OSHA is encouraging retail employers to take precautions to prevent worker injuries during Black Friday and other major sales events during the holiday season.

As the football season charges on, Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS), a leader in first-aid and safety products, has announced five tactics for improving safety that businesses can learn from America’s favorite sport. Businesses can be exposed to many emergencies such as fires, excessive noise and slip and fall hazards, so they need to be proactive and prepare their teams for any occupational risk.

The scene plays out in Western movies. The villain Jesse James, the most famous member of the James-Younger gang that terrorized the Minnesota area in the later 1800s, is shot in the back, defenseless, by a fellow member of his gang out to collect the bounty on James’ life.

I say anything close to true global harmonization has a helluva long way to go. I’m not talking about war and peace. I’m referring to the incredible, horrible worker fatality stats that come from China each year, and barely warrant a mention in the U.S. press or U.S. safety press.

Love it or hate it, behavior-based safety (BBS) has become an entrenched part of the EHS landscape since it first emerged in the 1980s. Still, many safety professionals rightly point out that what many people think of as behavior-based safety doesn’t work.

With the recent release of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on fatal occupational injuries report showing 4,609 people died from on-the-job injuries in the U.S. in 2011, American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) President Richard A. Pollock, CSP, said people should be concerned.

Although falls continue to be a concern, those just-released Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures on 2011 U.S. fatal occupational injuries show that fatal work injuries in the construction industry declined to 721 in 2011 from 774 in 2010 -- a decrease of 7 percent.

Preliminary results released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries show a slight decline in occupational fatalities.

The malingering global economy has created, in many workplaces, a pervasive climate of fear. Fear can undermine worker safety in many ways. But unless we understand the nature and origins of this fear, we can never implement effective countermeasures.