This week’s safety-related developments and resources for OMA members include the following:

• On Thursday, May 5, the OMA will host a 10 a.m. webinar addressing the basics of machine guarding. Register here.
• As temperatures warm, OMA Connections Partner Safex has published this brief summary on OSHA’s new heat stress initiative. (The OMA offers an on-demand webinar providing guidance on this topic.)
• In Wisconsin, OSHA has imposed a local emphasis program to protect workers from machine and amputation hazards in food manufacturing facilities.
• OSHA has issued a hazard alert letter to Amazon to review its severe weather emergency procedures after six contractors were killed when a tornado struck an Illinois warehouse last December. (OSHA’s letter recommends areas for improvement, including that all employees participate in emergency weather drills.)

On the workers’ compensation front, a new nationwide survey shows injury claims by first-year employees have increased over the past decade, with a sizeable jump in manufacturing. 4/28/2022