With 126 million receptors in each retina, our eyes are the primary means by which we experience the world. There's simply no way to put a value on our vision and its impact on our day-to-day activities. Unfortunately, the eyes are also the body part most vulnerable to injury in the workplace.More than 2,000 eye injuries occur on the job every day, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Almost 100,000 each year lead to temporary or permanent vision loss.
The simple things employees do every day are what can cause injury, ironically enough. Scalping from someone's hair being wrapped around a shaft or caught in a machine and ripped out is one example. Others are acid or chemical burns, lacerations from bumping into pipes or product being slung at the worker through grinding, and toxic chemical exposures.
There is no single common substance or mistake involved in dust explosions. Dust explosions occur in a wide variety of industries and applications. One common thing that is a major part of the secondary explosions is housekeeping. Typically, there's a process vessel inside a facility that is processing a combustible material. If you have an explosion in an unprotected vessel (the primary explosion), the vessel is destroyed or ruptured and a fireball is released into the larger process area.
OSHA has long required employers to evaluate the workplace for electrical hazards. Most companies are familiar with possible shock hazards and know that OSHA requires all qualified workers be properly trained to work on or near electrical equipment. However, many safety managers are unaware that OSHA also requires so-called unqualified personnel to be trained to recognize and avoid electrical hazards.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts a range of efforts in the areas of research, information, and service. The NIOSH program portfolio focuses on relevance, quality, and impact. This is achieved through strong involvement of partners and stakeholders through the entire research continuum (conceiving, planning, conducting, translating, disseminating, and evaluating). The programmatic and support structures provide a foundation for staff to carry out its mission to provide national and world leadership to prevent work-related illnesses and injuries.
Catalytic Leaders work to perceive what's really going on, rather than stumbling, eyes obscured by outdated information or by their own or others' biases. They don't persist with diminishing return strategies or ignore fixes that may be "different."
The day began like any other for an experienced contractor of 15 years. He left his house at 7 a.m. to perform storage tank maintenance at a local chemical plant. This was a very routine task, one he had performed hundreds of times. As he kissed his wife and two young children goodbye, he anticipated being done early this day and told them that he would see them for dinner. As he backed his car down the driveway, he honked the horn and waved goodbye. Sadly, this was the last time he would ever see his family.
Workplace discussions of respiratory protection frequently focus on required protection. We may ask, "What about comfort? Are you feeling secure and protected in work environments from potential or imagined respiratory hazards?" We want our employees to feel comfortable at work. One problem is when they "feel" better wearing a respirator when there is no real established need or exposure that would require it.
Creating the kind of culture where we go longer periods of time without injuries--and where no injury is acceptable--is a serious undertaking. In the past three articles, we have sketched the characteristics we have observed in organizations that do just this. Notably, the emphasis has been on the role of leaders: taking ownership for the culture, systems, and results; developing an exposure (vs. injury) focus; and rethinking the measurements and metrics that drive safety functioning and shape the assessment of our efforts.
To help ensure that hazardous chemicals are used and handled safety in the workplace, OSHA created the Hazard Communication (HazCom) standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, in 1994. The standard requires employers to create a program to properly handle hazardous chemicals in their workplaces.
Very few individuals, families, companies, hospitals, cities, or even countries are properly prepared to prevent or minimize the human morbidity and mortality, the social disruption, and the economic consequences caused by the results of an H5N1 avian influenza pandemic.
Safety directors at oil refineries today are required to keep up to date with an ever-increasing list of regulations from a number of sources. State and federal regulations govern everything from the maintenance of equipment to training of operators, and new regulations are proposed continuously.
LONG considered the "ugly duckling" of the safety footwear business, the safety toe overshoe developed from the venerable galosh has a new lease on life. To be fair, there have been some pretty ugly ones, and even some that were downright dangerous. However, the "gumshoe" has come a long way since African-American inventor Alvin Longo Rickman first patented an overshoe in 1898.
WHILE many new topics are addressed in the ANSI Z359 family of fall protection standards--which was available for purchase in late August and takes effect Oct. 15--one of the critical concepts presented is certified and non-certified anchorages for fall protection systems.
Recovering from a disaster is never easy, whether it's a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, fire, flood, or thunderstorm. These events have the potential to cause loss of equipment, power failures, non-functioning communication systems, and missing or otherwise preoccupied personnel.
THE night he fell, Gary was working as a line cook at the signature restaurant of a newly opened, 5-star resort hotel. With more than 10 years of experience in restaurants, he had never experienced an injury on the job beyond some occasional cuts and burns--those all minor and mostly when he was learning the ropes. He was glad to have a nice assignment in this prestigious restaurant; the spacious kitchen and gleaming new equipment made for a very pleasant work environment.
EXPOSURE to high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas is a well-documented and understood hazard. OSHA and NIOSH standards have long recognized this acute risk with appropriate short-term maximum exposure levels for workers. However, long-term, chronic exposure to low levels of hydrogen sulfide is not as well understood.