Occupational Safety - Articles - Page 221

Casella launches NoiseSafe software

Instant noise exposure reporting protects employees from hearing damage

April 18, 2019

Casella, a leading provider of air sampling, noise and vibration monitoring solutions, announced today its new advanced software package, NoiseSafe. NoiseSafe is designed for use with Casella’s personal dosimeter, the dBadge2, which captures noise exposure in a single measurement and provides subsequent download and analysis.

Creating the right climate for safety

Leaders need to show their competency, and their caring for co-workers

David Sarkus MS, CSP

April 18, 2019

During my college summer breaks, I worked at a few different high-risk construction sites. On one job, I had a boss who liked to holler and was not very well liked. He was known as Hog Jaws and I’ve mentioned him previously.

After deadly week, NYC worker advocates demand better safety training

April 17, 2019

A coalition of New York City labor organizations is holding a protest today about safety training inadequacies in the city, particularly for immigrant workers. The protest comes on the heels of a particularly deadly week in the city’s construction industry, which saw three immigrant workers killed in incidents at three different worksites.

Speech at AIHce:

Small farmers in U.S. dying in large numbers

April 17, 2019

In rural America, where agricultural workers are dying at rates higher than those of coal miners, farmers often take risks that are no longer tolerated in other work environments. But in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, virtually no one is protecting small farmers. Safety programs have been dismantled, funding has disappeared and in most states rules prevent inspectors from visiting farms with fewer than 11 workers — which is where most of the fatal accidents are happening.

Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

NIH study suggests our brains may use short rest periods to strengthen memories

April 16, 2019

In a study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers found that our brains may solidify the memories of new skills we just practiced a few seconds earlier by taking a short rest. The results highlight the critically important role rest may play in learning. “Everyone thinks you need to ‘practice, practice, practice’ when learning something new. Instead, we found that resting, early and often, may be just as critical to learning as practice,” said Leonardo G. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D.

International Glove Association announces new leadership

April 16, 2019

The International Glove Association (IGA) is pleased to announce that glove expert Matt Piotrowski has been named president of the association, effective March 17, 2019. Matt is a Product Manager for Showa Group, one of the world's leading producers of hand protection products. Known globally as pioneers and innovators in the glove industry, Showa is solely focused on the start-to-finish manufacturing of household and industrial hand protection.

Falls cost lost workdays and billions of dollars

April 16, 2019

Based on 2014 published data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 261,930 private industry and state and local government workers missed one or more days of work due to injuries from falls on the same level or to lower levels1, and 798 workers died from such falls2. The construction industry experienced the highest frequency of fall-related deaths, while the highest counts of nonfatal fall injuries continue to be associated with the health services and the wholesale and retail industries.

Mass. laborer dies in fall from a home under construction

April 16, 2019

On January 14, 2016, a 22-year-old male laborer/carpenter (victim) employed by a residential contractor was fatally injured after falling from a single family house under construction. While on the top plate of a studded exterior second story wall, the victim lost his balance and fell approximately 24 feet to the frozen ground below. The fall was not witnessed by any of the co-workers onsite, but the site foreman heard a noise and while trying to determine what the noise was he found the victim on the ground.

Myths and facts about falls in residential construction

April 16, 2019

Myth 1: Residential contractors don’t get injured as badly as commercial construction workers. FACT: Half of all construction workers who have fallen to their death in Massachusetts worked in residential construction. A 30-year-old roofer was rolling tar paper on a new pitch roof of a 2-story Cape when he backed off the edge. He fell 24 feet to his death, and left behind a wife and children. Myth 2: You have to fall a long distance to kill yourself.

What is the National Safety Stand-Down?

April 16, 2019

The 6th annual National Safety Stand-Down to prevent falls takes place the week of May 6-10, 2019. The Stand-Down was conceived by OSHA in 2014 as part of the National Falls Campaign to raise awareness surrounding the severity of fall hazards in construction and the importance of preventing them. In a construction setting, the term “safety stand-down” is used to describe a wide variety of activities where normal work is paused and the entire site focuses on a particular safety issue.