ADOSH advocate: improving workplace safety and health

              these groups and these discussions
have led to the creation of the
“ E. A. S. T. of Arizona” project.
E. A. S. T. stands for Excavation
Awareness and Safety Training and
is a partnership between ADOSH
and the affected industry. Through
this program, we hope to increase
the awareness of the hazardous na-ture
of excavation work, along with
the requirements for working in ex-cavations.
Regarding compliance, ADOSH
has stepped up it’s efforts to locate
those employers who are not in
compliance with basic excavation
safety standards. Recently, we have
given some compliance officers the
assignment of driving around cer-tain
areas of the state, looking spe-cifically
for excavation work which
is not being conducted in compli-ance
with OSHA standards. This
has resulted in the issuance of cita-tions
to a number of contractors
who were not in compliance with
the standards.
In this inaugural edition of the
ADOSH newsletter, we have fo-cused
particularly on the excavation
issue. I hope that we have included
information which will be useful to
you. Lets all work together to en-sure
that employees have a safe and
healthy workplace!
ADOSH ADVOCATE
Improving Workplace Safety and Health
It has been an interesting experience
to be the Director of ADOSH for
the past ten months. There have
been many challenges, but overall
the experience has been very re-warding.
We have been working
hard to make changes within
ADOSH which we hope will ben-efit
the employers and employees
whom we serve. Many of you have
been in attendance at various semi-nars
in which these changes that we
are working on were discussed. We
have received a lot of positive feed-back
from employers and employ-ees
throughout the state who like the
direction we are taking. We prom-ise
to continue working toward a
more “ cooperative” approach with
employers. We believe that this type
of an approach, coupled with our
continued compliance presence, will
have the greatest impact toward as-suring
a safe and healthful work-place
for all employees.
These two different approaches have
been put to test recently with the
trenching fatalities we saw at the
beginning of 1999. In two different
incidents two employees, one a
youth, were killed while performing
their work in unprotected trenches
which collapsed on them. Both in-cidents
were very tragic, yet prevent-able.
In response to these incidents,
ADOSH solicited the help of con-tractors
and industry in general to
come up with ways to ensure that
these tragedies do not repeat them-selves.
We have held meetings with
From the Director’s Desk
Darin Perkins, Director Summer / Fall 1999
In This Issue
‰ A message from the Director,
Darin Perkins
Page 1
‰ Excavations
Page 2
‰ Respiratory Protection -
Revised Standard
Page 2
Fatal Mistake
Page 3 ‰
‰ Mark Norton’s Notes
Page 3
ADOSH Education and
Training Calendar
3rd Quarter
Page 4.
ADOSH ADVOCATE
Published quarterly by the Arizona Division of Occu-pational
Safety and Health for the employers and em-ployees
of Arizona. The information in this newslet-ter
is provided as a service to employers and employees
of Arizona and should not be considered as the exclu-sive
source of the requirements of the standards.
Katherine A. Gosiger . . . . . . . . . . . Design Layout
katherine. gosiger@ az- ce- phoenix. osha. gov
Contributing Staff: Linda Christopherson, Joe Gates,
Ken Gaut, Ernie Miller, and Mark Norton.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health
800 West Washington Street 2675 East Broadway Road
Phoenix AZ 85007 Tucson AZ 85716
( 602) 542- 5795 ( 520) 628- 5478
Respiratory Protection
An Update to an Old Standard
Hazards in the workplace, identify-ing
these and controlling them are
the foundation for a safe work
environment. However many of
the current OSHA standards were
written or adopted in the 1970s and
1980s and have become antiquated
or outdated. They are therefore not
as effective in protecting employees
from the hazards they were in-tended
to address. In Arizona as of
January 1, 1999, we are enforcing
the new, updated version of the
“ Respiratory Protection” standard.
Compared to the old standard,
Federal OSHA has estimated that
employee exposures to toxic sub-stances
will be reduced by 27%.
What will contribute to this high
percentage of improvement are the
requirements for annual fit testing
and training. Some additional
changes in the updated version
which will be good for Arizona’s
small employer:
1) Only annual fit testing is
required, rather than the previous
semi- annual test.
2) Use of a portable quantitative fit
test device is permitted.
3) Provide enough respirator choices
to the employees so they can
achieve an acceptable fit. ( Previous
requirement was to have three
different sizes from two different
manufacturers).
4) Disposable respirators can be
reused if they will continue to
provide protection.
