Though many types of safety equipment exist, one of the most effective and economical approaches is preventing collisions with special industrial safety mirrors and domes that are shatter resistant, weatherproof and can be customized to fit the unique needs of the industrial environment.

As most parts of the country prepare to turn clocks ahead one hour, the National Safety Council is cautioning employers that workers in certain positions and industries who already have a higher risk of being drowsy may be even more tired than usual next Monday. According to a new NSC report, Tired at Work: How fatigue affects our bodies, shift workers, medical staff, emergency responders, military personnel, any worker over age 40, and transportation professionals – especially those who work rotating or night shifts – always are at increased risk for circadian misalignment, which occurs when we force ourselves to stay awake at hours when our bodies believe we should be sleeping.

When it comes to ladder safety, there’s a difference between three-point control and the traditional three-point contact rule. Three-point control is a climbing method that involves always using three or four limbs distributed over three or four locations for reliable support. Three-point contact involves simply coming into contact with the ladder at three points without necessarily requiring a reliable hand grip for support.

A cause of death amongst construction workers is falls from elevation, of which a third are from ladders. Some of these fatalities could be prevented simply with the implementation of the three-point control technique. In addition to proper use of horizontal grab bars and the existing horizontal rungs, construction workers should be trained to use the three-point control technique.

Falls are one of the most common causes of death for ironworkers. But they also risk injuries from steel beam or reinforced concrete wall collapses, "struck-by" injuries from falling or swinging objects, and contact with live electrical lines. That’s a good bit of risk for an average $45,000 salary.

In the past decade, more than 300 oil and gas workers were killed in highway crashes, the largest cause of fatalities in the industry. Many of these deaths were due in part to oil field exemptions from highway safety rules that allow truckers to work longer hours than drivers in most other industries, according to an article in The New York Times.

An alarming leap in excavation and trench-related fatalities has made reducing them an Agency Priority Goal for OSHA for 2018. The agency plans to accomplish this by increasing awareness of trenching hazards in construction, educating employers and workers on safe cave-in prevention solutions, and decreasing the number of trench collapses.

Rockford Systems has highlighted five machine safeguarding trends that will be strategic for fabricators and manufacturers in 2018. Each has the potential to significantly impact or even disrupt entrenched processes, and may poise the need for investment by manufacturers that face the risk of not being in compliance with newer OSHA/ANSI codes, or being too late to adopt productivity-enhancing equipment.

While many Americans fear flying, violence and natural disasters, the odds of dying from preventable, everyday incidents are far greater – the greatest ever, in fact, in United States history. A person’s lifetime odds of dying from any unintentional cause have risen to one in 25 – up from odds of one in 30 in 2004, according to National Safety Council analysis.