Workplace Safety Archives

People employed in the retail sector in Pennsylvania know that the holiday shopping season will bring longer hours and heavier workloads. Although some workers welcome the opportunity to earn more money, the increased demands of stocking, packing, selling and delivering merchandise raise stress levels among workers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health warns… Read More

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is taking a step to ensure that Pennsylvania employers fulfill their responsibilities to protect temporary workers. The agency is recommending that host employers as well as temporary staffing agencies detail in their contracts with one another their respective responsibilities regarding compliance with relevant OSHA standards. Having a contract that… Read More

Winter weather can make it harder to work safely on a Pennsylvania construction site. This is because surfaces that are coated in snow and ice can be too slick to walk or climb on safely. Ideally, scaffolding, ladders or other tools that a worker will climb on will be built from materials designed to withstand… Read More

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced its annual top 10 list of workplace safety violations reported in Pennsylvania and across the U.S. The list includes violations cited by inspectors between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30, 2018. All but one of the violations has appeared on the list in previous years. The top… Read More

Many construction workers in Pennsylvania understand just how dangerous it can be to work in a trench or on an excavation site. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 130 deaths on such sites between 2011 and 2016. That’s why OSHA has begun a National Emphasis Program (NEP) related to excavation… Read More

Chronic fatigue is a serious issue for many people in Pennsylvania. From trying to function at work to driving safely, being overly tired can affect every facet of your life. However, when you are working at a construction site, fatigue-related hazards can be especially dangerous. Not everyone sees eye-to-eye on this issue. Most construction employers… Read More

Pennsylvania’s construction industry is an important part of the state’s economy, but sobering statistics reveal that construction professionals are facing increasing workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities when trenching and excavating. From 2011 to 2016, 104 deaths have been attributed to cave-ins related to trenching across the United States according to figures from the Bureau of… Read More

Many workplace injuries in Pennsylvania could potentially be prevented with better employer understanding and responses to previous incidents. The principle that most workplace accidents are actually predictable and preventable underlies the approach of OSHA. This agency refers to workplace injuries as “incidents” rather than “accidents,” because an accident is something unexpected that could not be… Read More

Workers across the state of Pennsylvania often must work in adverse weather conditions, including high outdoor temperatures. Over 130 organizations have joined a collaborative effort to request that OSHA establish a heat protection standard. The petitioners are requesting multiple protections for workers, including frequent rest breaks, availability of shade, access to water, medical monitoring and… Read More

Pennsylvania construction workers should know the most common hazards in their industry. Though construction workers make up 6 percent of the population, construction fatalities actually account for over 20 percent of all private sector employee deaths. Falls are the first of five leading causes of death in the construction industry. Falls can be avoided if… Read More