5) Requirement for an annual
review of employee’s medical
status is eliminated.
6) A medical questionnaire is
acceptable now for initiating an
evaluation of an employee’s ability
to wear a respirator rather than a
hands- on physical examination as
previously required.
Some other things are noteworthy
about this revised standard. For
instance, when employees enter an
IDLH atmosphere, at least one
standby person must be in
attendance. This is clearly spelled
out now in the new standard and
firefighters are specifically
Excavation accidents have, unfortu-nately,
been at the front of the news
in recent months. The year started
with two fatalities. The preceding
five years saw a 540% increase in
the number of trenching citations
issued by ADOSH. In response to
this alarming trend, ADOSH, along
with contractors and valley con-struction/
safety associations has
increased efforts to try and prevent
similar problems in the future. For
it’s part, ADOSH will take a more
aggressive approach to identifying
hazardous conditions involving ex-cavation
work. ADOSH is working
with local governments to ensure
that all safety codes are enforced.
Additionally, ADOSH compliance
officers will respond to reports of
unsafe trenches. Those contractors
who are observed in violation of
OSHA standards will be issued ci-tations
and penalties. Those con-tractors
with prior knowledge of the
standards and who fail to correct
hazardous conditions may be as-sessed
willful citations with penal-ties
up to $ 70,000.00.
Rather than tempt fate and incur
penalties or worse, lose a friend to
an excavation accident, take a pro-active
approach and protect your
employees. If your not sure of
when, where, or how to do this,
contact your local ADOSH Consul-tation
office at ( 602) 542- 1769 or
( 520) 628- 5478. The ADOSH Con-sultation
service is free of charge
and can provide you with life sav-ing
information. A consultation
visit will include an inspection and
will supply you with information on
apparent violations as well as appro-priate
corrective measures to take.
The consultation section will not
issue citations or penalties.
If you are planning to work in or
around an excavation or if you are
providing a bid for excavation work,
make sure you and your employees
are provided adequate protection.
Failure to do so may result in a cost
you and your employees should not
have to pay. Explaining to an
employee’s family why an excava-tion
wasn’t adequately shored and
why that employee was allowed to
work in it anyway would not be an
easy task. Listed below are some
basic requirements, for excavations
five feet or deeper in the state of
Arizona. If you do not have these
requirements in place, then contact
another qualified company or indi-vidual
before allowing entry into or
around the area.
Key points to consider when per-forming
excavation work.
· The excavation must be ad-equately
shored or sloped to pre-vent
collapse. · A “ competent person” must in-spect
the excavation daily and as
needed throughout the course of
work. · Employees must be trained on
the hazards of the work. · Above ground structures and
below ground utilities must be
identified and braced as neces-sary.
· Excavations that are four feet or
more in depth must have a lad-der
or other means of access
within 25 feet of the employees. · Check for the possibility of a
hazardous atmosphere in the
excavation. · Employees must wear hard hats. · All spoil piles and loose rocks
must be set away from the exca-vation
a minimum of two feet. · All mechanical equipment ( gen-erators,
vehicles etc.) must be
kept far enough away from the
excavation so as not to contrib-ute
to a cave in or collapse. · Fall protection must be in place
to prevent a fall into the excava-tion.
· All excavations deeper than 20
feet must be engineered and de-signed
by a current registered
professional engineer and have
adequate safety precautions in
place. · All excavations with sloped or
benched banks must be in accor-dance
with the classification of
the soil type. · All employees working in and
around excavations must be
trained as to the inherent and
specific dangers associated with
their job site.
In depth excavation requirements
are available free of charge at your
local ADOSH office. - Ken Gaut
Excavations
( Continued on page 3)
addressed when performing interior
structural firefighting. When two
firefighters enter a burning building
they must remain in visual and
voice contact. In addition two
stand- by firefighters are required to
be in attendance when two have
entered a burning structure, known
as “ two- in/ two- out” in the fire
fighting industry.
For further information contact our
offices or call up www. osha. gov ,
the OSHA Home Page on the
Internet. From the index button
you can go to Respiratory
Protection. You will find a wealth
of information to assist you in
understanding the standard and
getting into compliance.
- Linda Christopherson
The 38 year old technician was
pronounced dead at the hospital, a
few minutes later.
The OSHA investigation revealed
several deficiencies in the hotel’s
safety and personnel protection
plans. The following citations were
issued:
1910.332( b)( 1) ... Training. The
employer did not provide training
or ensure that employees were
trained in safety practices related to
electrical work.
