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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 -
December 13, 2023Clear Vision: Safeguarding Construction Workers' Eyes on the Job
A third of occupational eye injuries require trips to the emergency room, and at least 100 result in one or more days away from work.
Each year, more than 2,000 workers suffer eye injuries in the workplace that require medical treatment, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). A third of all reported occupational eye injuries require trips to the emergency room, and at least 100 of these incidents result in one or more days away from work.
One of the most at-risk groups of workers is those within the construction and labor trade industries. With this being a common and serious injury on construction sites, it’s important for both employers and workers to come together to mitigate risks and know what steps to take should an accident occur.
Types of Eye Injuries on Construction -
December 13, 2023OSHA said modern safety helmets can offer employees better protection while doing inspections.
On December 11, OSHA announced that the agency is replacing traditional hard hats used by its employees with more modern safety helmets to protect them better when they are on inspection sites.
In 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports head injuries accounted for nearly 6 % of non-fatal occupational injuries involving days away from work.
Almost half of those injuries occurred when workers came in contact with an object or equipment while about 20% were caused by slips, trips and falls.
Dating back to the 1960s, traditional hard hats protect the top of a worker’s head but have minimal side impact protection and also lack chin straps. Without the straps, tradition hard hats can fall off a worker’s head if they slip or trip, leaving -
December 13, 2023The Biggest Challenges for Safety Leaders, Revealed
A look at what motivates, frustrates and challenges safety professionals.
Start Slideshow
What slows you down at work? What gets in the way of you being the best-version-of-your-leadership-self? What prevents you from achieving all your goals in any given day?
In other words, what are your biggest challenges as a safety professional?
This past year has been a challenging one, particularly for those whose jobs are to ensure the health and safety of others. And if it seems like the world is just getting more dangerous and confusing with every passing day, it’s not just you—that seems to be one of the after-effects of the pandemic. A lingering sense of “what’s going to happen next?” has become a prevalent mood within the workplace, making it all the harder to keep workers motivated. -
December 05, 2023
OSHA Violations, Citations and Inspections: What You’re Reading in November 2023
A look at the month’s most poplar stories as determined by you.
Nicole Stempak
What a busy month November has been! It’s flown by for me but also feels like a mish mash of annual events. First, there was the post-Halloween sugar rush, then Thanksgiving, then shopping deals and now the first major snowfall of the season.
Throw in some unexpected car issues that threatened Thanksgiving travel, a fridge that wouldn’t cool, an annual eye exam and a girls night out to see “Mean Girls” the musical, and that about sums my past few weeks.
I’m probably sharing too much, but sometimes it’s nice to remind yourself (and others), that you’re a human who has a whole different life outside of work. It’s impossible to compartmentalize -
December 05, 2023Safety Leadership Resides in Every Employee’s Hands
Creating systems which embed safety responsibility into the fabric of every job is the path to safety excellence.
A key characteristic that distinguishes our America’s Safest Companies (ASC) winners is the core value that responsibility for a safe workplace sits squarely on the shoulders of every single person in the company.
When everyone in the organization is able to not only speak up when identifying a risk but also to take action, disasters are avoided.
Therefore, the opposite is true—when the sum part of a company’s workforce refuses to see or act upon risks, catastrophes can happen.
A very recent example of that is the situation that occurred on the island of Maui. As the initial shock of the hurricane and wildfires wears off, officials are still trying to piece
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