July 12, 2017
According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) statistics, in 2015, 4,836 workers were killed in workplace accidents and nearly four million workers sustained injuries or illnesses.
OSHA’s data shows frequent causes for these deaths or injuries, as well as their compilation of the ‘most dangerous’ occupations based on frequency of injuries. Most commonly cited are injuries caused from: falls on a construction site including scaffolding and ladder injuries, hazardous exposure including a failure in control of the material or proper respiratory protection, improper machine guarding, and electrocutions from electrical systems and wiring.
From our perspective, it is not uncommon to hear a client tell us about their injury and mention that a ladder was old and needed replaced, they were not provided the proper equipment, or a machine just wasn’t operating like it was supposed to. Proper safety techniques and equipment are crucial to avoiding or minimizing a workplace injury. We encourage you to look out for those co-workers who may be misusing equipment and to notify your employer, and OSHA, regarding inadequate equipment in an effort to reduce those fatalities.
You can learn more about contacting OSHA on their website: https://www.osha.gov/workers/file_complaint.html.
Even if your job is not on OSHA’s list of “most dangerous” there are still every day hazards in many other occupations such as truck driving, manufacturing work, nursing and health care, emergency personnel, etc.
If you have been injured at work, or have questions on the Workers’ Compensation process, contact the Zea Proukou team today.
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