Total Worker Health is an area of emerging importance for safety professionals in which ASSP has designated a task force. When done right, the benefits to business and to employees include lower risk, collaborative employee-employer engagements and fewer injuries, ASSP says. In short, TWH can lead to a more sustainable workforce.

With the summer festival and fair season barely underway, a young worker in Michigan suffered an injury so serious on Saturday that he had to have a leg amputated. News sources say the 22-year-old was critically injured at the Curwood Festival in Owosso, a small community 94 miles northwest of Detroit.

Employees at a psychiatric hospital in Colorado were exposed to workplace violence and bloodborne pathogens, according to OSHA investigators, who fined their employer $32,392. OSHA inspected Centennial Peaks Hospital in Louisville, an acute psychiatric treatment facility owned by UHS of Centennial Peaks LLC, after a complaint of workplace violence was lodged with the agency in December 2018.

One year after adopting a new organization name as part of a larger rebranding strategy, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has introduced a new name – Safety Focus – for its annual immersive, week-long education event. The announcement was made Monday by ASSP President Rixio Medina, CSP, CPP, at the Safety 2019 Professional Development Conference and Exhibition. “We are aligning all of our events to the new brand,” Medina said.

Authorities are trying to determine if severe weather was the cause of a construction crane collapse yesterday in Dallas that killed one person and injured six. Severe storms with strong winds were moving through the area at the time of the incident in the city’s downtown. The crane plunged through four floors of an apartment building and onto a parking garage, causing some of the garage’s floors to collapse and burying vehicles in the rubble.

New cases of diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. decreased by 35 percent since a peak in 2009 – the first sign that efforts to stop the nation’s diabetes epidemic are working, CDC researchers report. New cases have declined from 1.7 million new cases per year in 2008 to 1.3 million new cases in 2017. And there’s more good news: The number of people living with diagnosed diabetes in the United States has remained stable during the past 8 years.

When it comes to safety in the construction industry, “the gap between what is said and what is actually done is alarming,” according to the authors of a new report that showcases research critical to the advancement of the industry. Overall, 90 percent of the hundreds of construction professionals who responded to a survey for the “People in Construction 2019 Report” by FireStarter Speaking & Consulting identified safety as a top priority.

The general session speakers over three days at Safety 2019 aim to motivate attendees to look beyond assumptions and seize opportunities. The first on Monday morning is Nicole Malachowski speaking on “The Power of Challenging Assumptions.” She believes the best organizations and leaders create cultures that engage and harness the diverse ideas, talents and abilities of every person, and in which challenging assumptions and the status quo drives extraordinary success.

After an anhydrous ammonia leak sent a Florida farm worker for medical treatment, OSHA investigators found multiple violations related to the hazardous material at his workplace. The agency cited Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. – based in Belle Glade –for failing to:

Construction workers are at risk of death or serious injury if they enter an unprotected trench and the walls col¬lapse. A trench is defined as a narrow underground excavation that is deeper than it is wide, and is no wider than 15 feet or 4.5 meters [OSHA]. Hazards associated with trench work and excavation are well defined and preventable.