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from the ever-decreasing-state-of-workplace-safety dept.
The World Socialist Web Site reports
On Thursday [July 29], two workers at an electrical plant near Tampa, Florida were killed horrifically when a tank spilled molten slag onto them. Four others were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The plant is operated by Tampa Electric Company (TECO), the Tampa Bay area's largest electrical utility service. The company was purchased exactly one year ago to the day by Canadian energy company Emera Inc.
Christopher Irvin, 40, and Michael McCory, 60, were both killed, while Gary Marine Jr., 32, Antonio Navarrete, 21, Frank Lee Jones, 55, and Armando J. Perez, 56, all sustained life-threatening injuries. Only one of the men was a TECO employee while the other five were employees of Gaffin Industrial Services who were contracted to work at the plant.
[...] A TECO spokesperson reported that at the time of the incident workers were performing routine maintenance on a slag tank--a container which houses coal waste after it has been burned. Slag is a glass-like substance that forms when hot coal mixes with water; the slag tank catches leftover by-product that drips down from a coal-fired furnace into water.
The crystallized slag is still molten hot when it forms, and it was slag spillover that killed and injured the workers in question. An expert compared the gushing slag to "what comes out of a volcano".
Workers were reportedly trying to unplug a hole in the slag tank when the material spilled out. A spokesperson from TECO stated that slag filled a large part of the floor in the plant, "6 inches deep and 40 feet in diameter".
[...] An OSHA spokesperson stated in response to the incident, "It's the employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthful workplace." Apparently, OSHA was already investigating a chemical exposure that happened at the same plant on May 24. This incident involved the release of anhydrous ammonia that caused four employees to be hospitalized.
TECO has a long history of similar incidents.
[...] [A statement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 108] notes that the incident was entirely avoidable. "It's time to listen to the employees", it reads. "It's time to stop using contractors to do 'routine maintenance' when the safety of this maintenance has been questioned by employees. It's time to stop putting profit before safety. It's time to truly put safety first."
(Score: 3, Funny) by snufu on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:14AM (3 children)
this is the fault of oppressive safety and environmental regulations. If we had fewer job-killing regulations, fewer workers would be killed on the job.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:33AM
To be entirely fair, there are a lot of regulations out there that are outdated, inappropriately applied, or irrationally written.
Or just incompetently executed.
One particular case to my certain knowledge:
Apply for *business activity permission*
Time passes while bureaucrats work at the speed of government to read and pass judgement on a standard, two-page form.
Request: DENIED.
Why? Because in the time after requesting the permission in the first place, and the bureaucracy actually responding, a regulation (published, but not actually entered into their instructional literature, because ... reasons ...) changed, rendering the originally perfect request newly flawed.
If it had taken a week, it would have passed muster.
This is what people talk about, in terms of job-killing regulations. When everything turns into a high-stakes game of Mother May I, and actual business predictability becomes a pipe dream.
But I'm sorry. You were talking about gilded age robber barons waxing their moustaches. Carry on.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:34PM (1 child)
I seriously had to take a second look at the poster's name to make sure this wasn't by realDonaldTrump. Was shocked that it wasn't.
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:15PM
Thank you for your support. I agree, it's a brilliant tweet. The regulations are too complicated. Unbelievably complex. You have to be Einstein to figure them out. And if you don't figure them out, you die in molten slag. I've signed an executive order. My government agencies, whenever they want to make a regulation, have to identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed. That's what it says. Whenever there's a new rule, we get rid of two old rules. One in, two out. Very smart! So you don't have to be smart to understand the rules. Because when rules are written for smart people, only smart people will follow them. And no regulations exceeding the agency's total incremental cost allowance will be permitted in that fiscal year, unless required by law or approved in writing by the director. My executive order says that. Terrific! It's going to be terrific for uneducated people. I love uneducated people. And this is a terrific story. I love the slag tank, the tank of molten slag. Gave me a great idea, I think I can get an Emmy out of it. #TrumpTV [twitter.com] 🇺🇸