The manufacturing industry is the beating heart of any strong economy. To keep that heart beating, it is vital for companies to keep their workers safe. Safe workers are happier, healthier, and more productive. Naturally, manufacturing processes involve a large number of hazards. Health and safety regulations have improved immensely over the last century, but accidents can and do still happen every day.

Most employers are aware that occupational noise has the potential to cause permanent hearing loss in exposed workers. Less well known, and less studied, is the link between occupational noise exposure and tinnitus.

During this year’s National Protect Your Hearing Month—observed each October—learn how to protect yourself, your family and co-workers from noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

A workers’ advocacy group says a new Department of Labor (DOL) proposal will put teen workers at risk, while the DOL says it will put teen workers to work – yet maintain safety. At issue is the DOL’s action entitled “Expanding Employment, Training, and Apprenticeship Opportunities for 16- and 17-Year-Olds in Health Care Occupations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $250,000 to four organizations to develop and conduct training programs that support the recognition and prevention of safety and health hazards in underground mines.

Safety issues are prominent in the new five-year-contract that registered nurses with the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) at the University of California (UC) just voted overwhelmingly to ratify. Workplace violence, infectious disease protections and safe staffing protections were addressed in the agreement, which covers more than 14,000 registered nurses at five major medical centers, 10 student health centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A waste collection worker was run over and killed by his own truck earlier this year because his employer failed to ensure the truck’s safety restraint was in working order and that it was being used by workers driving from the right-hand side of the truck.

If you have a home fire today, you are more likely to die in it than you were in 1980, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This startling fact is attributed to several factors, including the way homes are built and the contents in them.

As those of you who read my posts on the Lac Megantic disaster where 47 people were incinerated by a “bomb train” that derailed in the middle of town, brakes on trains are complicated and often fallible safety devices. This is how they work: A brake pipe runs the length of the train which supplies air to reservoirs mounted on each of the cars.

A Wisconsin meatpacking company faces nearly a quarter of a million dollars in penalties after an employee suffered serious injuries from being caught in an unguarded machine. OSHA has cited JBS Green Bay Inc. - based in Green Bay, Wisconsin - for one willful and 10 serious violations, and faces proposed penalties of $221,726, which includes the maximum penalty for the willful violation.