It was a normal January night like any other. Members of Boston Local 103 were doing routine maintenance on an above-ground part of Interstate 93. They had no idea they were about to turn into local heroes. The crew were ringing out some wires they had just pulled in. That’s when they encountered something they had never seen before: a cat stranded on a steel girder, 80 feet in the air.

Kansas Democratic Representatives this week introduced a proposal to reduce workplace bullying, noting that it is increasingly being recognized as a major workplace issue. According to a 2014 survey, 27 percent of workers nationwide reported current or past experience with abusive conduct at work and 72 percent of employers “deny, discount, encourage, rationalize or defend it.”

A Monroe, Wisconsin medical clinic failed to inform maintenance workers that they were being sent into areas containing asbestos – which the company had known about since 2008. The company also failed to provide the workers with equipment which could have protected them from asbestos hazards.

An operator and two servicing companies' failure to control a North Dakota oil well properly led to a flash fire that killed one worker and injured three others, federal investigators have found. A 52-year-old employee of Most Wanted Well Service suffered fatal fall injuries and burns in the June 18, 2016 incident at a Watford City, North Dakota well site.

Two employees at a Green Bay muffler component manufacturer suffered severe injuries within ten days of each other last year as they operated machinery without adequate safety guards and procedures in place, federal workplace safety investigators have determined.

Now that flu season is officially here, we may feel heightened concern about the cause of our coworker’s, friend’s, or elevator mate’s cough. For healthcare workers, this seasonal concern is of year-round importance.

An array of industry experts will come together next month to lay down the groundwork for the development of voluntary consensus standards for cannabis. The goal of the gathering: to identify specific standards needs; determine if ASTM International should formally launch a new activity; and, if so, develop and approve title, scope, and structure of a new technical committee.

Standing five hours a day contributes lower-limb muscle fatigue, a small study concluded, and may raise the risk for long-term back pain and musculoskeletal disorders, according to WedMD’s HealthDay. Study authors report almost half of all workers worldwide spend more than three-quarters of their workday standing.

Wearable sensors are all the rage. They give us information about our health, fitness, productivity and safety. However, downsides to this technology are accuracy and security of the data and challenges to personal privacy. How wearable technology is used in occupational safety and health research and practice is evolving.