Articles Posted in Boston Work Accidents

Our Massachusetts workers’ compensation attorneys are urging all businesses to take the time and initiative this year to provide the safest work places as possible to help prevent work accidents in Boston, especially among younger people. In 2010, there were nearly 18 million workers who were under the age of 25 in the United States. These young workers made up nearly 15 percent of the country’s workforce, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Compared to most age groups, young employees have a high occupational injury rate, meaning that they’re much more likely to get injured on the job than older workers. Many of these injuries can be caused by the frequency of work hazards that these young workers face on the job. Many of these hazards can be found in restaurant settings, like working with dangerous cooking equipment, working with sharp objects like knives, and working on slippery floors.

Our Massachusetts workers compensation attorneys understand that dangerous work conditions aren’t the only thing that put these young workers at risk for a serious a work-related accident. Inexperience and a lack of safety training can also contribute to their high risks for on-the-job injuries. These young workers, many in middle school and high school, may also suffer from psychological and biological factors that can increase their injury rates. These factors can include a lack in strength, physical shape and cognitive abilities to operate large machines.

In 2009, there were nearly 400 workers under the age of 24 who were killed in work-related accidents in the United States. Nearly 30 of these deaths occurred to workers who were under the age of 18. From 1998 to 2007, statistics reveal that there were nearly 800,000 work-related injuries sustained by individuals in this young age group that were treated in emergency rooms across the country. The rate for these types of injuries for this young age group is about two times higher than the injury rate among employees who are over the age of 24.

The U.S. Public Health Service has a Healthy People objective that is being used to help reduce occupational injury rates among young workers ages 15- to 19-years-old by at least 10 percent by 2020.

Employers throughout the state are asked to make the same efforts, to help protect our young workers. Oftentimes, young employees are hesitant to speak up about dangers, hazards or injuries on the job because of the fear of being reprimanded. For parents, it’s important to talk with the young workers in your life about the rights they have. It’s our job to prepare these young ones, so let’s prepare them with a good work ethic and safe work practices to help avoid a potentially fatal work accident.
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It’s a new year and time to start over with a fresh slate. Let’s start with making workplaces safer than ever by making a New Year’s resolution to practice better safety precautions to help prevent fall accidents in Massachusetts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is all over this one, with an entire web page devoted to helping to reduce the risks of these types of accidents.

According to the CDC, a fall can happen virtually anywhere at any time at any work site. Falls are one of the most common incidents to cause injury on the job. Falls can happen when climbing a ladder to change a light or happen to iron workers who are required to work nearly 100 feet above the ground. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were more than 600 workers who were killed and nearly 213,000 workers who were seriously injured in 2009 by falls to even the same level or to a lower level.

Our Boston workers compensation lawyers understand that fatal fall-related accidents are most commonly experienced in the construction industry, while the most injury fall-related accidents are experienced by those in wholesale industries, retail business and health services.

Circumstances that are associated with fall accidents:

-Slippery floors.

-Cluttered floors.

-Unstable walking surfaces.

-Unprotected edges.

-Holes in the floor and openings in walls.

-Ladders that are positioned unsafely.

-Misused fall protection.

According to federal law and industry consensus standards, there are specific measures listed in addition to performance-based recommendations that are to be used to help prevent fall-related accidents. These standards come with various ways to protect employees should a fall occur. Still, there are far too many unsafe work practices across the country’s workforce as fall accidents continue to plague workers.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is working even harder this year to find ways to prevent these types of accidents. The organization recently released its “Research and Practice for Fall Injury Control in the Workplace: Proceedings of International Conference on Fall Prevention and Protection.” This publication will be used to advance the knowledge of work-related fall accidents. Back in May, the International Conference on Fall Prevention and Protection (ICFPP) was conducted to help the public to speak with fall-prevention experts and specialists to learn about the newest methods and tools to help prevent these types of accidents.

That conference’s information has now been published and can be found in the “Research and Practice for Fall Injury Control in the Workplace” publication.

