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- Safety Round Up August 2024
Occupational Fatalities Can Be Predicted: Report
Most workplace fatalities have similar core elements that employers in high-risk industries can study to prevent similar disasters, according to industrial safety experts.
The report’s authors, Mike Dwyer and Peter Susca, said fatalities in the workplace come down to six elements:
the presence of a hazard;
exposure to the hazard while working;
ineffective controls when facing the hazard;
an organization not assessing those three elements;
an immediate change in the work process, such as a problem with equipment or staffing; and
poor overall management.
Peter Susca said it is common for employers to blame workers when there is a fatality — or for companies not to address hazards and possibilities until someone is killed. Usually, the issue is in the organization, he said.
“When you look at organizational factors, they remain the same,” Mike Dwyer said. “It's the lack of investment. It’s procurement, making decisions that are not in alignment with safety. It's bringing contractors in at cheap prices, not having the best contractors. It's all these types of decisions.”
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Psychological health correlates to workplace safety: Panelists
Addressing workplace mental health challenges is the missing link in many employers’ plans to tackle the physical hazards that could lead to injuries and prolonged workers’ compensation claims, according to a panel of health and safety experts who discussed the current state of so-called psychosocial hazards.
Carrie Patterson, executive vice president of human resources consultancy Patricia Omoqui Enterprises Inc., compared a physical injury that might keep a worker off the job for 13 weeks to the compounding that happens when there’s a psychosocial or “toxic” issue in the workplace.
Ken Clayman, McLean, Virginia-based senior lead technical specialist with business consultant Booz Allen Hamilton Holdings Corp., said companies can use the same tools they use to identify physical hazards to address those considered psychosocial.
“We've got pretty good mechanisms in place on how to deal with the physical hazards already; that's what most of us do on a day-to-day basis. But are we dealing with a person's mental state or condition as a result of their work activities and the workplaces that they are attending?” he said.
“We can go around and take a look at our operations, take a look at what the people are doing, and we can identify what may be of a psychological concern, as much as we can look at what is of a physical concern. We have to start looking at the people and looking at the conditions and the environments that they're working in.”
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Top Ten Most Dangerous Jobs (US): ISHN
SOURCE: https://shorturl.at/5xbou
The national rate of fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2022 was 3.7. The rates for the top ten most dangerous jobs, based on 2022 BLS data:
Logging – 100.7 per 100,000 workers
Roofing – 57.5
Fishing and hunting – 50.9
Construction trade helpers – 38.5
Air transportation – 35.9
Delivery trucking and commercial trucking – 30.4
Refuse and recycling – 22.6
Iron and steel – 21.3
Mining – 20.1
Agricultural workers – 20.0
Contributing factors
Let’s look at some of the causes of fatalities that characterize the most dangerous jobs:
1. Logging Workers
Massive workload harvesting thousands of acres of forests annually
Frequent isolated work
Frequent poor weather conditions
Operating specialized logging machinery
Common practice of on-the-job safety training
2. Roofers
Work is often done at great heights
Frequent poor weather conditions
Frequent neglect of fall protection equipment
Safety skills learned on the job, not through apprenticeships
3. Fishing and Hunting Workers
Trapping and hunting on boats, in forests, and other isolated areas
Use of specialized equipment, including traps, nets, guns, and more
On-the-job safety learning is common
Routine travel to remote locations makes transportation-related incidents the leading cause of injuries and fatalities
4. Construction Trade Helpers
Frequent use of heavy equipment
Working at heights is very common
Wind, heat, cold, and sudden storms are frequent work conditions
Safety training is on the job if not through apprenticeships
Falls, caught in or between objects, struck by objects, and electrocutions are commonly referred to as the “fatal four.”
5. Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers
The greatest risk comes when traveling in private planes and helicopters rather than commercial aircraft.
6. Delivery and Truck Drivers
Most work hours are spent on the road, making the risk of vehicle crashes far greater than normal
7. Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
Most work hours are spent on the road, making the risk of vehicle crashes again far greater than normal
On-the-job informal safety training is common
8. Structural Iron and Steel Workers
Work often performed at great heights
Frequent poor weather conditions
9. Underground Mining Machine Operators
Work hours are spent using large machines, often in poor conditions, resulting in injury or death from contact with equipment
10. Agricultural workers
Heat exposure
Work with heavy machinery
Exposure to chemicals in fertilizers and pesticides
Work at times with large animals
Frequent absence of formal safety training
High Tech Tools and an Emphasis on Individual Learning are Improving the Effectiveness of Safety Training - EHS Today
Like every other aspect of the workplace, technology is also changing the safety landscape.
While many current technologies have yet to prove enduring value, many organizations are clearly making investments in leading-edge technology to drive risk out of their workplaces.
EHS Today covers new developments in AI, incident visualization, and how tech is changing individualized and remote training.
ARTICLE LINK: https://shorturl.at/HtV6y
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