Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Protecting workers from the heat is a critical issue during the hot months of July and August—so critical that OSHA is ramping up its awareness and enforcement efforts around heat illness prevention this year. Ideally, employers are supposed to prevent workers from suffering heat illness in the first place, but what happens after a worker […]
In October 2014, OSHA reinspected Wood Fibers, Inc., a wood pellet manufacturing facility in Niagara, Wisconsin, for the fifth time in 3 years. The employer had been cited for serious hazards in 2012, but late last year, conditions had not improved much. Wood Fibers was cited for four repeat and eight serious violations, including serious […]
In early February, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slapped Ashley Furniture Industries with nearly $1.8 million in proposed fines for repeat and willful violations. The furniture manufacturer stands accused of exposing workers to amputation hazards, electrical violations, training deficiencies, and other violations at its Arcadia, Wisconsin, manufacturing facility that led to more than […]
by Dan Hannan, CSP An employer that only focuses on preventing workplace accidents is missing a large exposure. It’s a hard reality that the frequency of off-the-job injuries and fatalities exceed those occurring in the workplace many times over. Even though he’s not “on the job” when an employee makes home roof repairs , fails […]
If you’ve ever had a cold, you know that terrible misery can come in microscopic packages. What you may not realize is that infectious biological agents like influenza and the cold virus are not the only extremely tiny hazards workers may face. Particles that fall into the “billionths of a meter” size—nanomaterials—may also be affecting […]
Yesterday, we looked at substances that can cause or aggravate asthma that are often found in the work environment—both where they are being manufactured and also at the point of use. We also identified some industries in which exposure to asthmagens—asthma-causing chemicals—might be of greatest concern. Today, we’ll look at strategies employers can use to […]
Every day in America, 30,000 people suffer an asthma attack. Five thousand of them go to the emergency room, 1,000 are admitted to the hospital—and 11 will die. Although those numbers include asthma sufferers of all ages—children are especially susceptible to asthma-causing chemicals—a significant number are workers. As many as 15 percent of adults develop […]
Methylene chloride (also called dichloromethane) is a solvent with many uses, including paint stripping, polyurethane foam manufacturing, and cleaning and degreasing. You might not think that a chemical you can buy at your local home improvement store for use at home would be all that dangerous, but don’t be fooled. Methylene chloride is hazardous enough […]
Today’s Advisor provides an inspirational example of the positive difference professional trainers can make on future generations in their communities and their industries.
Safety is serious business. So why has OSHA created a game about workplace hazards?