Category: Injuries and Illness

Modern safety management goes beyond covering traditional workplace accidents to now being equally concerned with illnesses caused on and even off the job. This section will explain what you need to know to avoid both injuries and illnesses, and to track your progress in reaching this goal.

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A Simple Approach to Computing Incident Rates and Severity

Computing accident incidence rates and severity can help analyze and correct conditions that cause accidents. A simple formula for calculating accident incidence (frequency) is to: Take the total number of recordable incidents for the year from your OSHA 300. Multiply that number by 200,000, which represents the number of hours worked by 100 full-time employees, […]

I2P2 Is on OSHA’s Radar—Is It on Yours?

OSHA, gearing up for a proposed rulemaking on I2P2, is presenting its case to employers and the public. "Injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) are good for workers, good for business, and good for America." OSHA administrator David Michaels made this statement in support of a plan that would require employers to develop written safety […]

The Risk of MSDs from Tasks That Add No Value to the Product

Yesterday, we looked at the potential ergonomic pitfalls of lean manufacturing. Today, we look at the flip side: “non-value-added tasks.” What if you could reduce your manufacturing costs, improve productivity, and prevent ergonomic injuries all at once? Sound too good to be true? It may not be, according to Chris Shulenberger, Certified Professional Ergonomist with […]

Lean Manufacturing: When More Efficiency Leads to Aching Backs

“Don’t let your lean manufacturing become anorexic,” says Certified Professional Ergonomist Chris Shulenberger, M.S. Engr., and Technical Director for Ergonomics with Bureau Veritas North America. If you do, you’ll pay the price. Over the last decade, many manufacturers have embraced “lean manufacturing,” a strategy to eliminate wasted time, motion, and storage by streamlining production, altering […]

Hearing Loss: A Bigger Safety Problem Than You Might Think

According to NIOSH, 4 million workers go to work each day in damaging noise. Ten million people in the U.S. have a noise-related hearing loss. Twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise each year. Because of these statistics, NIOSH recommends that all worker exposures to noise should be controlled below a level equivalent […]

Hearing Loss Prevention: Monitoring and Testing Requirements

The OSHA noise exposure standards says that if any employee’s exposure equals or exceeds an 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 decibels (dB), which is the  “action level,” you must develop and implement a noise monitoring program. The audiometric sampling strategy for the monitoring program should be designed to identify affected employees and enable proper selection […]

NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations: Part 2

Yesterday, we began a review if NIOSH health hazard evaluations. Today, we conclude with more questions and answers. What protections are provided for employees who participate in HHE investigations? Confidentiality. If desired and noted on the HHE request form, NIOSH will not reveal to the employer the names of the persons who made the request. […]

NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations: What Are They All About?

Usually, you’re well aware of workplace health hazards. But sometimes, conditions may not be obvious or the extent of the hazard known. That’s when a NIOSH health hazard evaluation might be just the thing. Q. What is a health hazard evaluation? A health hazard evaluation (HHE) is a study of a workplace. It is done […]

New White Paper Touts Leading Indicators

Find out how to use leading indicators to improve safety performance and prevent accidents and injuries. Metrics like OSHA recordable injuries and workers’ comp expenses—known as trailing or lagging indicators—tell you what happened and how much it cost. But they don’t indicate how well you’re doing at preventing accidents. A new white paper tells safety […]

Accident Prevention Through Design

Save money and prevent workplace injuries right from the drawing board—that’s the principle behind “Prevention Through Design.” When OSHA first implemented the lockout/tagout standard in 1989, employers protested that compliance would be difficult and require extensive retrofitting because many pieces of industrial equipment had hazardous energy sources that were not “capable of being locked out.” […]