Unsafe shortcuts lead to worker deaths, how to liven up safety trainings and the feds limit opioid prescriptions for injured workers. These were among the top occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Under pressure from worker safety advocates, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has decided to return to a policy of including the names of deceased workers in its investigative reports. The CSB, an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical incidents, has included names of fatally injured workers in its reports since 2014. The agency changed its policy in June with the release of two reports on fatal incidents.

A spate of recent struck-by accidents in Texas, Indiana and Florida have left three workers dead – and OSHA investigators busy. In Robertson County, Texas, an employee at a used auto parts business died when a vehicle fell on him. OSHA is investigating the incident at Abco Auto Parts, which claimed the life of 43-year-old Carmelo Aguirre-Ortega on August 19th.

According to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a high number of American workers were seriously injured or died on the job due to traumatic brain injuries. The study found that construction workers sustain more traumatic brain injuries than workers at any other type of workplace in the United States. Between 2003 to 2010, more than 2,200 construction workers died due to a traumatic brain injury.

Oregon OSHA has launched a free online course to help employers and workers across the state meet the agency’s requirements to eliminate fall hazards, prevent falls, and ensure that workers who do fall do not die. The two-hour course, “Fundamentals of Fall Protection,” includes six parts with 28 videos and is designed to supplement employers’ fall protection training programs.

An effort currently underway - timed to coincide with Construction Safety Week - is aimed at preventing fatalities and injuries from dropped objects. Through its 2019 Safety at Heights campaign, the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) The campaign is providing employers and workers educational information at SafetyAtHeights.org.

Strains, cuts and slip and falls are the top causes of injuries in Colorado’s cannabis industry, according to Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer. Pinnacol recently released an analysis of the cannabis industry’s most common occupational injury trends in Colorado.

On January 14, 2016, a 22-year-old male laborer/carpenter (victim) employed by a residential contractor was fatally injured after falling from a single family house under construction. While on the top plate of a studded exterior second story wall, the victim lost his balance and fell approximately 24 feet to the frozen ground below. The fall was not witnessed by any of the co-workers onsite, but the site foreman heard a noise and while trying to determine what the noise was he found the victim on the ground.

Three New York City construction workers died last week at three different worksites – two as the result of struck-by incidents. In Brooklyn, news sources report that 34 year-old Gregory Echevarria was killed when part of a crane he was helping to assemble fell on him. The incident occurred at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday at the entrance to the Holland tunnel, when a 7.5 ton counterweight fell on Echevarria.

A more robust system of reporting workplace falls, overseen by a new independent body and a major review of work at height to consider the introduction of tough financial penalties for safety breaches, are just two of the key findings of a UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), led by Alison Thewliss MP.