There’s a new December Health Wonk Review posted by Peggy Salvatore at Health System Ed Blog – check out Have a Holly, Jolly Health Wonk Holiday from Health Wonk Review. There are entries from many of the regulars – catch up on the latest & greatest.
In other news that has caught our attention
Chemical Safety Board Asks for Combustible Dust Input – The Chemical Safety Board continues to investigate five combustible dust incidents. A comprehensive combustible dust standard still does not exists, and the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is seeking further input to put one in place. The federal agency has extended its deadline for comment to December 31 from companies, regulators, inspectors, safety training providers, researchers, unions, and the workers of dust-producing operations.
A fire, a frantic search and the loss of one of Worcester’s bravest: How the scene unfolded in the death of Firefighter Christopher Roy. Here at Lynch Ryan, we have a connection to the Worcester MA community and know that December has proven to be a cruel month for the Worcester Fire Department. We recently lost a firefighter in the same month that saw 6 deaths in the Cold Storage warehouse fire some 19 years ago, and another fatality in 2011. We salute brave and dedicated firefighters everywhere for putting their lives on the line.
And in this holiday season, we are mindful of all the workers who won’t be celebrating with their families because they died on the job. All of us in the workers’ compensation industry should remember that at the heart of what we do, it is about keeping workers safe on the job. We thank Jordan Barab for continuing on with his Weekly Toll posts, a sad ongoing commemoration of people who die on the job – a reminder that we need to continue to work to greater safety. See his most recent posts, Weekly Toll: Three Weeks of Death on the Job and Weekly Toll: Human Statistics Who Won’t Be Coming Home.
Missed the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference? In addition to recaps at Risk & Insurance, the event sponsor, some other places we turn to for updates are Joe Paduda’s blog and Safety National’s Conference Chronicles.
Ohio Business Owner Sentenced to Prison for $425K Workers’ Comp Fraud It’s not all that often that we see jail time for workers’ comp fraus, but the owner of Employers Choice Plus LLC payroll services company convicted in June on wire fraud and money laundering charges after BWC and IRS investigators discovered a scheme he concocted to short BWC on the insurance premiums he received from employers and pocket the difference.
How Exoskeletons Can Solve Safety and Productivity Issues – Encroaching automation. The skills gap. The opioid epidemic. These are real problems the first legitimate power-amplifying exoskeleton could take on when it’s released in a little over a year.
Temporary Workers and Lockout/Tagout—Guidance for Employers
How Climate Change Is Challenging American Health Care
Shame, Scandal Plague Healthcare Providers In 2018
And in the workplace of the future department:
Will Amazon Make Human Workers Obsolete?
AI in the workplace: Everything you need to know – How artificial intelligence will change the world of work, for better and for worse.
Robots in the workplace – As new technologies bring robots side by side with human workers, what are the safety implications?
Meet AnyMal. This robot recently autonomously performed various inspection tasks of the world’s largest offshore converter platforms in the North Sea in a one-week pilot installation, making it the world’s first autonomous offshore robot.
