barge-related accident that caused five fatalities.

Deck Barge Safety Guidance Document

Spud Barge Safety Fact Sheet

Final Rule Allows Vertical Tandem Lifts  

OSHA published a final rule allowing marine terminal operators to vertically lift two empty containers, one atop the other.

By revising the marine terminals standard and certain parts of the longshoring standard (29 CFR Parts 1917 and 1918), the new rule will permit using semiautomatic twistlocks for a vertical tandem lift of two empty containers as long as specific safeguards are followed. The agency at one point had considered allowing for the vertical lift of two partially loaded containers, but backed away from that proposal for safety reasons. Some union groups have argued that vertical tandem lifts are unsafe regardless of the weight of the load.

The rule, which is not listed on OSHA's latest semiannual regulatory agenda, goes into effect April 9.

73 Fed. Reg. 75245

U.S. Labor Department's OSHA 2008 Highlights  

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) continued to exceed enforcement goals during Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 according to data released today. The agency's emphasis on identifying and eliminating serious safety and health hazards has resulted in an unprecedented 80 percent of all violations issued being in the most serious categories.

For more information:
go to: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=17216
or download: 2008 Enforcememt Data

Final Rule Clarifies "per-employee" Violations on PPE and Training  

OSHA issued a final rule on December 12 on employer responsibility for providing workers with personal protective equipment and training.

The agency said the rule, effective January 12, makes it "unmistakably clear" that each covered employee must receive PPE and training, and that each instance of noncompliance may be considered a separate violation subject to a separate penalty.

OSHA said the action does not add any new compliance obligations, and was taken in response to recent decisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission that questioned differences in wording among various OSHA PPE and training provisions. Acting OSHA administrator Thomas M. Stohler described the rule as a "technical correction."

Report Urges New Culture for DOL and OSHA  

The Center for American Progress, a Washington liberal think tank, is calling for a "change of culture" at the Department of Labor and OSHA following eight years of conservative stewardship under the Bush administration.

The organization is headed by John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden transition team and a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. It issued a report (.pdf file) offering five strategies for President-Elect Barack Obama:

• Use penalties to create a culture of accountability among employers, especially in cases of willful, repeat or high-hazard violations.
• Increase OSHA enforcement staff and assist enforcement initiatives through partnerships with community organizations, industry associations, state worker protection agencies and labor unions.
• Target high-violation industry sectors with strategic initiatives backed by sound data.
• Use thorough recordkeeping to drive enforcement priorities and improve performance evaluations.
• Strengthen immigrant worker protections.

  FMCSA Issues Rule to Improve the Safety of Equipment Used in the Transportation of Intermodal Containers

New rules will significantly strengthen safety requirements for intermodal container chassis, the special trailers that hold cargo containers when they are transferred from ship or rail to truck for final delivery, announced John H. Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

"We want to ensure that every piece of equipment traveling on our highways is operating safely," said FMCSA Administrator John H. Hill. "These new rules will bring new safety and enforcement focus on the chassis and equipment used to haul goods on our nation’s roads every day," Hill said.

The new regulations make intermodal equipment providers subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) for the first time, and establish shared safety responsibility among intermodal equipment providers, motor carriers, and drivers.

Beginning in December 2009, intermodal equipment providers must have in effect regular and systematic inspection, repair, and maintenance programs for intermodal chassis; they will also need to track defects reported and repairs made. By December 2010, each intermodal provider is required to identify its equipment with a USDOT number. FMCSA's final rule also outlines inspection requirements for motor carriers and drivers operating intermodal equipment.

Intermodal equipment providers will be subject to on-site reviews to ensure compliance with the new rules. Penalties for violating these rules range from civil fines to a prohibition on providing or operating intermodal equipment found to pose an imminent hazard.

The final rule on this Intermodal Chassis is available for review at www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/rulemakings/rule-programs/rule_making_details.asp?ruleid=257&year=2008&cat=final

IMO Publishes New IMDG Code (2008 Edition)  

A new edition of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code, the standard guide to all aspects of handling dangerous goods and marine pollutants in sea transport, has been published by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in hard copy, as a download and as an internet subscription. The new edition includes the changes in Amendment 34-08, adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in May 2008.

