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HILLSBORO, Oregon, May 13, 2020 – SSOE Group (www.ssoe.com), a global project delivery firm for architecture, engineering, and construction management, is proud to announce they have been recognized with a Platinum Safety Award from ConstructSecure for their high score on the independent Construction Safety Assessment Program. SSOE received a 97-point score out of 100 possible points—a result of SSOE’s safety-always culture. SSOE executes a full range of design and construction projects for industrial and general building clients throughout the world. A significant proportion of their design and construction services are performed for advanced technology clients based out of our Hillsboro, Oregon office. Read more

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The world of safety compliance should not be confusing. Rules are in place to maintain a safe workplace. This week we are going to look at machine guarding. The OSHA standard is 1910 Subpart O Machinery and Machine Guarding. Moving machine parts have the potential to cause severe workplace injuries, such as crushed fingers or hands, amputations or burns. Safeguards are essential for protection from these preventable injuries. These types of injuries typically occur due to lack of machine guarding or failure to control the hazardous energy utilizing lock out tag out. There are mechanical motions that must be guarded which include pinch points, rotation, reciprocating, traversing, cutting, punching, shearing, and bending.

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New Ladder Safety Standards
The new rule brought forward by OSHA sets out a requirement for employers to have
ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems for fixed ladders that extend more than 24
feet. It phases out the use of cages or wells for fall protection, and everything is to be
implemented under a very precise timeline. The revised ruling establishes a phase out of ladder wells and cages over the next 20 years per OSHA 1910.128(b)(9)(i).

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TOLEDO, Ohio, May 31, 2019 – SSOE Group (www.ssoe.com), a global project delivery firm for architecture, engineering, and construction management, is proud to announce that they have been recognized for their safety accomplishments by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) and Safety Council of Northwest Ohio. The BWC and the Safety Council of Northwest Ohio presented their 65th annual safety recognition awards on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. Read more

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HANGZHOU, China, September 04, 2018 – SSOE Group (www.ssoe.com), a global project delivery firm for architecture, engineering, and construction management, is proud to celebrate an exceptional safety milestone of 2 million working hours injury-free with FerroTec, a leading manufacturer of advanced material, component, and assembly solutions in Hangzhou, China. Read more

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Your body depends on water to survive. Every organ, cell, and tissue in your body needs water to work properly. Your body uses water to regulate its temperature, remove toxic substances, and help the absorb essential nutrients. Read more

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After all the engineering and administrative controls have been exhausted, PPE is left to be the last line of defense against injuries.  Choosing the correct Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and wearing it properly can go a long way towards preventing injury to yourself and to others. Read more

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Workers’ Memorial Day is observed every year on April 28. It is a day to honor those workers who have died on the job, to acknowledge the grievous suffering experienced by families and communities, and to recommit ourselves to the fight for safe and healthful workplaces for all workers. It is also the day OSHA was established in 1971. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their workers. Read more

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Many people are concerned about the possibility of a public health emergency such as a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or disease outbreak. You can take steps now to help you prepare for an emergency and cope if an emergency happens. To help you prepare, we’ve provided step-by-step actions you can take beforehand to protect yourself and your loved ones. Read more

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4-25-2016 Electrical HazardsAccording to OSHA…An Electrical Hazard can be defined as a serious workplace hazard that exposes workers to burns, electrocution, shock, arc flash / arc blast, fire, or explosions. By identifying these hazards, and understanding how they happen, we can take steps to protect ourselves. Read more

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What is SPA? Safe Plan of Action, or SPA, is an easy to follow system that is designed to reduce injuries by providing a method for analyzing the task at hand, and then making a safe plan that eliminates the potential safety hazards associated with that work to be performed. Read more

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Our safety goal is “0” Lost Time Accidents. We need 100% participation. But what is your responsibility to achieve this goal? Read more

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Working alone?
Does someone know where you are? 
Will anyone know if you get hurt? Read more

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11-06-2017 Mask 5Employees working in environments with insufficient oxygen or where harmful dusts, fogs, smokes, mists, fumes, gases, vapors, or sprays are present, need respirators. These types of hazardous exposures may cause cancer, lung impairment, other diseases, or even death. Read more

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All employees that would need to utilize scaffolding must be trained by a qualified person to recognize the hazards associated with the type of scaffold being used and how to control or minimize those hazards. And only a competent person is responsible for overseeing the erection and dismantling of all Scaffolding as well as performing daily inspections of the scaffold The training must include: Read more

