A good portion of the general population is familiar with OSHA. For those that are not, OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is a federal administration charged with maintaining workplace safety standards. Every year OSHA is responsible for updating, revising, and administering new safety standards to better protect the safety and health of working Americans.
Every year, many couples also happen to ignore OSHA’s standards which results in a lot of workplace accidents. OSHA releases some interesting safety statistics on a yearly basis as a way to show where companies can improve their safety as well as showing differences from past years.
This past year’s stats revealed some very interesting facts about the state of our nation’s workplace safety. The first interesting statistic, and potentially most alarming, was the number of workplace fatalities. In 2013, 4,585 workers were killed on the job. This means 12 people died on the job everyday. While this may seem like a lot, and it is, it does happen to be the second lowest total since the census was first conducted in 1992.
The next interesting fact unfortunately also has to do with fatalities. 828 of the fatalities in 2013 occurred within the construction industry. About one in every five workplace deaths were a result of an accident in the construction injury. Half of those deaths were a result of one of the “Fatal Four”. The fatal four are completely preventable and include falls, being struck by an object, electrocutions, and being caught in or between objects.
Finally, another interesting statistic that was released by OSHA, were the top ten most violated standards. The largest amount of violations occurred under the fall protection standard. With the amount of deaths that occur due to workplace falls, this standard should be one of the highest priorities for companies. Two different standards regarding electricity were also cited amongst the top ten most violated. Adhering to these standards could go a long way to reducing the amount of fatalities occurring due to electrocutions.
Medlin Ramps is a firm believer in workplace safety. We make it a priority to adhere to all of OSHA’s safety standards and are proud to do so. For more information about Medlin Ramps, contact Medlin Ramps online or give us a call at 877-4-MEDLIN.
