Workers remain in great danger of serious injury or death while on the job in Indiana, Illinois, and elsewhere in our country despite the known hazards of our industrial worksites and established safety practices and procedures that can protect workers from harm. The dangers that exist on our worksites and how to keep people safe while on the job are not mysteries to employers, their insurance carriers, or others with legal duties of worker care and safety.
The industrial workers’ risks of perishing from bodily injuries sustained on the jobsite remains unacceptably high. Shockingly, for many workers this risk of a fatal on-the-job accident just keeps rising.
For more, read:
- How Great is the Danger of Workers Dying in Fatal Work Accidents in 2022?
- Rising Trend in Workers Killed on the Job: BLS Reports Highest Number of Worker Deaths Since 2008
- Construction Worker’s Risk of Dying on the Job Jumps 41% According to New Report
- Alarming Rise in Miner Deaths on the Job in 2023, Warns MSHA
- Truck Driver Fatalities on the Rise: Fatigue, Speed, and the Trucking Industry.
So how can we help to make things safer and encourage employers to do more to keep their people safe on the worksite? One way is this month’s national awareness campaign that promotes safer working conditions.
June 2023 is National Safety Month. It is obviously promoted not only by government officials and safety agencies, but also by those who advocate for worker-victims and their families in the aftermath of a catastrophic or fatal on-the-job accident.
Participation in National Safety Month is an important contribution to saving lives in a variety of industries here in Indiana and Illinois that are infamous for being dangerous and deadly.
What Happens During National Safety Month?
Since 1996, Illinois’ internationally-known National Safety Council (“NSC”) has spearheaded this annual safety effort. As the founder of National Safety Month, the NSC tries to help build employer respect for worker safety and increase compliance with regulatory and industrial safeguards for industrial workers in the United States.
This month, the NSC is joined by preeminent organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), the National Association of Home Builders (“NAHB”), and others to promote better, safer working environments with a focus of several distinct industrial risks.
During June 2023, participants in National Safety Month will be targeting known hazards facing workers that involve:
1. Slips, Trips and Falls
Of tremendous concern to everyone involved with workplace safety and industrial accidents is the infuriatingly high risk of death facing workers today from fall accidents. Consider this: fall deaths have become so high-risk for industrial workers that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) implemented its very first “National Emphasis Program” to deal with fall dangers. Read, Fighting Fatal Falls on the Job: OSHA’s First National Emphasis Program.
Falls remain the leading cause of accidents for construction workers here in Indiana and Illinois. These falls can happen from rooftops as well as from cranes, scaffolds, ladders, or any other working surface that is several feet off the ground. It is particularly important for our local construction workers on both commercial and residential sites to have employers participating in National Safety Month. Read, Fatal Falls in Construction Caused by Employers Failing to Plan for Worker Safety.
Moreover, according to the CDC’s NIOSH, most nonfatal fall injuries happen to workers in health services and the wholesale and retail industries with an amazing 67% reduction in worker injuries when proper PPE slip-resistant shoes were provided to workers. Shoes can make a difference. Read, Serious or Deadly Workplace Accidents: Evolving Legal Standards for PPE Work Shoes.
- For more on employer safety steps to protect against worker falls, read the NSC’s Falls from Heights Toolkit.
2. Emergency Preparedness
Every employer in Indiana and Illinois must be prepared for immediate reaction to emergencies that threaten the lives of the workforce as well as others on the worksite. Examples include bad weather disasters, like blizzards or tornadoes, as well as things like chemical spills in a vehicular accident. Worker dangers must be minimized by emergency preparedness plans created well in advance of any event. The risks that first responders may face on the worksite must be considered by employers and companies with custody or control of aspects of the premises, too. Read our discussions in Amazon Warehouse Workers: Risk of Severe Bodily Injury or Death on the Job as OSHA Investigations Continue and Hazardous Materials on the Job: Ohio Train Derailment’s Warning to Workers in Indiana and Illinois.
- For more, employers can turn to the NIOSH Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Program.
3. Hazard Recognition
Having an extensive and current knowledge of the entire worksite is imperative for all employers in order for them to meet their duties of care and safety. How can any employer, manager, safety inspector, or supervisor, protect against a hazard if it goes unheeded or unrecognized?
Housekeeping is imperative for worker safety on any industrial worksite. Certain industries may have special technologies and tools that can aid in keeping workers safe from workplace dangers, such as sound level meters and the CDC”s Aerial Lift Hazard Recognition Simulator.
For more on an employer’s housekeeping duties, read: Workplace Housekeeping and Serious Accidents on the Job: Duty of Care and Supervisors, Safety, and Work Accidents on the Job in Illinois and Indiana.
4. Heat-related Illness
Some may scoff at the summers here in our part of the country when compared to the daily summer temperatures workers face on the job in Florida or Texas, for instance, but Indiana and Illinois will have some very high temperatures each year that can be dangerous for workers on task outdoors. The key here though, insofar as heat-related illness, is the number of workers employed in our local industries that deal with high heat hazards on the job inside facilities like mines; factories; steel fabrication plants; etc. For these indoor workers, heat-related illness is a threat to their safety all year long.
From an industrial perspective, this is the danger of exposure to “occupational heat stress,” which involves things like heat from environmental factors, as well as the body’s own metabolic heat; the worker’s clothing; and the added heat created by required Personal Protective Equipment.
Employers must prepare the worksite in advance to minimize the likelihood that workers will be harmed by occupational heat stress. If not, workers can get dizzy and fall. They can lose dexterity and have a heavy machinery, tool, or equipment mishap. Workers can also die or suffer bodily harm from serious heat-related illnesses.
Safety practices should include things like monitoring workers as well as their individual worksites for heat issues; providing things like fans and ventilation, tarps, and ready access to drinking water. Rest breaks must be frequent and mandatory. There also need to be emergency plans in place for any worker who suffers any type of heat-illness symptoms, including medical care and treatment until emergency medical care can arrive on scene. Read Extreme Heat on the Job: Danger of Severe Worker Injuries or Death.
- For more, employers can access the NIOSH Heat Stress website and the OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool App.
National Safety Month for Workers in Illinois and Indiana
As advocates for worker-victims and their families who suffer life-altering harm after an industrial accident here in Illinois or Indiana, we heartily endorse employers’ participation in this year’s National Safety Month. Industrial workers deserve to be kept safe from harm while they go about their daily work, and it is a travesty that statistics reveal the risk of catastrophic injury or death on the job remains so high.
For more:
- Job Site Injury in Illinois or Indiana: When Accidents at Work Are Not Worker’s Compensation Claims
- Dangerous Work Site: Your Right to Stop Work to Avoid Injury or Death
- Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims
- Legal Protection for Construction Workers from High Risk and Danger of Serious Injury or Death on the Job.
If you or a loved one is seriously injured while working on an industrial worksite here in Illinois or Indiana, please know an investigation into the incident may reveal not only workers’ compensation but other avenues for justice in the form of legal claims for damages available to you to help you and your loved ones. Workers deserve to be kept safe on the job. Please be careful out there!
