Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
It’s less obvious than a fire hazard. It’s less dramatic than a 40-foot fall. But make no mistake: Job-related stress can pose a hazard to your workers. It can contribute to the development of heart disease, high blood pressure, and back pain; it can distract workers so completely that they commit deadly errors. So, how […]
As part of its Temporary Worker Initiative, OSHA has provided guidance on the responsibilities of temporary-worker staffing agencies and host employers to protect temporary workers under the federal Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) standard (29 CFR 1910.147).
More people are surviving cancer, but cancer is occurring in more people (one factor associated with longer life spans). The most recent data compiled by the National Cancer Institute, which was released in April 2018, show that from 2006 to 2015 cancer death rates decreased by 1.8 percent among men and 1.4 percent among women. […]
Worker participation in industrial chemical accident investigations is a high priority at the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), which recently issued a Board Order Addendum that establishes the CSB’s policy on such participation.
When temperatures drop, people start to head indoors to keep warm. But with close quarters comes a dramatic uptick in communicable disease, including norovirus. While often mistakenly referred to as the “stomach flu,” it is a completely different virus. It is the leading cause of gastroenteritis, and with its rapid onset, norovirus can quickly overwhelm […]
October has been National Protect Your Hearing Month, and our experts at Safety.BLR.com® have been busy answering subscribers’ questions about hearing conservation. We’ve selected a couple for our EHS Daily Advisor readers—where does an office employee fit into a hearing conservation program, and what happens when an employee refuses to take a baseline audiometric test?
Question: I’m attempting to determine if an employee claim of musculoskeletal disorder for both right and left wrists actually was caused by the workplace workstation as claimed by the employee. The condition resulted in medical operations to both wrists. When does this incident become an OSHA recordable injury, and are the days away from work […]
Are you holding off on assessing the risk of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at your facility? Don’t wait until a regulator (or worse, legal action) forces your hand! A “wait and see” approach could result in a potential damage to your brand and investor relations.
In a memo issued October 11, 2018, OSHA’s acting director of Enforcement Programs has provided a regulatory clarification that appears to ensure employers that they have flexibility to test employees for drugs following reporting by the employees of a workplace injury or incident, as long as it contributes to root cause analysis. Drug testing under […]
Can an employer be cited for committing a willful violation of a worker protection standard even if the employer professed ignorance of the standard?