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If it revolves, swings, spins, slides, opens, closes, or moves in any way at all, it can hurt or kill you. We often think about fingers or other extremities that might get caught in machinery, however a person could be dragged into many pieces of equipment and be injured or crushed even before they have a chance to cry out for help. Construction equipment, production machinery, process equipment, transportation devices, such as automobiles and bicycles, home shop and yard equipment, and even office photocopiers contain moving parts that can cause injuries. Injuries related to machinery and equipment often result in death or permanent disability. Read more

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The fact is, most eye injuries cause permanent damage. It takes just one incident to suffer permanent damage or blindness. Proper eye protection can keep you safe. Read more

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For most of us, it is in our nature to jump in and help out in a crisis. But if we don’t protect ourselves when we help the injured, we risk exposure to blood born pathogens or other potentially infectious bodily fluids. Read more

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What if someone didn’t know that you were working on a machine, or electrical outlet, and turned on the power? Lockout/tagout/tryout is a safety procedure used to ensure that dangerous machines, equipment, or services are properly shut off and not able to be started up again before maintenance is completed. Read more

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Trenching and excavation work presents serious hazards to all workers involved. Cave-ins pose the greatest risk and are more likely than some other excavation-related incidents to result in worker fatalities. Did you know that one cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car? Read more

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Working safely starts before the job begins. It starts with creating the safest possible environment to work in. This can be done by eliminating or mitigating job site hazards through the implementation of a hazard control plan. Here is a brief overview on how to create a safer work environment. Read more

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Recently, a miner had just finished welding on the plant’s crusher and decided to jump from the next to the last step of a fixed ladder to reach the ground. When he hit the ground, he fell backwards and was impaled by a pry bar that was left standing upright on the ground. The victim suffered severe injuries as a result of this accident.

Some workplace hazards are obvious, and easy to avoid. Some hazards may not be as easy to anticipate, Read more

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male carpenter on site

Whether temporary or permanent, all workers always have a right to a safe and healthy workplace. Did you know that temporary workers are at increased risk of work-related injury and illness? Every year, thousands of temporary workers are injured within the first couple of weeks of being on the job. Read more

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Whether it’s at a construction site, in the factory or manufacturing plant, or in the office, our common spaces can become crowded at times. Avoid collisions or near misses in the workplace. Not only will these tips keep you safe, they are common courtesy. Read more

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Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for construction employees, accounting for 350 of the 937 construction fatalities recorded in 2015 (BLS data). Those deaths were preventable. Read more

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Construction sites, highway construction, manufacturing plants (big and small) all use mobile equipment such as cranes, trucks, earth movers, fork lifts and / or other material handling equipment to help with their work. Read more

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Falls from portable ladders (step, straight, combination and extension) are one of the leading causes of occupational fatalities and injuries. Take a few minutes to review ladder safety and to make a Safe Plan of Action before your next climb. Read more

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Recently, a worker lost his life on a job site, where SSOE is providing design services, when he was electrocuted while hooking up a welding machine. Safety policies and procedures are not suggestions. It is mandatory to follow all safety procedures at all times Read more

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In the United States there are two regulatory agencies that can cite employers for not properly protecting employees. Both agencies fall under the United States Department of Labor; Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). These regulatory agencies are responsible for enforcing the safety and health laws to protect employees. Read more

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7-25-2016 Electrical ProfessionalThe main hazard: electricity is difficult to assess because you cannot directly see it. The only way to identify electricity’s presence is to properly use the right tools; a meter, or proximity detector. Only qualified persons should work directly with electricity. Even working indirectly with electricity, or around electrical systems requires you to be competent.

Do you have the skills and abilities to work around electricity? What about directly? So, what does OSHA say? Read more

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As a part of our Construction Safety Talk Series, we discussed how electrical hazards expose workers to burns, electrocution, shock, arc flash / arc blast, fire, or explosions. Accidents involving electricity can be fatal. To prevent electrical incidents, every time you enter a job site remember to: Read more

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6-13-2016 ThermometerAny worker exposed to hot and humid conditions is at risk of heat illness, especially those doing heavy work tasks or using bulky protective clothing and equipment. Some workers might be at greater risk than others if they have not built up a tolerance to hot conditions, including new workers, temporary workers, or those returning to work after a week or more off. All workers are at risk during a heat wave.
It is very important to watch out for each other during extreme heat. Read more

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During thunderstorms no place outside is safe. If you can hear thunder, lightning is close enough to strike. Some workers are at greater risk than others. People who work outdoors in open spaces, on or near tall objects, with explosives, or with conductive materials such as metal have a greater exposure to lightning risks. Read more

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5-23-2016 RefereeHave you ever wondered how to communicate quickly with a worker that is too far away?  What about a language barrier that prohibits you from communicating with them?  A worker that is not easily accessible?

