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?

Work-Related Fatalities in the Year of Covid

“Maybe this virus has a silver lining.”  — Katherine Plumhoff The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its workplace safety statistics for the previous year each December. The injury, illness, and fatality statistics for 2020 – The Year of Covid – just came out. The total number of work-related fatalities in 2020 fell to 4,764, over [...]

By |2021-12-30T17:52:35-06:00December 30th, 2021|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Work-Related Fatalities in the Year of Covid

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

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?

In the Line of Duty: Workers’ Memorial Day

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  —John F. Kennedy In 2016, the most recent year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data, 5190 Americans died in the line of duty.  They were loggers and librarians, [...]

By |2018-05-29T13:59:21-05:00April 26th, 2018|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on In the Line of Duty: Workers’ Memorial Day

Workplace Fatalities 2016

Each December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the final statistics workplace fatalities for the previous year.  The 2016 statistics and chart package came out last month; we took a moment to look them over and there were few surprises: The overall fatality rate in 2016 was about the same as it was for the [...]

By |2018-01-19T13:59:54-06:00January 16th, 2018|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Workplace Fatalities 2016

Workplace Safety in the Gig Economy: New BLS data on 2015 fatalities

“The more things change, the more they are the same.”  Alphonse Karr Recently released fatal injury data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that self-employed workers are almost five times as likely to die on the job as employees. It Seems Like Nothing Much Has Changed As promised, the BLS released its 2015 [...]

By |2017-07-24T17:21:01-05:00December 21st, 2016|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Workplace Safety in the Gig Economy: New BLS data on 2015 fatalities
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