If your organization has hazardous materials in the workplace, there is a site you might want to bookmark and become familiar with.   The Department of Health and Human Services has as part of it’s webpage a report on carcinogens.   The report identifies agents, substances, mixtures, and exposure circumstances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans.   Since the Hazard Communication standard  is one of the most often sited parts of OSHA, this site may help you inform your employees about carcinogenic substances you have in your workplace.

On June 10 added eight substances, including the industrial chemical formaldehyde, to its Report on Carcinogens.  The report identifies chemicals and biological agents that may cause cancer in humans. According to HHS, research shows high exposure to formaldehyde increases the risk for certain types of cancer, such as nasopharyngeal, sinonasal and myeloid leukemia.  Formaldehyde is used to make resins for household items, as a preservative in medical laboratories and in consumer goods such as hair straightening products. In fact, after receiving complaints from hair stylists, OSHA in April issued an alert about hair smoothing products that may release formaldehyde despite being labeled “formaldehyde-free.”  The other substances added to the list were aristolochic acids, captafol, cobalt-tungsten carbide (in powder or hard metal form), certain inhalable glass wool fibers, o-nitrotoluene, riddelliine and styrene.

“Workers who dig or excavate trench­es are at risk of death if they enter an unprotected trench and the walls col­lapse. However, hazards associated with trench work and excavation are well defined and preventable. The OSHA standard for excavation and trenching, known as 29 CFR* 1926 Subpart P, de­scribes the precautions needed for safe excavation work.

There is no reliable warning when a trench fails. The walls can collapse sud­denly, and workers will not have time to move out of the way. Even though small amounts of dirt may not seem treacherous, a single cubic yard of dirt can weigh more than 3,000 pounds, which can fatally crush or suffocate workers [Deatherage et al. 2004]. Even small, solid pieces of dirt can cause se­rious injuries.”

This is the first few lines from a new Workplace Solutions from NIOSH on Trench Cave-Ins, Preventing Worker Deaths from Trench Cave-ins.

NIOSH has produced many Workplace Solutions brochures available to the business community on a variety of safety topics. Many of these publications are free when ordering them from NIOSH. Our federal government at work.

OSHA has established a new National Emphasis Program for the primary metals industries, targeting workers’ exposures to metal dusts and fumes, carbon monoxide, lead, silica, noise and heat hazards, according to the agency’s directive, which is dated May 19.

These establishments are involved in extracting and refining metals from rocks containing iron, lead, nickel, and tin, among other elements. Some manufacture nails, insulated wires and cables, steel piping, and copper and aluminum products.

OSHA said this became a concern from its review of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and data from past OSHA inspections. The directive says the NEP was developed “because of the seriousness and frequency of these problems.”

“Workers who are not properly protected from the hazards of metals refining are at increased risk of serious, potentially deadly health effects,” said Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. “OSHA’s new enforcement program will raise awareness of the dangers of exposure to metals and other chemicals so that employers can correct hazards and comply with OSHA standards.

OSHA has recently introduced a new part to it’s website, the Injury and Illness Prevention Programs page. There are some really useful parts to this site.

One part I am using is the program resource button. When you click on the safety pays link it takes you to an estimated cost worksheet. Why is this useful? It give you, the safety professional, a way of showing upper management the relative cost of an injury and how much additional sales is needed to pay for that injury. As Yoda might say, “very powerful it is.”

The safety pays part also gives you a step-by-step method for helping safety people get management buy-in. and other useful tools

OSHA has done a really nice job give safety professional a real tool to be more successful.

Check it out.

Washington – Commercial motor vehicle drivers who operate vehicles containing hazardous materials will be prohibited from texting while driving, according to a final rule from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

What do you about WISQARS? What type of animal is this? What does it do?Where can you find it? Why do I need it? How can I use it?

Hopefully you can answer a few of these questions. If not maybe The Compliance Resource Center can help.

What is WISQARS?

WISQARS is Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System from the CDC (that’s a mouth full) that is an interactive, online database that provides fatal and nonfatal injury, violent death, and cost of injury data from a variety of trusted sources.

