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12 Jan 2017

OSHA Issues New Recommended Practices for Construction

12 Jan 2017 Safety, Workplace

OSHA recently issued Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs (download) in Construction to help industry employers develop proactive programs to keep their workplaces safe. According to the agency, the recommendations may be particularly helpful to small- and medium-sized contractors who lack safety and health specialists on staff.

11 Jan 2017

Workers’ Compensation Claims Shows the Top Cause of Injuries

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11 Jan 2017 Medical, Safety

An analysis of millions of workers’ compensation claims found that about a third were related to one type of activity. Keep reading to find out what it is and if your workers are at risk.

The Travelers Companies, Inc., the country’s largest workers’ compensation carrier, released its Injury Impact Report, which identifies the most common causes of occupational accidents and injuries. The company analyzed more than 1.5 million compensation claims filed over a four-year period from a variety of businesses. The most frequent causes of workplace injuries were:

Material handling—32 percent of total claims.
Slips, trips, and falls—16 percent of total claims.
Being struck by or colliding with an object—10 percent of total claims.
Accidents involving tools—7 percent of total claims.

Trauma occurring over time, such as when a body part is injured by overuse or strain—4 percent of total claims. Read more…

11 Jan 2017

Don’t let employees take asbestos home

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11 Jan 2017 Safety, Workplace

The maxim not to let your employees take hazardous materials home on their clothes or other personal items can now be seen as more than just a best practice.

24 Oct 2016

OSHA announces new guidance for heath & safety programs

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24 Oct 2016 Safety, Workplace

For years—decades really—OSHA has reinforced the same recommendations for programs to improve workplace safety and health. Twenty-seven years after the initial guidance, the agency has tweaked those recommendations. Keep reading to find out what’s changed and why it matters.

25 Aug 2016

Employee waited a month before reporting injury

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25 Aug 2016 Safety, Workplace

A construction worker says he tripped, fell and hurt his back. However, he waited a month to get any treatment for the alleged injury. How did his workers’ comp claim turn out?

William Rogers, 48, worked for Russell Construction Co. Inc. in Wyoming. On Nov. 19, 2013, Rogers, his supervisor and another worker were pouring concrete at a work site. The chute of the concrete mixer truck momentarily caught on a piece of wire attached to some rebar and then popped up with some force.

24 Aug 2016

Five Steps to an Injury-Free Culture

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24 Aug 2016 Safety

Getting to injury-free performance requires rethinking how we approach safety activities, the measures we use to monitor progress and define success, and the way we approach engagement of employees at all levels.

26 Jul 2016

3 Questions to Ask After a Spill

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26 Jul 2016 Medical, Safety, Workplace

What happens if there’s a chemical leak or spill in your workplace? Are your workers ready to contain it? Workers at Nestlé’s Willy Wonka candy manufacturing plant in Itasca, Illinois were quick to react to a lithium chloride spill, containing the 5-gallon mishap. Unfortunately, containing the spilled liquid didn’t eliminate the hazard to workers—just a few hours after the spill, workers complained of respiratory symptoms. Emergency responders treated 17 workers and transported 11 to the hospital, where they were treated and released.

Here are three questions your workers should ask immediately after a spill in order to minimize the hazards to workers and the environment.

20 Jul 2016

Final Rule Issued to Improve Tracking Workplace Injuries

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20 Jul 2016 Safety, Workplace

Why is OSHA issuing this rule?

This simple change in OSHA’s rule-making requirements will improve safety for workers across the country. One important reason stems from our understanding of human behavior and motivation. Behavioral economics tells us that making injury information publicly available will “nudge” employers to focus on safety. And, as we have seen in many examples, more attention to safety will save the lives and limbs of many workers, and will ultimately help the employer’s bottom line as well. Finally, this regulation will improve the accuracy of this data by ensuring that workers will not fear retaliation for reporting injuries or illnesses.

26 Jun 2016

Preventative Measures for HEAT STRESS

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26 Jun 2016 Medical, Safety

Responding is Alsie Nelson, associate product manager, Ergodyne, St. Paul, MN.

…Although the measures to prevent heat-related illness are similar in both environments, there are other considerations indoor workers must take into account to protect their health and safety.

