Recognizing workplace violence as a serious occupational hazard that has ranked among the top causes of death in workplaces in recent years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued a directive on ‘Enforcement Procedures for Investigating or Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence’ that establishes general policy guidance and procedures for OSHA field offices to apply when conducting inspections in response to incidents of workplace violence. The OSHA directive is available at http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/Directive_pdf/CPL_02-01-052.pdf. (more…)

According to recently released preliminary results of the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a total of 4,547 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2010, a figure nearly identical to the final count of 4,551 fatal work injuries recorded in 2009. The CFOI program also reported that the rates of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2010 and 2009 were the same: 3.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers. (more…)