Episode 138 - OSHA Update

This week, we take a brief look at what is on the horizon with OSHA for 2024

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Welcome to the leading and learning through safety podcast. Your host is Dr. Mark French marks passion is helping organizations motivate their teams. This podcast is focused on bringing out the best in leadership through creating strong values, learning opportunities, teamwork, and safety. Nothing is more important than protecting your people. Safety creates an environment for empathy, innovation, and empowerment. Together, we'll discover meaning and purpose through shaping our safety culture. Thanks for joining us this episode. And now, here is Dr. Mark French. Hello, and welcome to the leading and learning through safety podcast. So happy that you have joined me this week. So excited as we get toward the end of the year. 2024 is just around the corner. And with that, you know, we're going to take a look ahead and see what's happening in the world of safety. What can we expect, and have a little fun along the way? That's kind of my goal. Of course, if we're not having fun, why are we doing it? But again, so happy you're with me, let's, let's get started here, I really want to start off with some news that actually came right from OSHA of some changes that they are making in the federal system, I think is really cool. I think it's a really great idea. I think it's leading by example. I think he creates a really great thing. And that is something simple is that this came out December 11, from OSHA from their actual office communications. And basically they're announcing they're switching from traditional hard hats to safety helmets to protect their agency employees better. So basically, what you're looking at the difference, there's a traditional hard hat was, you see them everywhere, they're kind of big, bulky, have a lot of space, you'd have to crank them down from the back to hold them in place. These newer Helmets look like rock climbing helmets, they fit over the head better, they tighten around the crown of the head. But then they also have a chin strap underneath that really holds it in place. You connect accessories like face shield or even goggles on top of it. It's a little sleeker looking, I think it holds on better. I think it's a better process. There may be those out there who don't like them. And I would love to hear the reasoning. I would love to learn more. But personally, I think it's absolutely fantastic. In 2020. They state the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that head injuries accounted for 6% of non fatal occupations. And 20% were caused by slip trips and falls hitting your head. So they recommend using the safety helmets more rather than the traditional hard hand which has been around for a long time. For me, and I'll take a step back for years ago, I was in a factory environment. And we had bumped caps, they loved using bump caps because there was a lot of like opportunities for those head bumps. Nothing really overhead that was going to hit you hard or anything. But there were people who Hey, they just bumped their head. So we we did the bump cap thing. And those don't fit very well to be perfectly honest. I had mine tightened down but every time I'd bend over it, but it would fall off and hit the floor and I'd have to pick it up, put it back on and it drove me nuts that dry evidently have a sensory issue with things in my head that if it's on me, it better stay on me. I don't like things falling off. just drives me crazy. If I think something is slight, like even my backpack, if I have a bag on my shoulder and I feel it slipping it, it absolutely will drive me nuts. And so I can't stand things that feel like they're slipping off. And at the time I was helping like with a process. They needed some help lend an extra hand out there. And it was a lot of bending down, reaching up bending down helping out pick up things out of out of a crate and putting it on a line and it just kept falling off. So I thought well, you know, I will switch to a hardhat I wouldn't get my hard hat for when we were doing construction work. And I ratcheted that thing down tight as I could on my head. Even that would occasionally slip off my head now whether or I don't know what it is about my head, I don't even want to speculate on that of what causes it to not fit me right, so that it falls off so frequently and so easily. And I remember that I mean, this is a very this is probably 10 years ago, and it's probably one of my, like crystal clear memories of losing that darn hard hat or losing that bump cap off my head so often and constantly readjusting, constantly putting it back on constantly tightening it down. And so now that we're moving toward this really nicer, sleeker helmet with the chin strap that holds it on, I'm excited. I had been encouraging it in industry for a little while. But there wasn't a lot of choices, like the choices of that style. One is more expensive. Granted, the cost of it is more, it does offer more side protection, it offers the fact that it's on better. It offers some different stability. And I think it's really an interesting move, and there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity out there to find them. And even now it's starting to get better, where you can find enough you can get them logoed. Like you, I mean, gosh, there are so many styles of hardhat out there, they're shaped like cowboy hats, there's the full brim, there's the like the Explorer helmet, and