Twins Twins LLC, a tortilla maker based in Labelle, Fla., failed to establish lockout/tagout procedures leading to a worker's partial finger amputation.
OSHA discovered numerous health and safety violations at the manufacturer following an inspection as part of the agency's National Emphasis Program on Amputations and Regional Emphasis Program for Powered Industrial Trucks.
"Proper safety procedures, including the effective lockout of all sources of energy, could have prevented this injury," said Area Director Condell Eastmond, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Employers are required to train workers and ensure that they understand how to de-energize machinery before performing service or maintenance."
Twins Twins did not enact lockout/tagout procedures to prevent unintentional start-up while performing machine maintenance; provide machine guarding; anchor a miter saw; and did not notify OSHA within 24 hours of the employee's hospitalization as required by law.
The company also allowed employees to operate powered industrial trucks without training. OSHA has placed Twins Twins LLC in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
The manufacturer also has to pay a proposed $81,682 in penalties.
Twins Twins has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings.
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While pricing, availability, and consumer awareness has limited the adoption of home robots, a new study by ABI Research found that will change as robot vendors increasingly see value in supporting the integration of their devices into smart home functionality.
This integration will grow and by 2024 ABI Research predicts that nearly 79 million homes around the world will have a robot in the house.
There are two key home robotics markets: home care robots which typically take on a specific chore within the home and personal/social robots that can be companion devices capable of responding and interacting with an individual in the home. Both have a role within an integrated smart home setting.
“So far, home care robots dominate with regard to consumer adoption and integration into smart home management,” says Jonathan Collins, Smart Home Research Director at ABI Research.
The separation between home robotics and smart home functionality has begun to blur. Traditional smart home capabilities – such as a wireless security camera – are beginning to be embedded in robot vacuum cleaners. However, the key integration point is in voice control support. Voice control has driven smart home adoption since the first Amazon Echo devices launched in 2014. Extending control to home care robots will bring that appeal, functionality and awareness to home care robots.
Robots geared to delivering personal/social interaction and care continue to struggle to win consumer adoption and lag as a market segment and in smart home integration capabilities. However, the voice control platforms driving smart home adoption may well be set to push personal/social care robot adoption.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice recognition are the two additional smart home integrations needed to bring personal/social robots to life,” says Collins.
Both Amazon and Google are well poised to lead in social robot advances because AI and voice recognition are at the heart of their already popular Alexa and Assistant platforms. Echo and Google Home devices increasingly support screens and cameras alongside microphone arrays, providing the resources to support facial recognition with existing voice recognition. These are the features that will underpin more personalized interactions between users and their devices.
Articulation and mobility will be the key features within the device that will start the transition from smart speakers to personal/social robots that can move and face the home user.
Adding robotic functions to existing voice control front-end devices will deliver confirmation of activation and engagement through physical movement or simulated facial expressions. While not all consumers may be ready for a mobile robot in their home, there are applications where such robotic capabilities can be particularly useful.
Aging-in-place or Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) end-users may be one consumer segment that would welcome greater robotic capabilities in a voice control device. Robotic device start-ups such as Intuition Robotics and Blue Frog Robotics already target the AAL market with devices that can integrate with smart home systems.
“While home care robots release residents from time-consuming and repetitive tasks, social robots offer the potential to further extend into physically interacting in homes and the individuals within them in ways that can go beyond monitoring into the realm of kinship and socialization,” Collins concludes.
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The National Safety Council (NSC) will honor its 10th class of Rising Stars of Safety at the 2019 National Safety Congress & Expo in San Diego, Calif.
The group of leaders, who all fall under the age of 40, are being recognized for their dedication to a workplace where every workers goes home safe each and every day.
“These young men and women have risen to the challenge of addressing safety in the workplace, and we are proud of their accomplishments,” said Lorraine M. Martin, NSC president and CEO. “The work they are doing is making our world a safer place. We commend their commitment.”
Brad Barrow, global workplace safety leader, Chemours
Holly C. Bartos, EHS manager, Lockheed Martin
Jessica Diane Brooks, safety specialist, FirstGroup America
Laura Cerutti, project manager, TransOptions
Theresa Ciatto, safety director, Primus Builders Inc.
Kimberly Ann Decker, chemical hygiene officer and EHS consultant, Corteva Agriscience
Stan Evans, CSP, project safety director, Turner Construction Co.
Matthew Hall, safety manager, ARCO
Hamza Hameed, process safety engineer, Fatima Fertilizer Co. Ltd.
Alan E. Harff, OSHA and safe operations manager, PGT Trucking Inc.
