Among the articles in the August 2019 issue of ISHN Magazine, we have expert insight on workplace shooting preparation and response, workplace risk management, the latest in saftey technology, and much more.
Homicide as the cause of death in the workplace has risen from ninth in 2015 to fourth in 2018. OSHA has increasingly invoked the General Duty Clause to require employers to protect workers from workplace violence from bullying to homicides.
Our safety programs, if they exist at all, tend to focus on participation and completion, rather than transformation. To be fair, the chief obstacle stems from a preponderance of wrong assumptions and dangerous misconceptions. Identifying some of these (see below) may help us as safety professionals become more effective in our mission.
Imagine a work setting with all the latest and greatest eye washes and safety showers installed in every area that poses an exposure risk with easy and unobstructed access.
Each year when OSHA reports its most frequently violated standards, the control of hazardous energy, also known as lockout tagout (1910.147) consistently appears high on the list of greatest offenders. In fact, citations for improper lockout tagout procedures ranked fifth on OSHA’s 2018 top 10 most frequently cited standards list, with nearly 3,000 violations.
Telling employees to watch their step isn’t enough to eliminate slip, trip and fall injuries in production areas. Like other safety hazards, slip, trip and fall hazards can be identified and in many cases eliminated.
Operations that produce dust as a byproduct of their processes rely on an industrial dust collection system to provide clean air to the workplace. However, the dust collection system itself could be a source of danger if it isn’t properly equipped and maintained.
Software is radically changing chemical management. But while the growing chemical safety software options available help more businesses keep their workers safe and workplaces compliant, the crowded space also makes it harder for those shopping for a solution to select one that best fits their needs.
In June 2018, OSHA introduced the silica standard so workers exposed to silica-generating tasks would be protected from the hazards of silica and silica dust. Just over a year in, we have seen some companies still failing to comply, others still in the process, and others doing quite well.
Whether managing inventories to ensure that your company is ‘in compliance’ with all applicable laws and regulations, managing onsite chemicals comes with huge environmental, health and safety risks.
Industry 4.0 has arrived, which means machine shop owners and managers of large manufacturing concerns are all looking at their options for bringing about their own transformation. But what functionality does smart factory equipment really offer? And what types of equipment are worth the price of adoption?
At some point in the day, everyone is a pedestrian. While pedestrian fatalities remain high, there was a 1.7% decrease in the number of pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in 2017, totaling 5,977 deaths, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
OSHA has cited Northridge Construction Corp. for willful and serious violations of workplace safety standards at the company's headquarters in East Patchogue, New York. The company faces $224,620 in penalties.
Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge took 14 years—and multiple lives
August 5, 2019
Fourteen tons of fireworks illuminated the New York night on May 24, 1883, to celebrate the completion of one of the greatest engineering feats of the Gilded Age—the Brooklyn Bridge.
Wellbeing in the workplace is increasingly important, with good employee health and happiness increasingly linked to better performance and productivity.
Since 2014, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has set a goal, or more specifically a “vision,” that traffic deaths and injuries on city streets is, in his words, “not acceptable and… serious crashes will no longer (be regarded) as inevitable. We won’t accept this any longer.”
Delegates at the International Labour Conference (ILC) overwhelmingly adopted (439 for, 7 against) on June 21, 2019, the Violence and Harassment Convention and Recommendation. The new convention views occupational safety and health (OSH) as a subset of overall work well-being.
Professional welding can be one of the lucrative and rewarding fields but the welders persistently at risk on the job. Welders are exposed to high temperatures and electrical current for several hours of every day. Therefore, proper safety is a must and finding the best safety equipment is the key.
What is a High Reliability Organization? The work is highly technical and complex, operators require a high level of technical training and certification, and the consequences of error can be catastrophic. Hence, “it has to be done right every time.”
While arc flash is an increasingly well-known phenomena, workers are still suffering injuries on a regular basis. In June 2019, OSHA cited a metal smelting company for electrical hazards after an arc flash caused three workers to suffer severe burns at the ASARCO facility in Hayden, Arizona.
Be careful, pay attention, watch what you’re doing, follow the rules... and you won’t get hurt!” Not exactly the most positive form of communication, is it?