Author: SHEQPGHOnline

A Pennsylvania manufacturer’s failure to provide guarding on a brick crushing machine ended in a 53-year-old worker suffering an arm amputation while operating the machine. A subsequent federal investigation at TYK America Inc.’s Clairton manufacturing facility found the company previously identified a deficiency with the machine’s guarding but kept the machine operational and did not repair the deficiency prior to the amputation incident. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited TYK America for 11 safety violations – including one willful and eight serious – following an investigation initiated on Nov. 18, 2021. OSHA proposed $108,769 in penalties for the violations.…

Rescue workers in Burkina Faso are trying to reach eight miners who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks. The zinc mine at Perkoa flooded following heavy rain last month. Six of the miners are from Burkina Faso and the other two are from Zambia and Tanzania. The government of Burkina Faso has launched a judicial enquiry and the mine managers are for now not allowed to leave the country. The Canadian mining company, Trevali, says it is working 24 hours a day to locate the missing miners. It says that when the mine flooded, the eight workers…

NEBOSH has opened applications for its 2022 scholarship programme and this year it’s offering even more opportunities for aspiring health and safety professionals! After attracting more than 500 applicants in its first year, the 2022 programme will now award ten scholarships to study for a NEBOSH Diploma. Three National (UK) and seven International learners will be awarded paid-for online study for the NEBOSH National or International Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety Management Professionals. The Michael Adamson NEBOSH Diploma Scholarship is named in memory of Michael Adamson who lost his life in a preventable workplace incident. The Diploma and scholarship…

The Kenyasi District Police Command has arrested a 44-year-old articulated truck driver for insecure loading, careless driving and causing damage on Sunday May 1, 2022. The police in a statement indicated that “the suspect driver was in charge of a Man Diesel articulated vehicle loaded with 2750 boards of sawn lumber from Goaso towards Techiman.” According to the police, the trailer “and the load truncated from the truck and fell on the offside of the road” as the driver arrived in Ntotroso Township. They went on to state that as a result, some market women’s property were destroyed along the…

In less than 10 days, a worker’s hand got crushed and two of them got injured as they suffered from the partial amputation of their fingers as workers were operating machines without adequate safety guards and procedures in place.  This incident takes us back to the year 2016 wherein a company suffered severe penalties. Reasons, the company: Failed to guard operating parts on various machines in the facility. Improperly installed safety guards on machines creating hazards for employees Failed in recording work-related injuries on the illness and injury logs. Rewinding the scenario Had the following been in place, the accident…

Humanising Leadership in Risk, Shifting the Focus from Objects to Persons We are delighted in the Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) to launch the 15th book in the series on risk. This is the second book written by Brian Darlington with the first ‘It Works, A New Approach to Risk and Safety’ being snapped up across the risk and safety industry. What a wonderful case study of what SPoR can do to an organization when thy move away from zero so that safety can improve (https://safetyrisk.net/moving-away-from-zero-so-that-safety-improves/ ). This second book by Brian is entitled ‘Humanising Leadership, Shifting the Focus from…

Some residents of Kaase in the Ashanti Region threw caution to the wind as they siphoned diesel from a tanker that toppled over on Sunday. Many stored several drums of diesel in their homes before the Police and Fire Service personnel could get to the scene. The long vehicle carrying fifty-four thousand litres of diesel fell off as it negotiated a curve leading to the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company premises. “The main road had been blocked and the only alternative was this rough road and he didn’t get it right so the thing got down,” ADO II Ebenezer…

There was a mad rush for fuel at a town believed to be Kaase, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti region after a diesel tanker toppled over. Although the details of how the accident happened are yet to be made public, in the video that has gone viral, residents of the community can be seen rushing to the accident scene with buckets and various containers for their share of the ‘free diesel’. Netizens who have reacted to the video are outraged, particularly because a similar incident which claimed the lives of many, destroyed not only properties but a whole…

As the world of work returns to a blended new normal post-COVID-19, we observe a generally heightened sensitivity to the occupational safety and health (OSH) of workers. The conversation around OSH remains a relevant aspect of our social dialogue which needs further stimulation. This year, the ILO’S focus for World Day for Safety and Health at Work is “enhancing social dialogue towards a culture of safety and health”. Ghana’s recent Appiatse explosion reminded us that OSH is not an isolated aspect of work processes. The unfortunate event claimed 14 lives, saw 179 residents sustaining injuries, 876 victims undergoing psychological first…

By David Malter, CIH, CSP, CPEA, ROH (Guest Author), Adam R. Young,  Mark A. Lies, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: In a new journal article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Bacterial Special Pathogens Branch, researchers have identified specific cases of  a deadly occupational disease, welder’s anthrax. According to CDC, welder’s anthrax is a bacterial infection that results in severe pneumonia.  The disease was caused by bacteria within the B. cereus group that produces anthrax toxin; these bacteria thrive in lungs affected by welding fumes and iron deposits.  The disease has…