1910.147( c)( 1) ... Lockout/ Tagout.
The employer did not have a
lockout/ tagout program for the
protection of its employees.
1910.147( c)( 7)( i) ... Lockout/
Tagout training. The employer did
not train employees in the require-ments
of lockout/ tagout.
A variety of other citations resulted
from the comprehensive inspection
after the accident investigation.
Citation penalties totaled
$ 61,250.00. - Ernie Miller
went to the bathroom and appar-ently
decided to begin removal of
the capacitor. Since he had failed
to turn off the power disconnect
switch and remove the fuse from
the disconnect box after attempting
to start the unit on the previous
repair, the unit was still energized.
The technician became the path to
Norton’s Notes
Mark D. Norton
Industrial Hygiene/ Safety Compliance
ground for a 277 VAC power
circuit. Upon returning to the room
seconds later, the superviosr recog-nized
what was happening and
knocked the technician away from
the unit and pulled the disconncect
switch.
A FATAL MISTAKE
On July 9, 1996, a 38 year old
maintenance employee and his
supervisor went to a suite in a
hotel facility to repair the heat
pump air conditioner. The unit
was located in the bathroom area of
the suite, above the false ceiling.
The ceiling tiles were removed, the
disconnect switch was turned off
and the fuse removed from the box.
With all systems dead, the heat
pump was lowered onto a hydrau-lic
lift and brought to a reasonable
working height. It was agreed that
the fan motor was probably the
culprit and it was removed and
replaced.
The fuse was replaced and the
disconnect was returned to the
energized position. The unit failed
to run and a discussion ensued.
The technician and the supervisor
agreed that the fan capacitor could
be faulty, and both went to the
maintenance room to obtain a
replacement. They returned to the
suite together and the supervisor
went to the tool cart to pick up a
couple of wire nuts. The technician
Respiratory Protection
( continued from page 2)
Visit the OSHA
Web Site
http:// www. osha. gov
The following information is provided to
answer some of the more common
questions routinely asked by employees and
employers. Submit your questions to
mark. norton@ osha. gov or 2675 East Broad-way
Road, Tucson AZ 85716.
Q: If I bring my own tools to the site
and they are not in compliance with
the standards, can my employer be
cited for that, or will I?
A: This is something that is
common in the construction indus-try
but which can also occur in the
manufacturing industry as well.
Employees will bring tools or other
equipment to the job which are in
need of some type of repair, or are
not in compliance with ADOSH
safety standards. 1926.20( b)( 3)
states, “ the use of any machinery,
tool, material, or equipment which
is not in compliance with any
applicable requirement of this part
is prohibited. Such machine, tool,
material or equipment shall either
be identified as unsafe by tagging or
locking the controls to render them
inoperable, or shall be physically
removed from its place of opera-tion.”
1926.300( a) specifically states;
“ all hand and power tools and
similar equipment, whether fur-nished
by the employer or the
employee, shall be maintained in
safe working condition. Addition-ally
1926.301 states; ‘ Employers
shall not issue or permit the use of
unsafe hand tools.” In summary,
the answer to this question is yes,
the employer can and has been cited
for employee owned and furnished
tools.
ADOSH
800 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Registration for each course begins no earlier than 30 days prior to the date of the course.
Location address and time of course will be determined at time of registration.
Date Course Location Trainer Phone #
6- 10- 99 Fall Protection Phoenix, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
6- 24- 99 Fall Protection Showlow, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
6- 30- 99 Forklift Train The Trainer Tucson, AZ Linda Christopherson ( 520) 628- 4229
7- 8- 99 Excavation Training Tucson, AZ Linda Christopherson ( 520) 628- 4229
7- 22- 99 Excavation Training Sierra Vista, AZ Linda Christopherson ( 520) 628- 4229
7- 29- 99 Forklift Train The Trainer Phoenix, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
8- 11- 99 Respiratory Protection Phoenix, AZ Fernando Mendieta ( 602) 542- 1640
8- 18- 99 Respiratory Protection Prescott, AZ Fernando Mendieta ( 602) 542- 1640
8- 26- 99 Forklift Train The Trainer Phoenix, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
9- 9- 99 Fall Protection Yuma, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
9- 23- 99 Fall Protection Tucson, AZ Joe Gates ( 602) 542- 1641
Dates are subject to change
ADOSH Eduction and Training Calendar
( Third Quarter)