Occupational Safety

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One fatality is too many, but there’s good news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the U.S. workplace fatality rate set a record low in 2013, dropping to 3.3 deaths for every 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

A 31-year-old assembly technician had only been working for a battery charger manufacturer for about a month when he was killed on the job.

A pair of OSHA inspectors had just finished a workplace inspection and were heading back to their Providence, Rhode Island office when they caught sight of a dangerous situation at another site.

On International Workers’ Day, the Berkeley, CA-based health publisher Hesperian is celebrating by releasing a one-of-a-kind resource on workers’ health and safety. More than a decade in the making and drawing on the experiences of workers and health educators from every continent, this book aims to provide essential information to workers themselves, those who are the best placed and the most highly motivated to prevent the devastating factory disasters that all too often dominate the news.

Although construction accounts for less than four percent of the jobs in New York City, it represents 20 percent of the on-the-job deaths, according to a report released yesterday by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health (NYCOSH).

As it enters its second week, OSHA’s effort to prevent falls in the construction industry is causing work stoppages around the globe.

California is the only state with a law governing minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. The ratios vary depending on the type of hospital service but are in the range of one nurse for every five patients. (The ratios are available on the California Department of Public Health website.) The law went into effect in 2004.

The global diving industry’s frequency of diver fatalities, injuries, incidents, and asset damage occurring while using underwater oxy-arc cutting continues to be “unacceptably high,” according to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP).

Less than two weeks after Olympic medalist Bruce Jenner got the nation talking about the transgender topic by revealing his own ongoing transition from male to female, OSHA has taken a step to improve workplace safety and health for transgender workers.

A “champion” is commonly defined as the victor of a competition or challenge. A less common usage of the word “champion,” one that has particular resonance for us at NIOSH, is the meaning that denotes an early advocate for an innovative cause or idea.