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The average starting salary of an IH/OH professional is on par with software or chemical engineers, which according to a Forbes 2017 report are the highest-paid degrees. That, notes the American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA), makes the case that this is a growing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career.

Lorraine M. Martin, NSC president and CEO, and Joseph A. Reuter, Stericycle executive vice president and chief people officer, spoke to the media Monday morning to discuss the NSC’s new Opioids at Work Employer Toolkit. The toolkit, which will officially be released on September 18, includes more than two dozen resources for four specific groups found in a typical workplace setting: supervisors, HR professionals, safety professionals and employees.

Specialty Plastics Company (SPC), in Enid, Oklahoma, is a small company that can boast of a big achievement. Since 2016, SPC has experienced zero recordable workplace injuries. In contrast, for NAICS code 326122, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the industry average total recordable cases rate was 4.1, and the average cases with days away from work, job restriction, or transfer rate was 2.55 for this period. [NOTE: 2017 is the most recent year national averages are available.]

With the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian still making headlines, it’s a good time to review your facility’s preparedness for extreme weather, which can strike at work as well as at home. In addition to being peak time for both Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes (more on that below), September is also National Preparedness Month – a reminder that it’s vital to be ready for all kinds of natural disasters.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has issued a new safety digest on the value of worker participation to prevent chemical incidents. The digest notes that lack of worker participation was a factor in several major incidents investigated by the CSB because workers and their representatives were not engaged to help identify hazards and reduce risks.

A 60-year-old employee of Omaha’s largest recycling plant was killed in a workplace accident last week. Authorities have identified the victim as Dilaver Gasa, an employee of First Star Recycling. News sources say the incident occurred on Thursday morning, when Gasa was pinned under the bucket of a front end loader.

Tennessee was the first state to pass the “Healthy Workplace Act” in 2014. The Act addresses “abusive conduct” in state and local government workplaces. By late 2018, parts of the state government and some of the major cities had adopted policies to implement the Act. What the state and cities did can matter to you, even if your organization is not in Tennessee.

There are a wealth of networking opportunities available to attendees of the 2019 NSC Congress & Expo (and social media ones, if you can’t make it). The NSC Job and Career Center offers companies a central location to post open safety related positions (and even a private area for interviews, if they meet candidates they like at the conference).

Research confirms that new guidelines to prevent worker hand, wrist, and elbow musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) better protect workers. MSDs can be debilitating and costly workplace safety and health issues. In Washington state alone, direct costs for hand, wrist, and elbow MSD workers’ compensation claims accounted for over $2 billion and 11.8 million lost work days from 1999-2013.

Health experts are puzzled by a new, global study that shows the colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence increasing significantly in young adults in high-income countries – while the rate is trending downward in older adults. The American Cancer Society study, appearing in the journal Gut, suggests that changes in early-life exposures are increasing CRC risk. Exactly what those changes are, though, remains a mystery.