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The most pressing issue facing EHS professionals in the new year, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, is an age-old challenge that has been reported in ISHN State of the Nation surveys since the 1980s – dealing with the safety and health attitudes and behaviors of line employees. Consider:

Owners and general contractors currently have no standardized procedure for evaluating potential subcontractors on the basis of their ability to provide a safe work environment for workers. A Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) project scheduled to get underway in 2015 will develop and validate a new publicly available pre-qualification assessment tool for construction projects in order to select and promote safer contractors.

A 25-year-old working on a six-story residential project at Florida State University died after being struck and crushed by a material/personnel elevator carriage not enclosed on all four sides. After an investigation of the July 28, 2014 fatality, OSHA found that Miller's Plumbing and Mechanical Inc. allowed a window-frame opening in a building under construction to be uncovered, thus exposing workers to the hazard of being struck and crushed by the elevator carriage as it passed within inches of the opening.

Preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration indicates that 40 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation’s mines in 2014, two fewer than in the previous year.

A special report in the latest issue of HesaMag, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) periodical on health and safety at work, looks at the main factors that are undermining occupational health services in Europe. First among such factors is a shortage of specialists. The average age of occupational doctors is high, and little new blood is entering the profession.

There’s certainly no lack of challenges facing the EHS profession now and in the coming years, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey. Almost four in ten (39%) of ISHN subscribers say contending with an expanding workload is one of the biggest challenges they face on the job.

New devices to enhance LOTO safety, an explosion proof light on a base stand and a case to protect several Apple products were the OSH-related products featured on ISHN.com this week.

Drug testing for workers in safety sensitive positions, ergonomic injury prevention and a fracking hazard alert were among the week’s EHS-related stories posted on ISHN.com.

Eating one avocado a day as part of a heart healthy, cholesterol-lowering moderate-fat diet can help improve bad cholesterol levels in overweight and obese individuals, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

One factor behind the favorable job satisfaction found in the EHS ranks, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, could come down to the bottom line – salaries. Fifty-five percent of respondents expect “slightly higher” incomes in 2015, and 6% expect “much higher” salaries.