Unsafe shortcuts lead to worker deaths, how to liven up safety trainings and the feds limit opioid prescriptions for injured workers. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
Safety in Amazon warehouses has been scrutinized by the media in recent years, particularly for interactions between humans and robots. TechCrunch reports that the online retail giant has been introducing a new worker safety wearable to 25+ sites to prevent accidents involving robotic systems in their warehouses.
A study reveals 83% of manufacturing leaders see increased productivity from safety programs. Improving worker safety with IoT in manufacturing is one of the best ways manufacturing companies can deal with safety concerns and risks.
Many occupational safety and health professionals perform tasks outside of their main area of expertise, according to a recent survey on their continuing education needs published in the American Journal of Industrial Hygiene icon.
The survey built on the 2011 National Assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health Workforce, also called the Westat report, which had similar findings.
Initial research focuses on enabling real-time monitoring of field technicians to ensure their safety and to provide audiovisual assistance to perform asset maintenance, with the hope of adopting lightweight yet robust wearable devices, GlobalData noted.
These features of wearable technology encourage oil and gas companies to adopt helmets, smart glasses, wristbands and other devices that incorporate technologies such as wireless connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR).
Atlas Oil was named the Excellence in Health and Safety award winner at the 2019 Texas Oil and Gas Awards, marking the company's second consecutive win in this prestigious category – last year in the Rocky Mountain region.
Safe Influx is a ground-breaking new technology to help avoid well blowouts by automating well control operations and removing the human risk factor associated with well control.
Invented last year by Phil Hassard, head of drilling simulation at Robert Gordon University, the technology is about to get its first outing in the field at the Weatherford Land Rig at Bridge of Don Aberdeen following overwhelmingly successful tests on a DrillSIM:6000 drilling simulator, manufactured by Drilling Systems, which is part of the 3T Energy Group.
Google Glass – and other virtual reality “wearables” are finding their place at work even if they didn’t initially succeed with consumers. A couple current uses of these virtual or “augmented” reality technologies include: Lockheed Martin using Microsoft’s $3,500 HoloLens (see video) to build spacecraft.
IBM has announced “major collaborations” with SmartCone, Guardhat, Garmin Health and Mitsufuji that will help to monitor the safety of workers in hazardous environments.
The collaborations will use internet of things (IOT) technologies that have been integrated into wearables, the tech giant said in an announcement Wednesday. Workers in sectors including factories, construction and mining will use the technology, IBM added.
There are no standards in place to govern how data gleaned from wearables is used and protected, but, according to Lydia Baugh, director of external affairs at the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), that might be about to change.
At its next annual meeting in November, the ISEA plans to start having discussions with its members about developing privacy and use standards — or at least guidance — for the data collected from wearables, how workers can view this information and in what ways the data can be analyzed to predict trends and patterns so as to better assist workers.