A new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) blog post uses Barbie, one of the world’s favorite dolls, to demonstrate what resources the organization has available for safety professionals. That’s right, NIOSH is using Barbie, and all of the many jobs she’s had over the years, to show off some of the safety […]
A federal investigation found that the fatal 2020 explosion at the Optima Belle plant in Belle, West Virginia, was caused in part by poor communication on process safety between the plant and a company that contracted its services. An investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found that a lack of […]
When a ship’s engine caught on fire due to a mechanical problem the crew, who had been prepared for the possibility of a fire, responded professionally, prevented injuries and mitigated damage to the vessel. Damage to the ship was estimated at $1.1 million, but it would have been much worse if the crew had failed […]
Many employers worry about compliance. They want to make sure they do what it takes to keep government agencies like OSHA at bay. However, compliance and safety aren’t the same thing. For example, a company accused of violating OSHA’s General Duty Clause in a fatal forklift under-ride incident has proven in court that it was […]
A new report details how businesses can use robotics to enhance worker safety by assessing its risks, identifying solutions and readying the workplace for use of the new technology. The National Safety Council’s (NSC) Work to Zero initiative’s Improving Workplace Safety with Robotics report analyzed academic journals, vendor interviews and company case studies to evaluate […]
Do you know if the N95 filtering facepiece respirators your workers use are actually approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)? If you don’t, this video could help. NIOSH released a video in March 2023 explaining how to determine if an N95 has been approved by the organization through its “strict […]
Workplace fatality rates increased in 2021 and the National Safety Council (NSC) has released a new report that is meant to help employers reverse that trend through advances in technology. More than 5,000 workers died on the job in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and NSC wants employers to […]
A $2 million crane’s topple from a construction barge into the waters of Virginia’s Willoughby Bay was due to the lack of a spotter to help the operator navigate, according to a federal investigation. Because there was no spotter present, the operator drove too far aft and the cable system securing the crane to the […]
Why should you improve your safety program in 2023? There are multiple reasons, including enhanced injury prevention and compliance with an increasingly aggressive federal OSHA. Let’s start with compliance and how OSHA came out swinging at the beginning of the year. 1. OSHA compliance At the end of January 2023, OSHA made a formal announcement […]
