For our returning US workforce, recognizing employees’ personal comfort on the job has never been more significant — especially for at-risk employees.

The potential for catastrophic injury when operating a hydraulic press is great. Its operation requires a worker to feed, position and remove stock in the area under the powerful ram or near the bending point, exposing him or herself directly to danger.

OSHA has cited Milwaukee Valve Company Inc. – based in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin – for exposing employees to lead and copper dust at rates higher than the permissible exposure levels. The agency has proposed $171,628 in penalties to the industrial valve manufacturing company.

A new report from USA Today on Tesla’s “gargantuan” four-year-old battery factory in Nevada finds that worker injuries at the Gigafactory occur “on a routine basis: at least three a month.” OSHA inspectors were on-site more than 90 times in the facility’s first three years of operation.

Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. of Steeleville, Illinois has been cited by OSHA for six safety violations including three willful after two maintenance employees conducting welding operations sustained serious burns to their upper bodies as the result of an explosion within a dust collector at the company's pasta manufacturing plant on Oct. 6, 2011. The incident occurred as the two employees were repairing a hole in the side of a metal trough.

It was déjà vu all over again for Choice Products USA LLC. Back in 2016, the Eau Claire, Wisconsin cookie dough manufacturer had been cited by OSHA for a number of machine hazards that potentially exposed workers to hazardous energy. During their latest inspection, OSHA found similar machine hazards, along with a host of others.

Automated equipment has transformed industrial production over the last 30 years and has been instrumental in accelerating production and efficiency in the sectors of manufacturing, construction and machining. This dynamic shift from human workers has resulted in the relegation of repetitive and labor-intensive tasks to machines while simultaneously freeing up humans to conduct higher level tasks. As industries begin to rely more heavily on automation, the general viewpoint is that increased automation is beneficial from both a productivity and safety perspective.

Injuries to two employees in two separate incidents have resulted in OSHA citations against a Mobile, Alabama packaging manufacturer. One of the workers at the ProAmpac facility suffered a severe hand injury after being caught in a piece of equipment. Another employee sustained a finger laceration when struck by moving machine parts.

How do manufacturing companies know the best and safest way to design workplaces and assign tasks? Ideally, injuries and illnesses should be prevented, but historically companies have adjusted their workplace policies, practices and procedures after an injury or illness occurred. In a NIOSH-supported study at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health, researchers tested the role of computer simulation in promoting workers’ well-being by designing safer work.