Coronavirus: What EHS Professionals Need to Know
Media reports of a respiratory illness caused by a newly discovered coronavirus are pervasive and relentless. How concerned should employers be about infections at your workplace or jobsite?
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.
NIOSH’s Latest Recommendations for Construction IEQ
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released detailed recommendations to help employers maintain acceptable indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and reduce exposures to dusts, gases, and contaminants during construction and renovation projects.
NIOSH Notes a Higher Injury Rate Among Temporary Workers
Temporary workers have a higher overall injury rate than permanent workers in the same occupations, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers found in a study of Ohio workers’ compensation claims.
California Sees Rise in Worker Deaths for 2018
The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) reported that 422 workers in the state died on the job in 2018. The DIR noted that 376 died in 2017 and 2016, 388 in 2015, and 344 in 2014.
BLS Notes an Increase in Workplace Fatalities in 2018
There were 5,250 fatal workplace injuries in the United States in 2018, a 2% increase from 5,147 in 2017, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported December 17 with the release of data from its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).
OSHA Revises National Emphasis Program for Amputations
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revised its National Emphasis Program (NEP) for enforcement related to amputations in manufacturing, the agency announced December 17. The NEP targets employers for enforcement of machine guarding standards to reduce or eliminate amputation hazards.
EPA Will Review EtO Sterilization NESHAP
Following an evaluation of the carcinogenic risks posed by ethylene oxide (EtO), which the EPA released in 2016, and a follow-up National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) for EtO, the EPA has decided that the health risks posed by EtO air emissions are “significantly higher” than previously believed.
ASSP Responds to BLS Fatality Data
The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), the world’s oldest professional safety organization, is urging employers to be more active in adopting voluntary national consensus standards and implementing safety and health management systems in response to newly released fatality data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS reported that 5,250 fatal work […]
NIOSH: Medication Could Prevent Hearing Loss
Medications could one day prevent noise-induced hearing loss, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH researchers recently contributed articles for a special issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America exploring the potential for “otoprotective” pharmaceuticals to protect ears from noise damage.
BLS Says Transportation Occupations Had Most Injuries for 2018
Workers in transportation and material moving suffered more injuries in 2018 than any other occupation, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. The BLS released data on the number, incidence rate, and median days away from work for nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry—broken down by occupation.