Fall accidents and the injuries they produce are a burden in many ways. They cause workers to lose time at work, a plethora of medical bills, and lengthy and complicated workers’ compensation claims. Statistics conclude that costs associated with fall accidents cost about $70 billion every year in the U.S.
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A masonry contractor in Massachusetts, NER Construction Management Inc., has recently agreed to hand over more than $130,000 in fines and penalties for failing to protect its employees from a work accident in Boston. The company was recently fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after a safety inspection revealed that the company was failing to take proper safety steps to help protect employees from potential fall hazards. The company has agreed to pay these fines through a settlement to resolve litigation with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The company was first cited by OSHA back in January of last year after an inspector observed that the company was failing to meet a number of federal safety standards. The inspector discovered that the company failed to eliminate fall hazards for employees who were working 17 feet up on a project at Rowes Wharf.

Our Boston workers compensation lawyers understand that all employers are required by law to meet a strict set of safety standards to help to prevent work-related accidents. OSHA is in charge of overseeing work sites throughout the nation to help ensure that these safety steps are being properly executed by employers. When a company fails to protect its employees, serious legal matters and top-dollar fines can result, in addition to accidents and injury.

Fines aren’t all that the company agreed to though. NER Construction Management has also agreed to correct all of the work hazards that were cited in the OSHA inspection, and that it would take the necessary steps to increase safety for employees at all of its job sites.

Safety steps to be taken by NER Construction Management:

-The company will conduct a detailed hazard and danger analysis for each job at each work site to figure out a feasible way to protect employees from fall accidents. These steps are to be taken before work begins at each specific work site.

-The company must now provide thorough training for all employees who are certified to point out and correct all work-related hazards.

-The company must redo the company’s disciplinary policy of strict rules to include managers as well. Everyone needs to be held responsible for work site safety.

-The company has agreed to provide OSHA with a report each month regarding all active work sites. This report is to include all jobs that will be started within the next year, as well as copies of all outside safety audits that are conducted over the next few years as well.

“We’re looking for them to not only correct specific cited hazards but also to take effective steps to prevent them from recurring,” said Marthe Kent, the New England regional administrator for OSHA.
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Last week, an employee who worked for the Tribe Mediterranean died in a brutal Massachusetts work accident. The Tribe Mediterranean is a company that manufactures hummus. The employee was killed after his arm got caught in a grinder at the Massachusetts hummus facility. Investigating officers pronounced the worked dead on site. His body was transported by medical personnel to a nearby hospital, according to Mail Online.

“The only information I really have is that he became stuck in a rather large machine, which some people call an auger and others call it a grinder,” said Gregg Miliote, with the Bristol County District Attorney’s office.

Our Boston workers compensation attorneys understand that the demands of common jobs become more and more demanding and dangerous as we continue to turn to automation and machinery for the production of common goods. These demands increase as economic demands increase as well. Machines are oftentimes better equipped to produce more product than manual, human labor. While there are many advantages to using machinery, it can provide some potentially fatal hazards to workers when they’re not treated properly. Machinery requires the implementation of the proper safety measures, procedures and safety devices, including safeguards, to limit the exposure to hazards for employees.

The Massachusetts employee in the accident was cleaning and sanitizing the machinery when it happened. It was his job to keep the work place and the machinery in line with the federal health and safety codes.

Tribe Mediterranean is the second top-selling hummus producer on the market. The factory has been shut down temporarily so that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can investigate.

The hummus company had just finished an expansion project over the summer that cost nearly $10 million. The expansion had expected to create roughly 60 more job positions. The number of workers after the expansion sits at an estimated 125.

Billions have been handed over as the result of machine-related injuries and fatalities every year. These types of accidents can have devastating and lasting effects on a victim’s life. Employers are urged to utilize safeguards, including safety controllers, interlocked guards and light screens to help to prevent a potentially fatal workplace accident. Make sure that all employees are properly trained to work with the machinery and enact a set of procedures to ensure that daily functions are as smooth and as safe as possible.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, employers are required by federal law to eliminate or to control the hazards presented by dangerous machinery. Oftentimes employers are required to provide compensation for these types of accidents to the victims and/or the victim’s family.
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A fatal power plant accident in Middletown, a shooting at a beer distributor facility in Manchester and a plethora of additional fatal work-related accidents helped to contribute to the alarmingly high number of New England work accidents throughout the year. Every year there are hundreds of employees who die because of work-related accidents throughout the area.