Many times it is not always possible to provide face to face communication or one on one feedback for safety observations.  The SOS card allows for immediate visual feedback to a worker depending on the color of the card being displayed. Read more

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Housekeeping at a construction site, office, or home can often provide an indicator for the level of safety culture and expectations for that project or facility.  When housekeeping is highly maintained, injuries are typically quite low. When housekeeping is low, you can expect injuries will increase.  Why?
Poor housekeeping provides more safety hazards in the work and home environments, causing more chances for injuries to occur. The most obvious hazards of poor housekeeping are slips, trips, and falls from cluttered and dirty walkway areas. Read more

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5-2-2016 Fall HazardsAccording to OSHA, Fall Hazards are defined as: Anything at your work site that could cause you to lose your balance or lose bodily support and result in a fall. Fall Hazards led to 349 construction worker deaths in 2014 (40% of construction site fatalities).
By identifying these hazards, and understanding how they happen, we can take steps to protect ourselves. Read more

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4-18-2016 Struck-By HazardAccording to OSHA, Struck-By Hazards are defined as: Injuries produced by forcible contact or impact between the injured person and an object or piece of equipment. By identifying these hazards, and understanding how they happen, we can take steps to protect ourselves. Read more

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4-11-2016 Caught-In or -Between HazardsAccording to OSHA, Caught-In or -Between Hazards are defined as: Injuries resulting from a person being squeezed, caught, crushed, pinched, or compressed between two or more objects, or between parts of an object. By identifying caught-in or -between hazards, and understanding how they happen, we can take steps to protect ourselves. Read more

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So many different activities occur in the construction industry, and with those activities come risk; at times, high risk. In 2014, 20% of workplace fatalities occurred in the construction industry, totaling 874 deaths. The Bureau of Labor Statistics identified four causes of death that were responsible for over half of those construction worker fatalities. Read more

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Consider this: you walk out to your car and you see that one of your tires is flat. You immediately think that the flat tire is the problem. That is incorrect. The fact that your tire is flat is NOT the problem. The fact that your tire is flat is the condition. The problem is that you no longer have enough air in the tire which has caused it to go flat. Read more

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March is “Eye Safety Month”, which serves as a timely reminder that we need to protect our eyes at all times. Interestingly, most eye injuries occur to people who are performing their regular jobs. In addition, most eye injuries occur to workers who are either not wearing the correct eye protection for the job or to those who are not wearing any eye protection. The obvious conclusion is that most, if not all, eye injuries can be prevented simply by wearing the proper eye protection for the job being performed. Read more

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Looking at the Injury Event Triangle, you will see that Three things must be in place for the event or injury to occur. There must be a Motive (Hazard / Risk), a Target (YOU), and an Opportunity (Bad Decision). Read more

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Stepladders can be a quick and easy way to extend your reach, however, every time you use a stepladder there is a risk for permanent injury or death. Those hazards can be greatly reduced by following good safety practices.

Eliminate the Common Hazards by:
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Arc Flash is a sudden release of electrical energy or fireball that is caused by a short circuit in electrical equipment. That fireball can release dangerous levels of thermal energy with temperatures over 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The rapid expansion of gases and temperatures, or pressure waves, during an arc-flash incident can send shrapnel, molten metal, tools, and other objects through the air at speeds over 700 mph. Add to that a sound pressure of 165dB (decibels) and an arc-flash incident can be the equivalent of a small explosion. Arc flash incidents can result in a loss of life, serious potential career ending injuries (including burns, loss of eyesight, and hearing that require extended recovery time), and extensive property damage. Read more

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Moving machinery is everywhere!  Construction equipment, production machinery, process equipment, transportation devices, such as automobiles and bicycles, home shop and yard equipment, and even office photocopiers contain moving parts that can cause injuries.

