Like many small businesses starting out, SigmaPro Engineering and Manufacturing, LLC had a safety program in place, but they were unsure if it met all of the state and federal requirements. The small electronic connector manufacturing facility in northern Fort Worth, Texas found the Texas Occupational Safety and Health Consultation Program (OSHCON) on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) website and set up a consultation with a Texas OSHCON safety consultant in their area.
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.
Working in a manufacturing setting requires many people to perform the same task repeatedly every day. That can mean eight hours or more a day on your feet, as well as straining your back, hips, knees and hands.
For those who hope to retire from manufacturing jobs, repetitive-motion injuries — also called repetitive-stress injuries — could prove a bigger risk than a catastrophic workplace accident.
Developed at JLR’s Gaydon site – home to one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the UK – the glove is based on a lightweight lattice structure optimized to provide support to reduce muscle fatigue but also to be flexible and comfortable enough to wear during an eight-hour shift.
The company claims that it could help better protect employees on the production line from the threat of a musculoskeletal disorder.
Texting, playing video games, and even taking too many selfies can all lead to repetitive stress injuries.
“In my own practice and via discussions with other musculoskeletal providers, patients, young and mature, are unaware of the risk of injury from their smartphones,” Dr. Renee Enriquez, rehabilitation specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, told Healthline.
Office workers can develop damaged thumbs from texting and emailing on their phones.
Smartphones force your thumb to make repetitive, awkward movements. “We’re getting more thumb and wrist tendonitis,” says Karen Jacobs, an occupational therapist at Boston University and the founding editor of the interdisciplinary journal Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation. “It’s an issue we all have to be mindful of.”
For Kevin Emerick, workplace safety is no mere box to be checked on a To-Do List. It is about people. It is about family. It is about sending members of your work family home safe after each and every workday.
“With the median tenure at our company at almost 25 years, we are family, and the last thing you want to see is someone in your family get hurt or worse,” said Emerick (shown above), risk manager for Woodfold Mfg., Inc., a Forest Grove, Oregon-based company that makes custom-crafted accordion doors, roll-up doors, and hardwood shutters.
Yes, this is a story about errors – plural -- made by one person, me. I’m not going to beat myself up here. James Reason, professor emeritus at the University of Manchester (UK), and one of the seminal authorities on human error, reminds us that most errors are caused by good, competent people who are trying to do the right thing.
A controversial rule issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase line speeds and reduce government inspections at U.S. hog slaughterhouses will lead to increased workplace injuries and a greater risk of foodborne illness, says the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).
A new injury has emerged in this, the digital era: “selfie wrist.”
There is no shortage of enthusiastic selfie takers these days, especially among young people, who repeatedly aim their cell phones at themselves in order to visually document their activities, friends and special locations they visit.