I am working in a chemical manufacture and distributor company. We are down south, and have already had 85 degree days this spring.

We have an open production area, with a corner of batching tanks, another area with a packaging line of bottled goods, a wash bay, etc.

We do handle toxic chemical. My understanding of OSHA regulation 1910.141(g)(2) is that no employees may drink water any where in this production area.

My wonder is, how have others navigated this? My entire company from the owners to individual employees are against my insistence that we cannot have any food or beverage in production. There is significant heat stress risk, because it gets warm and they have to wear significant PPE. I want them to be able to access cold water, but my direction to step away and get a cold drink from the break room is met with refusal to consider that option.

Anyone else in this catch-22? What did you do?

I have seen lots of positions online, but all of them are asking experience. I have previous experience as a microbiologist mostly working in Laboratory Environment. Please help

I’m looking for stories about workplace safety. Know any good books or movies where safety at work is a big part of the story? I’m really into tales from places like factories or construction sites. Any suggestions?

A sister location to my workplace recently had a forklift related death and obviously OSHA has been everywhere. For the last week Management has been bouncing back and forth about allowing earbuds/headphones while on the production floor. Today, upper management came in for a visit and banned all forms of electronics on the production floor including earbuds, headphones, speakers, and radios and any other form of media. Now I'm aware that companies are within their rights to make and enforce rules that go above and beyond OHSA regulations, but I'm curious if and what regulations OHSA has on stuff like this. I only have an OHSA 10 for construction but I don't recall anything being mentioned about music and the like. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

I had allergies and sensitivities before but developed asthma at my workplace. I had an attack after my boss sprayed a sage stay in the air. I’ve had severe reactions after my coworkers wearing perfume. Although, my boss is being mindful about wearing less perfume when I’m at work, others still continue to burn incense (which is a horrible trigger), not really caring much and wear perfume. One of my new coworkers wears strong perfume and she sits right near me. She’s sweet, and I told her that it triggers my attacks, so she switched the scent and wears a bit less of it, but it still does trigger my asthma badly, to the point I have to go sit in another room, otherwise I can’t breathe, or have chest pains with my airways swollen. What is your advice about this situation? It’s a small company, less than 15 employees, so I don’t think I would be covered by ADA. I am planning to switch jobs soon, but what would you recommend in the meanwhile?

Thanks for your insight, people! Redirecting me to the right place helped a bunch! Appreciate it.

As a food vendor at an amusement park, we're responsible for reloading drink carts that can hold 17 cases each. Some carts can be reloaded at a central base, where full drink loads are pre-staged next to the carts for efficient loading and unloading. They also have push carts to move drinks around. However, other carts must be reloaded on-site throughout the park, which is less organized and requires carrying drinks back and forth over distances (which varies depending on the layout of the drink cart).

Previously, you could FIFO stock by adding only the necessary number of new drinks to top off a cart, but now we're required to replace ALL old drinks with new ones for all carts (and those old drinks will be used for reloads at base anyways). For the on-site carts, this process is more time-consuming and physically demanding, especially when not done at the central base. You are also under a time constraint so you can make it home on time.

My question is, does this violate any OSHA or safety regulations of some kind. Besides being impractical, it doesn't seem safe for us. For the on-site carts, you can have a second person help you, but you're still carrying these drinks back and forth over a distance and these cases can weight about 30 pounds.

I discussed this with leadership in a meeting with other coworkers. They seemed indifferent to everything, but I was wondering if there was a different avenue to go about dealing with this.

Hello fellow OHSHA Poeple, a co-worker asked me if we could make him a TRA (Task Risk Analysis) for hotwork (welding and grinding) on piping that is still in service. The contents of the pipe are non-flammable and is not toxic or irritating. They will be welding a spot where 2 connecting pipes are damaged.

Workplace doesn't currently don't have a formalised approach and are looking to ensure we are continuously compliant with psychosocial hazards and risk, What system(s) do you use for managing your workplace mental health?

With the release of ChatGPT a lot of executives in our company have been pushing us to use AI and design for it. Have you encountered this as well? How do you feel about using AI in the workplace?

It is absolutely ridiculous but the company is looking for everybody to submit two safety observations per shift! I spend more time doing this than actual work! lol.

Any ideas would help.

Hello. First time posting.

I’m curious if any one here could chime in about some practices that happen in my workplace. I work in a warehouse that uses drive in racks that are at the most 6 pallets deep and 5 tiers high. Allowing us to load 30 pallets into one bay.

My major concern is that most people working in this facility on an inbound load will raise their load approaching their bay and then turn in with their load already at the height of the tier they are putting the pallet into. And then when exiting the bay, they will turn out and begin to lower their forks while traveling down the aisle heading back to the trailer to pick up another pallet.

We recently had a guy from another shift tip his truck forward while traveling with his load elevated. He sustained injuries to his face when he tipped forward and his face struck the VMU. And I’ve heard that the same thing happened a few years ago to another employee.

Despite this incident, nothing is being done to stop this practice.

It is my understanding that a forklift should never be traveling while the forks are being raised or lowered. Whether there is a load or not.

Am I wrong in that understanding?

Are facilities allowed to make their own rules on safe operation?

Can employees be expected to practice these unsafe procedures in order to meet production quotas or expectations?

