Safety+Health

After 13 workers died at communication tower worksites in 2013 – more than the previous two years combined – OSHA and other stakeholders are taking a closer look at the safety of the industry.

What are the characteristics of an effective safety committee? Safety pros and other experts weigh in on creating and maintaining an engaged, productive and enthusiastic group.

Various studies have shown that investing money in workplace safety improvements will result in greater savings down the line. Safety+Health looks at where injury costs come from.

Opioid painkillers increasingly are being prescribed to treat chronic pain, and their use among injured workers may be dangerous if the drug is unwarranted or misused. What should employers and workers know to help encourage safe use of opioids?

A poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that many transportation workers whose jobs demand high levels of alertness go to work without a good night’s sleep. What impact does sleepiness have on job safety, including the effects of cumulative lack of sleep, and how does this affect workers across all U.S. industries?

For nearly three weeks, OSHA listened to stakeholders’ concerns and input during a series of hearings on the agency’s proposed crystalline silica rule. The end result, the agency hopes, is a final rule that better protects workers from the potentially deadly dust.

OSHA statistics show that approximately 90 workers die from confined space-related incidents every year. One expert says these incidents continue to occur because many workers and employers don't know what confined spaces actually are, the dangers that lurk inside, and the safeguards that need to be in place.

Could a law intended to help protect workers actually be putting them in danger? A recent study of New York state's "Scaffold Law" suggests as much, but the law's supporters are crying foul and say the study's methodology is flawed.

Seventy-five percent of respondents to Safety+Health's 2014 Job Outlook survey said environmental, health and safety was not their first career choice. Why aren't more students aware that EHS is a career option? Also: Veteran EHS pros talk about how they got their start.

Is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance, Safety, Accountability program as effective as the agency believes it is? Recent reports have come to conflicting conclusions.