President Trump this week directed U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao to launch an initiative to safely test and validate advanced operations for drones in partnership with state and local governments in select jurisdictions. The results of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program will be used “to accelerate the safe integration of UAS into the national airspace and to realize the benefits of unmanned technology in our economy,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) often called drones are increasingly used for military, recreational, public, and commercial purposes. UAVs have the potential to prevent injury and death in the construction industry where nearly 1,000 workers died in 2015. Advancements in UAV technology could help reduce construction-related injury and death from falls, toxic chemical exposures, electrical hazards, or traumatic injury from vehicle and equipment collisions.
Workers at a Birmingham, Alabama framing company were wearing fall protection harnesses when OSHA inspectors visited the sight, but the harnesses were not tied off to prevent a fall.
Structural Subcontractors Service, LLC was cited for exposing workers to fall hazards and faces proposed penalties totaling $102,669.
Assess-
Look carefully at plant operations. Inspect all work areas, access routes, and equipment for hazards to eyes. Study eye accident and injury reports. Identify operations and areas the present eye hazards.
Test-
Uncorrected vision problems can cause accidents. Provide vision testing during routine employee physical exams.
Eye injuries in the workplace are very common. More than 2,000 people injure their eyes at work each day. About 1 in 10 injuries require one or more missed workdays to recover from. Of the total amount of work-related injuries, 10-20 percent will cause temporary or permanent vision loss.
Experts believe that the right eye protection could have lessened the severity or even prevented 90% of eye injuries in accidents.
In updating its long-standing aviation safety agreement with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cited the importance in international partnerships between aviation regulators in securing safety in the global aviation market.
The revised agreement, which was signed on September 22, 2017, includes changes to enhance the risk-based approach to safety by optimizing reliance on each authority’s expertise in aircraft certification through Revision 6 of the Technical Implementation Procedures (TIP).
Dan Zak of the Washington Post has written a long feature article on the impact and aftermath of the West fertilizer explosion that killed 15 people, injured 252 and damaged or destroyed 500 buildings in the small town of West Texas on April 17, 2013.
Starting with a 30-minute mantrip ride to deep under the ground, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta got a close-up look at a West Virginia coal mine recently – an experience Acosta said gave him an appreciation for the men and women who work in the nation’s 13,000 mines.
Great DART has helped earn a North Carolina company a Gold Safety Award from its state’s Department of Labor (NCDOL). GreenWood, Inc., an integrated operations, maintenance and construction solutions provider, received the honor for one of its operations in Durham, North Carolina. DART stands for: “days away from work, restricted activity or job transfer.”
Not long ago I bought a new car. It had been a while. While I was on the sidelines, the auto industry has been experiencing unprecedented transformation. One researcher claims there will be ten million self-driving cars on the road by 2020, with one in four cars being self-driving by 2030.
