In 2017, OSHA issued 2,877 citations for missing or inadequate lockout/tagout compliance, making this one of the top 5 industrial safety violations of the year. Lockout/tagout procedures are required to protect workers from hazardous energy. When lockout/tagout procedures are missing or inadequate, hazardous energy releases can lead to severe injury and death. Here’s what you…
Parents all over the United States have a fresh reason to worry about back to school season this year, as news spread that asbestos had been found in some brands of children’s crayons. But is the news true? And if it is, is it really a reason to worry? Here’s what everybody needs to know….
Every year, proper respiratory protection prevents hundreds of lung-related deaths and thousands of lung-related illnesses, including cancer, asthma, COPD, and many others. About 5 million U.S. workers in 1.3 million workplaces are required to wear respirators on the job, to protect them from insufficient oxygen, harmful dusts, fogs, smokes, mists, vapors, and sprays, as well…
More than a million workers go to the emergency room with hand lacerations every year, while another 300,000 arrive with work-related eye injuries. In most cases, these injuries would have been completely preventable with proper safety processes and personal protective equipment (PPE) in place. Here’s what you need to know to ensure your employees are…
When it comes to worker safety, few things are as important as proper personal protective equipment, or PPE. Gloves, ear plugs, goggles, hard hats, and respirators are all examples of PPE that can make the difference between an accident-free day and a worker’s comp claim. To understand just how big a difference it can make,…
In 2016, more than 5,000 workers were killed on the job. More than 20% of those were in construction, while the remaining 80% were in general industry, manufacturing, and other environments. Since its inception in the 1970s, OSHA has been responsible for substantially decreasing the number of workers injured and killed on the job annually….
Twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise at work each year. Every year, an estimated $242 million is spent on workers’ compensation for hearing loss. On top of that, businesses in the U.S. annually pay more than $1.5 million in penalties for not protecting their workers from noise. These financial losses represent an…
As we head into the new year, we like to look back to see which of our posts you enjoyed in the previous year, so we can bring you more of what you want. We thought it would be fun for you to see which of our posts were the most popular in 2017. Based…
An exposure assessment is a necessary and important tool for ensuring the health and safety of your workers. But many employers don’t understand exactly what it is, why they need it, or how to do it right. Here’s what you need to know. Definition: An exposure assessment evaluates the nature and magnitude of exposures to…
Hazard Communication Plans (HCPs) are a required, and often overlooked, element of any company’s workplace health and safety plan. Failure to communicate hazards appropriately has steep costs in terms of worker health, both in the short and the long term. Yet in the past year, OSHA has issued more than 5,000 citations for violations of…
