Category Archives: News

An Emerging Workplace Threat: MRSA

The threat of MRSA, a very nasty resilient infection (which led to the amputation of our father’s leg) is very real.  The cost of having an employee seen by a physician (preferably an occupational health physician) is miniscule compared to … Continue reading

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Keep It Clear: Electrical Panels

Look for new requirements for keeping the area around electrical equipment (panels, shut offs, etc) clear.  This is from a recent National Electrical Code update: Keep It Clear:Proposal for 2014 NEC would sharpen requirements for clear work space Jeffrey Sargent … Continue reading

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OSHA cites Wisconsin company after fire

Fontarome Chemical, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company located in St Francis, WI (just outside of Milwaukee), received 17 citations from OSHA after an investigation following a fire at their facility last year.  Most of the citations and accompanying proposed fines of … Continue reading

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Always something unexpected

It looks like our blog works, but our website was hacked and is in for repairs.  What happens when the unexpected happens?  Usually, you deal with it.  Fortunately, we have a web designer who we could turn to for assistance … Continue reading

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Minnesota AWAIR Program

Minnesota has a requirement that certain industries must have “A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction”(AWAIR) program.  This program serves as the basis for a good safety programs.  The program spells out: General policy statement about safety:  what are the company’s … Continue reading

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OSHA Recordkeeping Concerns

Some employers I speak with have a hard time understanding the concerns relating to OSHA recordkeeping.  All injuries, other than those only requiring first aid, must be recorded on the OSHA log, if you have more than ten employees at … Continue reading

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Personal injury rates are just a small part of the story

Some companies put a lot of emphasis on personal injury rates, as if few injuries is a critical measure of success of a safety program.  There are a lot of arguments against that thinking – few or no personal injuries … Continue reading

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Xcel discontinues VSQG collection

According to the Ramsey County Hazardous Waste program: Xcel Energy is discontinuing their self-service fluorescent lamp collection, PCB services and their Very Small Quantity Generator (VSQG) Collection site.  The vendor list has been updated and is now available here.   

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Diesel exhaust classified as carcinogen

According to an article in the CCOHS Health and Safety Report (Volume 10, Issue 6),  the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified diesel engine exhaust as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), determining that exposure to diesel exhaust … Continue reading

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Beware Disincentives

OSHA has made it clear that they do not like incentive programs that would discourage employees from reporting injuries.  For example, rewarding a department for a certain number of days without a recordable injury.  You don’t want to be the … Continue reading

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