The state of Minnesota is implementing a new set of standards to reduce on job risk for window washers. The standard requires employers whose workers are suspended more than 14-feet above grade to have a comprehensive written safety plan and provide employee training for window-washing and building-maintenance activities. It also addresses and outlines worker safety [...]

Beginning Feb. 1, 2012 employers who are required to keep the OSHA Form 300 Injury and Illness log must post a summary of the log. All industries in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, transportation, utilities and wholesale trade sectors are covered. In the retail and service sec­tors, some industries are partially exempt Also employers with fewer than [...]

We hear a ton of safety myths everyday that have no basis on research or facts. These consist of things that sound great that people say to get our attention. In many instance the people spewing these fantasies may even believe them themselves. However, as safety professionals we can’t live in a fantasy world, we [...]

In a study funded by the National Institute of Safety and Health, public health sciences professor J. Paul Leigh of the University of California, Davis, pegs the cost of work-related injury and illness in 2007 at about $250 billion. That puts the price to of workplace health and safety problems above the economic burden posed [...]

A study of workers compensation claims across 38 states shows the average cost of a fall for roofers and carpenters is more than double the average cost of all other occupational classifications. The OSHA study, which looked at data from 2005-2007, found the average cost of falls from elevation at $106,000 for roofers, $97,000 for [...]

Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials are looking into an explosion at an Edmond, Okla., piping company that injured four on Thursday. The morning explosion sent three of the injured workers to two nearby hospitals. One victim suffered third-degree burns and was sent to an intensive care unit. The other three, one of whom was [...]

Workers’ compensation costs per claim for Louisiana grew at a double-digit rate in recent years, the fastest growth among all states in a new study by Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The 16-state study, CompScope™ Benchmarks for Louisiana, 12th Edition, reported that costs per claim rose 11 percent per year from 2007 to [...]

Along with its final report on three accidents that left five dead and three injured in a Tennessee metals plant, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board called on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to develop and publish a combustible dust standard that includes coverage for metal dusts. The Hoeganaes powdered metal plant in Gallatin, Tennessee [...]

According a study by American researchers nearly 40 percent of police officers in the U.S. and Canada are robbed of sleep, which could lead to occupational injuries or potential risks to public safety. Officers “were more likely to report . . . making errors or committing safety violations due to fatigue; having uncontrolled anger toward [...]

A New Brunswick Walmart and one of its supervisors are facing charges for a breach of safety regulations leading to the death of a 17-year-old employee. The victim, Patrick Desjardin, was electrocuted while using a floor buffing and polishing machine on the wet floor of a garage at the Wal-Mart in Grand Falls, N.B. The [...]