What does it do?

Users can search, sort, and view the injury data and create reports, charts, and maps based on the following:

• Intent of injury (unintentional injury, violence-related, homicide/assault, legal intervention, suicide/intentional self-harm)
• Mechanism (cause) of injury (e.g., fall, fire, firearm, motor vehicle crash, poisoning, suffocation)
• Body region (e.g., traumatic brain injury, spinal cord, torso, upper and lower extremities)
• Nature (type) of injury (e.g., fracture, dislocation, internal injury, open wound, amputation, and burn)
• Geographic location (national, regional, state) where the injury occurred
• Sex, race/ethnicity, and age of the injured person

Where can you find it?

At the CDC website  http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/facts.html

How can I use it?

• Show the size of the public health and economic impact of the injury problem
• Describe, compare, and monitor trends in unintentional and violence-related injuries
• Identify new or developing injury problems
• Identify persons at risk of injury
• Provide reliable surveillance data for program and policy decisions

Why do I need it?

What better way to sell safety programs than to show management how much an injury or death can cost a company. Using WISQARS you can calculate the cost of an incident and project how the impact will affect your company or organization.

We are always looking to tools to help increase our safety budget and have better programs. Now you can add WISQARS to your toolkit.

April is National Distracted Driving Month

Each day, more than 16 people are killed and more than 1,300 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. Distracted driving is driving while doing another activity that takes your attention away from driving; these activities can increase the chance of a motor vehicle crash.

There are three main types of distraction:

• Visual—taking your eyes off the road;
• Manual—taking your hands off the wheel; and
• Cognitive—taking your mind off what you are doing.

Distracted driving activities include things like using a cell phone, texting, eating, drinking, and talking with passengers. Using in-vehicle technologies (such as navigation systems) and portable communication devices can also be sources of distraction. While any of these distractions can endanger the driver and others, texting while driving is especially dangerous because it combines all three types of distraction.

How big is the problem?

• In 2008, nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving a distracted driver and more than 500,000 people were injured.
• The proportion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of a fatal crash has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2008.
• When asked whether driving feels safer, less safe, or about the same as it did five years ago, more than 1 in 3 drivers say driving feels less safe today. Distracted driving—cited by 3 out of 10 of these drivers—was the single most common reason given for feeling less safe today.

What are the risk factors?

• Some activities—such as texting—take the driver’s attention away from driving more frequently and for longer periods than other distractions.
• Younger, inexperienced drivers under the age of 20 may be at highest risk because they have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.

How can distracted driving be prevented?

• Many states are enacting laws—such as banning texting while driving—or using graduated driver licensing systems for teen drivers to help raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving and to keep it from occurring.
• On October 1, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order prohibiting federal employees from texting while driving on government business or with government equipment.
• In January 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration enacted an interim ban that prohibits commercial vehicle drivers from texting while behind the wheel. In March 2010, a proposed rule was announced that would make that ban stronger and more durable.
• The Department of Transportation recently launched a national campaign to encourage the public to get involved in ending distracted driving.   Put It Down focuses on the key messages that drivers can’t do two things at once, and everyone has a personal responsibility to pay attention while behind the wheel.

If your company ships any type of hazardous materials in commerce you will need to be advised of the new final ruling by the US DOT.  As stated below if will make it mandatory that hazardous shipments are properly packaged and labeled under 49 CFR, parts 100-185.   Failure to follow these regulations, can result in significant delay in the shipment of your package.

Federal hazardous materials transport inspectors will be allowed to open, detain, remove, and divert suspicious packages in transit for further investigation, under a final rule published March 2 by the Department of Transportation (76 Fed. Reg. 11,570).

Recently I was working on updating our respiratory program, and training that both the employee and supervisor could easily understand and still meet OSHA 1910.134. How fortunate that on February 12, 2011 the DOL came out with a new training video.

