ASSE Region III PDC Rescheduled for Spring 2011

The ASSE Region III Professional Development Conference in Oklahoma City, OK has been rescheduled for Spring 2011. Exact dates and details will be announced soon.

Save the Date for the 2011 Safety Expo!

ASSE East Texas Chapter, on behalf of the Host, ASSE Kilgore College Section, is please to announce the 2011 ASSE Safety Expo on March 25th, 2011 at Maud Cobb Convention Center in Longview, Texas. Planning is underway for this event and details will be announced in October. Please note the date on your calendar.

June 2010 OSHA QuickTakes

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Chapter Officer Election at May 2010 Meeting

ASSE East Texas Chapter officers have not received notices from any members willing to volunteer to serve on the election committee. Nor have we received any notices from members to serve as an officer. That said, the current officers are on the election committee and have indicated their willingness to serve as officers for the coming year. And to move Linda Markin from Interim Vice President to the new Vice President. Our next meeting on May 18th, at Bodaious Bar B Q, at Hwy 142 and I-20 at 11:30 AM, the members will vote on the current officers to serve another year. If you have any questions, please let Linda or I know asap. Thank you and hope to see you there.

These are the officers you will vote for or we will offer new names. This is your organization.

FEMA Topical Fire Report: Grill Fires on Residential Properties

From 2006 to 2008, an estimated 5,700 grill fires on residential properties occurred annually in the United
States. These fires resulted in an estimated average of 10 deaths, 100 injuries, and $37 million in property loss each year. This report addresses the characteristics of grill fires on residential properties reported to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) between 2006 and 2008.

Grill fires on residential properties are defined as fires where a grill, hibachi, or barbecue is the principal equipment involved in ignition and the property use is residential. Of these fires, 45 percent are residential structure fires, 47 percent are outside fires, and 8 percent are other, unspecified fires.

Findings:

Download the entire article for more information.

Get Involved with the ASSE East Texas Chapter!

This is a call to Members who may be interested in serving as an officer of ASSE East Texas Chapter. I know there are many of you who are qualified and hopefully willing to serve. Your chapter needs your involvement. To serve you need to be:

Please think about this opportunity. There are benefits in serving as an officer. Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, contact Chapter President Rick Wall at scetrick@aol.com or call (903) 758-1303.

OSHA Hires 130 New Workplace Inspectors

OSHA steps up the pace with new hiring plans.

The federal agency has announced a number of regulatory priorities, including a request to hire 130 more OSHA inspectors. With states increasing their enforcement activities as well, HR leaders should ensure documentation and safety procedures are up to date. A safety audit could help locate deficiencies, experts say.

This year will be no time for slacking on the workplace-safety front, as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration continues an enforcement policy that’s far more activist than during the Bush administration.
The Obama administration is seeking an additional $50 million from Congress to finance the hiring of 130 additional OSHA inspectors. Meanwhile, the agency has announced a number of regulatory priorities that include initiatives to protect workers from exposure to airborne diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, updated regulations for crane and derrick safety, and updated rules for protecting workers from exposure to crystalline silica dust.

OSHA also plans to develop a comprehensive standard that addresses combustible dust, which was responsible for a 2008 explosion at an Imperial Sugar refinery in Georgia that killed 14 workers.

Some of the initiatives, particularly the proposed combustible-dust standard, are opposed by industry groups. Organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers contend that a combustible-dust standard is unnecessary because existing OSHA regulations are sufficient.

Ashley Brightwell, a labor and employment attorney at Alston & Bird in Atlanta who closely follows OSHA, says the Obama administration wants OSHA to become more aggressive.

“There was a perception that a lot of employers didn’t take OSHA seriously in terms of enforcement and standard-setting,” she says. “OSHA came under a lot of criticism that it was too lenient.”

The agency’s recent actions may already be changing that perception, including the record-setting $87 million fine it levied against BP last October for what it said was the company’s failure to correct hazards that led to an explosion at its Texas City, Texas, refinery in 2005, killing 15 employees.

Among other activities, OSHA is also putting together a special training program for its compliance officers to focus on employers that report low injury rates in high-injury rate industries and is re-evaluating its policies, concerned that current fines and penalties are too low, says Brightwell.

Labor groups such as the AFL-CIO have long complained that the punishments levied against employers for safety violations are insufficient. Bills have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate that would amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the law that created OSHA) to substantially increase the penalties for violations.

OSHA is also becoming increasingly reluctant to bargain with employers over the violations, she says.
“In the past, employers have often been successful in getting ‘willful violations’ downgraded to ‘unclassified,’ which makes the settlement much more palatable for the employer,” says Brightwell, because fines are usually reduced and criminal charges are not filed.

