Safety Tips

Ladder jack scaffolding is used often in construction because it's inexpensive, portable, easy to put up and take down, and can fit in narrow places. To create a ladder jack scaffold, triangle-shaped brackets – known as ladder jacks – are attached to portable ladders, which are used on each side of a ladder jack scaffold to form a means of support for a platform, according to a fact sheet from OSHA.

A corneal abrasion occurs when a person’s cornea – the clear, domed covering over the eye’s iris and pupil – is scraped or scratched.

Older drivers bring knowledge and experience to the workplace. By 2020, 25 percent of workers in the United States will be 55 or older. But this group is not without risk. According to NIOSH, motor vehicle crashes account for 32 percent of all work-related deaths among workers 55 or older.

Two excavator operators were using a tandem lift procedure to transport a 128-foot section of pipe. Both excavators were attached to the pipe with slings. The lead operator lowered his end, detached from the pipe and positioned his excavator on the left side of the pipe.

Washington – Poultry workers and officials from 13 nonprofit organizations and unions met with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service on Oct. 16 to urge the department to reject an industry petition to allow faster and unrestricted line speeds in production plants, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Washington – Mandatory guidelines for drug testing of federal employees have been updated to include testing for four semi-synthetic opioids, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently announced.

New York – Employers can use several strategies to mitigate cost and health issues associated with workers’ musculoskeletal disorders, the Northeast Business Group on Health suggests in a report issued Sept. 21.

Statistics show 75 percent of the 18- to 64-year-olds who have substance misuse disorders are in the workforce. As the struggles of addiction to opioid painkillers continue to affect worker safety and health, employers are being urged to take action.

Occupational asthma is a respiratory disease in which on-the-job exposure to certain substances causes the airways of a person’s lungs to swell and narrow.

Pressure washers are used to clean large areas, including buildings, parking lots, vehicles and other machinery. These high-powered tools also are used in disaster cleanup. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a pressure washer’s intense spray can cause wounds and other serious injuries that may at first appear minor.