The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) has issued recommendations regarding all-terrain vehicle (ATV) safety after discovered a disturbing trend in fatalities. Between 1982 and 2016, the state recorded a total of 675 ATV-related deaths, or 19 per year on average. This trend led the state to rank 5th in the nation during the …
Category: Miscellaneous
Choosing a Hard Hat? Use Your Head
You’re an industrial safety professional. You encourage using the right PPE. You know the value of protecting workers from injury — head to toe. Think about this for a minute: the head is about one-seventh of a body’s total height, but it’s the nerve center for everything done on the job site. Your eyes, your …
Are You Missing Dangers Right Before Your Eyes?
One split second is all it takes for a life to be changed forever or taken away by a workplace accident. Each year, close to 9,000 people are killed on the job across the U.S. and Europe; no doubt all these workplaces had safety protocols in place, but clearly more could have been done to …
Cyber Safety: How to Prepare for Ransomware Attacks
Norsk Hydro, a multinational manufacturer headquartered in Norway and one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, reported last week that it was hit by a ransomware that affected its production and IT systems. The LockerGoga ransomware infected multiple systems across the organization and impacted operations across multiple areas. As this is a relatively new incident, …
Company fined $1.3M, named Severe Violator for variety of willful, serious violations
OSHA fined an Ohio metal heat treatment company more than $1 million for a variety of willful and serious violations and placed it in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program. Inspectors found that the company exposed employees to atmospheric, thermal, electrical and mechanical hazards as they performed maintenance inside heat-treating furnaces. Fine: $1,326,367 Company: Dowa THT …
Study: This training improves hazard recognition by workers
Workers who are trained on the concept of “visual literacy” are able to spot workplace hazards that might go unnoticed, according to a study by The Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council. Visual literacy is the ability to recognize and understand ideas conveyed through visible actions or images. The Campbell Institute wanted to find …
Lawmakers urge secretary of labor to reverse rollback of OSHA electronic recordkeeping rule
Washington — Nearly three dozen House Democrats say they are “deeply concerned” that OSHA’s rollback of its electronic recordkeeping rule “endangers worker protections and undermines hard-fought gains,” and are urging Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta to rescind the rule. “Until 2016 – when the rule was enacted – most workplace injury records were difficult …
Construction company owner faces jail time for allegedly lying to OSHA
What makes OSHA go directly after company owners and executives? Lying to the agency is definitely one reason. We’ve noted it before: The difference between facing civil OSHA penalties and criminal charges against company owners or executives is often an accusation of lying about the events surrounding employee injuries or death. That’s the situation once …
Working at Heights: Why the Risks of Occupational Accidents Still Fall on Deaf Ears
Falls from heights remain the biggest cause of occupational fatalities in the construction industry. According to a report by the NIOSH Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program, 42% of deaths between 1982 and 2015 in construction involved falls; 54% of workers killed had no access to a personal fall arrest system; and 20% of fatalities …