Blog: Workplace Injuries

Oct 14, 2016

Workplace injuries aren’t limited to painful neck or back injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome. There are injuries that can accumulate over time and be invisible to the naked eye. One of these is hearing loss. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 22 million workers are exposed a level of noise in the workplace that has the potential to lead to permanent damage. To minimize hearing loss, the National Institute for Occupational Safety...

Amputation leads to fines at chicken processing plant

Sep 16, 2016

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) isn't playing chicken with fines for willful safety violations on the job. When a worker at Birdsboro Kosher Farms Corp. in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, lost a thumb while operating a mixer, OSHA decided to investigate. After making two citations for willful safety violations related to unexpected machinery start-up and eight citations for serious health and safety violations, OSHA fined the bird processing plant $314,477. Birdsboro Kosher Farms had also...

Workers may suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome

Jun 7, 2016

There are many types of injuries that can occur while a person is working. We can likely list dozens of different ways that a person doing manual labor can get injured, but what about people who do clerical work or work behind a computer all day? Anyone who has spent years behind a keyboard has likely experienced or knows someone who has experienced the symptoms of carpal tunnel. Carpal tunnel is a syndrome that happens...

OSHA to make workplace injury records public

May 20, 2016

Beginning July 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States Department of Labor will require employers to provide information about injuries and illnesses that their workers have suffered on the job. Employers will have to provide this information in electronic form, and OSHA will then post it to a public database so that anyone can look up the safety records of a particular employer. Historically, employers have been required to log information...

Is your office a minefield of hidden dangers?

Apr 22, 2016

It's not hard to imagine how construction workers or others engaged in heavy industrial work could get injured on the job. Falls from a height, malfunctioning heavy machinery, chemical spills or fires can be serious dangers at such job sites, leading to potentially catastrophic and vivid injury scenarios. But how about people who work in an office? Are cubicle workers safe from such horrors in their relatively tame environment? Unfortunately, no. While office environments present...

Daylight savings-related fatigue leads to increased injury risk

Mar 21, 2016

Many people felt the impact of losing an hour of sleep last weekend when we set our clocks ahead for spring. But according to research cited in an article of The Atlantic, more people than usual may have felt the impact in a way that landed them in the hospital. According to a 2009 study of coal miners, both the frequency and severity of injuries increased in the wake of the spring daylight saving shift...

What are some common repetitive-stress injuries?

Mar 9, 2016

Repetitive stress injuries are injuries resulting from repeating a motion over and over, often leading to inflammation, pain, numbness and tingling. These types of injuries are also called "overuse" injuries, and can also occur outside the workplace. Some athletes, for example, may be vulnerable to injuries of this kind. But if you're injured on the job from performing a repetitive motion, you may be able to receive workers' compensation to help pay for your recovery...

Pennsylvania ahead of national average for body part compensation

Jan 16, 2016

How much can you get for a lost leg? How about an index finger, or even an ear? The answer depends on the state where you live. Each state is allowed by Congress to determine on its own how much workers' compensation benefits pay for workplace accidents that cause amputations. The good news, if there can be such a thing in a workplace amputation scenario, is twofold. First of all, unlike having to prove that...

Armstrong County gas line explosion causes a workplace injury

Jul 15, 2015

A workplace accident in Worthington, Pennsylvania has caused a workplace injury to one male worker. At an Armstrong County, Pennsylvania compression station, a worker was operating a backhoe. While operating the backhoe, the worker accidentally collided with a high pressure gas line near West Franklin Township. The collision caused an explosion. The Worthington-West Franklin fire fighters quickly turned the gas at the station off and extinguished the fire. The operator of the backhoe was taken...

What industry has among the highest rates of workplace injuries?

Jun 28, 2015

When we're sick or injured, the last thing we're thinking about is other people's problems. Unfortunately, the very people who take care of us when we feel the worst are at a surprisingly high risk of workplace accidents and occupational illnesses. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the injury and illness rate among hospital workers are nearly twice as high as the average rate for private industry workers — and the agency will...