Monday, July 9, 2012

Safety Stand-Down at Oklahoma Oil and Gas Fields - OSHA

Together with Mid-Continent Exploration and Production Safety or MCEPS, OSHA is sponsoring a safety stand down from June 22 to July 20 to encourage safer practices at all oil and gas exploration and production sites in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is on safety stand-down now, but not because the 4th of July is coming up. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it, together with the Mid-Continent Exploration & Production Safety (MCEPS) Network, is sponsoring a safety stand-down from June 22 to July 20 to encourage safety and health practices at all oil-and-gas exploration and production sites in Oklahoma.

Although OSHAcampus.com safety training—for instance, OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30—is now required by many employers, many workers are still exposed to unnecessary worksite hazards because of employer negligence, ignorance, or plain disregard of basic safety protocols.

"This alliance will demonstrate initiative and leadership industrywide throughout the state of Oklahoma in emphasizing the importance of oil and gas work-site safety," declared John Hermanson, the OSHA regional administrator in Dallas. "It is hoped that the stand-down will not only heighten awareness for workers in the oil and gas industry, but also identify and eliminate work-related hazards."

According to the work-safety watchdog, MCEPS is a cooperative alliance of OSHA's Oklahoma City Area Office and oil-and-gas industry representatives. Within the stand-down period, the alliance members are expected to encourage employers to voluntarily stop work to carry out site inspections and safety-and-health training for employees. The training centers on the major causes of work-related incidents and deaths in the industry.

OSHA Oklahoma City area director David Bates emphasized that members should participate in the stand-down event, as well as encourage subcontractors to do the same. OSHA has provided training materials to members to be used during the job-site inspections.

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