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 [...]

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 [...]

Ever since man picked up a rock more than 2 million years ago and used it break apart wood, bone and other objects the hammer was destined to become an integral tool in the construction of human society. Yet despite more than 2 million years of experience using hammering devices, mankind still suffers from hammer [...]

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 [...]

The United States Department of Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) recently released a white paper affirming their belief that requiring all employers to maintain an Injury Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) will lead to both a decrease in occupational injuries and death and a cost savings for employers. To substantiate these claims the paper pulls from [...]

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 [...]