It’s Safe and Sound Week

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Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event held each August that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs and offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.

Why Participate?
Successful safety and health programs can proactively identify and manage workplace hazards before they cause injury or illness, improving sustainability and the bottom line. Participating in Safe + Sound Week can help get your program started, energize an existing one, or provide a chance to recognize your safety successes.

Click on the graphic above to go to the Safe + Sound page or HERE to go directly to the resources available.

Beat the Heat

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It’s that time of year. That time when we’ve already had lots of heat and there’s more to come. It’s time to take it seriously. Check out the National Integrated Heat Health Information System.

Information from 8 agencies in one location gives you what you need to anticipate and prepare for heat in your area. Take it seriously.

OSHA reminds us that “employers are responsible for providing workplaces free of known safety hazards. This includes protecting workers from extreme heat. An employer with workers exposed to high temperatures should establish a complete heat illness prevention program.”

  • Provide workers with water, rest and shade.
  • Allow new or returning workers to gradually increase workloads and take more frequent breaks as they acclimatize, or build a tolerance for working in the heat.
  • Plan for emergencies and train workers on prevention.
  • Monitor workers for signs of illness.

Check out the NIHHIS site here.

July Fatality Updates

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Final Reports posted:

  • 5/2/20 MNM – Sand & Gravel – Handling Material (updated 7/22/20)

Fatalities awaiting Fatality Alert to be posted:

  • 7/24/20 – Limestone – Machinery

Fatalities awaiting Final Report to be posted:

MNM Fatality – 7/9/20

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On July 9, 2020, a mine superintendent was electrocuted while attempting to reverse the polarity of a 4,160 VAC circuit by switching the leads inside an energized 4,160 VAC enclosure that contained a vacuum circuit breaker and disconnect.

Best Practices: 

  • Follow these steps before performing electrical work inside a high voltage enclosure:
    1. Locate the high voltage visual disconnect away from the enclosure that supplies incoming electrical power to the enclosure.
    2. Open the visual disconnect to provide visual evidence that the incoming power cable(s) or conductors have been de-energized.
    3. Lock-out and tag-out the visual disconnect yourself. Never rely on others to do this for you.
    4. Ground the de-energized conductors.
  • Verify circuits are de-energized using properly rated electrical meters and non-contact voltage testers.
  • Ensure properly qualified miners perform all work on high voltage equipment.
  • Wear properly rated and well maintained personal protective equipment, including arc flash protection such as a hood, gloves, shirt and pants.
  • Train miners on safe work practices for high voltage electrical equipment and circuits.

Additional Information: 

This is the 11th fatality reported in 2020, and the first classified as “electrical.”

Click here for: Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).

MNM Fatality – 6/19/20

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On June 19, 2020, a miner died while inspecting a stockpile for oversized material. As the victim walked along the toe of the stockpile, a portion of the stockpile collapsed, covering him with approximately four feet of material.

Best Practices: 

  • Establish and discuss safe work procedures before beginning work. Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed and the methods to properly protect persons.
  • Task train everyone to recognize potential hazardous conditions that can decrease bank or slope stability and ensure they understand safe job procedures for eliminating hazards.
  • Stay clear of potentially unstable areas. Barricade the toe area to prevent access where hazards have not been corrected.
  • Oversteepened slopes may be flattened from the top of the stockpile by using a bulldozer to gradually cut down the slope.

Additional Information: 

This is the 10th fatality reported in 2020, and the first classified as “Falling, Rolling, or Sliding Rock or Material of Any Kind.”

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).

MNM Fatality – 6/13/20

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On June 13, 2020, a dragline was found submerged in 25 feet of water where a miner had been using it to remove material from a pond. Divers attempted to locate the dragline operator, and after two days the dragline was extricated from the pond. The victim was recovered from the engine compartment behind the operator’s cab.

Best Practices: 

  • Maintain control of operating mobile equipment.
  • Keep all exits clear in cabs, including alternate and emergency exits, and make sure the doors open freely before beginning work.
  • Retrofit older models of equipment with current automatic braking systems.
  • Ensure all controls and brakes are set to the appropriate position for the task.

Additional Information: 

This is the ninth fatality reported in 2020, and the second classified as “Machinery”

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).

The COVID-19 Facts

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With so much false information going around and the politicization of mask wearing there are facts as best we know them at reliable sources like the CDC. The current bottom line is we accomplished much by protecting our communities but our work is not nearly over.

If you want to review some scholarly work on this you can check out Characteristics of Adult Outpatients and Inpatients with COVID-19 — 11 Academic Medical Centers, United States, March–May 2020 (pdf). Or like me you just might enjoy the tables of information the study provides,

MSHA Fall Protection Safety Alert

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MSHA issued 92 imminent danger orders for people working at heights without fall protection between January 2019 and June 2020. The most common violations were truck drivers climbing atop their vehicles, and maintenance and quarry personnel climbing to or working without fall protection in high places. Supervisors have been ordered down from dangerous locations.

Deaths from falls have increased from 8% to 19% of mining fatalities in the last two years.

Download the MSHA Safety Alert here (pdf).

OSHA Guidance on Returning to Work

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OSHA has a guide available for employers or employees to assist them in assessing the workplace and instituting the appropriate controls to make the return safe. It “focuses on the need for employers to develop and implement strategies for basic hygiene (e.g., hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection), social distancing, identification and isolation of sick employees, workplace controls and flexibilities, and employee training.”

Many areas have done a poor job of opening up, either reducing controls before evidence indicated or failing to continue with controls like physical distancing or the wearing of face masks which should continue until a vaccine is available and widely administered. Remember, under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements, COVID-19 is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 that have evidence of being contracted at work.

Download Guidance Document 4045-06 2020 here. (pdf)