you could get them all colors, all kinds of really neat logos on there, there's just so many options. And now we see the shift, I think it's going to open up the market to find better equipped helmets rather than hard hats. And with cooler designs, like I was looking around for just a plain white that we can logo. And it took a little bit of work to find a location that could do that. And then what if I wanted high vis for other types of work? Well, that got a little harder would if I wanted other things. And even the accessories that might be used are not as easy to get a hold of, as really should be. And I think this is going to open up the market to where there's going to be a need with the demand will come the product, which is absolutely fantastic. I cannot wait. And I am actually seeing it more and more. As I'm traveling back and forth. There seems to be a lot of infrastructure work at airports, like most airports I'm traveling to now we're doing major renovations. And there's a lot of construction work going on. Especially in the early morning late at night when they can get in there the most. It I'm seeing a lot more of those construction workers moving toward the helmet style. And I'm really impressed by that because you can still put all your cool stickers on there, you can logo it. I found it the first time I saw one that had like the integrated goggle that you were wearing, you say you just flip it down, locks in place and you've got these really nice or big face shield. If you're grinding or something like that you can flip down the face shield and it's right there with you can add a line on it. So many I mean, the accessories are starting to show up. And there's even a technical like head protection safety helmets, the workplace that came out of like an Information Bulletin talking about why OSHA is adopting to move to a helmet, rather than the traditional hardhat. And they walk through like what are their risks environment, making sure it's cleaned and stored all that stuff. But it really goes into more detail of the protection that it's offering versus the traditional hardhat. And you can get them the one I actually found a couple of samples. There's one that has vents. But there's little slider that you can open or close the vent. Now us day pretty warm most of the time, maybe why my hat comes off, maybe it's steam steam driven. So as I'm getting warm, the steam off my head is just pushing the hard head up and off. Sure that makes no sense. But I liked the idea. But it has a sliding vent on the sides. I can open it and close it. Now leave it open but they have vented non vented they have the hybrid there that you can open and close. I found some really neat accessories and items for those things. So anyway, I think it's a it's a really interesting move from the government to lead by example. Now normally, yeah, I'm gonna say it. Maybe I thought better of that lamb was that, you know, a lot of times we don't see the government lead by example. They issue the law, they issue the edict, everyone else follows it. It's nice to see whether you disagree or with everything else they may do. It least they're adopting a standard and saying we're going to go forward first we're going to make the change. I know other industries have made the change proactively, but they're kind of setting the The standard for leading by example, I think that's really cool. Anyway, let's talk more about safety and what's coming up in the next year on the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast. humanizing the workplace, it is the leading a learning through safety podcast, do USDA consulting, learn you lead others, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is an amazing tool. The problem is that it can be easily misinterpreted. Dr. Mark French is MBTI certified and ready to help you discover your inner strengths. The MBTI assessment can help with team building stress management, communication, conflict management, and so much more. Individual and group sessions are available to help you discover what makes you great. For more information, visit us on the web at T SDA consulting.com. And welcome back to the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast. So we talked last week about some of the findings of the aggregate data from 2022. And the occupational illnesses and occupational fatalities that was reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a week or so ago, we talked about the respiratory issues that came from that and just the awareness of it, I want to take another step into that data. Just to look at where should we be focused, I know it's the data is old, because I can't aggregate the data until the year is close. So we won't see 2023 till around this time next year. But it gives us an idea of the focus that we need to have as leaders and safety professionals, to protect our teams, and to be engaged with our teams as we do that. So when we look at the census of fatal injuries, and I will put a link into this. So if you follow my Facebook page, if you follow me on LinkedIn, it will be there in the comments where you see the podcast right there in the comments, I'll have the link, go there and look at it yourself. Some of the key findings and these are just these are sobering to me especially that a worker died every 96 minutes from a work related injury and 2022 compared to 101 minutes and 2021. So we by five minutes there were and that adds up. When you look at that every every so many minutes over the course of a day, a week, a month a