By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

Have you ever watched people as they walk down a street, or walk through the mall, or sit in a waiting room? Almost everyone has their cell phone in their hand. Notice the position of their head while they stare at the phone screen. Their head is bent forward! This position causes a strain to the muscles and tendons in the neck and shoulders; and possibly the low back. This position changes the natural curvature of your neck. Your neck moves forward, your shoulders round forward or lift up toward your ears and your neck and shoulder muscles spasm (contract). Neck muscles are designed to support the weight of your head, about 10 – 12 pounds. According to the Cleveland Clinic, research shows that for every inch you drop your head forward, you double the load on those muscles. Looking down with your chin to your chest can put approximately 60 pounds of force on your neck. Dr. Dean Fishman, a Chiropractor in Plantation, Florida has coined this condition, this repeated stress injury, as: Text Neck.

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By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant

As companies attempt to reduce costs, one particular item that I have been seeing a great deal of is companies having their own drivers. These drivers provide companies with the ability to pick up and deliver their product, get product from one location to the next, or to send products to secondary operations. While convenient, it is vital to point out that the simple roadway hazards that most commuting drivers only face for a short period of time in a day, are constant hazards that professional drivers face all day.

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By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant

I was recently contacted by one of our customers with a concern that I do not believe many of us think of. This company was concerned whether or not they had the right form of clamp at the tool end of their air hose. This particular company had the worm-drive style hose clamp holding their quick connect air fittings onto the air hose. The worm drive style hose clamp is the clamp that is tightened by using a flat head screw driver or socket to turn a screw that tightens the clamp. This is a common practice among the vast majority of companies that I visit. Upon the correspondence regarding their concerns, the MTMIC Loss Control team spoke of prior MIOSHA inspections and any knowledge of standards regarding hose clamps for air hoses. Through this communication it was found that a prior federal OSHA inspection from 2013 did cite a facility for the wrong type of air hose clamps. In this situation the facility was found to have worm-driven hose clamps that connected their tools to the air hose. The Enforcement Officer found this to be a hazard, as if the hose clamp was to malfunction or loosen, then the employees would be exposed to the whipping action of the air hose. This was cited under the federal OSHA rule 29 CFR 1910.243(b)(2). That rule states that hose and hose connections used for conducting compressed air to utilization equipment shall be designed for the pressure and service to which they are subjected. The company in this particular inspection was cited for $5,500 for 4 instances of this violation.

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Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims 

Owning and operating a business is multi-faceted. Having Workers’ Compensation insurance, required by law, is one of those many facets. Hopefully, most employers rarely have to utilize their Workers’ Compensation insurance. BUT, should an employee be injured in the course of employment, you, as the employer need to be prepared.

So how far does the employer’s responsibility reach? The employer is responsible for providing a safe working environment, for training employees in the proper way to perform their job, for proper machine and facility maintenance and for properly handling a work related injury, should one occur. An employee injury is costly in many ways. An injured employee is affected professionally and socially. The employer’s production and work product is affected. A work injury has a financial impact on everyone involved. The employer has a vested interest in making the employee be the best he/she can be, as the employer will reap the rewards.

Don’t ignore the signs. If a Supervisor walks past a work station and notices an employee stretching their back, rubbing their shoulder or playing “windmill” with their arms, that should be the employers first clue that something may not be right. Ignoring “signs” rarely benefits the employer. It is doubtful the situation will resolve itself or just “go away”. On the contrary, what usually happens is the employee will start treating with their primary care physician for the medical condition. Then when it starts to cost the employee a lot of money, or the condition does not resolve, or someone tells them they should file a Workers’ Compensation claim, the employee will bring the situation to the attention of the employer. By this time, treatment has been rendered and we would have to obtain all those medical records; suspicion overshadows the entire claim because it is being reported so late and after the employee has received treatment; and we will not allow treatment until the matter has been investigated. This delay in treatment will in turn delay the employee’s recovery and impact work product and production.

While we are not suggesting that a Supervisor “suggest” to an employee that the employee has a work injury, a simple “Is everything o.k.? I noticed you rubbing your shoulder” can go a long way. At that point the employee may admit that he has an injury that occurred outside of work (make note in the personnel file if that is the case); the employee may alert the employer to a machine set up or situation that could maybe be changed to be more ergonomic; and the employee may come away feeling their employer “cares”.

If the employee advises that something he did at work has caused an injury, the employee should be immediately sent to the clinic. Remember, it is not up to the employee to decide whether or not they “want” to go to the clinic if they have reported a work injury. Whether the employee alleges nothing is wrong, an injury occurred outside of work (i.e. they just slept wrong) or there was a work incident, the Supervisor should follow up with the employee later that day, the next day and the next week, and ask if everything is o.k. or if they are having any other issues. Again, ignoring these situations do not make them go away – instead, they tend to “fester”.