Aya Hashimoto, safety coordinator, Duncan Aviation
Kanella Sunrise Hatchett, MCESG logistics/safety officer, United States Marine Corps
Matthew F. Herron, PE, CSP, CPE, Senior safety engineer, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
Hafiz Muhammad Umer Javed, advisor HSE, M&A Group Energy and Petroleum Services
Amber J. Joseph, technical consultant-risk control services, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Crystal Lea Lawson, HSE division senior associate, CBRE
Ihtisham Malik, assistant manager - HSE, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co.
Benjamin Martin, safety project manager, City of Atlanta - Mayor's Office of Workplace Safety
Meraiah L. Marvel, national safety and security manager, Parsons
Robert J. Moore, EHS lead, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Jessica Myeroff, EHS manager, Eaton Corp.
Jeremy Nixon, occupational safety program manager, United States Air Force/ Pacific Air Forces Command HQ
Gabriella Pace, safety professional, Walt Disney World
Umair Shahab Shahid, safety engineer, QATAR PETROCHEMICALS (QAPCO)
Arul Subbarayalu, senior EHS expertise specialist, Dow Chemical International Private Ltd.
Lynne Syer Sr., EHS leader, Lippert Components
Greggory Addam Vanover, safety manager, Clean Fuels National
Atif Waheed, assistant manager EHS, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd.
Mike Watson, vice president - safety, health and environment, AECOM
Patrick Wolocko, safety manager, W.Soule and Co.
Lino Yohannan, senior health and safety manager, WSP Middle East
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In the 1830’s manufacturing employees put in 70 hours per week.
By 1882 they had enough of that and wanted to unify union workers to get a reduction in working hours.
The first Labor Day was held in 1882 in New York City and was sponsored by the Central Labor Union. “The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought different types of workers together to meet each other and recognize their common interest,” writes Jay L. Zagorsky, on simithsonian.com. The goal was to move to an eight hour working day, six days a week.
To create the holiday, the unions had to declare a one-day strike in the city.
It worked and by 1890, manufacturing workers were putting in 60 hours a week, however, that was a far cry from the 40-hour work-week of today.
Another interesting angle on this story, Zagorsky points out, is that employers were in favor of the shortened working hours. It allowed workers to spend their earnings boosting the transformation of the U.S. economy. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, the economy was moving away from farming towards manufacturing and thus began to rely on consumer’s purchasing power of the increasing number of goods that were being produced.
To gain further insights into the holiday read Zagorsky’s article here.
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UPS. Inc. is facing $13,260 in penalties after a worker became ill following extreme temperatures in Riviera Beach, Fla.
The employee became ill while delivering packages and needed hospitalization. The heat index ranged between 99 and 105 degrees.
“Employers must take proper precautions when employees work outdoors in excessive heat conditions, and ensure they receive prompt medical attention when exhibiting signs of heat-related illness,” said OSHA Area Director Condell Eastmond, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The agency cited the company for failing to adequately protect workers exposed to outdoor heat hazards.
OSHA conducts training and outreach on heat-related workplace hazards every spring and summer. OSHA’s occupational heat exposure page provides information on establishing a heat illness prevention program, a video on protecting workers from heat illness, and resources with other suggested best practices. The OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool app is a free resource that calculates a worksite’s heat index and displays the associated risk levels.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings.
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Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has declared a state of emergency for his state, due to the approach of Hurricane Dorian, but the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) was actually a step ahead of him. ALAN has activated a Hurricane Dorian Micro-site, where the humanitarian organization will be posting requests for assistance and links to helpful community resources.
ALAN is urging residents of Florida, the Gulf Coast and other parts of the Southeast to start preparing and advising the logistics community to get ready to help.
“The strength and path projections for Dorian are still very uncertain, but do suggest that it could be a destructive and dangerous event for Florida and potentially all of the Southeast and Gulf Coast,” says Kathy Fulton, ALAN’s Executive Director. “As a result, ALAN is officially mobilizing and gearing up to provide donated space, trucking, services and equipment as needed.”
In addition, it has issued an official “STORM” advisory that provides several do’s and don’ts for safe and efficient disaster preparation and relief (see below).
As always, Fulton says that ALAN hopes these measures will prove to be merely precautionary.
“During our 14 years of operation, we’ve seen some potentially catastrophic hurricanes that have turned into relatively minor events while others have morphed into far more major events than originally anticipated,” she says. “Obviously, we hope Dorian will turn out to be the former. However, if it isn’t, we want people to remember that we are here to assist, and that when it comes to these storms, there’s no such thing as too ready.”
