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Summer presents plenty of hazards that require the attention of all workers. While the weather may appear pleasant, excess heat, rising temperatures, and too much sun exposure can put your health and safety at risk when working outdoors. Prepare for the hottest months of the year with our summer survival guide.Wear Sunscreen to Protect Your Skin Individuals working outside, regardless of duration, should wear sunscreen to protect themselves from sunburn, skin damage, and potentially skin …

The Biden Administration is rolling out several new programs that will help protect outdoor workers from extreme heat. The Department of Labor will increase enforcement of the latest OSHA requirements in industries and areas facing the most risk. The DOL will also use a Hazard Alert for Heat to warn employers and workers when conditions are unsafe. The White House has announced new measures designed to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, including agricultural workers, firefighte …

Eye Wellness Month is about preventing eye-related injuries at work. Every workplace should install safety measures to limit staff exposure to eye hazards, including chemicals, debris, sharp objects, and excess screen time. Both workplace safety measures, as well as eye protection equipment should be addressed. Prevent Blindness, a volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight, has declared March as Workplace Eye Wellness Awareness Month to hi …

Some folks may see workers wear safety vests over their workwear without a second thought, but these garments are specifically designed to serve a unique purpose, with dozens of different style vests to choose from. These vests are designed to keep workers visible in the field, so their colleagues can maintain a safe distance when engaging in potentially hazardous activities. They also help protect workers from motorists and nearby motor vehicles. High visibility vests feature bright neon co …

If you’re working in an industry where flame resistant (FR) workwear is standard attire, you should know how important it is. FR clothing reacts differently to fire and heat than the clothing you would wear on the street—it’s thermally insulated and designed to resist igniting, melting, tearing, or breaking. If it ignites it will extinguish much faster than other clothing. However, improper care or laundering can affect those properties and make you less safe at work. The garment manuf …

High visibility clothing is a must in so many industries and jobs where the ability to see someone means they can go home at the end of the day. Workers, moving vehicles, and other hazards can be made visible with reflecting tapes, fluorescent materials, and better lighting conditions. Hi-vis clothing is an easy way for workers to see each other and be seen, which reduces the number of accidents and injuries at work. But how do you select your hi-vis workwear?Reflective Material for the Light …

Safety eyewear isn’t like your everyday sunglasses or eyeglass prescription. Eye protection at work will look and protect your eyes differently while still enabling you to see. Protective eyewear frames and lenses will come in types like wrap-around glasses, glasses with side shields, vented or unvented goggles, and filtered lenses. You’ll also need to consider the hazards that you have at the workplace when purchasing them: not all glasses protect equally against flying debris, powder, li …

OSHA requires every worker to wear head protection if at least one of the following conditions are met at a worksite: Objects could fall from above to strike employees on the head;Employees could bump their heads against fixed objects;Someone’s head could come into contact with an electrical hazard.Head protection varies for different jobs. Some are more specialized and rated better for particular jobs than others. ANSI rates helmets and hard hats by protection level and features. Types and cla …

Hundreds of thousands of workers end up in emergency rooms for eye injuries that happen on the job. These injuries aren’t related to a specific job, field, or hazard, but thousands of them occur daily. Many of these injuries are minor and result in only a day or two of work lost, but there are always exceptions, and just because an injury is relatively minor doesn’t mean that you should take the risk.As many as 90% of workplace eye injuries can be prevented with protective eyewear. A Bureau of L …

Welding work presents a lot of hazards. Workers need to keep their eyes, face, and skin protected against infrared light, ultraviolet light, debris, sparks, and intense heat from reaching their skin. Welding can result in a condition called photokeratitis, which is a sunburn to the eye, along with other injuries to the skin and face. These hazards make welding safety protection essential and necessary. What type of protection will you need for your worksite or project? For most weldi …