Although the information in the Code is directed primarily at the mariner, its provisions are essential for a whole range of industries and services. Manufacturers, packers, shippers, feeder services such as road and rail, and port authorities will find reliable advice on terminology, packing, labelling, classification, stowage, segregation, and emergency response action.

The new amendments to the Code are mandatory as from January 1, 2010 but may be applied by Administrations voluntarily from January 1, 2009.

The many detailed changes introduced by Amendment 34-08 include:

• in the Dangerous Goods List, there are 12 new UN numbers going up to 3481, with explosives going up to 0508;
• there are also 5 UN numbers which were previously not listed in the IMDG Code because they were not regulated under it;
• appropriate training for shore-side staff involved with dangerous goods is now mandatory instead of just recommended, and may be audited by the competent authority.

Persons not yet trained may only operate under the direct supervision of a trained person; and additional changes concerning marine pollutants, IMO tank instructions, excepted quantities, limited quantities and radioactive materials of class 7.

The products listed above are available from authorized distributors of IMO publications and via IMO's online bookshop.

Customers wishing to be informed about the availability of new IMO titles can register online.

OSHA Clarifies Electrical Standard  

OSHA recently issued a clarification to a revision made on its electrical installation standard for general industry.

The revision - 29 CFR part 1910, subpart S (72 FR 7136) - went into effect Aug. 13, 2007, and has since received questions regarding one of the provisions: 29 CFR 1910.304 (b)(3)(ii).

Members of the Maritime Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health questioned the extent of the application of the provision to shipyard employment, as the provision's text refers to "construction-like activities."

In addition to rewording the text of the provision to better match the agency's intent, OSHA also stressed that "construction-like activities" entail work that, while not construction, involves hazards typically found in construction work. Thus, the provision applies to shipyard work that is not covered by the shipyard standards and involves tasks that pose electrical hazards similar to those found at a construction site.

The new text now reads:

"The following requirements apply to temporary wiring installations that are used during construction-like activities, including certain maintenance, remodeling, or repair activities, involving buildings, structures or equipment."

Canadian Agency Launches Online Safety Community  

The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has launched Workscape; an online discussion board where people interested in health and safety can exchange ideas and information to help make workplaces healthy and safe.

Free to join, Workscape was created primarily as a resource for the Canadian health and safety community; however anyone around the world with an interest in occupational health and safety can participate. Workscape members can share their experiences as well as post information, comments and questions on various topics including chemical safety, ergonomics, healthy workplaces, legislations and compliance, and training and education. Users can also find and post messages about job opportunities, seminars, and conferences. Workscape also features informal areas where members can introduce themselves and network with other health and safety professionals across the country.

CCOHS has a history of implementing technological tools to better serve Canadians. Workscape was established to offer a more interactive and dynamic platform for the sharing and exchange of workplace health and safety information among members of the workplace health and safety community.

For more information on Workscape, or to join the online community, visit www.workscape.ca

Checklist for Incident Investigations  

Guide for Indentifying Casual Factors and Corrective Actions

New Construction Equipment Visibility Topic Page  

NIOSH has added a new safety and health topic page on blind areas around construction equipment for safety personnel and instructors to raise awareness on the hazards of working around construction vehicles and equipment.

Blind area diagrams for 38 types of construction equipment are available for download or print. A blind area diagram is a detailed visual representation of the area around a vehicle or piece of equipment that cannot be seen from the operator's position.

The NIOSH Safety and Health Topic: Highway Work Zone Safety, Construction Equipment Visibility can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/highwayworkzones/BAD/default.html

Shipfitting  

http://www.osha.gov/dts/maritime/sltc/ships/shipfitting/index.html

Shipfitting is a physically demanding job. Shipfitters construct entirely new vessels, sections of vessels, overhaul vessels, and repair damaged vessels. This includes work on the hull as well as the interior bulkheads and hatches. Wherever they work, they may be handling heavy materials, lifting, climbing, fitting, and sometimes working high above the ground. Specific tasks may include: laying out, positioning, aligning and securing sections; welding steel material together, and cutting steel. Shipfitters are routinely being exposed to hazards that may result in falls, burns, shocks, traumatic or acute injuries, eye injuries and heat stress. Shipfitters often perform tasks that exposes them to more than one type of hazard.

