Safety Lately 7/10/15

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Safety Lately is a look at the past week in the world of OSH. This podcast covers autonomous vehicles, OSHA’s new targets in healthcare, and teaching teens about OSH.

You can download the podcast here.

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CPSC Passes Rule for Seasonal & Decorative Lights

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U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has approved a rule that allows the agency to remove hazardous seasonal and decorative lights from the market more effectively. According to CPSC, these lighting products have caused hundreds of fire- and shock-related deaths and injuries. Over the years, a voluntary standard was implemented, and since 1974, the agency has announced 47 voluntary recalls of season and decorative lighting products, totaling 3.6 million units.

Under the new rule, if these products lack any of the three characteristics as found in UL 588 voluntary standard—minimum wire size, sufficient strain relief or overcurrent protection—CPSC will consider the products to present a substantial product hazard to consumers. The rule includes elements of the voluntary standard and streamlines CPSC’s efforts to stop the distribution and sale of nonconforming products. 

Brookings: Autonomous Vehicles Will Shake Up Government Revenue

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In a recent report the Brookings Institute predicts that in 20 years a significant number of Americans will likely travel via autonomous vehicles (AVs). The good news is that the widespread adoption of that technology should reduce speeding tickets, DUIs and towing fees. However, cutting down on those citations could seriously cut into government revenue.

AVs are not exclusively bad news for government, though, since increasing safety and reducing inefficiencies in transportation infrastructure could theoretically save government and taxpayers major expenses. It is a complicated issue, but Brookings points to a report from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that concludes that in the U.S. 7% of vehicle crash costs are paid for by public revenues. Eliminating those expenditures could save taxpayers an estimated $10 billion each year.

Read more at Brookings’ website.

Teens in Florida, Oklahoma to Receive Safety Training

Oklahoma has enacted State Senate Bill 262, which requires school districts in the state to provide training on workplace safety and health to students in grades 7 through 12. The Oklahoma State Department of Education will now work with the state Labor Department to make information regarding workplace safety training available to school districts.

The materials will be based on NIOSH's Youth@Work Talking Safety curriculum. The curriculum includes NIOSH's Core Competencies--eight areas of foundational knowledge, skills and abilities that individuals need to gain before entering the labor force. Key among these knowledge domains are the ability to understand work-related risks; recognize and control hazards; recognize rights and responsibilities on the job; and communicate effectively when experiencing a job-related problem. "Research indicates that schools are one particularly effective locus for the delivery of vital workplace safety and health skills," says NIOSH Director John Howard.

The law follows on the heels of the recent agreement between NIOSH and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) to train the school system's eighth-grade science teachers on use of the Talking Safety curriculum. M-DCPS science teachers and their students (approximately 3,000 each year) will evaluate the new curriculum, and NIOSH researchers will also work with M-DCPS science, technology, engineering, and mathematics administrators to build a sustainable model for teaching foundational workplace safety and health skills. NIOSH reports that M-DCPS has already incorporated safe and healthy work skills into its eighth-grade science curriculum, which will reach by nearly 17,000 teens each year. You can read more about this partnership here.

ISO Standard Aims to Prevent Building Collapse During Earthquakes

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As the world has witnessed throughout history, most recently in places such as Haiti and Nepal, earthquakes often produce crushing consequences, from multiple fatalities to property damage and economic ruin. ISO 16711:2015 aims to help reduce loss of life by preventing building collapse during earthquakes. "Compared to disasters like floods, earthquakes have long return periods," ISO explains. "They only occur once every so often. But when they do, they happen suddenly and with little warning and their impact is often significant."

The only way to counteract this is to identify, manage and mitigate risks beforehand, ISO says. The new standard, "Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of Concrete Structures," will help engineers and architects conduct a seismic assessment and seismic retrofit work to address critical structural vulnerabilities that could lead to a sudden failure when a large earthquake strikes.