The human body is constantly trying to find balance by regulating internal and external variables. Maintaining a normal body temperature of 98.6° F is important to ensure the body functions properly. Heat waves cause stress on the body when too much heat is being absorbed and not enough heat is being lost through the body’s normal cooling processes. When this happens, the body’s means of controlling its internal temperature begins to fail. Once the body temperature reaches 99.7° F, heat stress has begun to affect the body. If it hits 104° F, you become susceptible to developing a heat-related illness. Just 30 minutes of exposure at that temperature is enough to cause permanent disability or brain damage.

Although heat stress is typically associated with outdoor work settings during the summer months, heat is a year-round hazard in indoor workplaces such as foundries, commercial bakeries, kitchens and laundries. Workers in these environments are often near sources of radiant heat or inside buildings with limited cooling capabilities. These jobsites are typically regulated by building codes that require sufficient ventilation, but several states specifically address heat stress prevention strategies in indoor applications. Indoor workers may also be wearing impermeable clothing such as a Tyvek suit, coveralls or layers of PPE, significantly reducing airflow and trapping heat.

As with outdoor work environments, it’s important to develop a prevention plan to handle potentially hazardous indoor heat. An indoor heat stress prevention plan should include the following:

Encourage employees to stay hydrated and recommend drinking 1 cup of water every 20 minutes or 1 quart per hour.
Set acceptable exposure times and allow employees sufficient recovery time in cooler areas such as an air conditioned break room or rest area.

Give new and back-to-work employees time to acclimate. Just because indoor work settings typically have a more predictable temperature than those working outdoors doesn’t mean that certain individuals don’t need time to acclimate to the environment. Acclimatization is one of the most important steps an employer can take to ensure overall employee safety and productivity. Educate workers about the symptoms of heat-related illnesses and the proactive measures they can take to protect themselves.
Enact an emergency plan so everyone knows what to do in the event of a crisis.

Determine proper personal protective equipment or cooling products for the job. If airflow is limited, an evaporative cooling product may not provide the necessary relief. Alternative cooling products such as phase change vests work well under coveralls or impermeable suits.

Even if a jobsite is shielded from direct sunlight, oppressive and stifling environmental heat can still pose a real threat to worker safety. But employers who know the different heat stress hazards posed by indoor and outdoor jobsites will be able to better equip their crews to handle them.

Editor’s note: This article represents the independent views of the author and should not be construed as a National Safety Council endorsement. (Read entire article: safetyandhealthmagazine.com)

2 May 2016

Screen Time May be Aging Worker’s Eyes

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2 May 2016 Lifestyle, Medical, Safety

May is Healthy Vision Month, a good time to remind your employees of your vision-related benefits and eye protection and safety measures, as well as precautions they can take to maintain their own eye health. Unfortunately, says the Vision Council, the modern day workspace is far from “eye-gonomic,” and day-long use of computers, combined with personal use off hours, can result in eye problems—and decreased productivity.
The Vision Council’s new report, Eyes Overexposed: The Digital Device Dilemma, based on its fourth annual “VisionWatch Survey,” finds some issues have arisen since workers began using digital devices constantly at work and at home…Millennials are “the ultimate device multitaskers,” while adults in their 30s are “cubicle dwellers” who use computers all day on the job, then other digital devices off hours. Workers in their 40s experience the beginnings of age-related changes to their eyes, while those in their 50s and 60s are seeing the cumulative effects from years of computer and other digital use, as well as normal eye changes as they age.The Vision Council found that 60% of people use digital devices for 5 or more hours a day, and 65% experience vision problems including dry eyes, irritation, or blurred vision after spending time reading digital devices….Even going from a computer screen to looking at a smartphone can cause increased harm because workers hold the smaller devices closer (8 to 12 inches) to their face, decreasing their blinking rates and leading to dry, irritated eyes. The angles at which smartphones are held are also inconsistent, resulting in focusing issues.One of the most frightening findings from the report, says the Post, is that that adults under 30 experience the highest rate of digital eye-strain symptoms (73%) compared with other age groups. And eye conditions that used to be found in seniors are now being diagnosed in people in their 20s and 30s! Increased computer use is resulting in workers’ eyes aging prematurely, so younger employees are developing once-rare conditions such as “accommodation spasms” and “retinal migraines.”

…What can employers do? Besides providing eye-care coverage in their health benefits,… companies can provide employees’ computers with:

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