A home might seem like one of the safest places for a child to play, but household furniture carries many unforeseen dangers, especially for young children.
Deadly Consequences
A child is killed every two weeks due to falling furniture in the United States—70 percent are caused by TVs alone. Injuries are even higher, with over 25,000 per year. Preventive measures should be taken to ensure children are safe at home.
Preemptive Protection
Parents will often “baby-proof” their house when expecting a child. This typically includes rounding off sharp table corners and installing baby locks. Surprisingly, properly anchoring heavy furniture is often overlooked.
Preventing Tip-overs
- Use sturdy furniture to hold your TV and other appliances.
- Mount flat-screen TVs whenever possible.
- Closely follow assembly instructions for TVs and furniture.
- Secure top-heavy furniture with anti-tip brackets.
- Remove enticing objects from the top of heavy furniture to discourage children from climbing.
Furniture Tip-over Myths
- Heavy furniture will not fall over. This is a common misconception. Even base-heavy furniture can be hazardous when children open the drawers and climb on them.
- Rooms where children aren’t allowed don’t need precautions. Even a brief opportunity to wander in a bedroom or office can end in tragedy if the child plays on heavy furniture. Tip-overs happen quickly, and it is dangerous to leave a room unprotected.
- Latched dresser drawers are sufficient. Latches made for cabinets are not a substitute for an anchor. Young children can figure out the latches or even open drawers wide enough to begin climbing.
- Older children know they shouldn’t climb. Children aren’t masters of reason and can be compelled to climb if they see a toy sitting on top of a dresser. Additionally, children do not commonly think of shelves or dressers as dangerous, so climbing seems low-risk.
- Sturdy furniture is safe. No matter the weight, no matter how sturdy, all furniture can pose a risk if not properly anchored. The quality of furniture does not lower the danger.
Remember, taking a few extra precautions now can save a child’s life in the future. Play it safe and anchor heavy furniture.
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Workers Compensation fraud is a widespread and serious problem that’s not only illegal, but leads to higher insurance premiums for all businesses – including yours.
According to industry experts, Comp-related scams often involve one or more of these “red flags.” Although no one sign should necessarily be cause for alarm by itself, two or more should raise suspicions and could trigger an investigation of the claim:
- Monday morning report of injury. The alleged injury occurs first thing on Monday, or late Friday afternoon, but is not reported until Monday.
- Change in employment status. The reported accident occurs immediately before or after a strike, job termination, layoff, end of a major project, or the conclusion of seasonal work.
- Suspicious providers. The claimant’s medical provider or legal consultant has a history of handling dubious claims.
- Lack of witnesses. No one else saw the accident and the employee’s description does not support the cause of the injury.
- Conflicting descriptions. The employee’s account of the accident doesn’t match with the medical history or injury report.
- History of claims. The employee has filed a number of questionable or litigated claims.
- Refusal of treatment. The claimant declines a diagnostic procedure to confirm the nature or extent of the injury.
- Late reporting. The employee delays reporting the incident without a reasonable explanation.
- Elusiveness. The allegedly disabled employee is hard to reach.
- Instability. The claimant changes physicians, addresses, or jobs frequently
If one of your workers files a claim that has some of these warning signs, be sure to let us know. We’ll work with you and your Workers Comp carrier to check it out.
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Following these principles of leadership will help you and your employees focus on job safety:
- Don’t walk by. It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent any potentially unsafe acts and conditions they witness from turning into accidents.
- STOP! Encourage employees to stop working whenever they feel unsafe, no matter what reason they give.
- Focus on a safe working environment. If you expect your workers to work safely, make their workplace as safe as possible.
- Don’t blame the worker first. Unsafe ways of working, accidents, incidents, and ill health aren’t necessarily the worker’s fault. The problem often comes from less obvious causes, such as decisions by management.
- Use your workforce for ideas. Employees often have a more accurate idea than you or your managers about which safety and health practices will work, because they deal with these issues every day.
- Be patient. Don’t expect quick wins. Improvements will emerge over time, but only if you stick with them.
- Explain your decisions. Just telling workers that something is wrong or a safety risk isn’t enough. If they’re to act on the information you provide, they need to know why and how to avoid harm.
- Lead by example. Your behavior sends powerful signals. If you carry out your job in a safe way, your workers are more likely to do the same. If you don’t, they won’t imitate you.
- Focus on co-operation. Treat your subcontractors in the same way as employees by encouraging them to communicate with each other.
- Don’t neglect occupational health. If you look after the health, as well as the safety, of your workers today, you’re less likely to create problems for them or your business tomorrow.
Sound advice!
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Falls are the leading cause of construction deaths. In 2014, fatalities from falls accounted for 359 out of 899 deaths in the construction industry.
To curb such deaths and injuries, OSHA has joined forces with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).The Construction Nationwide Safety Awareness Campaign is comprehensive and based on three key steps for employers: Plan for safety, provide proper equipment, and train workers.