Electrocution and Shock Hazards in Shipyard Employment  

Electrocution and Shock Hazards in Shipyard Employment

The Safety Alert provides useful tips and reminders about what potentially hazardous situations to look for; and also lists instructions on preventing and eliminating electrical safety and shock hazards. In addition, the Alert illustrates examples of dangerous situations.

This Safety Alert is a product of the Alliances that OSHA signed with the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the American Society of Safety Engineers, the American Shipbuilding Association, the National Shipbuilding Research Program, and the Shipbuilders Council of America.

OSHA Resources on Combustible Dust  

http://www.osha.gov/dsg/combustibledust/index.html

Any combustible material (and some materials normally considered noncombustible) can burn rapidly when in a finely divided form. If such a dust is suspended in air in the right concentration, it can become explosive. The force from such an explosion can cause employee deaths, injuries, and destruction of entire buildings. Such incidents have killed scores of employees and injured hundreds over the past few decades.

Materials that may form combustible dust include metals (such as aluminum and magnesium), wood, coal, plastics, biosolids, sugar, paper, soap, dried blood, and certain textiles. In many accidents, employers and employees were unaware that a hazard even existed.

A combustible dust explosion hazard may exist in a variety of industries, including: food (e.g., candy, sugar, spice, starch, flour, feed), grain, tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, metals (e.g., aluminum, chromium, iron, magnesium, and zinc), and fossil fuel power generation.

Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Shipyards  

PDF Version         Online Version

OSHA has recently released Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Shipyards, an industry-specific guidance document that provides practical recommendations to help employers and employees reduce the number and severity of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace.

The guidelines emphasize various solutions that have been effectively implemented by shipyards across the country to decrease work-related musculoskeletal disorders. An "Implementing Solutions" section offers examples of ergonomic solutions that may be used to control exposure to ergonomics-related risk factors in shipyards.

OSHA Maritime Outreach Training Program  

http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/ote/outreach/maritime/index.html

OSHA has developed an OSHA Outreach Training Program for the Maritime industry. This new program builds on OSHA's successful Outreach Training Program platform to extend safety and health training to employees and employers in the maritime industry.

Through the program, individuals who complete a one-week OSHA Maritime trainer course are authorized to teach 10-hour or 30-hour safety and health hazard recognition and prevention classes in Shipyard Employment (including ship repairing, shipbuilding, and shipbreaking), Marine Terminals, and Longshoring. Authorized trainers can receive OSHA course completion cards for their students. The Maritime 10- and 30-hour student cards will expire in five years.

The Maritime Outreach Training Program is voluntary. OSHA does not require participation in this program.

OSHA Establishes a New National Emphasis Program on Silica  

On February 1st, OSHA announced a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) to target worksites where employees are at risk for developing silicosis.

"Exposure to silica threatens nearly two million American employees annually," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. "Under this program, OSHA will work diligently to maximize the protection of employees and eliminate workplace exposures to silica-related hazards."

The NEP compliance directive builds on policies and procedures instituted in the 1996 Special Emphasis Program and includes an updated list of industries commonly known to have overexposures to silica; detailed information on potential hazards linked to silica and about current research regarding silica exposure hazards; guidance on calculating the Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) for dust containing respirable crystalline silica in the construction and maritime industries; and guidance on conducting silica-related inspections.

Two additional elements included in the directive are an evaluation procedure for recording reductions of employee exposures to silica, as well as information on outreach programs, partnerships and alliances with employers to share resources and training to reduce employee exposures.

Silicosis is a disabling, nonreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by breathing in a large amount of crystalline silica. Visit www.osha.gov for more information on hazard recognition and possible solutions to silica exposure.

OSHA Publishes Instruction on Hexavalent Chromium Standards  

OSHA Jan. 24 published an instruction (.pdf file) on enforcement procedures for its hexavalent chromium standards that went into effect in 2006.

The instruction establishes uniform inspection and compliance procedures for the hexavalent chromium standards 29 CFR 1910.1026, 29 CFR 1926.1126 and 29 CFR 1915.1026. The standards specify permissible exposure limits for general industry, construction and shipyards.

