A BP spokesman declined to discuss the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) memo that details a record fine slapped on the company last year for safety violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery.

The memo was provided by Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s office dated Feb. 26 and first published by the Toledo Blade newspaper.

The more than $3 million in fines memo was filed [ID:nN08187710] by OSHA against BP joint-venture refinery on Monday in Ohio and was by OSHA chief David Michaels and acting deputy solicitor of the department Deborah Greenfield for U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

OSHA hit BP with $87.4 million safety violations fine in October after of an explosion that injured 180 other people and killed 15 workers at the Texas City refinery on Macrh 2005.

According to OSHA, BP had failed to settle errors found after the 2005 explosion and quoted new worker safety violations found in inspections conducted in 2009. The energy giant has contested the fines before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).

Solis and OSHA have also talked about the oversees a criminal probation BP entered after pleading guilty to a Clean Air Act violation stemming from the explosion, a violations with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

A former New York City building inspector Michael Dinardo, 52, has been charged with selling coveted safety certification cards to workers who hadn’t received any training, which are issued through the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged DiNardo on Friday of selling dozens of OSHA cards to workers who needed them to install scaffolding on high rise buildings or handle Hazardous Waste Operation and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) which required 10-hour OSHA and 30-hours OSHA training approved.

Prosecutors say he charged $100 for a 10-hour OSHA training certificate and $325 for HAZWOPER which required 30-hours OSHA card. DiNardo had access to the federal documents because he was an OSHA-authorized safety trainer.

An undercover investigator says the 52-year-old former building instructor didn’t require employees to undergo any of the required safety training before handing over the licenses.

DiNardo was fired by the city in 2007.

He’s faces a $250,000 fine in prison and five years if convicted of conspiracy to defraud OSHA.

President of the ASSE Christopher Patton recently sent OSHA chief David Michaels a letter asking to support the organization’s proposal about implementing changes to the agency’s existing Hazard Communications Standard, which will harmonize chemical hazard communications around the globe and increase workplace safety according to Patton.

Patton gives credits to OSHA for enforcing the HCS rulemaking and urged every possible step needs to achieve a final regulation. However, he quoted that the ASSE is quite disappointed to monitor that control banding has been badly ignored in revising the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard.

Control banding is a method used to guide the federal assessment and control of workplace risks. He said it is a descriptive technique that determines a control measure. In 2005, the ASSE released a position document that urged the Mine Safety and Health Administration and OSHA to consider the use of control banding models in a revised Hazard Communication Standard.

Control banding practice the solutions that experts have enhanced lately to utilized occupational chemical exposures and is an introduction that center resources on exposure controls and define how serious a risk needs to be handled.

The federal agency plans to host three informal public hearings to hear comments and testimony on the proposed OSHA regulation changes to the HCS. The first hearing is on March 2 in the Department of Labor auditorium in Washington, D.C. 20210. Next hearings are on for March 31 in Pittsburgh, then in Los Angeles on April 13.

The 2010 hazardous chemicals and substances play top roles in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) list of regulatory priorities indicates upcoming OSHA actions, primarily rule making.

• Crystalline silica, the inhalation of substance dust can cause silicosis, lung disease, and lung cancer. Research estimated that there are about 7,000 new cases of chronic silicosis every year. OSHA is planning to publish a notice of proposed regulations in July 2010—updating existing permissible exposure limit (PEL) for crystalline silica.
• Combustible dust, such as wood, coal, rubber, plastics, spice, starch, flour, feed, grain, fertilizer, tobacco and more form of combustible dust. The feral agency published an advance memo of proposed rulemaking in October 2009.
• Hazard communication standard— the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). The federal safety agency is revising its hazard communication standard to make it tough with the GHS which include more specific requirements for hazard classification and standard label components that will provide consistent details and definitions for hazardous substance and approach to conveying details on MSDSs.
• Beryllium. Can cause a chronic beryllium disease, it occurs when people inhale beryllium dust or fumes and can take from a few months to 30 years to develop. OSHA is enhancing regulations that would update the PEL.
• Diacetyl. Workers exposure to diacetyl causes obstructive airway problems, such as disabling and sometimes chronic lung disease called popcorn lung or bronchiolitis obliterans in medical term. OSHA’s developing a PEL rule to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl.

Lower Merion, March 3, 2010 – Industrial accident held Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under investigation after an aerial lift fell and injured a construction worker in the job site.

According to OSHA spokeswoman Leni Fortson…

“Investigators yesterday morning were at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, site of the 3:44 p.m. Monday accident. It occurred at Montgomery Avenue and School House Lane, where a new $100 million high school is under construction,” Fortson said to Philadelphia Inquirer.

McGrath as Mark Rieser, 50, the injured worker was accidentally pinned underneath when the lift toppled after it was being moved Monday in the area of the swimming pool.

Rieser was at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and in good condition yesterday.

The OSHA investigation would focus on what caused the accident, under OSHA policy, whether the job site conditions violated the federal health and safety act of 1970.

OSHA was been alerted to the industrial accident Monday by Lower Merion police.

Classes are held Lower Merion High old building and on the campus while it is being renovated.

October 5, 2009 — Patients continue to enter home healthcare ”sicker and quicker,” often with complex health problems that may require extensive nursing care. This increases the risk of needlestick injuries in home healthcare nurses. While very few studies have focused on the risks of home healthcare, it is the fastest growing healthcare sector in the U.S. In a recent study, led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the rate of needlestick-type injuries was 7.6 per 100 nurses. At this rate, the scientists estimate that there are nearly 10,000 such injuries each year in home care nurses. The findings, reported in the paper, “The Prevalence and Risk Factors for Percutaneous Injuries in Registered Nurses in the Home Health Care Sector,” were published in the September 2009 issue of American Journal of Infection Control.
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(Arlington, VA)–Three leading scientific organizations specializing in infectious diseases prevention issued a letter to President Obama today expressing their significant concern with current federal guidance concerning the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by healthcare workers in treating suspected or confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza. The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), theInfectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) urged the administration to modify the guidance and issue an immediate moratorium on Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) enforcement of the current requirements. Read more

New York subway commuters may worry more about rats and rising fares than dust floating through the system, but for the workers who spend their whole shift below ground, air quality has long been a concern. Results from a new pilot study using miniaturized air samplers to look at steel dust exposure may help them breathe easier. Read more