First and foremost make sure your employees know the symptoms of heat related illness

Symptoms of heat related illness:

• Feeling faint or dizzy
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Nausea
• Excessive sweating
• Rapid, weak heartbeat
• Low blood pressure
• Cool, moist, pale skin
• Fever (may be low grade)
• Heat cramps

What to do:

• Get the person away from the heat source.
• Lay the person down and elevate the legs and feet slightly.
• Loosen clothing.
• Have the person drink cool water or other nonalcoholic beverage without caffeine.
• Cool the person by spraying or sponging him or her with cool water and fanning.
• Monitor the person carefully. Heat exhaustion can quickly become heatstroke.
• If fever greater than 102 F (38.9 C), fainting, confusion or seizures occur, call 911 or emergency medical help.

Increase tolerance:

• Acclimation- Workers can increase their ability to tolerate high heat environments through a process called Acclimation.  This process slowly adds the amount/time of exposure over the course of several days to “ease” the workers body into the new stress.
• Fluid Replacement- Workers that are in areas of high heat exposure should have access to plenty of fluids.  OSHA recommends 1 cup of fluid every 20 minutes.  It is also noted that “sports” drinks are not necessary and water can suffice.
• Engineering controls- Such as ventilation or air conditioning systems can be used to reduce the heat stress.
• Timing-Plan outdoor tasks during the cooler part of the day
• Body Cooling Devices- If the heat exposure cannot be limited body cooling devices are available. Examples such as personal fans, or coolant clothing are available at many vendors.
• Training-Train your employees

NIOSH (1986) states that a good heat stress training program should include at least the following components

• Knowledge of the hazards of heat stress;
• Recognition of predisposing factors, danger signs, and symptoms;
• Awareness of first-aid procedures for, and the potential health effects of, heat stroke;
• Employee responsibilities in avoiding heat stress;
• Dangers of using drugs, including therapeutic ones, and alcohol in hot work environments;
• Use of protective clothing and equipment;

For more information on avoiding heat related illness, or for the OSHA rules and regulations regarding heat stressors visit the OSHA site.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), slips, trips and falls account for 15 percent of all accidental deaths, and are second only to motor vehicles as a leading cause of fatalities.

“Last year there were 822 occupational deaths due to falls,” says Don Ostrander, CSP, Director of Consulting Services Occupational Safety and Health at the National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill. “The large majority of those were due to falls from one level to another.”

Simple but effective measures to eliminate or prevent slips and trips can be taken.  Here are a few tips…

• Good housekeeping – Poor housekeeping and clutter are a major cause of slips and trips. Keep the working environment clean and tidy, with floors and access routes kept clear of obstacles. Remove trash regularly so it does not build up.
• Cleaning and maintenance – Regular cleaning and maintenance will minimize risk. Cleaning methods and equipment must be suitable for the surface being treated. During cleaning and maintenance work, take care not to create new slip and trip hazards.
• Lighting – Ensure good lighting, functioning and position of lights to ensure all floor areas are evenly lit and all potential hazards, e.g. obstructions and spills can be clearly seen.
• Flooring – Floors should be checked for damage on a regular basis and maintenance carried out when necessary. Potential slip and trip hazards to look for include holes, cracks, and loose carpets and mats. In any location, the floor surface should be suitable for the work carried out, e.g. it may need to be resistant to oil and chemicals used in production processes. Coating or chemically treating existing floors can improve their slip-resistant properties. In fact, according to reports, 50 percent of facility accidents can actually be attributed to the type of flooring used
• Stairways – Many accidents occur on stairways. Handrails, slip resistant steps, high visibility and non-slip marking of the front edges of steps, and sufficient lighting can all help in preventing slips and trips on stairs.
• Spillages Clean up spills immediately using an appropriate cleaning method. Use warning signs where the floor is wet and arrange alternative routes.
• Obstructions – Where possible, obstructions should be removed to prevent trips occurring. If it is not possible to remove an obstruction then suitable barriers and/or warning notices should be used.
• Footwear – Workers need to have footwear that is suitable for their working environment. Take account of the type of job, floor surface, typical floor conditions and the slip-resistant properties of the soles.  Footwear should be maintained well.
• The soles and heels should be slip-resistant
• The toe of the shoe should resist crushing injuries
• The shoe should support the ankle.
• Outdoor workplaces – Outdoor workplaces must be arranged so that risks of slipping and tripping are minimized, e.g. through anti-slip measures in icy conditions and suitable footwear.
• Learn how to fall- Keep your wrists, elbows and knees bent. Do not try to break the fall with your hands or elbows. When falling, the objective is to have as many square inches of your body contact the surface as possible, thus, spreading out the impact of the fall.
• Teach Balance-As we age we lose our ability to balance.  To counteract the loss of balance, simple exercises can help us decrease risk, it is vital to keeping employees healthy to avoid injuries.

