As repercussions from the fatal Texas fertilizer plant continue to reverberate, a factory collapse in Bangladesh kills hundreds and a fuel barge explosion in Alabama critically burns three workers. Here are the week's top OEHS-related stories as featured on www.ISHN.com:
Americans drive while talking on a cellphone or texting more than their counterparts in seven European countries. A report showed that 69% of American drivers surveyed said they had talked on a cellphone while driving at least once in the previous month (31% said they did it “regularly or fairly often”), and 31% said they had read or sent text messages while driving.
Drivers, passengers more likely to die than construction workers
April 16, 2013
Thirty-eight percent of highway contractors had motor vehicles crash into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).
May is Oregon’s Transportation Safety Month and May 5 is Occupational Safety and Health Professional (OSHP) day, according to a press release issued by the American Society of Safety Engineers. Local corporate, state, trucking and safety officials will discuss the numbers - how motor vehicle crashes cost employers 60 billion dollars every year in medical care, legal expenses, property damages, lost productivity and more. Overall, transportation crashes cost the country $170 billion a year. As transportation crashes continue to be the number one cause of on-the-job deaths, officials will discuss the tangible and intangible costs resulting from crashes, and what can and is being done to prevent them.