If it revolves, swings, spins, slides, opens, closes, or moves in any way at all, it can hurt or kill you. We often think about fingers or other extremities that might get caught in machinery, however a person could be dragged into many pieces of equipment and be injured or crushed even before they have a chance to cry out for help. Injuries related to machinery and equipment often result in death or permanent disability. Read more

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In an ideal work team environment we like to think that we all have each other’s backs. However, when it comes down to taking care of the physical health of our backs and spines, the responsibility falls onto the individual person. Statistics show that nearly 80% of Americans will suffer from back pain or back injury at some point during their lives. Back strains are second only to the common cold for lost work days. Read more

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Does the person in the mirror always make the safest decisions? Is your safety reflection something that you would want your co-workers and family members to see or emulate? Do you see a few cracks in your mirror? Is the image cloudy? If left unchecked, those cracks might eventually shatter the image with dire consequences. It’s never too late to repair those cracks or to clean and polish your safety image! Here’s how: Read more

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Can you imagine what it would be like to lose the use of one or both of your hands because of an injury? Our hands and wrists have 27 bones along with the soft tissue that allows us the flexibility and strength to be able to perform tasks. Even a minor hand or finger injury will remind us how important it is to have the full use of our hands.

Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that close to 20% of all days away from work injuries are hand related. In fact around 10% of all hospital emergency visits are related to hand injuries and 40% of these injuries involve lacerations or cuts. Read more

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A review the OSHA stats regarding fatalities readily highlights trends on how workers are being hurt and killed. In fact in the latest report, five of the first seven incidents listed, show workers who died from some sort of fall. It is important to remember here that non-work related injuries and fatalities often mirror the OSHA statistics. Read more

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Proper glove use is crucial to helping prevent hand injuries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 70% of workers who experienced hand injuries were not wearing gloves. Many workers who were wearing gloves and sustained injuries were not wearing the proper gloves for the job. Read more

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The latest Weekly Fatality / Catastrophe Report released by OSHA for the week of August 11, 2012 highlights a disturbing trend. Out of the 26 reported fatalities, 13 were attributed to some sort of a fall. The most recent incident happened in the middle of October at a project located in Tennessee. The project was put on hold to conduct an investigation after two workers from a large construction company were killed in a fall that was caused by faulty scaffolding. Read more

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Always take a few minutes to review the task at hand before starting any work. Consider how to complete the task safely by using the right Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), tools, and equipment for the job. Take the time to make a Safe Plan of Action (SPA) for every task. STOP is a good formula to follow for all your work, home, and recreational activities. Read more

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Safety starts with an attitude that you will do every task in a way that will eliminate hazards and the potential for injury. Thousands of workplace injuries occur every year, and even more injuries happen on the commute to and from work, and home. The potential for injury is always there, no matter how simple, complex, or often you have done that task. Read more

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The opposition! Slips, Trips, and Falls (ST&Fs) account for 20% of all work related injuries each year. Many of these injuries occur when a worker climbs in or out of heavy equipment, trucks, or trailers. Falls from portable ladders and slips on stairways are also included in these accident numbers. Inclement weather, poor housekeeping, defective equipment, rushing to get the job done, and lack of hand supports all increase the chances for injury. Most of these incidents result in injuries to shoulders, arms, backs and ankles. Read more

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Fatigue is a safety concern year round, however summer often finds us more tired than usual. Longer daylight hours and additional activities all come at the expense of quality rest and sleep. Even after an enjoyable and much needed vacation you are likely to feel tired and will find it difficult to get back into the work routine. For whatever reason, if you are tired you are at a greater risk for errors and accidents. Read more

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Exposure to heat can cause illness and death. The most serious heat illness is heat stroke. Other heat illnesses, such as heat exhaustion, heat cramps and heat rash, should be avoided. There are precautions you should take any time temperatures are high and the job or activity involves physical work. Read more

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The Statistics

  • In 2009, 667 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in highway work zones and more than 30,000 were injured.
  • About 85 percent of those killed in work zones are drivers and their passengers.
  • Distracted driving causes 25% of all traffic accidents.

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Being a Safety Champion is everyone’s responsibility! Each person is responsible to make hundreds of decisions necessary to function every day, and to acquire the knowledge to make the safest choices possible. By doing so, each one of us can become a Safety Champion. Read more

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Can you imagine what it would be like to lose the use of one or both of your hands because of an injury? Our hands and wrists have 27 muscles and 27 bones that allow us the flexibility and strength to be able to perform tasks. Even a minor hand or finger injury will remind us how important it is to have the full use of our hands. Read more

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