This is the time of year that many young people begin thinking about summer jobs. Many teens use summer jobs to gain work experience, spend time productively, or earn some spending money. Other teens and young workers have finished school and are headed out into the workforce to start making their living.   As these young adults enter the working world, are we doing enough to safeguard their health and safety?

According to research from NIOSH, from 1998 to 2007, an average of about 800,000 workers, 15 to 24 years of age, were treated in emergency departments and nearly 600 died from work-related injuries. Younger workers were twice as likely as their older counterparts to be treated in hospital emergency departments for work-related injuries.

Previous research suggests that the increased risk for injuries among younger workers is related to:

• Ladder Hazards
• Cutting Hazards (knives)
• Work Pressure (perceived or real)
• Lack of knowledge, training, and skills to do the work they perform.
• Less likely to speak up about safety, to recognize hazards, and to know their legal rights as workers.

The new data shows that for workers 15 to 24 years of age (during 1998 to 2007) the most frequent cause of death for younger workers was transportation-related fatalities (this also holds true for older populations).  Contact with objects or equipment was responsible for the highest number of emergency-department-treated injuries.

Males in the younger workforce are more frequently injured or killed than their female counterparts. Also of note is that young Hispanic workers suffer a fatality rate that is significantly higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white workers and non-Hispanic black workers.

Although the primary responsibility for workplace safety lies with employers, workers also have responsibilities for complying with employer policies and practices for safe work, and ideally they can help identify unsafe conditions and help develop safe solutions.

Tools:

NIOSH has a new tool -  Talking Safety, which can help young workers identify workplace safety hazards, take measures to reduce risk for injury, and understand their rights as workers.

A new video is also available for youth education.

Tools:

NIOSH has a new tool -  Talking Safety, which can help young workers identify workplace safety hazards, take measures to reduce risk for injury, and understand their rights as workers.

A new video is also available for youth education.

References

1. Breslin FC, Day D, Tompa E, et al. Non-agricultural work injuries among youths systematic review. Am J Prev Med 2007;32:15162.

We all remember how to ride a bike!

Most of us have come to understand the importance of working on memory retention as we grow older; however, the importance of working on muscle memory is still largely misunderstood. Muscle memory refers to the types of movements which we all perform and which have become familiar to us over a long period of time. There are numerous actions which we all perform on a daily basis that occurs as the result of muscle memory. Walking is one such example. When we are first born we do not have this type of muscle memory because this is not an action we have performed. Our muscles must become accustomed to the actions created by performing these activities. Muscle memory is one reason why it is said that once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget; even if years pass between performing the activity.

The exact way in which muscle memory takes places is still largely unknown; however, it is believed that when we are learning a new skill new neural pathways are built in the brain which eventually forms muscle memory. As a result, we are later able to perform the same movements without giving it any conscious thought. We do not have to instruct our bodies to perform those actions; they occur unconsciously.

Muscle memory is not only important to many different types of daily activities but it can also be important in the way in which we work and in reducing possible pain and injury. Quite simply, the more often you perform a certain activity, the more likely you will be able to perform it without even thinking about it. One way in which we can benefit from muscle memory is by improving our posture. Many of us tend to use improper posture while at work, slumping over our desks, thrusting our heads forward and rounding our shoulders. All of these positions can place a tremendous amount of stress and strain on our muscles and spine. Over time, such posture can lead to serious health problems.

Ultimately, muscle memory occurs over a period of time by repeating certain movements. The more often the action is performed the more likely it will simply become second nature. By focusing on using improved posture, assuring that our head and shoulders are aligned in a vertical line, can help to provide proper posture through muscle memory. Eventually, sitting correctly at our desks and workstations will simply become second nature and we will not even have to think about it anymore. As a result, the body will be less prone to aches, strains and pain.

Let’s look at how low back injuries are affected by lifting behaviors:

Lifting

Lifting is often a high stress activity to the low back. To start with, lifting typically involves forward bending.  The risk of lifting is a function of forward bending combined with picking up weight.  Specifically, it is the weight of your forward bent upper body combined with the extra load you are picking up that can be dangerous to your low back.

