Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
According to the National Safety Council, more than 35,000 Americans die each year in traffic crashes. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that aggressive driving is a factor in more than half of all fatal crashes—and one type of aggressive driving, speeding, is involved in more than 30 percent of fatal crashes, according to […]
OSHA first proposed a confined spaces rule for the construction industry in 1980—but only finalized its confined spaces in construction rule on May 1, 2015. In the interim, OSHA issued a rule covering confined space entry in general industry (1993) and the shipyard industry (1994). But the new confined space in construction rule does not […]
Some spaces are not designed for continuous human occupancy. Manholes, crawl spaces, tanks, and other confined spaces can be difficult to get into and even more difficult to get out of. Once inside these spaces, workers may face life-threatening hazards that include toxic substances, electrocutions, explosions, and asphyxiation. For more than twenty years, employers have […]
Healthcare workers aren’t the only workers at risk from infectious diseases on the job. Outdoor workers must also be aware of potentially infectious pathogens—as one Kansas farmer discovered too late, in spring 2014, after he picked up a deadly tickborne disease that was later found to be a previously unknown virus. Here are some infectious […]
After a large-scale disaster, workers often work longer shifts and more consecutive shifts than they would typically work. The fatigue and stress that may arise from strenuous work schedules can be compounded by the physical and environmental conditions in the affected area after a disaster: nonexistent, damaged, or limited critical infrastructure (roads/traffic signals, utility lines, […]
In March 2015, OSHA cited Dollar General Corp. for four repeated safety violations found in a December 2014 inspection of a Dollar General store in Atlanta, GA. Dollar General stores have been inspected more than 70 times since 2009—and many of those inspections have identified the same hazards over and over again. The most recent […]
One section of the OSH Act that seems to bewilder employers and employees alike is Section 5, known as the General Duty Clause (GDC). It’s very brief, but it has considerable significance among OSHA’s means of enforcing compliance—and, for that matter, can be useful to employees seeking relief from what they consider unsafe work. The […]
Sometimes, two heads are better than one. It ought to be that way with temporary workers, who have essentially two employers, both of whom are supposed to be looking out for their safety. But in practice, miscommunication and poorly defined responsibilities lead to gaps in worker training, hazard identification, and supervision that have served to […]
Today’s Advisor reports on OSHA’s new safety and health training program for the public sector. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) jurisdiction doesn’t extend to the public sector, but that doesn’t mean the agency is neglecting the safety and health of state and local government employees. Late in 2013, OSHA launched a new certificate […]
The earliest recorded disaster involving ammonium nitrate (AN) occurred on April 16, 1947, in Texas City, Texas. A transport vessel loaded with 2,600 tons of AN caught fire; when the fire spread to the sealed storage hold, the transport exploded, killing 581 people—including all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department. We’ve known […]