Workplace exposure

RSS

People who work in hot, humid conditions may not like the idea of wearing a facial covering to decrease their risk of exposure to COVID-19. But it’s necessary.

Wearing a facemask to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 can present obstacles to communication, “an important and complex transaction that depends on visual and, often, auditory cues,” says Debara L. Tucci, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Employers in the automotive service industry can reduce workers’ risk of exposure to COVID-19. Ensuring workers disinfect keys, key fobs, steering wheels, vehicle controls and all other commonly touched surfaces are among the recommendations listed in guidelines from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (also known as Cal/OSHA) as well as in a poster recently published by federal OSHA.

Whenever muscle damage occurs – whether it’s the result of a work-related incident, heat exposure, overuse or other cause – rhabdomyolysis can follow. Also called “rhabdo,” the condition develops when damaged or dead muscles break down and release cell contents into the blood, according to NIOSH.

Do you work with wet cement, paints or plaster? Maybe adhesives? These are just some of the materials that can irritate your skin because they can contain harsh substances such as hexavalent chromium, calcium hydroxide, toluene, xylene, epoxy resins and lime.

A best practice to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory infections is routinely cleaning and disinfecting/sanitizing surfaces, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Ticks can carry potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Most active during warmer months (April-September), they reside mostly in grassy, brushy or wooded areas – putting virtually all outdoor workers in the United States at risk of exposure.

Heat-related illnesses accounted for 783 worker deaths and nearly 70,000 serious injuries in the United States from 1992 to 2016. And in 2018 alone, 3,950 workers experienced days away from work as a result of nonfatal injuries and illnesses from on-the-job heat exposure.

As many employees begin returning to a more typical work environment, employers must remember to prioritize safety. Here are 10 steps the National Safety Council – based on recommendations from its SAFER task force – says employers should take before reopening.

Feeling anxious about going back to the office during the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s important to manage your stress to ensure a healthy return – physically and mentally, experts at Ohio State University say.