STORM Advisory
Stay safe. If you and your business facilities are located anywhere near Dorian’s projected path, be sure to monitor your local National Weather Service forecast for real-time details. Just as important, please heed any warnings or advisories that pertain to you or your personnel—and allow plenty of time for your employees to evacuate or make preparations to shelter in place. Dorian is expected to turn into a major hurricane that could produce everything from strong winds and heavy rains to a damaging storm surge, and it is not to be taken lightly.
Treat every storm (including this one) like it might be the big one—even if previous storms have seemed to be “much ado about nothing.” Each time an area successfully dodges a major tropical storm or hurricane, it increases the risk that local residents won’t take future warnings about hurricanes quite as seriously. Please don’t buy into this attitude. Each storm truly is unique, and just because you haven’t been impacted in a big way yet, there’s no guarantee that you’ll continue to be that fortunate moving forward. Always heed the warnings for your area—and don’t ever assume those warnings are exaggerated. Your life and safety could depend on it.
Offer any logistics space, equipment or services you might be willing to donate at https://www.alanaid.org/how-to-help/. Although logistics professionals may not have the medical skills of first responders, they have many skills and assets that can be equally applicable after disasters hit—because when bad things happen, one of the hardest parts of humanitarian organizations’ jobs is getting items like food and hydration to disaster sites as quickly as possible. In fact, logistics accounts for up to 80% of their disaster budgets, and as much as 40% of that is wasted. That’s a lot of cost and considerable opportunity for the logistics community to be of use.
Resist the urge to self-deploy or to participate in product collection drives. Although the intention behind these drives is good, they often create more challenges than they solve, including adding more products to a supply chain that is already under tremendous strain. The same holds true for just packing up a truck and heading down to a disaster-impacted area, because that could get in the way of first responders who are working to save lives. If you’re looking for a tangible way to engage your employees in hurricane relief, pick a humanitarian organization and collect money for it instead. Such donations will be much more useful and efficient. And unlike many post-disaster product donations (which often end up in landfills), they will not go to waste.
Make frequent visits to ALAN’s micro-site at https://www.alanaid.org/operations/. During disasters, it serves as the centerpiece of their active relief efforts. Among other things, it includes a wide variety of links and resources to keep you in the loop. Just as important, it provides the latest details about what ALAN is doing, and how you can help.
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After a three-year uptick in motor vehicle fatalities, the National Safety Council (NSC)'s latest analysis now indicates that trend could be ebbing.
Preliminary estimates in the first six months of 2019 shows deaths dropping 3% compared to the same six-month period in 2018. An estimated 18,580 people died on U.S. roadways between January and June of this year, compared to NSC's revised estimate of 19,060 during the same period last year.
“While the numbers indicate a slight improvement, the rate of deaths remains stagnant, and 18,580 deaths so far this year is unacceptable,” said Lorraine M. Martin, NSC president and CEO, in a statement. “We cannot accept death as the price of mobility. We urge all drivers to slow down, buckle up, pay attention and drive defensively.”
An additional 2.1 million people are estimated to have sustained serious crash-related injuries during the first six months of 2018 – a 1% drop from 2018 six-month projections.
The estimate caps a three-year period in which roadway deaths topped 40,000 each year for the first time since the mid-2000s. A total of 118,315 people died on the roadways between 2015 and 2017, and an estimated 40,000 additional people perished last year. However, drivers still face the same fatality risk this year as they did when fatalities were eclipsing 40,000 annually, because the estimated annual rate of deaths per miles driven has remained stable. NSC estimates 1.2 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, unchanged from 2018 rates.
NSC's early figures indicate significant progress in some states. In the first half of this year, several states have experienced at least a 10% drop in motor vehicle deaths, including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma and Utah. A sample of states with increases through the first six months include Kentucky (6%), Hawaii (20%), Oregon (6%) and New Mexico (15%). A complete list of state results is available here.
To help ensure safer roads, the organization urges motorists to:
Practice defensive driving; buckle up, designate a sober driver or arrange alternative transportation, get plenty of sleep to avoid fatigue, and drive attentively, avoiding distractions
Recognize the dangers of drugged driving, including impairment from cannabis and opioids; visit StopEverydayKillers.org to understand the impact of the nation’s opioid crisis
Stay engaged in teens’ driving habits; visit DriveitHOME.org for resources
Learn about your vehicle’s safety systems and how to use them; visit MyCarDoesWhat.org for information
Fix recalls immediately; visit ChecktoProtect.org to ensure your vehicle does not have an open recall
Ask lawmakers and state leaders to protect travelers on state roadways; the NSC State of Safety report shows which states have the strongest and weakest traffic safety laws
Get involved in the Road to Zero Coalition, a group of more than 900 organizations across the country focused on eliminating roadway deaths by 2050; visit nsc.org/roadtozero to join
The organization has tracked fatality trends and issued estimates for nearly 100 years. All estimates are subject to slight increases and decreases as the data mature. NSC collects fatality data every month from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and uses data from the National Center for Health Statistics, so that deaths occurring within one year of the crash and on both public and private roadways – such as parking lots and driveways – are included in the estimates.
