-1.png "CEWT Talk Podcast Side Banner (blog)-1")
On April 10th of this year, more than a dozen people were taken to the hospital after being exposed to a chemical known as tetrachloride. The spill happened around 3 p.m. in a science lab basement on the Colorado College downtown campus. 12 of 13 patients were released after being treated by paramedics. A CC employee remains hospitalized as a precaution. The incident caused Olin Hall and the Barnes Science Center to be shut down for several hours.
“In 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home structure fires. These fires caused 13,910 civilian injuries, 2,520 civilian deaths, $6.9 billion in direct damage.” National Fire Protection Association
In May 2010, Luis Zaruma, a construction foreman on a Brooklyn site, fell to his death from the fifth floor of the building under construction. Such falls are not an uncommon occurrence. Falls cause 35% of deaths in industry and claim the lives of over 250 workers every year (http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/commonstats.html)
“Young farm workers suffer more than 23,000 injuries and 300 fatalities on American farms every year. Using survey data collected from a random sample of working teens (ages 14 to 17) in North Carolina… the data shows that teens working on farms in North Carolina are exposed to significant safety hazards throughout their farm working careers. A majority of the respondents in this group of farmworkers reported exposure to tractors, large animals, all-terrain vehicles, farm trucks, and rotary mowers, and more than one-third reported exposure to pesticides and tobacco harvesters.” Schulman MD, Evensen CT, Runyan CW, Cohen LR, Dunn KA. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10177151)
Agriculture rarely tops the “news of the day” unless there is a food recall or a drastic increase in the price of commodities. On any given day, agriculture and those who work in it don’t play a major role in the public’s daily thought menu.
On April 26, 1988, an air compressor hose exploded at a construction site on the Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, hurling debris into the street and starting a small fire. Shockwaves from the explosion knocked over pedestrians on the other side of the street, and a piece of flying debris struck one of them. Accidents such as this emphasize the need for care when working with pneumatic tools (tools that are powered by compressed air).
Every year, thousands of people get sick or even die from a silent killer in the workplace.
Many people are exposed to heat on the job—outdoors or in hot indoor environments. Operations involving high air temperatures, radiant heat sources, high humidity, direct physical contact with hot objects, or strenuous physical activities have a high potential for causing heat-related illness.
When most people think of cold stress, they think of frigid temperatures or blizzard-like conditions. Actually, cold stress occurs most often in the spring and fall, rather than winter. Four factors can contribute to cold stress: cold temperatures, high or cold wind, humidity, and cold water. A cold environment forces the body to work harder to maintain its temperature. Cold air, water, and snow all draw heat from the body. The wind chill is the combination of air temperature and wind speed. For example, when the air temperature is 40°F, and the wind speed is 35 mph, your exposed skin receives conditions equivalent to the air temperature being 11° F.
You may think that cold stress occurs only when the weather is sub-zero, but that is absolutely not true. There are a number of factors that can lead to cold stress, including the temperature, the humidity, and whether or not there is wind. People have suffered hypothermia on windy, humid days when the temperature is in the 50s. Keep this in mind when working out in the cold.
When you think of cold stress, no doubt hypothermia comes to mind automatically, but there are several other types. There are four cold-stress conditions common to the workplace. Knowing their symptoms and what to do in case they happen to you or someone near you can keep everyone safe from these easily preventable illnesses. These cold-induced illnesses are hypothermia, cold-water immersion (also called immersion hypothermia), frostbite, and trench foot.
