Workplace Safety Awareness Council Blog

It would seem that 250lb linebackers who run a 4.5 second 40 yard time and violently collide into other professionals at equal size and speed would be dangerous enough. . .

Last week in Irving Texas, however the unexpected happened. During a microburst up to 70-mph winds, the Cowboys 85 foot tall practice bubble collapsed. Nearly 70 players, coaches, and members of the media were inside the steel framed structure.

A total of 12 people were injured including a 33-year-old Dallas Cowboys staff member who was
left paralyzed. Scouting assistant Rich Behm suffered a spine fracture that caused permanent paralysis from the waist down, the team confirmed Sunday.

Thankfully, nobody died however the life of Rich Behm has been forever changed. Now, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is onsite.

Representatives of Summit Structure of Allentown, Pa., and Cover-All Building Systems, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which built the facility, could not be reached Sunday.

In 2007, a Pennsylvania judge, relying on Timbie's expert assessment, found that a structure Summit built for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority on the Delaware River collapsed because of "failure of the design" to account for snow buildup on the roof, court documents show. That structure had a double roof construction, which is different from the Dallas Cowboys' structure.

Judge Allan Tereshko wrote that the Philadelphia structure collapsed "under the weight of the first significant snowfall" of the year, conditions that "would have been easily tolerated by the building had it been properly designed and constructed."

Based on first impressions it appears that Summit Structure is in hotwater once again for a substandard building.

Questions remain however for the Dallas Cowboys: Did they do their due diligence in selecting a trustworthy vendor?

Did they ensure that all inspections were completed by their local municipality (there is a rumor that final inspections didn't happen)? Did the Cowboys develop a "severe weather policy" which would require personnel to leave the practice bubble and seek more suitable shelter?

No doubt the courts and OSHA will quite busy figuring this one out. . .

The lesson for you? Analyze your workplace for hazards (including severe weather hazards) and create policies and deliver training to protect employees.

Need an incentive? Hurricane season is right around the corner. . . .

Labels: Dallas Cowboys, OSHA, OSHA Compliance, OSHA Training, OSHA Visit, Severe Weather Policy

Recently we've received a number of questions about NFPA 10 - Maintenance code for portable fire extinguishers. In an effort to unify NFPA code with Underwriters Laboratory (UL), the latest version of NFPA 10 requires that PFE's manufactured before October 1984 shall be removed from service at the next 6 year maintenance interval or 12 year hydrotest, whichever comes first.

Does this mean that you need to retire and replace all of your older portable fire extinguishers? Well, OSHA does not reference UL 299 or UL711 and that is the crux of NFPA’s reasoning behind the retirement of the older extinguishers.

In their regs OSHA says:
1910.157(e)(4) The employer shall assure that stored pressure dry chemical extinguishers that require a 12-year hydrostatic test are emptied and subjected to applicable maintenance procedures every 6 years. Dry chemical extinguishers having non-refillable disposable containers are exempt from this requirement. When recharging or hydrostatic testing is performed, the 6-year requirement begins from that date.

In 29 CFR 1910 Subpart L - National Consensus Standards - 1910 Subpart L App B
OSHA references GUIDELINES where employers can go to receive GUIDANCE in complying with the REGULATIONS. These guidelines are non-mandatory as identified in OSHA’s comments:

NOTE: The following appendix to Subpart L serve as nonmandatory guidelines to assist employers in complying with the appropriate requirements of Subpart L.
ANSI/NFPA No. 10, Portable Fire Extinguishers.

So right now, OSHA does not require you to retire your older extinguishers, however OSHA does require that the PFE’s be maintained and in working order and depending on the age of the PFE’s it might be good to retire it, but it’s not required across the board.

The next question is "Does your local building code or municipality (or other authority having jurisdiction) recognize and enforce NFPA 10? If the answer is yes, you'll need to follow the NFPA standards.

One last thought: Does your company own the portable fire extinguishers and use simply use a third party vendor to maintain them? Of course in this scenario your company would be responsible to retire and replace them (at your cost) if local code has adopted NFPA 10.

More typically the vendor owns the extinguishers and you would lease them. This of course would make the retirement and replacement of the PFE’s the responsibility of the vendor.

Labels: Fire Code, NFPA, OSHA, OSHA Compliance, Portable Fire Extinguisher

Good friend and Maintenance Evangelist Joel Leonard talks with Fred Echols, host of All Things Considered/Weekend Virginia on WVTF and Radio IQ in Roanoke/Charlottesville, Va., about using an infrared camera to measure the heat that radiates from the foreheads of contestants who eat hot sauce.
For details follow the link: http://www.myfox8.com/news/morningnews/

For those of you who know of Joel's work, you'll also know of his now world famous maintenance crisis song, which you can catch on the plantservices.com site. For more information about the contest, see The Hothead Contest blog and The Asheboro Chili Cookoff blog.

Labels: Joel Leonard, Maintenance, OSHA, OSHA Compliance, Safety, SkillTV

Just arrived back from the TFM Forum at the Del Coronado in San Diego. What a great hotel and what a great event! We were able to meet in small focus groups and discuss safety one-on-one - what a great experience.

One issue that came up was the changes to OSHA that we can expect now that we have a new President in office. You've probably heard me say that when we have a Republican in office we typically don't see many changes to OSHA. Reason? The focus is on keeping the "business machine" churning and we don't want to add regulations that may negatively impact business.

When a Democrat is in office we typically see OSHA get more funding and more regulations created. After all, the Democratic platform is "looking out for the little guy".

Recently President Obama put together a report on the upcoming budget and it had some very interesting things to say about the OSHA budget. You can read the report in its entirety(fy10-newera.pdf) but page 83 speaks about OSHA. In particular here is what the report says:

"For the past eight years, the Department’s labor law enforcement agencies have struggled with growing workloads and shrinking staff. The President’s Budget seeks to reverse this trend. The Budget will increase funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enabling it to vigorously enforce workplace safety laws and ensure the safety and health of American workers"

Now understand that we're not taking a political stand here. I'm simply stating historical reality, so be warned, OSHA may be changing and you better be ready!

By the way, if the Hotel Del Coronado sounds familiar, there's been about a half dozen movies filmed there including "Some like it Hot" and "The Stuntman". Here is a picture at sunset:

Labels: OSHA Compliance, OSHA Training, Safety