Safe and sound
A new OSHA program emphasizing warehouse safety deserves a warm welcome, not groans of dismay.
Nobody likes additional government scrutiny, especially when it might result in procedural changes or lead to fines. However, we must remember that many times, this oversight is intended to benefit our companies, such as initiatives that involve worker safety.
This past July, the U.S. Labor Department announced a three-year “national emphasis program” designed to address workplace hazards in warehouses, distribution centers, and certain high-risk retail facilities. The program is run by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the department’s safety watchdog—or what some see as an arm of government that’s always trying to get into everyone’s business. But we should not feel that way.
If you look at the numbers, OSHA has been among the more effective federal agencies since its founding in 1970. At the time of OSHA’s creation, an average of 38 people died from work accidents each day. Fifty years later, in 2020, that figure had fallen to 13 per day, according to OSHA. That’s a nearly 66% drop in fatalities. Worker injuries and illnesses were down to 2.7 incidents per 100 workers in 2020 from 10.9 in 1972. Again, a huge difference. Clearly, the regulations OSHA has imposed over the years have enabled more workers to return safely home to their families each night.
Supply chains jobs are listed among the more hazardous types of work that OSHA tracks. For example, delivery and truck driving ranks as the eighth-most-dangerous profession (behind such occupations as fishing and hunting, logging, and roofing).
Warehouses and distribution centers also hold the potential for injuries and fatalities, which is hardly surprising given that these operations use lots of moving equipment, including forklifts, conveyors, sortation systems, automated guided vehicles, and robotics. As for the leading causes of warehouse injuries, OSHA’s list includes slips, trips, and falls; impacts from equipment; repetitive motion; hazardous chemicals; falling objects; stress and fatigue; and heat illness.
OSHA says that under its three-year emphasis program, the agency will conduct comprehensive safety inspections focused on assuring safe practices with powered industrial vehicles, material handling and storage equipment, walking and working surfaces, emergency exiting, and fire protection.
Instead of being alarmed by the prospect of increased scrutiny, we should view this new program as validation of the importance of our industry—and of the role that safety programs play in assuring injury-free workplaces.