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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As we settle into the Holiday season and we celebrate with those holiday parties, keep Safety a priority. Traveling with family and friends exposes everyone to risks of bad weather, bad conditions, busy traffic, frustrated and impaired drivers.

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We have certainly been facing the most challenging of times. Most of us can handle a crisis or other unusual events when it is a short-term incident, we go through it, grieve, feel fear, deal with our emotions and then we recover. However, in the time of a long-term, continually evolving huge stressor, our normal ways of coping are not always enough. They get old, fall short or we just get worn down. We are seeing increased mental health disorders and drug and alcohol abuse.

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Hearing Loss: Heredity, aging, and exposure to loud noises are the main factors that contribute to hearing loss. Chronic exposure to high levels of noise can cause permanent hearing loss that cannot be reversed. Much of the hearing loss suffered later in life is related to damage caused at a younger age. Now is the time to prevent and protect.

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During times of extreme stress, being aware of declining mental health is really important. Many people are able to see others decline much sooner and more clearly than they may see themselves. It is normal during stressful events to feel some sadness, fear, and anxiety however, if these feelings are left unaddressed for too long, they can lead to more significant problems such as suicidal thoughts, violence, and addiction. It is important that we learn as much as we can about the signs to watch for because we are more socially isolated and people are not spending time with us to help keep us in check.

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Daylight Saving Time will end Sunday, November 1. After getting an extra hour of sleep, our internal body clocks can take up to a week to acclimate to this schedule shift.

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I was recently asked what ESH & S is and what it means. What it stands for is Environmental, Safety, Health, and Security. To many of you, that may seem like “overkill”. To others it is “wasted money”. Governmental agencies require codes, standards, and regulations to ensure that workers and the public are safe and both employers and employees must follow them.

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Bicycling is one of the best ways to get exercise, see the sights, and reduce your carbon footprint. However, bicyclists face a host of hazards. They often must share the road with vehicles, and injuries can happen even on a designated path. With about 80 million bicyclists sharing the road with motorized vehicles, it is vital bicyclists – and drivers – take some safety precautions.

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Every year, thousands of people are impacted by severe weather and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, floods, hurricanes, and ice or snow storms. We can’t control when or where disaster will strike, however, we can be prepared by knowing what to do before, during, and after a severe weather event.

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Labor Day 2020 is Monday, September 7th. Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day weekend also symbolizes the end of summer and the start of the back-to-school season for many Americans and is celebrated with parties, parades, picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays, and other public gatherings.
No matter where you are celebrating, help make this holiday safer for everyone by following these safety tips.

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Hand sanitizer is a great alternative to soap, however recently some have been found to be dangerous. According to the FDA “Methanol is not an acceptable active ingredient for hand sanitizers and must not be used due to its toxic effects.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has suggested that people wear face coverings in public settings, where other physical distancing measures are difficult to maintain. In some states and cities, masks are mandatory in public. The primary role of face coverings is to reduce the release of infectious particles into the air when an infected person speaks, coughs, or sneezes. Face coverings are not a substitute for physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and other everyday preventive actions. As there is a resurgence of COVID cases, we must take every precaution to protect not just ourselves but others, by simply wearing masks and social distancing. Do your part for Safety Always!

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Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

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The term “line of fire” in safety is very common when talking about the hazards of a work task. Depending on the work being completed, there could be many different lines of fire or there could be very few. It is important to understand what the line of fire is and how to avoid being in it to avoid injuries. What is line of fire? A simple definition is being in harm’s way. Line of fire injuries occur when the path of a moving object, or the release of hazardous energy, intersects with an individual’s body.

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Your body depends on water to survive. Every organ, cell, and tissue in your body needs water to work properly. Your body uses water to regulate its temperature, remove toxic substances, and help the absorb essential nutrients.

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Every year, thousands of people are impacted by severe weather and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, floods, hurricanes, and ice or snow storms. We can’t control when or where a disaster will strike, however, we can be prepared by knowing what to do before, during, and after a severe weather event.

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It’s finally time to drag out the mowers and to find the time to stay one cutting ahead of the neighbors. A good start towards mower safety is to follow a simple safety rule called “MOW before you mow!”

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In light of everything that is going on today with social distancing, we must stay connected now more than ever. It is imperative for our mental health to have a sense of community, togetherness, and emotional connections. 

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A face mask and N95 respirator are two types of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that are designed to protect employees from various airborne hazards. It’s important to know the difference between them, as well as the pros and cons of each.

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As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country, it is important to adapt healthy coping methods to get through the outbreak.

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What is Coronavirus? (CDC)

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

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