Category: Safety

Highway Work Zones – Stay Alert

 

We know highway work zones can be frustrating. We realize life is busy and time is precious. But please understand when you drive dangerously through a highway work zone you’re not just putting the lives of highway workers at risk – you’re risking your own life, and the lives of your passengers. That’s because four out of five people who die in highway work zones are either vehicle drivers or passengers. In 2010 alone, 12 occurred in work zones – including some attributed to dangerous driving, such as following too closely, driver fatigue and improper lane changes.

While driving through a work zone make sure to stay alert and pay attention; speed limits are reduced, lanes may narrow, and workers may be present. Slow down and safely merge as soon as you see the signs; this will allow traffic to flow smoothly. Keep a safe distance on all sides of your vehicles. Minimize all distractions (including the three C’s: Cell phones, CD’s, and Coffee); expect construction delays, allow extra travel time, and if necessary select an alternate route.

Work Zone Safety is everyone’s responsibility.  Please use caution and common sense when driving through highway work zones.

Ways To Cut Workers’ Comp Costs

A study of 5,568 employers in 29 different industries conducted by Michigan State University and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research gives some insight regarding injury prevention and loss control.  The study findings, issued in 1993, show that employers with the “best” records (fewest workers’ compensation claims) had these common qualities.

  • Placed great emphasis on safety and prevention practices;
  • Were more inclined to have “open” managerial styles that encourage shared decision making; and
  • Had consciously developed disability prevention and management strategies.

Employers are encouraged to look at their individual operations with a critical eye toward identifying ways to further reduce injuries and illness, thus improving working environments while cutting workers’ compensation claims cost.  Michigan companies that have successfully reduced workers’ compensation costs have offered the following cost-saving suggestions.

  • Set safety goals.
  • Create an employee incentive program.
  • Improve accident reporting and investigating.
  • Make review of injury reports part of the job of top managers (even the very top).
  • Review injury reports promptly.
  • Have front-line supervisors and employees design injury prevention programs.
  • Establish training programs in safe lifting techniques, hand safety and hazard recognition.
  • Purchase appropriate equipment along with making other ergonomic changes.
  • Develop return-to-work programs in which injured employees are allowed to return gradually, from simulated work settings to meaningful transitional or part-time assignments to full-time duty.
  • Write job descriptions that include “physical capability” requirements.

By making an effort to improve the safety of the workplace, companies can reduce their workers’ compensation insurance costs in two ways:

  • They can reduce the dollar value of business losses by limiting the severity of accidents or by eliminating them altogether.
  • They may make the business eligible for schedule rating credits, premium credits and other incentive programs offered by carriers.

Safety in your home

What you can do to keep you and your family safe at home

Keeping your family out of harm’s way is your Number 1 priority. Unfortunately, many of our homes can be dangerous – preventable injuries and deaths continue to rise in homes and communities.

The National Safety Council estimates everyday approximately 245 people die of unintentional injuries in homes and communities. In 2007, the six leading causes of unintentional injury death in the U.S. were:

Motor vehicle crashes

Poisonings, including unintentional overdoses

Falls

Choking

Drowning

Fires, flames and smoke

When someone is injured, the effects go beyond that person and extend to family members, friends, neighbors, employers and communities. The key to preventing injuries is making simple changes to your lifestyle – recognizing where most hazards are and how injuries can occur when participating in different activities.

Below are a few of the many strategies to prevent injuries:

Stay off your cell phone when you are driving. Your safety practices directly influence the safety practices of your children.

Get trained in first aid, CPR and AED online or in a classroom.

Check and if necessary, change the batteries on your smoke and carbon monoxide detector.

Properly dispose of unused and expired medications.

Share these strategies with family, friends and neighbors. Explore more safety practices in the new safety at home sections including, home and recreational safety, motor vehicle safety, emergency preparedness, and family safety training. You can play a large part in keeping those around safe and alive.

via National Safety Council

Bath salts: The newest, most dangerous, designer drug

State and federal bans, combined with the arrest of a man accused of being the area dealer, have slowed down Midland County’s ordeal with a new, and very dangerous, designer drug.

