Industrial Ergonomics: What Is It and Why Should I Be Concerned?

Ergonomics is defined as the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment, but in the world of health and safety, it tends to denote fitting a job or a task to a person. This is done for many reasons: comfort,...

If somebody was walking on a construction site and saw a large hole in the roof with nothing around it, they would immediately recognize this as unsafe. It is an opening that leads you to a 30’ drop onto a hard surface.

Skylights are less obvious. Where the drop still exists, there...

For many years now, falls have been the leading cause of death on construction sites.  From small, residential projects to large commercial structures, people continue to add to the fatal fall statistic – regardless of the focus placed on this epidemic.  Sometimes this is the result of...

The warehouse environment is full of hazards.  One of the many hazards that plant managers need to be aware of is protecting walking workers from workers operating material handling equipment such as pickers and forklifts.

We worked with one of our customers to provide a solution that offered a...

In the last article, we discussed the first level of control when it comes to protecting employees from recognized hazards: elimination or substitution.  The concept, while possibly difficult to implement, was simple to understand.  Unfortunately, this second step, engineering...

California OSHA code (Cal-OSHA) is notorious for being more stringent across the board on their requirements than federal OSHA. Their fall protection requirements are no different. Because of this, we here at Simplified are constantly asked, "This says it meets OSHA, but what about Cal-OSHA?"...

Would you like to exit this roof hatch without a railing? This picture is not a fake. It was sent to us by one of our customers. It is a shame to say it, but sometimes safety is not the number one priority when a building is being designed and constructed. Whoever installed this roof hatch...

Some of the safest people on the job do some of the most foolish things at home.  It seems that safety takes on a whole new meaning when you’re at home because, well, nobody is making you pay attention to it.  OSHA has no jurisdiction over what you do in – or on –  your own...

Let’s be honest: not everybody has the personality to be a trainer. It’s easy to hand somebody some information and say, “Here, go teach this to your workers.” They might be able to rattle off that information to their audience, but can they do it in such a way that their...

Safety is a big issue on construction sites. The ways in which serious accidents can occur are countless, thanks to the nature of construction. Federal OSHA’s statistics show that of the roughly 4,600 fatal work-related accidents in the U.S. in 2011, the most recent year for which data...

When it comes to safety, it may seem like a no-brainer that those who have OSHA to guide them would not become complacent. However, for those who work in the construction or warehousing fields, it does not work like that.

Workers need regular reminders about safety so that accidents do...

Sometimes, when questions seem like they should have obvious answers, we need to dig a little deeper to make sure we’re not making assumptions. When it comes to what OSHA considers a hole in the roof, it would be easy to say, “A hole is a hole.” I mean, we all know what holes look...

When the conversation turns to fall protection, railings, skylight screens, horizontal lifelines, and mobile anchor points are often discussed , but what about vertical lifelines?  We tend to not hear as much about this solution, yet there are many situations in which a vertical lifeline...

The following safety huddle lists the OSHA standards that regulate and define the specifications for warning line systems in construction fall protection. Refer to 29 CFR 1926.502(f) for more details. Remember, workplace safety is everyeverybody's responsibility.

Definition: warning line...

On November 24, 2008, a new federal regulation, 23CFR634, went into effect...

IBC is the law and should not be taken lightly.

International Building Code (IBC) is,

"…a model code that provides minimum requirements to safeguard the public health, safety and general welfare of the occupants of new and existing buildings and structures."

In short, IBC...

Safety training isn’t just a good idea; OSHA regulations require that your personnel be trained. Often, it is argued that training is unnecessary because the employee in question had many years of experience with the given work. Years of experience will mean that they most likely know how to...

Sometimes when working on older buildings or on buildings where the architects kindly left out the fall protection anchors, a non-penetrating anchor system is needed. Enter Kee Anchor. Kee Anchor is a non-penetrating dead weight fall protection anchor that uses weight and resistance to safety...

Fall arrest and fall restraint safety systems are very similar, yet have one important distinction between the two. If misunderstood the result could be devastating. What is the key difference between fall arrest and fall restraint?

A fall arrest system will stop you in the process of a...

Perhaps you decided to read this because you thought, "Of course not!  Everyone knows that is a crazy dangerous, not to mention non-productive." However, studies show that walking and texting are pretty much akin to walking blindfolded.

Researchers at Stony...

Pedestrians are some of the most vulnerable employees in a warehouse setting simply because (as we’ve stated in some of our recent articles) in a physical battle between man vs. machine, the machine is going to win…especially when that machine is a rolling piece of equipment weighing...

(FOREST GROVE, Ore.) Fire officials say one person died and a second was successfully rescued today, after they became trapped in the confined space of an underground manhole on NW Timmerman Road west of Forest Grove. This recent headline could have been taken from just about any newspaper...

Falls from height are still a primary killer when it comes to workplace fatalities. The rooftop is the most common area where general industry employees are exposed to a fall hazard. Roof access is not necessarily an everyday part of someone's job, so its easier to ignore the safety...