Exoskeletons used in the workplace are referred to as “industrial exoskeletons.” Their purpose is to augment, amplify, or reinforce the performance of a worker’s existing body components—primarily the lower back and the upper extremity (arms and shoulders). Despite a lack of research, manufacturers of these devices claim productivity gains, work quality improvements, and a reduction of the risk of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs).

Even with relatively low participation rates, a comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) can have a moderate impact on worker health, according to an analysis of a large Finnish company published in the November Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The study involved an eight-year evaluation of the WHP implemented at a Finnish wood supply company, one which offered health risk appraisal (HRAs) and screening, along with education and support services aimed at improving employee health.

OSHA has cited Mayco Manufacturing LLC – operating as Mayco Industries Inc. – for exposing employees to lead and arsenic in addition to machine, electrical and fall hazards. The Granite City, Illinois, lead smelter faces $223,148 in penalties for 18 serious health violations. The inspection occurred after OSHA received a report that employees suffered caustic burns from water mixed with sodium hydroxide used to extinguish a fire.

Parents and coaches of young athletes can learn how to help during sports-related emergencies with a new CPR & First Aid in Youth Sports™ Training Kit being offered y the American Heart Association (AHA). The kit, which is completely self-facilitated, with no additional training required for a facilitator, will teach those who use it the lifesaving skill of CPR, how to use an AED, and other first aid information.

OSHA updates a program designed to reduce amputations in the manufacturing industry; company execs in France found guilty of “institutional harassment” and alcohol-related fatalities are increasing in the U.S. These were among the occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

January is National Radon Action Month, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging Americans around the country to test their homes for radon, the second leading cause of lung cancer. “Radon exposure is one of the most important public health issues affecting Americans today,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

Among the end of 2019-beginning of 2020 workplace incidents in the U.S. were employees killed or seriously injured by collapsed machinery, a pallet grinder and an exploding wheel. In Nebraska, a 39-year-old woman sustained traumatic injuries to her head, arms and upper body when she was partially pulled into the pallet grinder she’d been working with. The woman, an employee of Tradewell Pallet in Gretna, was air lifted to a hospital by a medical condition, where she was reported to be in critical condition, according to news sources.

No mayday was received from the small plane that crashed shortly after taking off from a Louisiana airport on Dec. 28, 2019, killing five of the six people on board and injuring several people on the ground. The NTSB's preliminary report into the incident does not include a probable cause. Instead, it provides a meticulously reconstructed sequence of events involving the Piper PA 31T, which took off on a personal flight from Lafayette Regional Airport/Paul Fournet Field (LFT) in Lafayette en route to Atlanta, Georgia.

Over the 10 years from 2008 to 2017, the U.S. had an annual average of 1,344,100 fires, according to Fire in the United States 2008-2017, the 20th edition of the statistical overview of fires in the U.S. issued by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). Those million-plus fires resulted in 3,190 civilian deaths, 16,225 civilian injuries and $14.7 billion in direct property loss each year. The figures in the report represent an increase in 10-year trends for fire-related deaths and dollar loss, even as 10-year trends for fires and fire-related injuries have decreased.

OSHA has issued an updated National Emphasis Program (NEP) that signifies the agency’s intent to focus inspections on identifying amputation hazards in manufacturing industry facilities. The NEP, which was first issued in 2015, specifically targets industrial and manufacturing workplaces where employees are injured by unguarded or improperly guarded machinery and equipment.