OSHA Proposes Rule on Shipyard Safety  

OSHA is accepting comment until March 19 on a proposed rule to reduce hazards at shipyards.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on General Working Conditions in Shipyard Employment was published in the Dec. 20 Federal Register. The proposed updates include minimum lighting requirements for some worksites, motor vehicle safety and sanitation requirements.

OSHA administrator Edwin G. Foulke Jr. said in a statement the proposed rule would reduce hazards shipyard workers face, including those in confined spaces and from operating heavy equipment.

NIOSH Web Resource on MRSA and Recommended Ways to Prevent Risks of Infections  

A new NIOSH Topic Page, http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/mrsa offers recommendations for preventing the spread of MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in the workplace. The Topic Page provides practical information on good, basic health practices which workplaces can tailor for their individual needs.

Europe Leads Box Security Research  
by Janet Porter Lloyd's List

European scientists believe they are ahead of their opposite numbers in the US in developing a device that would satisfy Washington's quest to check every container arriving in the country, while also cracking down on cargo theft.

No system can be fully effective until a global standard is agreed, but here too events are moving quickly.

Thales Research Technology (UK) is heading a consortium that hopes to publish its proposal on the standardisation of readers for suitably adapted containers next month, once permission has been given by the European Commission, which is sponsoring and partially financing the project.

The recommendations will then be submitted to the International Organisation for Standardisation for validation.

However, Thales R&T has already produced a small and easily fitted device that is ready to go into production, and which would allow cargo owners and other authorised parties to monitor a container from the moment contents are loaded until the point of delivery.

Michael Naylor, technical manger at Thales R&T, believes this could go a long way towards meeting proposed requirements for screening 100% of US-bound containers with a minimum of disruption and without the need for massive manpower resources.

Instead of scanning a container at various points during a door-to-door delivery - particularly if it is transhipped - the box would only have to be screened once, for example, at the load port.

Following that, regular interrogation of the sensors during the journey would quickly spot anything irregular. Otherwise, the container could be discharged without the need for any further security checks.

The container alert is able to generate warnings if, for example, container doors are opened unexpectedly, there is a break-in through the side walls or roof, a deviation from the planned route, cargo tampering, or if the box has been moved into an unauthorised area.

It is also able to distinguish between different types of motion or noises and send a signal in the case of some unexplained event. At times when the container is known to be in a safe environment, the sensors can remain dormant so as to conserve battery power.

If the container is transitting a high-risk area, the device could be programmed to transmit status reports every few minutes.

Thales R&T, part of the Paris-based multinational defence, aerospace and security systems group Thales, is already discussing trials with some shippers of high value merchandise or perishables.

The company is also in contact with shipping lines and container leasing companies about fitting the container alert device, which could cost as little as €30 apiece and, unlike an electronic seal, is re-usable. Each time, it would be rearmed with a unique number.

Exactly how much is stolen from containers is hard to establish, given the lack of collated data, but one figure cited puts the value at many billions of dollars a year, according to Gary Jordan, a senior engineer at Thales R&T.

Containers are also used by organised crime for smuggling illicit goods across borders and, potentially, by terrorists.

"The container is the weakest point in the supply chain," Mr Jordan told a presentation on the Thales R&T technology, which has been developed in collaboration with a number of other companies and organisations, including HM Revenue Customs and Imperial College in London.

The next step, however, is to agree common standards for a data reader, such as worldwide radio frequencies.

The time taken to be accepted by the ISO would depend very much on the extent of international support for a global standard, but could be reached within a couple of years.

What Thales R&T hopes to unveil next month, if given the green light by Brussels, is a standardised goods data device that would enable trade interests, handlers such as ports or transport companies, and law enforcement agencies, to check on any suspicious activity involving the box and its contents during the entire journey.

The time and location of events like a door opening, large shocks or periods without movement would be recorded, so that responsibilities for such activities can be ascertained.

Once the European Commission has allowed the proposals submitted for its Secure Container Data Device Standardisation project to be published, Thales plans to present its recommended interface to a conference in Dubai in November.