OHSA may (finally) get teeth.

From: the Las Vegas Sun

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats today introduced a sweeping bill to beef up worker protections laws under the Occupational Safety and Health Act that lawmakers believe have been too lax...The Protecting America’s Workers Act would stiffen fines for violations of workplace safety law and create a new felony category for criminal violations....read more here.

There are many workplaces that are safety conscious, who treat their employees as assets. However, as noted recently, there are also companies with a flagrant disregard of worker's safety and treat their workers as expendable. Unfortunately, those are the companies that caused OSHA to need the felony charge teeth proposed within this bill.

While I don't think that OSHA should be only a regulatory agency, I do believe that gross, and willful negligence of workplace safety leading to the death of a worker should carry the force of a felony charge. I also believe that the investigation should include the decision makers within the company instead of merely the managers who are forced to carry out out those decisions.

Another company with blinders on....

From: http://www.wvgazette.com, in reference to the Bayer CropScience Institute Plant explosion in Institute, WV last summer.

INSTITUTE, W.Va. -- Bypassing important safety systems "became the norm" in a Bayer CropScience Institute plant chemical-making unit that blew up and killed two workers last August, federal investigators said Thursday.

"This could have been going on for years," said John Bresland, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

Bresland said the explosion and fire in Bayer's Methomyl-Larvin unit was "certainly avoidable" if the company had followed proper and accepted safety practices.

"The explosion at Bayer was a very serious and tragic event that could have had additional grave consequences," Bresland said, reading from a prepared statement.

Bresland and his investigators blamed "significant lapses" in plant safety systems for the explosion. The blast came close to damaging a nearly methyl isocyanate tank "the results of which might have been catastrophic for workers, responders and the public," Bresland said....read more here.

U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller stated his office was going to look into the explosion, after Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper referred the matter to prosecutors. One has to wonder if this will play out to the same conclusion, as did the Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. (See Monday's post.)

Reading through the list of safety violations that look to have taken place over years, a few things stand out - inadequately trained employees, routine 12- and 18-hour work days, and the practice of consistently bypassing safety devices.

It all seems to have been done in the name of increased productivity. While I realize that production is what pays the bills in a company, this kind of tunnel vision to the exclusion of safety isn't productive. An effective safety culture can produce measurable increases in productivity according to operational priorities without the risks.

As always comments are welcome.

Jail Time for OSHA Violations

From: lehighvalleylive.com

"Former Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. plant manager John Prisque was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison for his part in a conspiracy that created unsafe working conditions, covered up workplace injuries and polluted the Delaware River."

Unfortunately, OSHA needed the teeth of the EPA to make this a felony. Killing workers in the workplace is still only a misdemeanor. Perhaps this Congress will provide OSHA the teeth to stand on its own.