Manufacturing Company with a High DART Rate?

OSHA places high-hazard manufacturing and maritime industries at the top of its inspection list. Here's the list for 2012, shown in three sortings: by NAICS, alphabetically, and by DART..

What Florida Small Businesses Say about the USF SafetyFlorida Consultation Team

The on-site consultation program has had a broad impact on Cable USA. It has changed the culture of our organization to that of a team. The SHARP award could not have been achieved without a team effort, and when teamwork improves, productivity and quality improve as well.-- Devin Brock, Vice President of Operations, CableUSA

I am a HUGE fan of University of South Florida SafetyFlorida. I firmly believe that their services have made Marpan Recycling a much safer and therefore productive workplace. -- Nancy Stephens, General Manager, Marpan Recycling, Tallahassee

(The consultation) was nothing but good for us. It was a very positive experience and brought our safety program up to a new level. – Teresa Nealer, Safety and Health manager, Florida’s Blood Centers, Orlando. Achieved a twenty-four percent reduction in workers’ compensation modification rate.

It can help you and even save one of your employee's lives. – Gus Cagigas, Safety Coordinator, Portside Maintenance and Repair. Zero DART rate for past two years.

How Companies Profit from Safety

Florida Underwriter describes how insurance brokers recommend USF SafetyFlorida to their clients for free consultations and the SafetyWriter, the online safety plan builder.

850, The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida, documents the safety attitudes and practices that save money for a construction firm and a high-end commercial woodworking business.

Jacksonville Business Journal describes how USF SafetyFlorida helps companies Increase Profits through Workplace Safety.

In the News

OSHA Salutes Two Florida Small Businesses

Gate Precast and Orbeco-Hellige earn OSHA praise for safety management.

OSHA Letter to Beverage Distribution Companies

Beverage workers have a significantly higher rate of musculoskeletel injuries than workers in most other industries. Here's what you can do!

Preventing Residential Construction Falls

OSHA guidelines help prevent fall-related injuries and deaths and demonstrate work methods for complying with OSHA fall protection directive. See OSHA's new fall protection video for helpful details you can apply to your job sites.

New and Revised OSHA Publications

Aerial Lifts Quick Card

Aerial Lifts Fall Protection Over Water in Shipyards Quick Card

Employee Rights and Responsibilities Following a Federal OSHA Inspection

Laboratory Safety

Permit-Required Confined Spaces in General Industry

Disney's Kelly Bernish and OSHA's Debbie Berkowitz named 100 Women Making a Difference in Safety

The American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Women in Safety Engineering (WISE) Common Interest Group has honored OSHA Chief of Staff Debbie Berkowitz and Disney's Kelly Bernish, Michelle Demarest, Heather Earl, and Jennifer Zipeto for making a difference in the safety, health and environmental field as part of the WISE ‘100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety' project. WISE recognized Berkowitz for her work at OSHA, where she "assists in making changes to benefit the health, safety and well-being of millions of workers across the United States." The ‘100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety' project honors women who, throughout history, have dedicated their careers to promoting innovation in safety, health and environmental issues.

Ending Grain Storage Deaths

You're thinking about the Mid-West, right? But it was a Florida grain storage fatality 15 years ago that caused OSHA to take a new look at its grain storage standard. Here is the latest update on grain storage safety guidance.

OSHA standards don't kill jobs. They stop jobs from killing workers.

OSHA chief on cost benefit of safety regs.

OSHA Updates Shipbreaking Emphasis Program

OSHA inspections of shipbreaking operations will focus on 20 worker safety and health issues, including asbestos and lead exposure, polychlorinated biphenlys, confined spaces, heavy metals, powered industrial trucks, guarding of deck edges, oil/fuel removal and tank cleaning, hearing conservation, fire prevention, scaffolds, cutting and welding, and personal protective equipment. Also, new online OSHA publication helps protect shipyard workers during rigging operations.

Florida Division of Workers' Comp Releases Annual Report

Did you know that 3% of injured workers who reported lost-time claims last year had filed at least two additional claims in the preceding five calendar years (page 29)? (page 28) Surprised that construction is only in the middle of the pack of the Top Ten Industrial Classifications for 2010 Lost-Time Claims (page 30)? That's because it has fewer but far more expensive claims. For 2010, the ranking order of payment totals for the four leading industrial classifications are: Construction; Administrative, Support, Waste Management, Remediation; Retail Trade; and Public Administration. The report is packed with many additional facts.

OSHA's New Plans for Consultation and Enforcement

OSHA head David Michaels updates his aggressive enforcement agenda. Michaels also comments on low fines for Florida workplace fatalities and advocates for higher fines in US House testimony.

Your Next Step in Safety

Charlene Sitterly -- Program Director, USF SafetyFlorida

Worker protection--reducing injuries, illnesses and fatalities on the job--is the primary mission of the USF SafetyFlorida Consultation Program.

See our video! Our safety and health consultants are your key to achieving these benefits. They follow high and consistent standards for helping employers protect their workers. These standards, along with their years of consultation experience, will help you build a workplace safety system that unites all the elements of leadership commitment and job task procedures. With a workplace safety system in place, you can meet production goals while maintaining the health of the whole employee family.

To assist you in developing a workplace safety system, our consultants focus on management commitment, employee involvement and participation in order to establish a safety and health management system that works best for your business. Helping employers develop a safety management system gives us great satisfaction. That’s because, in the short term, our service can provide the hazard identification that directly prevents an employee from getting hurt or killed.

If our consultants find hazards while performing a consultation, we will provide you with a detailed list of those hazardous areas. But we will go beyond that to help you understand why the hazards exist and what specific actions can be done to address each hazard. This level of thoroughness is what employers find so helpful about our consultation program. We are more than about hazard identification but about helping you find hazard solutions that can create a new opportunity to profit from safety.

In summary, our primary purpose is to help your company prevent work-related fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. In the short term, we do that by emphasizing hazard identification. In the long term, we do that by helping you develop a safety management program. Hundreds of companies already have used our SafetyWriter, which helps employers develop a written safety plan. And we have the Sunshine State Safety Award and SHARP OSHA- inspection deferment programs to acknowledge and reward companies that have top-of-the-line safety management systems in place.

If you are ready to take the next step toward safety in your business, please contact us today and request on-line a free and confidential safety consultation.