Specialty Plastics Company (SPC), in Enid, Oklahoma, is a small company that can boast of a big achievement. Since 2016, SPC has experienced zero recordable workplace injuries. In contrast, for NAICS code 326122, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the industry average total recordable cases rate was 4.1, and the average cases with days away from work, job restriction, or transfer rate was 2.55 for this period. [NOTE: 2017 is the most recent year national averages are available.]
Full article: Weekly meetings, safety corrections help high-hazard company achieve zero injuries
Source: Safety Best Practices
CSB: Workers can help prevent catastrophic chemical incidents
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has issued a new safety digest on the value of worker participation to prevent chemical incidents. The digest notes that lack of worker participation was a factor in several major incidents investigated by the CSB because workers and their representatives were not engaged to help identify hazards and reduce risks.
Full article: CSB: Workers can help prevent catastrophic chemical incidents
Source: Safety Best Practices
Effectiveness of new guidelines to prevent workplace hand-wrist MSDs
Research confirms that new guidelines to prevent worker hand, wrist, and elbow musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) better protect workers. MSDs can be debilitating and costly workplace safety and health issues. In Washington state alone, direct costs for hand, wrist, and elbow MSD workers’ compensation claims accounted for over $2 billion and 11.8 million lost work days from 1999-2013.
Full article: Effectiveness of new guidelines to prevent workplace hand-wrist MSDs
Source: Safety Best Practices
United Piping goes 2 million man hours without a lost-time injury
In March, 2019, United Piping, Inc, a pipeline construction company based in Duluth, MN and founded in 1997, surpassed a milestone – two million man hours worked without a lost-time injury. Key to this achievement in a hazardous industry is UPI Piping’s strong culture of safety values and practices.
Full article: United Piping goes 2 million man hours without a lost-time injury
Source: Safety Best Practices
Protecting workers from nanotechnology exposure
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted new documents intended to provide companies with information and options about controlling possible exposure of their workers to nanomaterials on the job.
These workplace design solutions documents provide key tips on the design, use, and maintenance of exposure controls for nanomaterial production, post processing, and use.
Full article: Protecting workers from nanotechnology exposure
Source: Safety Best Practices
Keeping older drivers safe at work
Older workers (those ages 55 and older) bring extensive skills, knowledge, and experience built over the course of a lifespan. On the flip side, their driving may be affected by age-related physical and mental changes – many of them perfectly normal changes.
Employers cannot avoid the issue of aging drivers because by the year 2020:
Full article: Keeping older drivers safe at work
Source: Safety Best Practices
New job hazard analysis sheets can help concrete contractors
The Concrete Polishing Council (CPC), a specialty council of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC), has developed seven Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) sheets for tasks primarily related to the process of polishing concrete. JHAs are used on the jobsite, prior to starting work each day, to remind craftsmen of the risks inherent in the work for that day, and the precautions that must be taken to avoid accidents.
Full article: New job hazard analysis sheets can help concrete contractors
Source: Safety Best Practices
How to train your workers for proper material handling
Whether you are running a manufacturing business or a logistics company, material handling is going to be a critical part of your day-to-day operations. Despite automation, many companies rely on manual material handling to move finished products or raw materials within gated premises.
Full article: How to train your workers for proper material handling
Source: Safety Best Practices
Napping at work. It's a thing.
Workers in India overwhelmingly want a “nap room” in their workplaces, according to a survey conducted by online sleep-solutions startup Wakefit.co.
According to a report on the survey titled “Right to Work Naps,” a startling 86 percent of the 1,500 respondents said they wanted a dedicated space for taking naps during their work shifts.
Full article: Napping at work. It’s a thing.
Source: Safety Best Practices
A safety success story
A desire to go beyond regulatory compliance and increase the safety of employees is behind a Minnesota manufacturer’s use of OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program, through the Minnesota OSHA (MNOSHA) Workplace Safety Consultation (WSC). That’s how Malco Products, Specific Benefit Corporation (SBC), achieved an OSHA Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) designation in 2004 – a designation it has maintained to this day.
Full article: A safety success story
Source: Safety Best Practices