The 33-minute video explains the major components of a respiratory protection program including fit-testing, medical evaluations, training, and maintenance. The video also discusses the difference between respirators and surgical masks, and features a segment on common respiratory hazards found in healthcare settings, including airborne infectious agents that cause diseases such as tuberculosis, pandemic influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), chicken pox, and measles.

Demonstrations also show how respirator use helps protect workers from exposure to airborne chemical hazards such as formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, which are used commonly in hospital laboratories to preserve tissue samples for medical analysis. These toxic substances can cause eye and nasal irritation, headaches, asthma, and other symptoms. Additionally, formaldehyde is a carcinogen and has been linked to nasal and lung cancer, with possible links to brain cancer and leukemia.

“Employers can’t rely on respirators providing the expected protection if they don’t train their workers on how to use them properly,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “This video is an important training tool that teaches proper respirator use and discusses employers’ responsibilities under OSHA’s respiratory protection standard.”

Intended for both employers and employees, the 33-minute video covers the main components of a respiratory protection program, the difference between respirators and surgical masks, and common respiratory hazards in health care settings – including airborne infectious agents that cause diseases such as tuberculosis, according to an OSHA press release.

Safety’s Impact on the Bottom Line

By Mark Steinhofer, CSP

Suppose your company could make an investment in its business that provided a 400 to 600 percent rate of return. Sound like a fantasy? It isn’t.

Successful owners and managers understand the importance of measuring return on investment (ROI) whenever they put money into new equipment, processes, and even employees. In fact, many won’t invest a dime unless they see solid proof that the ROI will assure a complete payback within a set period of time.

The concept of ROI can also be applied to efforts that lower a company’s costs. For example, if by investing $10,000 in a new piece of equipment you can lower your annual production costs by $25,000, you’d probable see that as a very sensible move that would benefit your bottom line year after year. By Mark Steinhofer, CSP

Looking at investments in safety in the same way can provide similar benefits. That’s not wishful thinking or some kind of trick math – the economic benefits of improved safety have been documented time and again. In fact, studies have consistently shown that every dollar invested in safety programs provides a payback of $4 to $6 in reduced costs.

The key is looking at the money you put into safety as an investment in your business, rather than thinking of it as an expense. It may sound strange to think of safety as an investment, but once you understand the economics involved, along with the negative bottom-line impacts of each safety incident, that viewpoint becomes clear. In simplest terms, the money you pay for a safety program and the people to implement is likely to be significantly less than what you’d pay for a preventable incident.

A dramatic economic impact
Workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities cost more than $170 billion per year in the U.S. Beyond the immediate financial impact, more than one million injuries and 2.3 million cases of ill-health are experienced by workers in an average year, contributing to a loss of about 40 million working days. In addition, more than 25,000 individuals are forced to give up work because of injury or ill health issues. Overall, nearly 50 workers are injured every minute of every work week, and 17 will die on the job every day.

Of course, the potential hazards vary by workplaces, as does the potential cost of accidents and work-related health problems. Factors that have to be considered include the number of people who work for your organization, how many incidents actually occur at your workplace, and the nature of the work your company does. You also have to consider the value of the materials, products or services you provide, because that has an impact on how significantly an incident will affect your bottom line.

The costs you can see
Suppose that one of your best employees is injured three hours after starting work this morning. While you’re concerned about his well-being, you’re probably not too worried about the economic impact of his injury. After all, you reason, your workers’ compensation coverage will take care of his medical costs and compensate him while he recovers.

But injury costs are like icebergs. Just as ninety percent of the typical iceberg lurks unseen beneath the surface of the water, surprisingly high unanticipated costs lurk beneath every injury.

To understand why, let’s analyze the costs of that incident. The “visible” portion is the direct costs. Beyond the cost of medical services (from the ambulance fee to follow-up care), there’s also replacement labor. Your supervisory staff likely had to step away from other tasks to address the situation. You may also face some costs to investigate the incident and protect yourself from a legal standpoint.