Safe Lifting Tips

Tips for safe lifting include:

• Know how heavy the item is that you are about to lift
• Get as close to the load as possible to minimize forward reaching
• Be sure your hips and shoulders are facing the load so as to avoid twisting at the waist while lifting
• Position your feet wide apart with toes pointed out a little for increased balance and stability
• If lifting an item from the floor, squat down by bending your knees so your buttocks are as close to the floor as possible
• Once you have your hands securely on the load, look up and position your upper body as upright as you can
• Lift with your legs, not with your back
• Pushing through your heels rather than having most of your weight on the balls of your feet will help your knees if you’re one with “bad knees.”
• Avoid your low back being rounded as you lift, keep a little arch in your low back if possible

Safe Lowering Tips

Putting something down the wrong way can hurt your back just as easily as picking it up the wrong way. Tips for putting an object down are:

• Be sure your hips and shoulders are facing the surface on which you’re going to place your item
• Don’t twist or bend sideways at the waist when putting your item down
• If putting the item down onto the floor, position your feet wide apart with toes pointed out a little for increased balance and stability, and squat down by bending your knees so your buttocks are as close to the floor as possible
• Keep a little arch in your back and your head up, avoid your back being rounded

Other Lifting Safety Tips

• Use common sense – don’t try to lift something that’s too heavy or too big, get help
• If doing repeated lifting, stop after every 5 to 10 lifts and do some of the standing back bend exercises described above
• If you wear a low back support belt you still need to follow the lifting tips described above
• Once home from work, simply lying on your stomach while propped on your elbows with a little arch in your low back for 5 to 10 minutes can really help undo the effects of sitting, forward bending and lifting

Remember, all injuries, including those to the low back, are preventable.  Knowing the positions, postures and stresses that contribute to back injuries and using the above tips will go along way towards minimizing your risk.

A burgeoning concept in workplace injury prevention is called employee maintenance.

Relating to our aging workforce especially, the purpose of employee maintenance is to impact employees’ “bio-physics” (strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, endurance) so that as they age, they continue to tolerate the physical stresses of their jobs safely. The better an employee’s bio-physics, the more likely the job’s stresses will be tolerated without provoking pain, and without causing injury.

For employees that do develop pain the purpose of an employee maintenance program is to address symptoms before they develop into repetitive stress injuries and costly claims. By educating workers, as well as supervisors and safety personnel, in early symptom recognition, employees are more apt to identify the signs of common muscular skeletal disorders (MSDs) as they begin to emerge. When they understand the implications of their symptoms there is increased likelihood that they will seek solutions, typically via the onsite convenience of an employee maintenance program, before the symptoms put them at risk of injury. Once employees’ pain is effectively managed, they are unencumbered by symptoms to be successful with strengthening and conditioning programs that are integral in the success of an employee maintenance program.

Employee Maintenance – InjuryFree Successes

Since 1995 InjuryFree has pioneered at-the-jobsite injury prevention programs and in 2000 opened its first Employee Maintenance Center (EMC), inside a Fortune 200 company’s paper manufacturing facility in Everett, WA. For the last decade InjuryFree’s EMCs have undergone continuous development, have gained acceptance at manufacturing facilities nationally, and have generated outstanding return on investment for companies using them. At one such facility in Conway, AR, an InjuryFree EMC began operations, under the supervision of the facility’s safety department, in January 2005.

A primary reason for the implementation of an EMC in this location was this plant’s having experienced a substantial increase in the number of claims, particularly those of the micro-trauma variety. As reported in the article, Breaking Through the Musculoskeletal Injury Plateau, published in the Journal of Workers Compensation, by the end of the first year 297 of the 480 employees, 62%, accessed the EMC’s services. There was also a substantial reduction in claims costs associated with both micro and macro-trauma injuries. Claims costs for micro-traumas alone decreased from over $250,000 in 2004 to around $150,000 in 2005, and total medical costs for injuries decreased from nearly $350,000 to between $150,000 and $200,000 in the same time period.

By the end of the EMC program’s second year 70% of employees had accessed the EMC and even greater reductions in injury claims costs were observed. In 2006 claims costs associated with micro-traumas were effectively eliminated altogether, and total medical costs for claims were reduced to approximately $125,000. Thus in two years total medical claims costs were decreased by 64% percent.

By December 2008, 88% of the plant’s population had accessed the EMC’s services. At the time the Journal of Workers Compensation article was published in 2008, the Conway plant had not incurred any claims costs relating to micro-traumas between 2006 and 2008. Macro-traumas had also seen a continuous decline, and total medical claims costs had decreased to nearly $0.

To see how employee maintenance can demonstrate savings in your facility, sign up for a free cost-benefit analysis for your location – available free for a limited time!

What this means for American businesses is that for the next 20 to 25 years our older citizens will comprise an increasingly larger percentage of our workforce. With this impending shift in worker demographics comes a progressively increasing challenge to preventing work place injuries and containing their costs. Simply stated, more will need to be done to accommodate older workers as their declining physical capabilities fail to keep pace with the physical demands of their jobs, and productivity requirements of their employers.

