Maureen Paraventi Articles

Hearing Protection Fit Testing: How NIOSH revolutionized practices

October 1, 2019

When loud noises cannot be reduced or eliminated through engineering controls, workers who are exposed to them must use hearing protection devices (HPDs) to conserve their hearing. This notion is not new, nor is the concept that HPDs require fit-testing to be effective.

OSHA spells out FR protection specifics

Do your workers understand the hazards?

Maureen Paraventi

September 12, 2019

Although many employees typically provide some or all of their own work attire, it is the employer who will be issued a citation if a worker who is exposed to electric arc or flame hazards is not wearing flame-resistant (FR) clothing.

50th anniversary of fatal train crash – and PTC still elusive

Maureen Paraventi

August 20, 2019

If a federal agency can be frustrated, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is frustrated. The NTSB is commemorating a five decades old railroad tragedy today, and pointing out that the safety recommendation it made in the wake of that incident remains largely unadopted, mostly due to Congressional interference. After investigating a 1969 train collision in Darien, Connecticut that killed four people and injured 43 others, the NTSB issued – for the first time - a recommendation related to positive train control (PTC),

Great potential to reduce exposures and injuries, but there are concerns

Smart glasses, safer workers?

Maureen Paraventi

June 4, 2019

Stars in the rapidly evolving field of wearable technology, “smart” glasses allow wearers to perform a myriad of functions while keeping their hands free. Wearers can view information, watch and record videos, summon up GPS directions, make phone calls and send texts – all by using gestures, head motions and voice commands.

How to lower your stroke risk

Maureen Paraventi

June 4, 2019

A billionaire and a famous actor both experienced the same health emergency recently – one that surprised many people, given their relatively young ages. One survived, one did not. The two high profile incidents involving Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and actor Luke Perry have drawn renewed attention to the danger of strokes, which strike about 700,000 Americans a year, according to WebMD.

Workplace fatalities sharply lower in states that have legalized medical marijuana

Maureen Paraventi

June 4, 2019

Workplace fatalities have fallen by an average of 19.5 percent in the 29 states and District of Columbia that have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Those surprising results from a study in the International Journal of Drug Policy run counter to post-legalization predictions that marijuana’s effects on motor skills and cognitive function would cause an increase in workplace accidents.

Gunned down at work

Why did a Virginia Beach employee open fire in his workplace?

Maureen Paraventi

June 3, 2019

As the families of the dozen people DeWayne Craddock shot to death on Friday plan their funerals, authorities try to determine what motivated the 40-year-old to bring guns into the Virginia Beach City municipal building and open fire. Eleven of the victims were co-workers of Craddock’s.

OSHA in the age of robotics

Evolving tech may bring changes to 30-year-old LOTO rule

Maureen Paraventi

May 30, 2019

OSHA’s recent call for comments that may be used to help update its Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard highlights an area of growing concern for safety professionals: robotics-human interaction. When the agency’s Control of Hazardous Energy (LOTO) standard was issued in 1989, industrial robots were in use – primarily in manufacturing – but they bore little resemblance to their modern day counterparts. In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, industrial robots were capable of gripping objects, moving them from one point to another and performing assembly tasks.

FAA warns airports about installing drone detectors

Maureen Paraventi

May 15, 2019

Detecting drones near airports is one thing. Taking them out is another, prohibited, thing. That’s the message the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is communicating to U.S. airports who, frustrated by the incursion of drones into their airspace, are or are considering installing devices which could detect the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

Company illegally fired employees after amputation

Co-workers who cooperated with OSHA terminated

Maureen Paraventi

May 9, 2019

Five years of legal wrangling following a workplace amputation – in which retaliation, intrigue and secret photos played a part – ended recently with a decision by a federal jury in Pennsylvania. The jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found that Lloyd Industries Inc. and its owner, William P. Lloyd, unlawfully fired two employees because of their involvement in an OSHA investigation.