After five years in development, a new standard that provides a framework for improving employee safety, reducing workplace risks and creating better, safer working conditions, all over the world has been approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, which was developed with support from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), is a voluntary consensus standard intended to help combat the global toll of work-related fatalities, which currently number about 7,600 a year.
The national opioid epidemic and the growing number of states legalizing marijuana is prompting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to launch a new initiative aimed at drugged driving.
The agency says combating drugged driving has become “a top priority” in its bid to improve safety and reduce motor vehicle crashes on the nation’s roadways.
A new federal regulation requiring commercial truck drivers to electronically log their hours is drawing both support and criticism from the trucking industry.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule – which went into effect in December 2017, started requiring commercial drivers to outfit their trucks with electronic logging devices (ELDs) to replace the paper time cards the industry has used for decades.
Amid a resurgence in U.S. traffic fatalities now taking roughly 100 lives a day, an advocacy group today issued a report card identifying states that do the most, and least, to improve highway safety.
The ratings by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety credited six states — California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Delaware and Rhode Island—with having the most protective road safety laws.
For over a decade, thousands of users have deployed Permanent Electrical Safety Devices (PESDs) to reduce the risks in isolating electrical energy. This elegantly simple innovation increases the probability that workers are only exposed to ‘zero voltage’ when doing an absence of voltage test. The cumulative experience end users have amassed by using PESDs encouraged UL to create a new product specification for permanently mounted Absence of Voltage Testers (AVTs).
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (NIOSH FACE) program investigates selected work-related fatalities, collecting information not captured in other data sources - including safety management and training programs, use of engineering controls and personal protective equipment on the jobsite, and recommendations for preventing similar incidents.
Although some parts of the country are enjoying a (temporary) respite from the deep freeze and heavy snow they’ve been dealing with, winter is far from over.
Walking on icy surfaces and removing snow both present fall hazards.
“Safety should not be a competitive advantage.”
That’s the message I keep in mind every time I visit groups that represent employers, like the Network of Employers for Transportation Safety (NETS) which focuses on highway safety, or when I meet with the executives at individual companies, who may use many different modes of transportation for their businesses.
Metal lathe machines and grinders are two of the most dangerous types of industrial tools on the plant floor, with their use resulting in hundreds of serious workplace accidents and deaths each year. In fact, grinder safeguarding violations are consistently one of OSHA's Top 10 most cited machines.
A Maine lumber mill has seen lower injury rates, lower turnover better employee morale and an improved safety culture since partnering with government agencies to help make inherently high-hazard work tasks safer.
