SafetyBlog

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. According to a recent study, it even costs the world's economy approximately $1.4 trillion, while also consuming roughly 1/20th of global healthcare spending.Researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and American Cancer Society made these startling revelations earlier this month, saying some 40% of the costs associated with smoking falls on the shoulders of developing countries. These costs include $422 billion for healthcar …

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some 600,000 Americans lose their lives from heart disease each year -- and that's only in the U.S. While medical researchers have identified a number of risk factors associated with heart disease, psychological stress continues to top the list as being one of the most influential. A new study further investigates the link between str …

Some employers wrongfully assume that workplace safety programs are too costly to implement. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), for instance, requires employers to provide workers with the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for their respective jobs. For construction workers, this may include gloves, a hard hat, impact-resistant goggles/eyewear, and steel-toed boots. While buying these items costs money, employers should view them as a long-term investment, an …

According to Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) David Michaels, workplace fatalities are rarely accidental.An estimated 14,000 workers lost their lives on the job each year before OSHA was created. While these numbers have declined to just over 100 fatalities per year, officials want to push it even further down to zero. But in a recent opinion piece, OSHA's David Micheals reveals that most workplace fatalities are not accidental.In the piece …

Slip-and-falls consistently top the list of the most common types of workplace injury in the United States. Such injuries are typically classified under one of two subtypes: same level or elevated levels. Same-level falls are less severe but more common, while elevated-level falls are more severe but less common. In an effort to further explore slip-and-fall injuries in the workplace, Liberty Mutual has published its findings from the 2017 Safety Index.Each year, the insurance provider Liberty M …