Two federal agencies—the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)—have withdrawn a rule they put forth in March, 2016, concerning testing for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This action was taken despite the fact that OSA has been demonstrated to cause “unintended sleep episodes and resulting deficits in attention, concentration, situational […]
It sure looks fun, and who doesn’t want to fly through the air? Trampolines have an irresistible pull on many children; and often Maryland parents buy them because they don’t think they’re that dangerous and, besides, it will keep the kids occupied. Very often trampolines are dangerous and can result in injured kids’ needing emergency […]
Beryllium is a substance that probably doesn’t appear in your everyday conversation, unless you are studying chemistry or you work in certain industries. But repeated exposure to beryllium can cause a number of health problems and serious diseases. After four decades, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) finally issued a safety exposure rule for beryllium […]
On November 1, 2016, Southwest Baltimore was the site of a deadly school bus crash. After that crash, federal investigators decided that an audit of how the city screens school bus drivers was needed. The call for an audit occurred in April, 2017. But as of July, 2017, that audit has not even started, according […]
It was 1970 when serious accident investigation began at Volvo. They wanted to determine which were safer—lap belts or “three-point” seat belts. Engineers at Volvo formed a team and studied the results of crashes where the “three-point” seat belts were in use. It’s one reason we have the seat belt design we do today. In […]
Injury rehabilitation facilities are intended to be a place of healing and recovery. People that go to rehab are typically struggling with the consequences of a severe injury or recovering from a procedure, so the fact that so many people who seek help in rehab actually end up suffering more harm is alarming. A recent […]
We like to think that we have a certain amount of control over ourselves – how we think, how we feel and how we react to the things around us. In many aspects of our personal lives, we do have control. But our subconscious minds can be much more complicated and powerful than we realize. […]
The expression “rolling coal” may make you stop and scratch your head unless you’ve heard it before. To “roll coal” means to belch black smoke from an altered diesel engine in order to upset or intimidate others, such as bicyclists, walkers, joggers, or those who drive hybrid vehicles. Some drivers do it to appear cool, […]
National Home Safety Month, which falls in June, is meant to remind us to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. Accidents in the home take hundreds of thousands of lives every year. The National Safety Council’s (NSC) Injury Facts 2017 reported that, during 2015, 146,571 unintentional deaths occurred in the U.S. While staying safe […]
For some of us, summer is a time of trips to the beach and other types of fun. But for those who work in construction, it means long days laboring in the sun, sometimes in extreme heat and under hazardous conditions. Construction jobs are some of the most perilous occupations in which you can engage, […]