Articles Posted in Workplace Safety

Allston’s Brazilian Immigrant Center is partnering with the Massachusetts Occupational Safety Health Administration to offer a workplace health and safety training workshop for Brazilian workers next Saturday, March 14. The workshop will take place on Saturday from 8am to 6pm Framingham, but the location is still to be determined.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Occupational Health Surveillance Program, 16 Brazilian workers died on the job between 1999 and 2007. Some Brazilian workers lack adequate work safety training, so this workshop is aimed at teaching those workers to avoid lead poisoning, prevent falls, handle electrical wires, and other tasks. The workshop will be conducted in Portuguese by instructor Rony Jabour.

Jabour said that many immigrant workers are reluctant to work with federal agencies like OSHA because of concerns about deportation, so the workshop will also cover OSHA’s role in protecting workers from workplace hazards. The cost for the workshop is $80 and workers will receive a certificate for having completed a 10-hour OSHA safety course at the end of the day. Contact Jabour at 978-767-0630 or oshaclas AT hotmail DOT com for more information.

Preventing work injuries among immigrants, MetroWest Daily News, March 8, 2009 Continue reading

A new alliance between OSHA and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO plans to give students in Massachusetts alternative high schools training in reducing and preventing on-the-job hazards. This alliance will provide students with OSHA’s 10-hour construction and general industry outreach courses and develop lessons to teach teens about workplace safety and health.

According to Marthe Kent, OSHA’s New England regional administrator, “These students will be able to carry this vital information with them on whatever career paths they choose to follow. Their employers will also benefit, since a motivated and safety-conscious workforce can lead to reduced injuries and illnesses and their associated human and financial costs, enhance productivity and increase employee morale.”

Signed at the Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury, this alliance in Massachusetts is one of 470 alliances across the country that are aimed at encouraging health and safety awareness in the workplace.

OSHA And AFL-CIO Provides Safety Training To Alternative High School Students, WorkersCompensation.com, January 19, 2009 Continue reading

With recent temperatures in Boston and across New England in the single digits this past weekend, the weather poses a special challenge to those who work on construction sites. In addition to the discomfort of working in frigid temperatures, cranes cannot be operated when temperatures go colder than four below. Those who climb to the top of a crane ladder know that the temperatures at the top can be even chillier than on the ground.

High winds create another hazard for construction workers during the winter months, especially workers who climb scaffolding or ladders high above the ground. Cold temperatures can also cause workers to lose feeling in their hands, resulting in falls or other unsafe conditions.

Workers are advised to dress in layers and observe proper safety precautions to avoid weather-related accident.

Hard At Work Despite Frigid Temperatures, MSNBC, January 16, 2009
With a Forecast of Weather in the Single Digits, Workers are Warned by New York Construction Accident Lawyers to Think Twice Before Heading Off to the Construction Site, PR Web, January 16, 2009 Continue reading

A Worcester, Massachusetts gun manufacturing plant and testing facility has been cited and fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Admininstration (OSHA) for unsafe working conditions. The plant was inspected by OSHA after employees voiced concerns about inadequate safety measures such as protecting employees from overexposure to lead and from being struck by fragments during test firing of guns.

During its inspection, OSHA determined that the manufacturing plant had not conducted the mandatory monitoring to check employees’ lead exposure levels nor did they use engineering controls to reduce exposure levels, resulting in two willful citations with a proposed fine of $98,000.

In addition, the company received seven serious citations totally $17,500 in penalties. The citations cover a lack of lead monitoring and controls, shortcomings in the plant’s respirator program, a lack of protective clothing, and several other deficiencies. OSHA standards are designed by protect employees from potentially harmful lead exposure and other workplace hazards.

OSHA Fines Arms Plant for Lead Exposure and Firing Range Hazards, Safety.blr.com, January 13, 2009 Continue reading

On Friday, the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health, which includes 21 local and state committees/coalition and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, released its agenda for protecting workers on the job in 2009.

Their seven-item platform includes making health and safety a high priority for President Obama and the incoming Congress and ending the exemption for federal or state workers and farms with less than 11 workers in an effort to count all injuries and illnesses occurring on the job.

National COSH also plans to reduce or eliminate the use of toxic chemicals, reform workers’ compensation programs so that all injured workers gain access to health care, and boost worker involvement in identifying and eliminating workplace hazards. Also on the agenda is creating programs to assist vulnerable segments of the workforce including Hispanic workers.

NCOSH, APHA Urge New Agenda for Protecting Workers, Ohsonline.com, January 6, 2008 Continue reading

Despite the current economic climate, the AFP reports that China is in the midst of a rapid construction boom, putting up buildings at a rapid pace. However, this growth has come at a high cost to China’s workers.

In fact, the State Administration of Work Safety estimates that 99 people died on construction sites between January 1 and December 14. The total death toll from work-related accidents during that period was 1,942.

Last Saturday, 32 more people died as the result of two difference accidents in China. The first, in the village of Donggangcheng, involved an explosion that killed fifteen people and injured nine. The accident is under investigation.

The second accident, in the city of Changsha, killed seventeen people after a construction lift plummeted to the ground. The lift was designed to carry only twelve people, so the police are questioning the construction company’s project chief, general manager, and lift operator.

China adds 32 deaths to dismal work safety statistics, AFP, December 26, 2008 Continue reading

The Worcester Business Journal reports that according to a state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Division of Occupational Safety survey, Massachusetts’ rate of work-related injuries and illnesses for 2007 was lower than the national average and the lowest in New England.

Massachusetts reported four injuries or illnesses per 100 full time workers, compared to the national incidence of 4.2 cases per 100 full time workers. That rate includes the nearly 90,000 non-fatal injuries and illnesses reported among Massachusetts’ 2.8 million private-sector workers.

The highest rate of injury (6.1 per 100 workers) occurred in construction workers, while workers in the financial services experienced the lowest rate (1.3 per 100 workers).

Work Relatively Safe In Massachusetts, Worcester Business Journal, December 18, 2008 Continue reading

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported on statistics involving work-related injury deaths among Hispanics in the United States. The period studied was 1992-2006 and during that period, a total of 11,303 of Hispanic workers died from work-related injuries.

One positive finding was that death rate for Hispanic workers declined during the period; despite this, the rate was still consistently higher than the rate for all U.S. workers. The study found that Hispanic workers in the construction industry are at a particularly high risk of fatal injury. In fact, between 2003 and 2006, 34% of Hispanic worker deaths occurred in that industry.

Potential factors cited included potential miscommunications caused by language barriers among non-native English speakers and employment in work that puts them at high risk for injury. The most common fatal events included highway accidents, homicide, and falls to a lower level.

Work-Related Injury Deaths Among Hispanics-United States, 1992-2006, Journal of the American Medical Assocation, December 3, 2008 Continue reading

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety announced that We Care Environmental, a recycling and composting facility based in Marlborough, Massachusetts has been approved as a Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) participant. This is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s highest honor given to small businesses.

The purpose of the SHARP designation is to identify and acknowledge companies that model best practices in health and safety management. To be chosen for this honor, businesses must complete an extensive OSHA consultation and meet program requirements, after which the state may recommend a workplace for SHAPR certification.

OSHA sets the nationwide standard for safety in the workplace, promoting the health and safety of workers by providing training, building partnerships, and enforcing standards designed to minimize on the job injuries. The only other SHARP-certified company in Central Massachusetts in the Worcester-based printer LaVigne Inc.

Marlborough Recycler Gets Top OSHA Designation, Worcester Business Journal, December 3, 2008 Continue reading