A worker’s high-profile death at a baseball stadium, workplace violence at a car dealership and not all types of sitting are equally bad for your health. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
A recent spate of construction deaths in the U.S. illustrate the dangers faced by workers in the industry – in a variety of circumstances.
A fall from a highway killed a worker in Harris County, Texas June 21. News reports say the man, a subcontractor with Choctaw Construction who was from Mexico, fell to his death at the Highway 288 expansion project being developed by Blue Ridge Transportation.
OSHA has cited Woodgrain Millwork Co. – operating as Woodgrain Distribution Inc. – for exposing employees to chemical and struck-by hazards at the company’s distribution facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The company faces $125,466 in penalties.
The agency cited the wood molding, window, and door distributor for failing to provide employees with eye, face, and hand protection to prevent exposure to chemical injuries, and provide a functioning eyewash station for employees handling corrosive chemicals.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s decision to reverse a policy of including the names of workers killed in the incidents it investigates is drawing fire from safety advocates. In a letter to the CSB, more than fifty organizations and individuals demand that the agency reinstate its policy of naming the fatally injured workers in its reports – something it had previously done since 2014. The CSB stopped the practice recently because doing so “may infer culpability on the part of the entity responsible for the operation of the facility where the incident occurred,” according to a spokesperson.
The Trump administration’s efforts to weaken a mining safety rule was reversed last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A three-judge panel ruled that allowing mine operators flexibility in when they can conduct inspections of mines for hazardous conditions would violate the Mine Act’s no-less-protection standard.
Fall prevention devices to make your facility safer and gloves that grip well while providing protection from impact were this week’s top products of the week, featured on ISHN.com.
Automated equipment has transformed industrial production over the last 30 years and has been instrumental in accelerating production and efficiency in the sectors of manufacturing, construction and machining. This dynamic shift from human workers has resulted in the relegation of repetitive and labor-intensive tasks to machines while simultaneously freeing up humans to conduct higher level tasks. As industries begin to rely more heavily on automation, the general viewpoint is that increased automation is beneficial from both a productivity and safety perspective.
Food services operations where workers received free highly slip-resistant shoes showed a large reduction in workers’ compensation claims for slip injuries compared to food service operations where workers did not receive the shoes, according to research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.
For the 5th time, Ergodyne has been named the Best Place to Work by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Moving up this year into the Medium-sized company (50-250 Minnesota employees) group of honorees, Ergodyne is one of 15 companies honored in this category.
It’s National Forklift Safety Day, designated as such by The Industrial Truck Association (ITA), which uses it as an opportunity for the industry to educate customers, policymakers, and government officials about the safe use of forklifts and the importance of proper operator training.