According to a recent release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Massachusetts endured more than 50 workplace fatalities in 2010. This number is in fact an increase from the previous year. Just below Massachusetts in the state of Connecticut, there was also an increase in the number of fatal work accidents, according to Hartford Business. As the economy makes a turn around and more people head back to work, these numbers are expected in increase even more. For this reason, it’s now more important than ever to help ensure the safety of everyone on the job.

Our Massachusetts workers compensation lawyers understand that the large size of both Connecticut and Massachusetts and the high numbers in the respective workforces make them likely candidates for such alarming accidents. Many of these workplace fatalities can be avoided by taking the proper safety precautions. Employers are required to provide a safe work area for all employees and to help protect them from any work-related accidents.

Both of the states accounted for about 70 percent of the New England’s nearly 150-employee death toll witnessed in 2010. In 2009, there were fewer than 140 employees in these two states that died at work. Massachusetts was granted with the top spot for fatal accidents in that year, too.

New England’s Work-Related Numbers in 2010:

-Massachusetts: 51 deaths.

-Connecticut: 49 deaths.

-Maine: 19 deaths.

-Vermont: 13 deaths.

-Rhode Island: 9 deaths.

-New Hampshire: 5 deaths.

“Our goal has been to learn from the tragedies of last year to better determine those steps that can be taken to create an even safer workplace in the future,” Connecticut Labor Commissioner Glenn Marshall.

A large number of fatal work-related accidents that happen every year occur in the construction industry. These types of accidents account for about 20 percent of all fatal on-the-job accidents each year. The construction industry in our state consistently produces the highest rate of work injures.

There are only four types of accidents that contribute to a majority of construction-related accidents:

-Workers getting caught in/between machinery or objects.

-Being struck by an object.

-Electrocutions.

-Falls.

Falls are the number one cause of death among workers and construction employees endure the highest risks for a these fatal fall injury, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In 2010, there were nearly 20 workers who died because of a fall accident.
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A New England company, AMEX Inc., was recently fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for failing to prevent work accidents in East Boston and at its other work sites in the area. The fines came after a work accident in which one of its employee lost consciousness when working in a confined space. The company was issued nearly 15 citations from OSHA for violating the administration’s workplace safety standards after that accident in May. The accident happened at the Senesco Marine LLC shipyard in North Kingstown.

The accident happened when the employees were exposed to dangerously high levels of paint vapors when they were painting the inside of a tugboat. One of the employees lost consciousness in that confined area and had to be saved by the North Kingstown Fire Department. According to an inspection that was conducted by the Providence Area Offices of OSHA after the accident, it was discovered that the company did not take the proper safety precautions for employees who were required to paint within small, enclosed areas.

Our Massachusetts workers’ compensation attorneys understand that painting jobs may not seem that dangerous, but the truth of the matter is that this accident could have easily turned fatal. Employers are required to take the proper safety measures to help ensure workers’ safety on the job. Employees must also be properly trained to work in these conditions. Employers are also required to make sure that employees receive this safety training. No employee should ever have to work in a confined space until the air and the atmosphere have been tested. Employers are also required to ensure that there are adequate rescue procedures in place and that the proper respiratory protection is available should it be needed.

“Confined spaces are characterized by toxic, oxygen-deficient or flammable atmospheres that can be deadly for employees,” said Patrick Griffin, an OSHA area director.

Inspectors from OSHA also discovered that the company did not properly check for the dangerous conditions within that confined space in the tugboat, it failed to test the atmosphere for toxic or flammable gases prior to the worker entering the unit and it failed to provide confined space training for workers that were working in the small space. Lastly, the company was cited for failing to offer workers the proper respiratory protection, the appropriate respirator fit-testing, and for failing to provide any type of safe ventilation equipment.

For all of these problems, AMEX Inc. was issued 12 violations with a $72,000 fine total. The company also was fined $900 for failing to keep an accurate illness and injury log.