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OSHA is considering revising Table 1 of its Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for Construction.
The agency is seeking comments and feedback on engineering and work practice control methods to effectively limit exposure to silica for the equipment and tasks. It is also requesting information about other construction equipment and tasks that generate silica that it should consider adding to Table 1, along with information about their associated engineering and work practice control methods.
Among the revision consideration is the revision of paragraph (a)(3) of the Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for General Industry to broaden the circumstances under which general industry and maritime employers would be permitted to comply with the silica standard for construction as an alternative to the general industry standard.
Information submitted will allow OSHA to consider new developments and enhanced control methods for equipment that generates exposures to silica, and provide additional data on exposures to silica from equipment and tasks using a variety of control methods under different workplace conditions. Expanding Table 1 to include additional engineering and work practice control methods, equipment, and tasks could provide employers with more flexibility and reduce regulatory burdens while maintaining protections for employees.
If information submitted in response to this request indicates that revisions to the silica standards are needed, the agency will then publish the proposed revisions in the Federal Register for public comment.
Comments must be submitted by November 13, 2019. Comments and materials may be submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal, or by facsimile or mail. See the Federal Register notice for submission details.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for American working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
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An emergency regulation set forth by state-run Cal/OSHA has been enacted to protect workers from the dangers of wildfires.
Employers are now required to take steps to identify and reduce exposure for workers exposed to wildfires.
The new regulation applies to workplaces where the current Air Quality Index (AQI) for airborne particulate matter (PM 2.5) is 151 or greater, and where employers should reasonably anticipate that employees could be suspectible.
Effective through January 28, 2020 with two possible 90-day extensions, a California employer not must take the following steps:
Identify harmful exposure to airborne particulate matter from wildfire smoke at the start of each shift and periodically thereafter by checking the AQI for PM 2.5 in regions where workers are located.
Reduce harmful exposure to wildfire smoke if feasible, for example, by relocating work to an enclosed building with filtered air or to an outdoor location where the AQI for PM 2.5 is 150 or lower.
If employers cannot reduce workers’ harmful exposure to wildfire smoke so that the AQI for PM 2.5 is 150 or lower, they must provide:
Respirators such as N95 masks to all employees for voluntary use and
Training on the new regulation, the health effects of wildfire smoke, and the safe use and maintenance of respirators.
Cal/OSHA will convene an advisory committee in Oakland on August 27 to establish a permanent regulation using the regular rulemaking process. Meeting details and documents are posted on the agency's website.
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HanesBrands, a $6.5 billion manufacturer ofinnerwear and activewear apparel that employs 68,000 globally, announced on July 25 that it hasjoined forces with the nonprofit group Free the Girls to help women rescued from human trafficking re-establish their lives.
The company’s more than 200 retail stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, which operate under the HaneBrands, Hanes, Maidenform and L’eggs-Hanes-Bali-Playtex nameplates, are accepting new and gently used bras to be donated to Free The Girls. Donated bras are used by Free The Girls to help human trafficking survivors in Mozambique, El Salvador and Costa Rica establish secondhand apparel resale businesses to earn sustainable incomes.
“We are pleased to put the power of our retail operations behind this visionary organization to raise awareness of this important issue and provide an opportunity for the millions of people who visit our stores each year to take part in addressing the needs of survivors,” said Missy Sage, the company’s vice president of retail store operations.
Free The Girls is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was founded in 2010 to help women rescued from human trafficking reintegrate into their communities. The organization provides opportunities for survivors to make a safe and sustainable income selling donated bras in the second-hand apparel market and offers needed support services to help these women achieve their dreams.
Free The Girls provides survivors with initial bra inventories at no cost, along with free financial planning, budgeting, inventory management and other critical support services to assist the women as they start their businesses. The organization also provides and low-cost inventory replenishment once businesses are up and running.
“Why bras is typically everyone’s first question and the answer is very simple,” Skiera-Vaughn noted. “In many developing nations, bras are sought-after apparel that command top dollar. By selling bras, a survivor is transformed into an entrepreneur, which provides a sense of direction and the economic freedom to support herself and her family.”
Participants in the Free The Girls program have used proceeds from their businesses to buy land, house their families, attend universities and expand their businesses – or start new ones. Courtney Skiera-Vaughn, executive director of the nonprofit. also reports that 100% of the women in the program have enrolled their children in school.
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