Bath salts, a designer drug that has nothing to do with bathing products, is synthesized in overseas super labs then sold through the Internet. It became popular in Europe in 2007. By 2009, it had made it’s way to the United States.

Recently it was the root of an epidemic in northern Michigan, causing Marquette County Health Department officials to declare an emergency public health order when they tallied 13 emergency room visits by people high on the drug from November 2010 to February. There were two deaths.

via Bath salts: The newest, most dangerous, designer drug – Midland Daily News: News.

The Accident Pyramid – Feeling Lucky?

To often the interest in safety comes after a serious accident which is unfortunate. The key is to treat near misses as if they could have been serious.

Frank Bird, a US safety researcher, discovered that for every serious workplace accident there were 600 near misses. Bird’s findings are shown in the pyramid diagram below.

Accident Pyramid

It’s important to make near miss reporting part the safety culture. What is the ROI on accidents avoided?

The Total Value of Health

The total value of health is much more than just medical/hospital & drug costs yet that is what most employers concentrate on. Add to the list absenteeism,  disability, worker’s comp, effectiveness on job, recruitment, retention &  morale of a workforce. To be effective employers must deploy strategies that keep their employees heathy& safe at home and at work. This will have a huge positive impact on a company’s bottom line.

OSHA sees budget increases – NIOSH sees cuts for FY 2012

Washington – After several close calls during which a government shutdown loomed, Congress finalized a budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2012, providing some occupational safety and health agencies with a slight funding increase.

  • $565.9 million to OSHA. Compared to FY 2011, this represents a $7.2 million increase, most of which comes from $6.4 million in additional funds for federal compliance assistance and state consultation grants.
  • $374 million to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The agency received across-the-board increases from FY 2011, except for a $1.2 million decrease in metal/non-metal enforcement.
  • $17.6 million to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The $7.3 million funding increase from FY 2011 is part of a recent trend of providing more money to FMSHRC to reduce a massive backlog of contested cases.
  • $11.7 million to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, which is identical to the commission’s FY 2011 funding.
  • $182.9 million to NIOSH, a funding cut of more than $41 million for the research institute compared with the previous fiscal year.

CDC – Cold Stress – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic

Workers who are exposed to extreme cold or work in cold environments may be at risk of cold stress. Extreme cold weather is a dangerous situation that can bring on health emergencies in susceptible people, such as those without shelter, outdoor workers, and those who work in an area that is poorly insulated or without heat. Click on the link below for more info.

via CDC – Cold Stress – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.

CDC – Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic

Ergonomics is the scientific study of people at work. The goal of ergonomics is to reduce stress and eliminate injuries and disorders associated with the overuse of muscles, bad posture, and repeated tasks. This is accomplished by designing tasks, work spaces, controls, displays, tools, lighting, and equipment to fit the employee´s physical capabilities and limitations.

via CDC – Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.

Keeping Boomers Fit for Work

As America’s baby boomers grow older and creakier, some companies are trying to keep those with hard-to-replace skills fit enough to remain on the job.

Harley-Davidson has a gym at its Menomonee Falls, Wis., factory where workers like Mike Snow, above, get exercise routines tailored to their jobs.

To avoid the early retirement of key workers, employers have redesigned work areas to minimize kneeling or awkward twisting of muscles and joints. Others have gone even further. Duke Energy Corp. offers a special stretching program for its line technicians before they start a shift. Harley-Davidson Inc. has trainers stand ready to ice down inflammations between shifts at one of its engine plants.

Given high unemployment, companies could hire young workers to replace older ones, but many jobs require years of on-the-job training. Boomers “can be role models and mentors for the younger folks,” says Joel Lunsford, a training manager at Duke Energy, an electric-power utility based in Charlotte, N.C. It takes about eight years for a line technician—people who make repairs on power lines—to master the main skills needed, he says. The average age of line technicians at Duke Energy is 50 to 55.

via WSJ.com