When someone suffers an electrical shock, they actually are – at that moment – part of an electrical circuit. The severity of the injuries they sustain depends on three primary factors: the amount of current flowing through the body (measured in amperes); the path of the current through the body and the length of time the body is in the circuit.
Of course you’re going to hear this at an EHS conference like the AIHce. But like many professions, the EHS ranks have not recovered completely from the sometimes draconian cuts suffered during the Great Recession of 2007-2008.
Just five occupational groups account for 80 percent of all fatal electrical accidents, according to Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI). They are:
How one manufacturing company “wins” at safety; a distracted train engineer causes a crash and the (extra) danger of “silent” heart attacks. These were among the top occupational and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
Over the past two decades, many leading organizations have achieved consistent improvement in injury prevention. On average, US private companies reduced their injury rates by 62% between 1994 and 2014. But those dramatic reductions in injuries haven’t translated into reductions in workplace fatalities, which dropped by just 34% in the same period.
The Industrial Bags business of Mondi in North America is doing something right. Its Salt Lake City plant cut its number of recordable injuries in half, from 6 in 2014 to 3 in 2015 and its Louisville plant is now approaching its third consecutive man-incident free year.
Muskogee (OK) firefighters are poised to obtain new technology from the Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security, which will aid them in detecting unseen hazards. City councilors unanimously approved a $24,500 grant for the fire department to purchase a handheld radiation detector through Homeland Security.
The hotel that is the subject of a complaint filed by some of its housekeeping employees with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) was “quite surprised” to learn of the concerns in the complaint.
The massive wildfire that has forced the evacuation of 90,000 Canadians and burned an area about the size of Houston has taken a toll on the region’s firefighters.
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