December 2020 OSHA Quicktakes
Small Business Recognized for Safety
MetalQuest Unlimited has been performing tight tolerance, precision machined manufacturing for the oil, agriculture, firearm, and other industries since 1996. The company specializes in vertical integration of manufacturing processes, including reshoring. For MetalQuest, safety goes hand in hand with its business model of helping customers meet logistical challenges and simplifying supply chains with the highest quality parts and on-time delivery.
Safety has always been a priority for MetalQuest, and its work with OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program resulted in the company becoming the 11th Nebraska business to earn Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) recognition in July 2019. To commemorate this accomplishment, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts came to MetalQuest’s plant and signed an official certificate verifying the company’s entrance into SHARP.
Partnership to Protect Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has signed a strategic partnership with Choate Construction Co. and the Associated General Contractors of Georgia to promote worker safety and health at the Dogwood Forest at Sugar Hill project site in Sugar Hill, Georgia. The Georgia Institute of Technology-Onsite Safety and Health Consultation Program will also support this effort.
This partnership seeks to prevent injuries and exposure to hazards during construction of a new 150,000-square-foot senior living facility. Under the agreement, the partners will focus on reducing the number of injuries and illnesses, increasing safety and health training, reducing worker exposure to health hazards and encourage all project contractors to develop and implement comprehensive safety and health programs. The agreement supports OSHA’s long-range efforts to develop a partnership approach to safety management between contractors and the government.
OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program works with employers, employees, professional and trade associations, labor organizations and other interested stakeholders to establish specific goals, strategies and performance measures to improve worker safety and health.
Holiday Workplace Safety
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a public health emergency that has dramatically increased demand for respirators, particularly N-95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), as well as fit-testing supplies ordinarily used to ensure that respirators fit workers properly and provide the expected level of protection. Shortages (either intermittent or extended) of both FFRs and fit-testing supplies have posed tremendous challenges. In order to allow essential operations to continue, many employers have had to utilize contingency and crisis strategies that are ordinarily not compliant with OSHA’s Respiratory Protection standard.
Winter Weather
Winter weather presents hazards including slippery roads/surfaces, strong winds and environmental cold. Employers must prevent illnesses, injuries, or fatalities, by controlling these hazards in workplaces impacted by winter weather.
OSHA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are working together on a public education effort aimed at improving the way people prepare for and respond to severe weather. This page is designed to help businesses and their workers prepare for winter weather and to provide information about hazards that workers may face during and after winter storms
New guidance provides compliance assistance for frequently cited standards related to COVID-19 inspections.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued guidance and an accompanying one-pager to help employers understand which standards are most frequently cited during coronavirus-related inspections. OSHA based these documents on data from citations issued, many of which were the result of complaints, referrals and fatalities in industries such as hospitals and healthcare, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and meat/poultry processing plants.
The one-pager and guidance document provide available resources that address the most frequently cited standards, including Respiratory Protection, Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Personal Protective Equipment, and the General Duty Clause.
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