Nitro Gas Facility Cited After Worker Death

A nitrogen gas facility located next door to Pennsylvania has been cited for numerous federal workplace safety violations.

AC&S Inc. was slapped by inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with 12 serious violations at its Nitro, West Virginia, manufacturing plant.

Among the dangerous conditions at the facility:

• Defective air hoods for workers
• Inadequate worker training
• Unsafe handrails on stairs.

OSHA launched the investigation in July 2012 following the death of a worker doing sandblasting.

During the sandblasting, the air line for a supplied air hood was mistakenly hooked up to a nitrogen gas line and the worker became unconscious. OSHA cited AC&S for failing to label nitrogen lines at connection points and not ensuring that breathing air couplings were incompatible with other gas systems.

Other serious violations found at the Nitro plant:

• Failing to provide training on hazardous chemicals
• Failing to ensure stairways wider than 44 inches had handrails on each side
• Failing to use approved electrical chain hoists
• Failing to develop a mechanical integrity program. […]

250 Safety Hazards Found at Area Construction Sites

Surprise construction site inspections reveal hundreds of safety hazards, warrant large fines

Federal safety inspectors have uncovered almost 250 safety violations and issued more than $650,000 in fines for dangerous construction sites in and around Pennsylvania.

The action came after a four-month investigation of hundreds of job sites in Pennsylvania and neighboring states by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The agency conducted 545 surprise inspections that focused on falls, trenches and silica exposure. Hazardous conditions were found at close to 60 percent of the inspected sites.

Every year thousands of construction workers and laborers are killed or seriously injured in construction site accidents.

Following is from the OSHA notice of the Philadelphia Region safety sweep:

Fifty-nine percent of the inspections revealed violations. Some of the most common violations are a failure to use fall protection when working on roofs, […]

Top 10 Dangers On The Job

Here’s one Top 10 list that employers in Pennsylvania hope to never make.

The U.S. Department of Labor has released its Top 10 Workplace Safety Violations for 2012.

Inadequate protection against falls and insufficient warnings of job site hazards are the biggest problem areas, according to the DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Following is the complete list:

• Fall Protection  (Total violations: 7,250)
• Hazard Communication (4,696)
• Scaffolding (3,814)
• Respiratory Protection (2,371)
• Ladders (2,310)
• Machine Guarding (2,097)
• Powered Industrial Trucks (1,993)
• Electrical – Wiring Methods (1,744)
• Lockout/Tagout (1,572)
• Electrical – General Requirements (1,332)

Free Consultation With A Pennsylvania Workplace Safety Lawyer

Have you been injured on the job? Concerned about safety conditions at your workplace? […]

Recent Workplace Fatalities Raise Awareness of Construction Hazards

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH) was put in place by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to prevent workers from being killed or seriously harmed at work.  Under the act, workers are entitled to working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm, and all workers have the right to a safe workplace. Unfortunately, no amount of rules or legislation can prevent all accidents, and just this month, at least two men lost their lives in separate workplace accidents.

The Wall Street Journal reports one worker died and two others were seriously injured when the building they were working on in New York City collapsed March 22. The workers were tearing down a two-story warehouse during a Columbia University expansion project in Harlem.  The collapse is still being investigated, but preliminary findings suggest the workers cut a structural beam supporting the warehouse “causing steel beams, […]

Asbestos Exposure Lawsuit Leads to $10 Million Settlement from U.S. Engineering Company

Asbestos exposure in Missouri courthouse leads to lawsuits

The family of a Missouri woman who died from mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, has been awarded $10 million in a settlement with U.S. Engineering Company for mishandling asbestos in the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri.

The lawsuit claimed U.S. Engineering did not follow the proper rules and procedures when handling asbestos, and that now, significant amounts of asbestos still remain in the courthouse.   The lawyers for the plaintiff claimed there has been “significant accumulations of asbestos dust in and around the heating and air conditioning systems at the Courthouse for a number of years.”

The woman worked for 27 years in the Jackson County Courthouse.

In addition, a class action lawsuit has been filed for anyone that worked in the courthouse on a daily basis who may have been exposed to asbestos dust from 1983 to the present. […]