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January 22, 2024Can Robots Improve Workplace Safety?
NSC found that remote-controlled robots offer high value for confined entry inspections, working from height and hazardous material handling.
While the answer to this question is generally yes, there are drawbacks.
First, let’s look at some recent research from the National Safety Council. In a white paper, Improving Workplace Safety with Robots, the association looked at how robots can reduce the risk of serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). To do this they looked at "automated facility inspections, confined space entry, moving parts and equipment, machine tending, pick and-place, hazardous materials handling, and precision welding and cutting.”
The report reached five key findings:
1. Robots are available in various control configurations – remote-controlled, pre-programmed or autonomous – as well as in various forms – autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), articulated -
January 22, 2024Nanotechnology Guidance from NIOSH
NIOSH is helping employers understand best practices to meet exposure targets.
The NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Cente, which turned 20 this year, notes in its science blog notes tha tthe group's reserach "has led to improved recommendations for controlling exposures during advanced manufacturing processes."
NIOSH was the first U.S. government agency to establish recommended exposure limits (RELs) for engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). In 2011 NIOSH released two RELs for the same chemical based on fine and ultrafine sizes. These were published in Current Intelligence Bulletin 63: Occupational Exposure to Titanium Dioxide. Workplace guidance recommendations were also provided in this Current Intelligence Bulletin.
NIOSH also published two other ENM-related guidance documents:
Current Intelligence Bulletin 65: Occupational Exposure -
January 02, 2024It's time for us to see how workforce wellness equates to positive business outcomes.
There’s more to EHS leadership than simply checking compliance boxes and reducing injuries. Yet, the total health of workers -- including mental health and job satisfaction – continues to fly under business leaders’ radars.
There are major consequences to deprioritizing these aspects of total health – especially regarding productivity, physical safety, and turnover. As a result, leading businesses are taking a “total health” approach to EHS in 2024 to protect employee wellness and reap wider benefits to the entire organization.
Worker Health and Safety – More than Preventing Accidents
The physical dangers of the workplace, and their costs and wider impact on productivity, are well known. In 2021, there were nearly 5,200 workplace fatalities, and -
January 02, 2024New report from ISN shows 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities. over past 6 years.
In a new report from ISN, Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs), an analysis of more than 127,000 recordable incidents from 2017-2022 showed nearly 24,000 SIFs cases.
This incoluded more than 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities.
Over the data’s six-year span, an interesting trend was identified with hospitalization cases. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 resulted in elevated hospitalization cases despite the downturn in work activity; for 2022, however, ISN’s analysis shows a stabilization of cases with statistics that begin to return to pre-pandemic data sets.
In addition, 2022 saw the lowest number of amputation cases in the last six years. Unfortunately, however, the number of fatalities drastically increased.
HIghlights from the report include:
Sprains, Strains and Tears return as No. 1 incident -
January 02, 2024Stress among employees is still high and will have to addressed says Gallup Poll.
In 2023, the relatioinship between employers and employees underwent a change. What does that mean for 2024? A Gallup poll notes that "many organizations are radically retooling the ways they do business, leaving many employees, including managers, stressed and disconnected."
Some of the issues that managers faced in 2023 include.
64% said employees were given additional job responsibilities
51% cited the restructuring of teams
42% reported budget cuts
To addresses these, and other issues, the poll advises that leaders should "consider re-tooling their management strategies to better support the changing needs of their workforce and organizational culture. "
Here are a few of the trends that leaders need to address. (This is an excerpt from
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