As workers age, numerous changes that occur that can ultimately impact their safety in the work place. Among them are:

Physical Strength

A decrease in muscle mass and speed with which muscles contract is a typical effect of aging that impacts workers’ capacity to tolerate physical tasks safely. Per a 1981 study published in Clinical Physiology, physical strength in people age 50 to 60 is only 75% to 85% of that in people 25 to 35 years old.

Flexibility

Aging workers experience decreases in muscle and joint flexibility. A study published in a 1987 issue of Exercise Physiology reported that “sit-and-reach” flexibility test scores were 18% to 20% poorer in people of retirement age compared to younger adults. Poor flexibility results in decreased muscle strength, joint motion, coordination, reaction times, and balance. Poor flexibility further compromises workers’ ability to perform job tasks safely.

Balance

Another effect of aging is decreased balance. Balance problems can be a function of inner ear disturbances but as was previously stated, these problems are often the result of poor strength, joint range of motion and flexibility.

Pain

Be it in an office environment or manufacturing facility, the physical stresses of workers’ jobs tend to remain at a constant over the span of their careers. However, as employees age their physical tolerances for those same stresses tend to decline. When a job’s physical stresses exceed a worker’s tolerance for them, the result is often pain, if not injury. It is often the case that when employees are in pain, employers’ options are limited to having them continue working in pain, or to open a workers compensation claim.

Employee Maintenance and the Aging Workforce

In the next two decades businesses will be faced with increasing challenges relating to maintaining the health of, and preventing injuries in our aging workforce. In a tightened economy these challenges will be compounded by the increasing necessity for companies to become “lean” and maximize productivity utilizing older employees. How will older workers be kept fit for duty such that their strength, flexibility and endurance levels are sufficient for performing their jobs safely, while maintaining productivity standards? Additionally, as healthcare reform and the recently foreshadowed stricter OSHA enforcement are rolled out, prevention will have to become an area of increased focus for companies to remain competitive and to meet compliance requirements.

Employee maintenance and, more specifically, at-the-jobsite Employee Maintenance Centers are proven prevention solutions. InjuryFree is the leader in workplace risk reduction and has the answers companies will seek as they soon begin to experience the impact of an aging workforce.

To see how the Employee Maintenance Centers can help your aging workforce while demonstrating returnable savings, sign up for a complimentary Cost Benefit Analysis, or read Employee Maintenance, Bio-Physics and Early Symptom Recognition for additional information and demonstrated results.

Workplace injury prevention is everyone’s responsibility. Gain the knowledge of how and why injuries occur, and what can be done in your company to reduce the risk.

InjuryFree, a world-class influencer in injury prevention, invites you to partake in The BEEA+ Paradigm: Identifying and Reducing Injury Risk workshop.

Participants will be guided in this interactive presentation, encouraged to discuss the roles of safety in their workplace and be provided with a proven risk assessment tool, outlining a plan for enhancing the health and safety culture in his or her company.

When: Thursday, June 3, 2010

What Time: 9 AM – 4 PM

Location: Maydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA

Who Should Attend: Anyone interested in preventing injuries and decreasing risk in his/her workplace including the roles of occupational medicine, safety, human resources, EHS and Risk Management.

Come see the workshop applauded at national conferences and commended by Fortune 500 companies!

Visit the BEEA+ Workshop Webpage for registration and more information. See you there!

There are four types of earplugs.  They are single use, multiple use, banded and moldable earplugs.

Single Use

Single use earplugs are intended for use only once. They are replaced when it is necessary to re-enter an area that is noisy. These types of earplugs are commonly produced from foam.  The main benefits of these types of earplugs are that they are inexpensive and easy to obtain as well as use. Single use earplugs are also available in styles which hang from a cord.  This is beneficial if you work in an area where loud noises are intermittent or when you need to enter and re-enter a noisy area because they can be taken in and out and hung around your neck with no fear of losing them.

Multiple Use

Multiple use earplugs can be used more than one time, although they should be cleaned with water and soap. These earplugs are initially more expensive to purchase than single use earplugs, although they will save money over time if you tend to use earplugs frequently. With proper care, multiple use earplugs can last quite a long time.

Banded Earplugs

Banded earplugs are comprised by two earplugs manufactured from foam and held together through the use of a metal or plastic band. These types of earplugs look very similar to ear muffs. They are ideal for situations in which you need to only wear earplugs for a couple of minutes and/or you need to enter noisy areas quickly and may not have time to properly install other types of earplugs. They are more expensive than single-use earplugs but less expensive than moldable types of earplugs.

Moldable Earplugs

Moldable earplugs can provide a custom fit that is unique to your ear canal. These types of earplugs are commonly the most expensive type of earplug and as a result are often only used by persons who need to wear them on a frequent basis. While the initial price tag may be high, it can definitely be worth it in order to avoid the risks of noise pollution.