The costs that may surprise you
So what are those costs lurking below the surface? The so-called “indirect” costs may include everything from the production downtime and its effect on your business, possibly some overtime to make up for that downtime, damage to your products or raw materials, and repairs to your plant and equipment. You may have had to fork over sick pay. Your supervisors will lose more time as the incident is investigated and steps are taken to prevent future incidents. You may even face OSHA fines and legal costs.

Productivity suffered when other employees stopped working to help, watch, or simply talk about the incident. Equipment they may need could have been damaged – or the injured employee may have been the only one with knowledge about a particular procedure or process.

In the worst-case situations, the injury may cause you to lose a contract with a customer that has very strict safety standards. Your reputation can suffer a significant loss, especially if the injury puts your company on the 10:00 news or the front page of the newspaper.

How much of an impact?
Many studies have examined the ratio between direct and indirect costs of safety incidents, and while there is quite a bit of disagreement over what that ratio should be, all of the studies concur on one important point: indirect costs tend to be several times higher than the direct costs. Whether it’s the 4:1 ratio identified by H. W. Heinrich in 1979, or the 50:1 difference that Bird and Loftus tracked in their study, it’s clear that the injury-related costs you don’t prepare for are the ones that will really hurt your profitability. Click here to use our online injury cost calculator.

Consider the costs of making up the lost work. The standard way to compute that amount is to divide the cost of the incident and its related claims by your normal profit percentage. Multiply that number by 100, and you’ll see how much more you need to sell just to make up what you lost in the incident. If an incident cost you $230,000, and your company earns a normal operating profit of 13.47 percent, you’d have to sell an addition $1.7 million in products to compensate for the incident.

Even a smaller incident can have repercussions far beyond what you’d expect. Take an accident that ended up costing you just $500. Using the same formula, if you’re in the concrete business, you’d have to deliver 20 extra truckloads. Soda bottler? You’d need to produce another 61,000 cans. And if you were in the donut business, that little incident just cost you the equivalent of 235,000 donut sales.

Insurance impacts, too
The constraints on your bottom line don’t stop when your employee comes back to the job. Having incident claims on your record will affect what you pay in workers’ comp premiums, because your EMR (experience modification ratio) will increase. Have enough claims, and your carrier may even refuse to cover you. Take two 30-employee firms, both with annual payrolls of about $600,000. One firm has achieved an EMR of 0.7, so it pays about $105,000 a year in workers’ comp. But the other had a few incidents that drove its EMR to 1.3, and pushed the annual premiums of $195,000. The firm with the better safety record pays $90,000 less.

Beyond the cost savings, improved safety has many beneficial effects. In one recent survey, 95 percent of business executives reported that workplace safety has a positive impact on a company’s financial performance. Typically, companies that implement a comprehensive safety and health program report that employee morale improves, leading to increases in productivity, competitiveness, and profits.

Changing the mindset
Gaining the full benefit of a safety program demands more than simply making it a priority. It needs to become one of the organization’s core values. In addition to providing the financial returns I’ve described, it’s a very good business practice, but it’s the right thing to do from a human standpoint.

The companies that take industry-leading positions with regard to safety view losses from accidents in the same way they look at any other type of loss – it’s a risk that must be prevented. Taking steps to prevent the causes of accidental losses is seen not as an element of overhead, but an investment in the company’s own health. They also recognize that reducing losses improves the quality of products and services they deliver, leading to greater customer satisfaction and increased revenue. That’s why they integrate health and safety into the overall management agenda.

By looking beyond the direct costs of injuries and other incidents that impact employee health, and focusing on the economic impact safety problems have upon the business, management will be in a better position to make confident, informed decisions. Examining these issues in an economic context will benefit the bottom line – and even more important, it will ensure that all of your workers return home safe and healthy every day, reducing the likelihood that their families and friends will suffer the ill effects of an injury.

Mark Steinhofer (MarkSteinhofer@SafetyManagementGroup.com) is an Account Manager for Safety Management Group, an Indianapolis-based professional service organization that provides nationwide workplace safety consulting, training, staffing, program planning, and implementation. Information is available at www.safetymanagementgroup.com/pub or by calling 800.435.8850.