PROVIDING flood control, navigation, and electric power to 8.3 million people throughout the southeastern United States requires the 13,000 employees at the Tennessee Valley Authority--the nation's largest public power company--to work at low to moderate heights.
AS many safety managers know, absorbents have long been the first line of defense when dealing with a chemical or oil spill in the workplace. While the Environmental Protection Agency has no management guidelines for the use of specific absorbent materials, safety managers have an obligation to protect their employees from these types of hazards and to protect their companies from the liability that could arise from a spill.
THIS article is intended to help the employer and safety professional to further enhance an existing heat stress prevention strategy. In reading this article, keep in mind that each workplace should have its own custom-designed heat stress prevention program; there is no such thing as a "one size fits all" strategy because every workplace has its unique situations and needs.
HISTORY and good common sense have taught us many things, Most of all, they have taught us the best defense is a good offense. If you are going to prevent violence in the workplace, you must prepare for and be able to identify the symptoms of violence. How perceptive is your program? Can it detect the early signs of potential trouble?
SUCCEEDING in today's business world requires clearer targets and sharper aim than ever before. This new era of business has ushered in vast changes and new challenges. Recession, higher turnover, increased competition, higher costs, and a changing work ethic have created the need for businesses to recapture the attention of employees and recommit them to quality and productivity.
EMERGENCY response workers frequently are required to wear respiratory protection to prevent the inhalation of toxic air contaminants. However, it is known there is a wide range of tolerance to the stresses of work among the working population. An individual's size, age, and fitness are among the conditions that influence the performance of his cardiorespiratory system and ability to perform the heavy work often required in emergency response.
CARLY Simon's hit song "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" is nearly 30 years old, but it certainly describes today's business environment. The constant demands of business--complicated by rising health care costs, an economic recession, layoffs, and an aging workforce--make it difficult to focus on preventable injuries plaguing workers and businesses.
NOISE-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a major occupational problem in the coal mining industry. In large part, even though noise control was specified in the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, this has occurred because the coal mining industry and equipment manufacturers have not placed as much attention on this hazard as they have on dust or roof control. In addition, engineering and administrative controls of noise are difficult to implement in a cost-effective manner.
EACH year, millions of people are injured in the workplace. One of the most difficult tasks facing employers is to identify the hazards associated with the products and equipment used by their employees. Such careful considerations will not only provide a safe work environment for the employee, but protect the employer as well, in that costs associated with workplace injuries (loss of productivity, worker's compensation) and litigation will be minimized.
SUCCESSFUL companies perceive ergonomics as a business process, not a program. They engage workers in the job improvement process and provide the guidance and coaching workers need to be successful.
WITH an estimated 1,000 eye injuries in U.S. workplaces every day, and with many of those injuries resulting from a failure to wear eye protection, obviously we have to do everything we can to get workers to wear safety spectacles and other personal protective equipment (PPE).
INDUSTRIAL accidents tend to occur where work is performed. Therefore, emergency equipment needs to be strategically placed where it can be most efficiently and rapidly used. However, decentralized, and often remote, placement of drench showers and eyewashes generates difficult challenges for safety and emergency personnel.
AN obvious risk comes with working in any industry that involves handling sharp objects: From glass manufacturing to sheet metal fabrication, construction to warehousing, assembly to repair, cuts and lacerations are bound to occur. It comes with the job, or so it seems. But to safety professionals, that thought is counter-intuitive; all injuries can be prevented.
IN one important sense, trenching and excavation accidents are unlike other construction accidents: The cause of nearly every trenching and excavation accident is a failure to comply with safety regulations and good practices.
THE decision facing most corporate managers is not whether to offer incentives to assist in the attainment of important business and safety objectives. For most of these folks, that's a given--incentives work, and they know it. Thus, the real decision comes down to picking the type of incentive that can produce the biggest bang for the buck.
OSHA's General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. While safety professionals are well-versed in industrial accident prevention, the concept of "intentional accidents" can present things in a different light.