According to Illinois’ renowned safety group, the National Safety Council (“NSC”), last year the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the greatest number of worker deaths on the job since 2007. In response, the NSC opined that:
Fatalities should never be the cost of doing business. Employers need a systematic approach to safety that includes having policies, training and risk assessment techniques in place to address major causes of fatalities and injuries. Leadership needs to set the tone from the top and engage all workers in safety, identify hazards and measure safety performance using leading indicators to continuously improve.
Of course, different industries have different levels of injury risk for their workers. Those employed in office work, for instance, face a much lower risk of a fatal accident than a construction worker, miner, ironworker, or warehouse operator in Indiana or Illinois. To that end, much discussion has focused in recent months on the serious risk of harm facing workers on the job from fatal falls and deadly motor vehicle accidents.
Unfortunately, not enough of a spotlight has been placed upon the serious on the job hazards facing those employed in a variety of industries in our local area where their tasks involve aspects of the supply chain with its material handling and storage needs.
What is Material Handling for the Supply Chains of Indiana and Illinois?
According to the MHI Group (describing itself as “the nation’s largest material handling, logistics and supply chain association”), material handling is defined as:
[T]he movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, consumption and disposal. As a process, material handling incorporates a wide range of manual, semi-automated and automated equipment and systems that support logistics and make the supply chain work.
Material handling is essential to most businesses in both Indiana and Illinois. Workers who are at risk of serious harm or death in a material handling and storage accident include those employed in the following local industries:
Warehousing
Supply chains by definition require the management of goods, cargo, and freight through the use of warehouses in Illinois and Indiana. Warehouse workers are not only involved in manual material handling, but they are usually tasked with automated or semi-automated equipment to help them do their job.
Warehouse work requires the need to access racks and shelves that can be at dizzying heights, it also mandates work with vehicles like forklifts, pallet jacks, side loaders, along with dangerous handling equipment like bucket elevators and silos.
For more on the dangers of accidents facing warehouse workers, read:
- Warehouse Accidents: Workers in One of the Deadliest Jobs in Indiana and Illinois
- Forklift Accidents: Serious and Deadly Industrial Truck Injuries on the Job
- The High Risk of a Deadly Confined Space Accident on the Job.
Construction
Construction workers in Indiana and Illinois deal with a variety of duties that involve material handling and storage on the construction site. Regulated by 29 C.F.R. 1926.602 et seq., residential and commercial construction sites involve material handling with hazardous equipment that includes things like bulldozers, tractors, graders, scrapers, front-end loaders, and other earthmoving equipment; as well as excavating equipment involving tractors, back-hoes, breakers, cranes, stackers, and lift trucks.
For more on the dangers of accidents facing construction workers in material handling and storage, read:
- Crane Accidents: Catastrophic Injuries and Fatalities in Indiana and Illinois
- Excavation Accidents and Trench Injuries on the Construction Site
- Caught In-Between Hazards: One of OSHA’s “Fatal Four” Deadly Construction Accidents.
Mining
The mines of Indiana and Illinois depend upon our miners to undertake material handling and storage as part of their daily activities. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, miners for both surface operations and underground mines routinely move and handle all sorts of objects on the job.
For more on the dangers faced by workers in the mines of Indiana and Illinois, read:
- How Safe are Hoosiers at Work: Workplace Dangers Increase for Indiana Mines
- Miner Deaths on the Rise: Dangers of Working Underground Mines and Surface Mines Is Very Real
- The Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 – Providing More Safety for Miners and Independent Investigation of Mining Accidents May Never Become Law.
Employers’ Duty to Protect Material Handling and Storage Workers From Harm or Injury
Both state and federal laws mandate that employers have a legal duty to keep the work sites safe for those employed in material handling and storage, regardless of the particular industry involved. Any worker involved in either manual or mechanical material handling should be able to depend upon their employer to keep them away from any risk of harm on the job.
Employers, from management to the site supervisor, should be aware of the dangers involved in material handling and storage and make sure that necessary safety procedures and protocols are in place every single day, on every single shift.
This includes not only being on the lookout to make sure that workers are not becoming fatigued from their work and needing a break, to undertaking training and education programs for both proper techniques when manually handling goods, product, or cargo as well as in operating the machines and equipment used on the work site.
Any worker involved in material handling and storage is given protection under the law in the form of a legal duty placed upon the employer to minimize the risk of injury or death on the site with a well-designed job site dedicated to safety.
When a worker contributing to the supply chains of Indiana or Illinois in one of our vital local industries is seriously harmed or killed in a worksite accident, there are avenues of justice available to that accident victim and the victim’s loved ones. Not only state and federal workers’ compensation laws, but wrongful death statutes and the laws of negligence and product liability may apply to the victim’s claims.
For more on workers hurt or killed on the job in Indiana and Illinois, read:
- Fatigue and Fatal Injuries on the Job: Exhausted Workers and Workplace Accidents
- Construction Worker’s Risk of Dying on the Job Jumps 41% According to New Report
- The Jones Act vs. the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act for Maritime Workers
- The Increasing Danger of Dying on the Job: Fatality Risk Just Keeps Growing for Workers.
Our local communities as well as the nation as a whole depend upon the supply chains of Indiana and Illinois to keep the economy running and to provide for our families’ needs. Workers entrusted with material handling and storage are of great importance and deserve our respect as well as protection from harm on the job. Sadly, federal statistics reveal an unacceptably high risk of harm facing employees today in this country. Please be careful out there!
