Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
Free Special REport: Does Your PPE Program Meet OSHA’s Requirements?
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.” […]
If your workers must reach, lift and carry, bend, or twist their bodies or perform other activities that place them in a nonneutral posture, their shoulders may be at risk. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint and is, in fact, the most mobile joint in the body, allowing 230 degrees of motion vertically and enabling […]
Back injuries are among the most common workplace injuries and also among the most common MSDs. Make sure your employees know about these strategies for preventing back injury and pain. Although they may not be as dramatic as fatal accidents or amputation incidents, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can be extremely painful for employees, as well as […]
Do your employees walk around your facility, or down the street, with their faces buried in their mobile phones? Even if they’re on company business, this is just not a good idea, according to Professor Jack Nusar of The Ohio State University who warns of the dangers of what’s being called “distracted walking.” Nusar’s research […]
A cargo handler at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey was towing a metal airplane tail stand—a metal frame used to support the tail of an aircraft when it is being loaded and unloaded—when the tail stand’s central stabilizer, or support, caught on the raised lip of a manhole cover, destabilizing it. The stabilizer […]
The equipment that’s at the heart of many operations may also be at the heart of safety problems—especially amputation hazards. Amputations are among the most severe and disabling workplace injuries. According to some estimates, the number of annual job-related amputations is about 5,000. That’s an average of almost 14 a day—and that’s a lot. According […]
Today, we offer recommendations for combating heat stress for both employers and employees. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that employers take the following steps to protect workers from heat stress: Schedule maintenance and repair jobs in hot areas for cooler months. Schedule hot jobs for the cooler part of the day. […]