Workplace Safety

OSHA and Industrial Truck Association Renew and Extend Hazard Reduction Alliance

Published on: February 3, 2016 | O'Connor Law

Through a renewed alliance with the Industrial Truck Association, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working to minimize the amount of injuries and deaths related to powered industrial trucks. The renewed alliance is for another five years, and the primary topics of interest over this time will include tip-over and struck-by dangers.

For those employees who work with these trucks, the alliance will serve to provide more efficient resources and training so that potential life threatening dangers can be more readily recognized and accidents can be prevented.

Other OSHA promotions that will be pushed through this alliance include preventing falls, heat illness, and supporting a “culture of safety.” This culture includes preventing workers from being crushed under fallen equipment such as forklifts.

Fatal Accident: 19-Year-Old Caught in Machine and Fatally Injured on First Day of Job

Published on: December 10, 2015 | O'Connor Law

19-year-old Mason Cox was killed after being pulled into a wood chipper in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Reports say Cox was trying to kick a tree branch that he was loading into the chipper when his leg got caught in the tree branch.

Cox had just recently been hired by Crawford’s Tree and Stump Grinding Service and the accident occurred on his first day on the job.

OSHA and Red Cross Extend Partnership Promoting Workplace Safety & Preparedness

Published on: November 22, 2015 | O'Connor Law

Extending a decade long partnership, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the American Red Cross will continue to work together to further decrease the chance for workplace injury as well as safeguard workers from any exposures that could be life-threatening.

The partnership has been extended another five years, and the two organizations will shift their attention toward “providing workers and with information and training resources on emergency preparedness, disease prevention education and first aid,” said an OSHA Trade news release.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels stated that OSHA looks forward to the continued alliance so that workers can continue to have the resources that will keep them safe and healthy while on the job.

Wearable Technology Could Improve Workplace Safety & Quality of Life

Published on: November 6, 2015 | O'Connor Law

A breakthrough in wearable technology could lead to the improvement in workers’ quality of life as well as lower workers’ compensation claim costs.

Zack Craft, the vice president of Rehab Solutions and Complex Care Education at One Call Care Management, hopes that wearable technology will “help prevent workplace injury, keep routine injuries from migrating into more serious problems and improve the long term health status and independence of those who have serious injuries.”

Some features of the technology would include censoring the worker’s posture, monitoring the extent of their exercise and form, keeping track of whether or not equipment is being utilized properly, and even potentially allowing paralytics to walk again with the use of an exoskeleton awaiting FDA approval in 2016. The goal, Craft added, is for the wearable technology to help people evade re-injury or further complications. It also seeks to give back a significant amount of control to people who have already sustained severe injuries.