Occupational Safety

RSS

Every day on the job a construction worker is killed by a fall and about 40 are seriously injured. You could easily be one of them. All it takes is a slip or trip and down you go.

Employers must set up the work place to prevent employees from falling off of overhead platforms, elevated work stations or into holes in the floor and walls. OSHA requires that fall protection be provided at elevations of four feet in general industry workplaces, five feet in shipyards, six feet in the construction industry and eight feet in longshoring operations.

Chinese authorities said 18 people were killed and another 18 were injured in an accident at a construction site in Dongguan city in the eastern Guandong province in April. The accident occurred after a crane fell on a shed that was sheltering the construction workers due to heavy winds, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

In 2014, 4,821 people were killed on the job, up 5 percent from the 4,585 reported in 2013 and the highest number since 2008, when 5,214 were killed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A machine operator who suffered fatal injuries as he serviced a high-speed conveyor belt in a Ladysmith paper mill in October 2015 might still be alive if his employer had ensured that equipment was powered down and locked out before the 46-year-old man entered the hazardous area.

Over 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) live across the United States. In 2013, approximately 1,319,000 AI/AN workers were employed in the U.S. workforce1,2. AI/AN workers are 42 percent more likely to be employed in a high-risk occupation (defined as an occupation where the injury and illness rate is more than twice the national average) as compared to non-Hispanic Whites.3

OSHA’s silica rule comes under Congressional scrutiny, the FAA OKs a “greener” jet fuel, and an unusually high number of needlestick injuries are found at a New Jersey hospital. These were among the top occupational safety and health related stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) today announced Thomas Kramer, managing principal at LJB Inc., an Ohio-based civil engineering firm, as the 2016 Edgar Monsanto Queeny Safety Professional of the Year for his leadership in helping develop more than 18 fall protection standards.