“But OSHA has gone on record as saying that from now on, unclassified violations will be granted much less frequently than in the past,” she says.

Greg Dale, a partner at Baker & Daniels in Indianapolis, says state safety agencies are also stepping up their enforcement activities due, at least in part, to federal pressure.

“There’s been quite an increase in compliance enforcement and less focus on cooperative programs between safety agencies and employers,” he says.

Considering that stepped-up enforcement by OSHA and its state counterparts will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future, Dale advises HR leaders to ensure their organizations’ safety and training records are updated regularly. HR leaders should also require periodic reviews of safety processes as well as safety audits.

“Having a mock OSHA inspection, in which an outside safety consultant comes in and reviews their operations, will ensure companies get an independent viewpoint on their safety processes,” he says.

Brightwell agrees that HR would be wise to prepare for stepped-up OSHA inspections.

In addition, HR should ensure that key employees understand the importance of updating required documentation and know who to call should an OSHA inspector have additional questions.

“Make sure your employees are prepared for when those compliance officers walk through the door,” she says. “Lots of employers don’t think about OSHA until they’re actually there.”

Source: LRP Publications

New Developments Affecting OSHA Enforcement & Legislation

Adele L. Abrams, Esq., CMSP of the Law Office of Adele L. Abrams PC has put together a Powerpoint presentation covering New Developments Affecting OSHA Enforcement and Legislation. Download the presentation below.

CSB Releases Video “No Place to Hang Out” Focusing on Deaths of Teenagers in Oil Site Explosions; Board Calls for Securing the Sites, Warning Signs

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, April 13, 2010 – The video begins with the earnest voice of a teenager, reading her own words: “My name is Shawn-Ashlee Davis. I’m a senior at Forrest County Agricultural High School in Mississippi. And on October 31, 2009, two people who were very close to me, and the ones I loved, died in an instant. Was it a car crash? No. It was an oil tank explosion.”

Told through the eyes and voices of grieving and concerned parents, friends, and local officials, the newest CSB safety video, “No Place to Hang Out: The Danger of Oil Sites,” tells the story of the tragic deaths of 18-year-old Wade White and 16-year-old Devon Byrd, killed October 31, 2009, when an oil tank, located in a clearing in the woods near the home of one of the boys in the rural town of Carnes, suddenly exploded.

The 11-minute video is available on CSB.gov and YouTube and will be released on free DVD’s, which can be requested from the CSB’s online Video Room.

Prevent Hyperthermia: Don't Leave Children Unattended in Cars

With Spring upon us and summer not too far away, this presentation along with the available window thermometers, could prove very useful in raising awareness and help protect children from hyperthermia.

OSHA Resource Center Loan Program

Training videos are made available to help broaden employer and employee safety and health knowledge and reduce injuries and illnesses in the workplace. The Resource Center is a collection of over 600 training video covering more than 100 occupational safety and health subjects. A limited number of books are also available upon request.

The Resource Center Loan Program is primarily made available for OSHA Outreach Trainers. OSHA Outreach Trainers are members of the private sector who have completed a required OSHA construction industry or general industry trainer course. Other eligible borrowers include:

How to borrow material:

Once submission is complete, you will be contacted regarding material availability. For additional information, please email or call (847)759-7736.

ASSE Launches Career Resources Center

ASSE is launching a new online Career Resources Center to help our fellow members that have fallen victim to these harsh economic times. The Career Resources Center includes a new career resources website, training modules (on topics such as resumes, cover letters, job boards, and interviewing), and the Networking Partners Program that is designed to pair job seekers with individuals that can help them network and search for job leads. It is critical that we let our members know that these resources are available to them. A job lead from a networking partner or a tip from one of the job search training modules on the new website may give one of our fellow members the edge they need to secure their next job. If we commit to get the word out about these new resources, we have the potential to change people’s lives.

These new programs and resources will not be successful without your help. In addition to spreading the word about the Career Resources Center, we need to recruit ASSE members to volunteer to serve as networking partners to get the program off the ground. I’d like to ask you to send this information to the chapter president’s in your region and ask them to encourage the members in their chapter to sign-up to become a networking partner. It is our goal to have at least two networking partners available in each state and so in addition to soliciting involvement on the chapter level, I’d like you to think of some folks in your region that might be willing to serve as networking partners and send them a direct request to sign up for the program. Networking partners can learn more about their prospective responsibilities and can sign-up for the program online.

To help communicate all of the new available resources to the chapters, Chris Patton and I have recorded a webinar that provides an overview of all of the new resources. I’d like you to send this webinar to your chapter presidents and ask that they share it with their fellow chapter members. The webinar can be found on the homepage of the new Career Resources Center.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important program. Together, we can make life a little easier for our fellow members that have lost their jobs.

Safety in the News