I’m trying to keep this as vague as possible just in case this post is found. But I need help on what to do next regarding an unsafe environment due to a person I am currently working with. This person is newer to the company. This employee randomly asked me one day to help him find a girl he has been stalking. Like, physically following her home and watching her. I obviously declined, and since then things have gotten weird. He attempted to grab my arms in the parking lot, and he kept trying to get info on where I went when I left work early one day. He was told it was a person issue by my other coworker, and he continued to ask around for the remainder of the day. I have reported all of this to my HR department, and after having a meeting with them to recap I am extremely upset. Not only are they not talking to him, they are not taking any action at all, except to have supervisors on “high alert” (mind you, they are usually in their own offices with doors closed for a good majority of the day). At this point, I feel extremely unsafe and uncomfortable working in the same room as this person. Do I have any rights? What do I even do?

At present I need to take an Electrical Safety / ArcFlash online training for OSHA 29 CFR 1910 S, with the intent of subsequently rolling it (and other courses) out to affected team members.

I'm looking for a company with solid training material, sane user interface, a large enough library that their site can at least for the near future, be a one-stop-shop for this sort of thing. And, of course, one that doesn't break the bank.

I saw a recent post referencing 360Training, and compliancetrainingonline looks generally okay, but I'd love a boots-on-the-ground perspective.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Edit: United States, and Virginia. Thanks!

Made a throwaway for this.

Boss has apparently been busted by osha for this monstrosity in the past, but didn’t do anything about it. There are stories about him retaliating against whistleblowers. We’re a medical courier company and we regularly transport medical waste and biological material. The eye wash station in the warehouse is just the tip of the iceberg.

Go check it out and let me know what content you'd like to see and I'll make it! https://youtube.com/@Kyle-Safety?si=jfFAJUPPiWTXio3F

Go check it out and let me know what content you'd like to see and I'll make it! https://youtube.com/@Kyle-Safety?si=jfFAJUPPiWTXio3F

Hi! We’re having a contractor install vinyl sheet flooring at our bathroom, and it’s time to pick one. With the exception of homogenously colored ones (which the wife detests) there are no PVC free alternatives. So I’m left with choosing the least harmful ones. Anything I should look out for? They’ve all seem to have opted out of phatalates, and use stuff like DINCH. I’m still afraid this could migrate to dust / skin / toys, and that those phatalate substitutes are just as bad as the original chemicals in hindsight. Which PVC “green flags” should I look for in manufacturers of vinyl sheet flooring? Maybe I exaggerate my fears here, but we have a toddler basically living on the floors so I want to be sure it’s safe.

Unless I'm mistaken there is a rule about a room always having to have some lighting even when the main light is turned off.

At my work we had a new cooler installed and in our other coolers when you turn off the main light switch one of the lights stays on to provide emergency lighting, in the new cooler it just goes completely pitch black.

I'm pretty sure there's a regulation saying that's not supposed to do that I just can't find the right combination of keywords to bring it up.

I would like to have the actual citation to bring up to actually get it fixed

In the USA here

I work in the state of Tennessee if that is relevant.

The company I work for is a major paint manufacturer.

Corporate sends employees a series of "classes" to take periodically and one of them just happened to be about transporting hazmat. According to this class, no one is to transport more than 1,000lbs of hazmat unless they have a license with a hazmat certification. No one here has that and we haul 3,600lb containers of hazmat several times a week.

I brought this to my boss's attention and he was defiant about it saying that latex paint isn't hazmat, but I went to the SDS and showed him that the paint we deliver definitely is. Also, the weight limit on our delivery truck is 3000lbs. You almost have to stand on the brakes to get it to stop when we take these containers out for delivery.

And we're also doing pour-offs with this paint that has an exclamation mark and a health hazard placard on the cans. I've been in this industry a very long time and I've always been told that it was illegal to transfer hazmat to a different container.

Management, all the way up to the district manager, knows that these things are going on. I'm not sure if I need to call OSHA, the EPA, or both, but I'm already looking for better work.

What do you guys suggest in this situation?

Hey everyone,

I work in a very large maintenance garage as a supervisor (Canada) and I've been tryin to address concerns my techs and I have about getting the floor jacks and jack stands replaced. I've push these concerns up but management wont take it seriously due to cost and nothing has "happened" yet.

Jack stands::

-At least 30 years old that have been painted over multiple times (including capacity limits).

-Due to negligence of getting these replaced, many tech must mix and match different jack stands.

-Saddles are chipped/peened over

-No inspection cycle has been implemented

Floor Jacks:

-Many are 30+ years old.

-Painted over.

-Chipped/bent saddles.

-Chipped castor wheels.

-No inspection cycle implemented

I'm fed up with the inaction over this and I know that these issues will lead to an eventual accident but I cant find any specific laws or regulations that I could use to force management to address this.

So if anyone out there could help me find actual safety regulations (preferably Ontario/Canada but any recognized standards) I and my techs will greatly appreciate it!

Thank you,

​

I work in a foodservice warehouse, we ship lots of chicken. Some of the boxes we receive from vendors have a tendency to leak, and recently one of our machines hit a patch and slid into a rack, causing significant damage. Any recommendations for containment in slots? Looking for something that would contain the leak and prevent it from pooling in the aisle

I work for the county and I'm curious to know if there are any laws relating to safety. For reference, I am in the state of PA. The office environment is extremely dirty! Some issues are:

Floor outlet plates (the covers that go over outlets in the floor) are not set in properly, it's a trip hazard, I've stepped on them a few times when I started and nearly tripped. No hot water in the bathroom Broken office chairs (arms are wobbly, wheels won't move, backs go way back when you sit in them, ripped material) No drinking water available (unless you use the bathroom sink!) Microwave/toaster in one side of the office next to desk and close to areas where mice can come in contact No first aid kit available Electrical wires and extension cords running everywhere, some look frayed The carpet never gets vacuumed or cleaned and has staples embedded in it.