Many people nowadays are using rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft for rides to the airport, home, evenings out on the town, or anything else. While these services have changed the way people commute and get around, they also include some dangers. As a user, you must be sure that your personal safety is taken into consideration at all times.

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Injuries to the back can be some of the most prevalent and most difficult to prevent injuries on the job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that more than one million employees suffer back injuries each year and back injuries account for one of every five workplace injuries. This type of injury also accounts for a large majority of worker’s compensation claims every year.

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We should all make it a goal to be a Safety Champion, considering we are responsible for making hundreds of decisions every day that determine the level of safety and risk for nearly every action we make. You have heard many times that we need 1000 Safety Champions at SSOE.

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In many parts of the country, the weather is already hot and humid. Employees in hot environments can be at risk for heat stress, which can lead to serious illness. Older employees; employees with existing health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity; and those working strenuously or in direct sunlight are at greatest risk. Nobody can control the weather, but heat stress is preventable if employers and employees take proper precautions.

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Chemicals exist on virtually every worksite. It is important to know and understand the routes of entry into the human body. In this safety message, we look at the four routes of exposure, and safe work practices around chemicals.

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It’s the season for picnics, parties, and fireworks! Practicing common sense will make the festivities more enjoyable for you and those around you. Here are a few reminders about heat, food, alcohol, and firework safety to prevent sickness and injury, and help keep the fun going all summer long.

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At this time of year, the sun is rising just as many people are headed to work or school. Those driving eastbound often put their visors down very low to block the sun. While this helps them see the road, it also limits their field of view. Since many intersections have only the overhead traffic lights (lacking the lights mounted at “street level”), it turns out that putting the visor in the low position means they can’t see the traffic light.

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At last. It’s finally here! The season for warm weather, grilling, picnics, water activities, travel, and outdoor fun! Practicing common sense and safety will keep you looking good, feeling good, and you won’t miss out on any of the fun.

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According to www.pcmag.com, working from home has some positive outcomes, but they don’t always come easy or are readily recognized. Everyone who works remotely has to figure out when to work, where to work, and how to create boundaries between work and personal life. What about office equipment, career development, training opportunities, and building relationships with colleagues? Working remotely, especially when working from home most of the time, means figuring out these issues and others. Following are some things you can do when working from home and making adjustments.

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Reduce stress when working from home by stepping away from what you are doing from time to time. You don’t need to be tied to your computer. Sure, we need to get our work finished and it is important, but it doesn’t have to cause you grief either. Mix it up a bit, move around, stand up, reposition, move to another location, do a quick exercise, or even work from the back patio. Whatever you can do to keep engaged in your work, break up the stress, and minimize the monotony.

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Are you getting ready to take on some construction work around the house? Building a deck? Installing a fence? New mailbox? Even a simple job like planting a tree in your yard can jeopardize your safety. Many energized power and utility lines are buried just a few feet under the ground. Digging, trenching, or excavating without knowing where the utility lines are buried could be costly – and fatal.

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SSOE, like most workplaces, takes pride in providing a safe place to work for all of its employees. A safe workplace includes designing, implementing, and maintaining safe facilities, accomplished by engineering and administrative controls. This includes job sites that our employees visit and work, and in our offices. Common things that we come in contact with could be hazardous to our employees and others. Safety hazards are unsafe working conditions that can cause injury, illness, and even possibly death. Some examples are falls, electrocutions, housekeeping issues, and even chemical exposures.

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Ten seconds. That’s about the same amount of time that it takes to tie your shoelaces or to fold a t-shirt. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), that’s also the longest it should take anyone to reach a safety shower or eyewash station if they are splashed with a hazardous chemical.

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Ready to spring forward? Daylight Saving Time 2021 will begin for most of the U.S. on Sunday, March 14, at 2:00 a.m. Nowadays, with our cell phones, computers, and electronics changing their time automatically, it can be easy to forget the opportunity to perform important annual upkeep in your home. To keep your family and home safe, as well as prepared, make time for this short safety checklist.

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Why should we pay attention to housekeeping at work? Effective housekeeping can help control or eliminate workplace hazards. Poor housekeeping practices frequently contribute to incidents and look bad from our Client’s perspective. Housekeeping is not just about cleanliness. It includes keeping work areas neat and orderly, maintaining halls and floors free of slip and trip hazards, and removing waste materials (e.g., paper, cardboard) and other fire hazards from work areas. It also requires paying attention to important details such as the layout of the whole workplace, aisle marking, the adequacy of storage facilities, and maintenance. Good housekeeping is also a basic part of incident and fire prevention. Effective housekeeping is an ongoing operation: it is not a one-time or hit-and-miss cleanup done occasionally.

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Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are arriving, people are starting to dream. “As soon as my five closest friends and I get the shot, I’m spending a weekend at a cabin with them. No masks, no social distancing.” “Realistically, it’s definitely not going to be an on / off switch on normal,” said Eleanor Murray, a Boston University epidemiologist. Stage 1 is what you can safely do once you and your close friends or family are vaccinated. Stage 2 is what you can safely do once your city or state has reached herd immunity, where enough people are protected against infection that the virus can’t easily spark new outbreaks. Stage 3 is what you can do once herd immunity is reached internationally. In the meantime, even vaccinated people have to assume they can still become infected and pass along the virus. That means they need to keep wearing masks and social distancing whenever they’re around unvaccinated people.

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OSHA requires that businesses have an Emergency Action Plan for the workplace that addresses all possible emergencies and how employees are to respond. The plan also is to provide emergency response contact information, as well as exit routes, shelter in place, and safe areas for emergencies. Along with the Emergency Action Plans, there should be testing of the plan to verify it works and to run drills for employees to practice. There is a strong suggestion that Emergency Plans be tested to identify errors and to get employees involved.

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Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much time away from work for us to begin to lose the good safety habits that we worked hard to cultivate. When we return from being away from work, our minds are often distracted by what we experienced while we were gone. These reflections can sometimes become a distraction and distractions can place you at risk for injury.

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