Deadly Jobs Revisited

“Automation is driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks.”  — Amber Rudd Five years ago, I had the opportunity to give a TED talk called “Deadly Jobs”. I talked about the hazards that consistently contribute to work-related fatalities and the deadly occupations in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released [...]

By |2024-01-11T14:18:16-06:00January 11th, 2024|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Deadly Jobs Revisited

The New BLS Fatality Report: Safety in a Post-Pandemic World

“The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.”  — Chinua Achebe Back in December 2021, the BLS report showed that for 2020, the Year of the Pandemic, the total number of work-related fatalities in the U.S. was 4,764. That was significantly less than for the year before. The [...]

By |2024-01-04T12:01:38-06:00January 4th, 2024|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on The New BLS Fatality Report: Safety in a Post-Pandemic World

Avoiding the Streetlight Effect: How Does the CPI Really Get Safer?

“The battle of getting better is never ending.”  — Antonio Brown There’s an old joke about someone looking for their keys under a streetlight. A passerby offered to help but after a while, asked, “Are you sure this is where you lost them?” “No, I lost them over there in the park.” “Then why are [...]

By |2023-01-05T15:25:30-06:00January 5th, 2023|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Avoiding the Streetlight Effect: How Does the CPI Really Get Safer?

The Latest Work Fatality Data: Are We Getting Better?

“It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Very, very, very often said.” – Daniel D’Addorio The end of one year and the beginning of a new year is often a time of reflection and planning. Reflection on what we did right [...]

By |2022-12-22T17:54:53-06:00December 22nd, 2022|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on The Latest Work Fatality Data: Are We Getting Better?

The Good Old Days: Never Again

“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.”  — Doug Larson It’s hard to imagine the New York skyline without the Statue of Liberty. The Paris skyline without the Eiffel Tower. The San Francisco skyline without the Golden Gate Bridge. The Saint Louis skyline without the Gateway Arch. But [...]

By |2022-11-03T15:06:31-05:00November 3rd, 2022|Workplace Safety|1 Comment

Is There a Season of Death? Work-Related Fatalities

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to harvest.”  — Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 When October rolls around and plans for Halloween are being made, thoughts often turn to autumn as a time [...]

By |2022-10-27T15:11:51-05:00October 27th, 2022|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Is There a Season of Death? Work-Related Fatalities

Process Safety: Addressing Risk or Dread?

“The risks that scare people and the risks that kill people are very different.”  — Peter Sandman I often wonder if work in process safety is a misallocation of resources. The leading cause of work-related fatalities is transportation, at about 40%. The next three (of seven causes identified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), all [...]

By |2022-01-06T19:10:09-06:00January 6th, 2022|Chemicals, PHA, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Process Safety: Addressing Risk or Dread?

BLS Fatality Statistics for 2019: Like a Shark

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.  And I think what we got on our hands is dead shark.”  — Woody Allen, in Annie Hall The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases their workplace fatality statistics in December for the previous year. So, here [...]

By |2020-12-24T19:52:22-06:00December 24th, 2020|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on BLS Fatality Statistics for 2019: Like a Shark

Workplace Safety: As Good As It Gets?

“What if this is as good as it gets?”  — Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets, directed by James L. Brooks The year 2009 was first time I ever studied a graph of work-related fatality rates in the U.S. The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was available for [...]

By |2020-07-09T16:27:25-05:00July 9th, 2020|Current Events, Workplace Safety|2 Comments

2018 BLS Fatality Report: Has Anything Changed?

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”  — Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr When I was a young engineer living in a small town in central Massachusetts, I would walk into the town center to pick up groceries and go to the post office. On the way, there was a body shop. I got [...]

By |2019-12-26T16:34:36-06:00December 26th, 2019|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on 2018 BLS Fatality Report: Has Anything Changed?
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