The Safety Blog - I am Wright.com

On September 20, 2007, a 49 year-old laborer with 32 years experience (2 days at the mine) was fatally injured at a sand and gravel operation. The victim went behind a guard, used a wooden handle shovel to clean under a conveyor belt take-up pulley, and was entangled in the pulley.

Best Practices

• Establish policies to ensure employees are trained to safely remove spillage near moving conveyor belts.
• Before assigning miners to clean up spillage, have them identify hazards and demonstrate how they would safely complete the tasks. Stop, Look, Analyze, Manage ( SLAM )
• Deenergize and block conveyor belts against motion before working near the drive, head, tail, and take-up pulleys.

To view the entire report click here.

Technorati Tags: converyor, fatalgram, fatality, MSHA, sand and gravel, spillage

Tags: MSHA, Safety by David Wright - IamSafetyGeek
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I woke up this morning to find this in my rss reader and did not want to wait until Monday to post it. Here is the article:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has implemented Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds to provide OSHA customers a personal, direct channel for receiving the latest news and information from the OSHA Web site.

RSS is a web-based technology used by businesses, organizations and government to publish frequently updated content. OSHA news releases are the first RSS feed to be provided to stakeholders.

“We are excited to implement this technology as we continue to expand access to OSHA’s products for our stakeholders,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “RSS will help to ensure subscribers receive real-time news from OSHA.”

The RSS Reader regularly checks for new content from OSHA’s Web site and provides the user with a headline that links to the new posting and a short description. To receive OSHA’s RSS feeds, users can download an RSS Reader or use a Web-based RSS Reader. More information on the use of RSS Feeds is available on the new OSHA RSS Feeds page.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. OSHA’s role is to promote the safety and health of America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, I have also added a news page that has all the news from OSHA both General Industry and Construction, MSHA, DOT, The Safety Blog, and Health in one place.

Technorati Tags: OSHA, RSS, Safety

Tags: OSHA by David Wright - IamSafetyGeek
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The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has found that an exposed, accessible cable roller(s) located between the sheave wheels and the area housing the cable reel and spooling device on a shuttle car can pose a shock hazard. The potential shock hazard is created when accessible, uninsulated and ungrounded metal roller(s) comes in contact with an exposed trailing cable.

http://www.msha.gov/Alerts/Equipment/2008trailingcablealert.pdf

Technorati Tags: cable, MSHA, news, reel, spool

Tags: MSHA, Safety by David Wright - IamSafetyGeek
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A new alliance between OSHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) was recently formed to provide information to NHCA members, young employees, small businesses and others on reducing and preventing exposure to noise and ototoxic (hearing damaging) chemicals. The alliance will develop guidance and training materials on the recognition and prevention of hearing loss caused by workplace hazards, and communicate such information through workshops, seminars, print and electronic media.

Click here to read the original press release.

Technorati Tags: conservation, hearing, nhca, niosh, OSHA

Tags: OSHA, Safety by David Wright - IamSafetyGeek
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COAL MINE FATALITY - On Friday, November 16, 2007, at 8:50 p.m., a 66-year old truck driver was fatally injured while attempting to dump spoil. The truck over-traveled the edge of the dump and rolled down the spoil slope approximately 70 feet and came to rest upside down in a pool of water approximately 6 feet deep. Miners attempted to rescue the driver but were unable to open the truck doors. A track hoe was used to lift the truck out of the water but the victim drowned prior to the rescue. The victim was wearing his seat belt. He had 1 week 3 days total mining experience operating the dump truck.

Best Practices

• Provide and maintain adequate berms and other barriers of mid-axel height for dump sites.
• Routinely monitor work habits and examine work areas to ensure that safe work procedures are followed.
• Ensure equipment operators receive proper task training.
• Ensure work areas are properly illuminated at night.
• Conduct pre-operational checks of equipment before placing into operation.
• Use seat belts when operating equipment.

View the entire investigation here.

Technorati Tags: MSHA,Fatality,fatalgram,end dump,berms

Technorati Tags: berm, end dump, fatalgram, fatality, MSHA

Tags: MSHA, Safety by David Wright - IamSafetyGeek
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