Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Some workers must stand for prolonged periods and may not be free to move around—like doctors and nurses in an operating room or cashiers at a retail store. Others sit for prolonged periods, like office workers or factory workers who stay at a single workstation for their entire shift. Neither is optimal for human health. […]
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly one third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis (TB), which kills almost 1.5 million people per year. In 2013, 9,582 TB cases were reported in the United States, and 383 of those cases were among healthcare workers. On July 13, OSHA updated […]
Tomorrow, July 28, is World Hepatitis Day. According to the World Health Organization, 400 million people worldwide are currently living with hepatitis B and C, and 1.4 million die of these diseases each year. OSHA is taking workplace exposures to bloodborne pathogens seriously. On June 25, the agency issued enforcement guidance for inpatient healthcare settings […]
Bicycle commuting is on the rise, increasing by more than 62% nationwide from 2000 to 2013, according to the League of American Bicyclists. In bicycle-friendly communities, rates have increased more than 100% over that same period. If your workers are going to give bicycle commuting a try this summer, encourage them to stay safe with […]
It could have been the last day of work ever for 51-year-old Anthony Ryecroft. The maintenance fitter, who worked at a steel mill in Cumbria, England, was repairing a roll-up door in his employer’s warehouse when it fell. Ryecroft was struck on the head, and he and a coworker both suffered badly broken legs in […]
Sometimes, you need an electrical cord that bends a little. Maybe it’s because you have to use your power drill or saw in many different locations during the workday. Maybe it’s because a piece of machinery vibrates when it’s operating and you don’t want to transfer that vibration throughout your electrical system. Or, maybe it’s […]
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 […]
Under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., employers have a constitutional right to demand that OSHA obtain a warrant before initiating an inspection. Such a warrant must be based on probable cause—that is, a reasonable basis for the selection of the facility. If OSHA, when faced with a request, fails to […]
Today, many OSHA inspections are triggered by employee complaints. That’s just one of the reasons wise employers should respond promptly to employee concerns and, ideally, resolve them so that a worker doesn’t need to go to OSHA for redress. Here’s how OSHA responds when an employee complains and what conditions can trigger an inspection. Complaint […]
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 […]