The company is allowed 15 business days to contest the findings, to comply or to meet with an area director.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) just released the new “National Emphasis Program” (NEP) to be used by chemical facilities to help keep employees safe from work-related accidents in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Employers are required by law to provide safe working conditions for all employees. OSHA takes the responsibility to oversee work sites to help ensure employees are doing the right thing to help protect workers.

“Far too many workers are injured and killed in preventable incidents at chemical facilities around the country,” said Dr. David Michaels with Occupational Safety and Health. “This program will enable OSHA inspectors to cover chemical facilities nationwide to ensure that all required measures are taken to protect workers.”

Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys understand that this new program was designed to replace the previous Chemical Facility National Emphasis Program from 2009. The new program will be used to enforce the new procedures and policies for inspectors to investigate work areas that are covered under the administration’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. The new inspections will be done at random, and will target only those companies that work with high amounts of hazardous chemicals. Companies working with dangerous chemicals can be susceptible to serious accidents if the proper safety measures aren’t taken to protect employees.

The previous program covered only a portion of the companies nationwide that deal with dangerous chemicals. The new program will be looking over many more companies. In addition to conducting inspections, the program will be working to raise awareness about the dangers that come along with working closely with dangerous chemicals. The new program will also provide useful tools for employers and employees to use help prevent a chemical-related work accident.

The first Process Safety Management standard was launched in 1992 after a number of catastrophic accidents occurred around the world and involved dangerous chemicals and serious work-related injuries.

In 1994, OSHA took enforcement even farther by launching a new program. This new instruction established policies, procedures, clarifications, and compliance guidance for enforcement of the PSM standard under the “Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals.”

Then in 2009, the administration launched a pilot National Emphasis Program for chemical facilities that were covered under the PSM. The pilot program tested the new approach for inspecting PSM-covered facilities that allowed for a greater number of inspections nationwide. Officials determined that OSHA was then able to increase the number of PSM facilities inspected with relatively limited resources.

Employers are required to protect employees on the job. This is especially important for workers who work with dangerous chemicals. The new program offers a list of safety measures and other preventative measures that employers can take to help to reduce the risks of a potentially serious work accident.
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Even more is being done by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to warn salon owners and employees about the dangers that are associated with the use of formaldehyde and the risks of work-related injuries in Massachusetts from overexposure to the substance.

Just a month ago, OSHA dished out a number of violations and fined 2 salons for not taking the proper safe measures to prevent employees from being exposed to the chemical. This substance can cause allergic reactions to the skin, can irritate eyes, lungs and noses and can caused cancer.

Our Boston workers compensation attorneys understand that salons are required by law to take the proper precautions to keep workers safe when working with formaldehyde. So far in 2011, OSHA has handed out violations and citations for nearly 25 salons and beauty schools throughout the country, including in Massachusetts. The fines were up to $17,500 per visitation and were issued for failing to protect employees from overexposure and unnecessary exposure to the product.

“We want to make sure that salon owners are aware that if they use these products, they have to implement protective measures,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels.

In three difference hair salons, test results concluded that employees were exposed to dangerous levels of the chemical for longer than the agency’s 15-minute short-term exposure limit. At one of the violating salons, OSHA inspectors determined than an employee was exposed to formaldehyde more than five times over the allowable amount.

Beauty salons are urged to use products that are marked as “formaldehyde free.” Products should also be free of glycol, methylene and methylene, which are other common names for formaldehyde. If a salon must use a product with formaldehyde in it, it is required by law to monitor the air condition, train employees and keep an eye on the levels of formaldehyde that are in the air. Respirators and proper ventilation must also be provided.

To help combat the problem, OSHA has conducted a number of outreach programs to help to educate manufacturers, salon schools and salons and to also warn them about the dangers affiliated with the product. Back in September, OSHA released a hazard alert to owners of salons across the country to warn them about these same problems as well. This new alert is similar to the September release, but has been revised and was requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Salon owners can request an on-site consultation from OSHA. This service is free and will not result in penalties, violations or citations. This consultation is offered to help owners to improve the safety of their business. In 2010, OSHA program consulted approximately 30,000 businesses that employed nearly 2 million people across the country to help make work areas safer for employees and for customers.
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