To ensure safety on job sites that involve working from heights, plan how the project will be done and the tools needed. When estimating job costs, include these resources and have them available on site. For example, on a roofing job, think about such potential fall hazards – holes, sky-light, leading edges, etc. – and then select appropriate fall protection equipment, such as personal fall arrest systems (PFAS).
Provide workers who are six feet or more above lower levels with fall protection and the necessary equipment including ladders, scaffolds, and safety gear. If roof work is involved, have a PFAS with a harness for each worker who needs to tie off to the anchor. Make sure the device fits and inspect all equipment regularly.
Finally, give workers “toolbox talk” training on potential fall hazards and the set-up and use of the safety equipment they’ll be using. The OSHA campaign has a number of training tools, job site posters, and other educational resources – (many of which target workers with limited English proficiency).
To learn more about how to keep your workers from falling down (literally)on the job, feel free to get in touch with our construction insurance specialists.
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Following these principles of leadership will help you and your employees focus on job safety:
- Don’t walk by. It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent any potentially unsafe acts and conditions they witness from turning into accidents.
- STOP! Encourage employees to stop working whenever they feel unsafe, no matter what reason they give.
- Focus on a safe working environment. If you expect your workers to work safely, make their workplace as safe as possible.
- Don’t blame the worker first. Unsafe ways of working, accidents, incidents, and ill health aren’t necessarily the worker’s fault. The problem often comes from less obvious causes, such as decisions by management.
- Use your workforce for ideas. Employees often have a more accurate idea than you or your managers about which safety and health practices will work, because they deal with these issues every day.
- Be patient. Don’t expect quick wins. Improvements will emerge over time, but only if you stick with them.
- Explain your decisions. Just telling workers that something is wrong or a safety risk isn’t enough. If they’re to act on the information you provide, they need to know why and how to avoid harm.
- Lead by example. Your behavior sends powerful signals. If you carry out your job in a safe way, your workers are more likely to do the same. If you don’t, they won’t imitate you.
- Focus on co-operation. Treat your subcontractors in the same way as employees by encouraging them to communicate with each other.
- Don’t neglect occupational health. If you look after the health, as well as the safety, of your workers today, you’re less likely to create problems for them or your business tomorrow.
Sound advice!
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Safety is more than a set of activities focused on accident prevention. It is a way of thinking about how you work, and it should be at the heart of any successful company. Weaving safety into your company’s mission, policies and procedures is a great way to demonstrate its importance and ensure its effectiveness across your company.
It should be about a shared vision that is expressed by core values and behaviors, where everyone walks the talk. By addressing unsafe acts and conditions before they become accidents, you build your safety culture.
Four Steps to a Safety Culture
The following four steps can serve as a starting point in driving safety across your business.
1. Evaluate risks. To understand how to create a safer workplace, you must first understand the risks you face every day. Each task and associated risk should be properly evaluated, and safety-based changes should be considered.
– Analyze past incidents and near misses. Understand that past incidents can help you identify root causes and identify risks and exposures that threaten the safety of your employees and the success of your business.
– Identify the risks before they result in loss. Review your work policies and procedures, buildings and equipment, employee work practices and behaviors and geographic location to determine if there are opportunities to prevent or mitigate loss. And hold people accountable to the practices.
2. Design a plan to keep safe. A good plan is the best place to start, but it is only the beginning. Once you have a plan, you must act to eliminate or minimize risk.
– Get commitment. Your management team should be committed to a safety culture from the beginning.
– Stay focused. Keep focused on the risks and exposures identified during your evaluation.
– Prioritize your efforts. Focus on the risks that pose the greatest threat. You should consider frequency and severity of the loss potential, and/or the opportunity to prevent or mitigate risks.
– Identify solutions and resources. Your solutions can vary from implementing engineering controls to creating administrative policies and procedures. These can help create positive changes in safety attitude, commitment and culture.
3. Implement your plan. Implementation entails communication of the plan and its details, training, regularly scheduled practice and drills, and ongoing review. A thorough plan will cover a number of potential risk areas, including buildings and equipment, the environment, employees, customers and vendors.
– Communicate and train – the real test of a safety program and culture is not what is written down on paper, but rather how well it actually works. How well your plan works is often dependent on what your employees know and what they do at the time of an incident.
4. Monitor, evaluate and improve your plan. As your business environment changes, so should your safety program. Regularly test your plan to determine if it fits the changing business environment and reflects changing accountabilities.
– Monitor the plan and collect feedbackto determine the effectiveness of the plan.
– Regularly compare your safety performance against the plan’s expectations.
– Make adjustments when necessary.
– Recognize success. Be sure to communicate and celebrate your safety successes.
At Scurich Insurance Services, our team of risk specialists visit more than one hundred properties every day, and are able to share lessons learned and insights for helping create a safety culture. Start building your safety culture today. Learn more about developing your safety management program.
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