Category: Injuries and Illness

Ouch — those repetitive stress injuries hurt, not only the worker, but the corporate pocketbook as well. A typical employer can pay between $35,000 to $75,000 for a single carpal tunnel case. If surgery doesn’t cure it, the payout can reach $150,000 to $200,000! Does that mean you need to throw money at the problem […]

Are your first-aid kits at work just dust collectors, stored on a shelf and forgotten? Like any piece of equipment, they need maintenance from time to time. Use this checklist to make sure your first-aid kits will be ready when you need them: Has it been over a year since the first-aid kits were inspected? […]

Shoulders are all too easily injured. And once they are, recovery might be slow, putting a worker out of action and creating production hassles. Here are some tips for preventing these injuries. 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 […]

According to NIOSH, knee injuries are not only painful and debilitating, they’re also costly, averaging more than $13,000 each. Are any of your employees at risk? Prepatellar bursitis, a painful swelling of the fluid sack over the kneecap, is a common work-related injury, especially among those who spend prolonged periods kneeling, squatting, crouching, or working […]

Summer is only a couple of weeks away and the temperatures are rising. Whether your employees get mugged by scorchers on or off the job, they need to know how to prevent health problems caused by high temperatures. To respond to the heat hazards of summer, OSHA advises employers to: Provide heat stress training to […]

Heat can be a real danger for workers during the summer, especially those who work outdoors. Heat illness should be viewed as a serious health problem—one that can even be fatal. For many people, summer heat is uncomfortable. But for some it can be down right dangerous. That’s why OSHA is currently promoting a national […]

Bending, stooping, kneeling, or squatting can put a lot of stress on workers’ backs and lead to costly lost workday injuries. Find out what NIOSH recommends for preventing incidents and injuries The back safety problem and solutions offered here come from NIOSH’s Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Construction Workers. But the same principles apply to many […]

Statistics tell us that 8 out of 10 people experience back problems at some time during their lives. We also know that back injuries affect millions of American workers every year and cost billions. Overexertion is a leading cause of lost-time injuries. And a significant number of workers in most industrial workplaces and construction sites […]

You go up a ladder. You go down a ladder. What’s the big deal? According to safety statistics, at least 100,000 people fall from ladders each year and injure themselves, while 300 will die in falls from ladders. Let’s look at the dangers involved with a ladder. These are based on actual incidents that have […]

Yesterday, we talked about foot protection. Today, we focus on common workplace foot hazards and injuries. The feet are among the hardest working parts of the body. Feet are busy all day long, standing, walking, or climbing. Feet endure hundreds of pounds of pressure while they work, and the heavier a person is the more […]