year, it does add up to showing how severe it became. And the direction that we're taking for si F reduction, significant incidents and fatalities. The focus on that. Now some of the data of course with the respiratory, some people are arguing that data. Still people were losing their lives, and something to focus on. So fatalities due to violence and was up by 11.6%. There has been a lot of talk about the violence standards in OSHA, rather than following the general duty call clause trying to find a better way. In trying to find a law to protect people from violence. A lot of the focus were retail, and medical, where there may be a patient or someone who is in distress and lashes out against health care workers, or the dangers of going into other people's homes as is home health care. That seems to have stalled. And there's been some quite a bit of discussion about that the workplace violence is becoming something that really should be focused on and it's not a security issue alone. It is a security and safety issue. And it should be addressed that way. Who else is going to legislate it when there's really not security regulations for that? OSHA has to and so OSHA has taken the lead and trying to draft a standard it's held up pretty strongly. And so we're waiting to see I expect 2024 will bring more discussion on workplace violence. I think we're gonna see more education on how to prevent it. And more, hopefully, industry standards. Hopefully, there will be more discussion and more investment in the research to help create programs that even before OSHA can adopt anything that those that are wanting to drive, better processes for their team will have some guidance, have some real science, some real guidance to what's working in those cases. Work because in the transportation moving occupations experienced 1600 20, fatal injuries and 22 and represent the occupational group with the most fatalities. The next highest was construction and extraction workers, and they had an 11% increase from the year before. So the transportation being on the road being out there are we going to see more protections for road, people that are on the road and those protections, I don't see anything on the forefront coming from that other than a lot of it is driven by the insurance industry, that the insurance industry if you have, and I'll give you a quick, maybe you know this, but I'm gonna give you this quick tip anyway, some of the biggest if you have people in fleet vehicles, people, your insurance company cares a whole lot about those people that are behind the wheel. If they're in one of your company, vehicles, your insurance cares. And they probably have someone who specializes, maybe a team of people who specialize in motor vehicle awareness, motor vehicle and road safety, they have probably plenty of resources to give you if you make the phone call, I found that you usually have to request it. A lot of times they don't just come out and say hey, we have all these great resources unless you just get lucky and stumble into a conversation. But if you reach out to your insurance company, whoever's holding your, your overall workplace, either even your workers compensation policy or your vehicle policy, and just give them a call or an email, I imagine and almost certain, they will have some resources that you could tap into, to help educate guide policies, whatever you would need to have a better Motor Vehicle program, because that's very dangerous. One of the most dangerous things we do every day is travel to work. If you have to commute at all, if you get behind the wheel, or commuting. That's exceptionally dangerous. Statistically speaking, that's one of the most dangerous things we do. So same thing with workers on the road, it creates that and we are seeing a lot of these businesses say return to the office hybrid or return to the office. More people are going to be on the road. And so statistically, with more people on the road, there will be more wrecks more injuries, made more fatalities and with more people means that those who are driving occupationally have more people to dodge around, that may not be paying attention that may not have the training, or the oversight or the expectations of the people that are around them. So it's a tough one there to think about having to how do you design that policy and get ready for what could be from? Ah, you know, there's thinking ahead there. And it's gonna be up to us to create that as safety and leaders. For sure. So I'm glad you joined me for this episode. Got to talk a little bit about what what are we seeing from OSHA? What do we expect? What can we maybe not expect as things stall in the legislative sessions trying to help create better policy for a safety people to fall behind and to guide people with? I'm happy you join me. Thanks for being a part of the podcast. Wow. I am really excited. Again, we're reaching the end of the year. It's been a good year, and I think next year will be even more exciting for this podcast. As new things new events, new items are going to come up and until next time, we chat. Stay safe. Thank you for listening to the leading and learning through safety podcast, more content is available online@www.ts da consulting.com. All the opinions expressed on the podcast are solely attributed to the individual and not affiliated with any business entity. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for proper policy, appropriate training or legal advice. This has been the lead Reading and Learning Through safety podcast