As an employer, you should review all employee injuries, your injury logs and/or loss runs to determine how many and what kind of injuries are occurring and where they occur. Then review to see if there are any changes that could be made so injuries do not continue. Your Loss Control Consultant can be a tremendous help in this regard. Remember, we are a team, all working toward the same goal – a safe and productive work environment! We all benefit!

By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM Loss Control Manager , MSc, ARM, MiOSHA Level 1 Certified 

Effective January 1, 2017: Plastic Injection Mold Industry:Die Change Procedures for Horizontal Injection Mold Machines

s many of you in the plastic injection mold industry know, there will be a MIOSHA rule change in the standard pertaining to injection mold machines that takes effect on January 1, 2017. I have received various responses to this change, for most of you, you are already adhering to the ruling so its no big deal. For other manufacturers, this change has brought up a few questions in recent months, so to help you get ready for the rule change, here are some of the questions that have been posed to our department and to MIOSHA.

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MIOSHA has reported 9 fatalities that have occurred in 2016 so far, 7 of them were from a “fall”. That would equate to approximately one fatality per month. I know we are a good sized state, but I think that is a high number, particularly in this day and age when we are so much more aware, informed and safety conscious.

MIOSHA reported 29 fatalities for the year 2015. That would equate to more than two per month. In looking at the statistics provided by MIOSHA, age does not appear to be a factor, nor does industry. Of the 29 cases reported, 7 cases involved the employee being “struck by” something, 11 cases involved the employee being “crushed” by something, 6 cases involved the employee “falling” and 3 cases involved inhalation and/or burns.

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By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultant

Have you ever experienced an eye injury at work or maybe at home while using that new weed whacker? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that every day about 2,000 U.S. workers sustain job-related eye injuries that require medical treatment. Using the right eye protection can lessen the severity or even prevent many of these eye injuries.

Chemicals or foreign objects in the eye and cuts or scrapes on the cornea are common eye injuries that occur at work and even at home. Other common eye injuries come from splashes with grease and oil, burns from steam, ultraviolet or infrared radiation exposure, and flying wood or metal chips.

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By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant

A vast majority of facilities that I visit each year have a welding operation present. Whether it be a large welding area with a plethora of welding cells or a smaller one table welding work station, there are a great deal of potential hazards present whenever welding operations are being completed. This is evident by the $119,803 MTMIC has spent on claims since 2009 that were traced back to welding operations. Of the 82 injuries reported, the injuries range from burns, strains, foreign bodies, inflammation, lacerations, and punctures. As there are a great deal of factors that go into these injuries, one particular item can often be found to be a root cause. In many cases, the lack of proper personal protective equipment was found to play a large role.

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By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM Loss Control Manager

As the economy is slowly rebounding and we are adding newer equipment to our production floors, you must ensure that you are taking a closer look at the machine guarding prior to the production phase. During my recent MIOSHA Level 1 Training class, I learned a very important point with regards to guarding equipment; if you have two pieces of equipment that perform the same job, the old one must be guarded equal to or better than the new piece of equipment. If it is not, then the violation for machine guarding becomes a SERIOUS and WILLFUL offense.

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By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultant
Have you ever forgot to put on your safety glasses and hammered a few nails into a board? How about sanding that old dresser and not wearing a dust mask? Truth be told, I have before I realized the importance of using the proper PPE.

While PPE use can help prevent injuries and illnesses, engineering controls should be the primary method used to eliminate or minimize hazard exposure in the workplace. However, it may not be possible to eliminate all hazards through engineering design, guarding, or administrative controls. In these cases, the use of PPE is necessary.

If PPE is to be used, employers must implement a PPE program. The program should address the hazards present, the selection of the proper PPE, maintenance, proper use of PPE, the training of employees, and monitoring of the program to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.

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By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant
As the winter months are upon us, so is the use of furnaces, personal heaters, propane heaters and a plethora of other heating devices. These heating devices can often cause safety concerns, especially those regarding
potential fire factors. This concern brought about thoughts of other fire hazards that we see during loss control visits and how to possibly remedy those hazards. During our loss control visits, we attempt to identify potential and present exposures for that particular facility. As each facility is different and may complete different processes, the hazards found will vary. Possibly, one of the most effective ways to avoid fires, is to aim at strategic fire prevention.

How can fire prevention be strategic you ask? By recognizing the hazards, putting procedures in place, auditing those procedures and continuing education for new and existing employees, your workplace will strategically reduce the likelihood of a fire. Fire hazards can be found within office settings, maintenance areas, industrial production floors, paint booths, plating facilities and other types of environments. This often leads companies to question what they can do to properly prevent fires. The topics below are just some of the items that I often make recommendations about during the loss control visits. These particular topics could greatly assist in fire prevention.

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By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM, Loss Control Manager

Many of our manufactures and policyholders may or may not know we also have been servicing the printing industry for a few years now. During this time I have been asked on numerous occasions what does MIOSHA compliance look for in our industry? During one of our recent training events with MIOSHA, I had the opportunity to inquire about which standards MIOSHA refers to when they conduct a compliance visit in a Printing facility.

Having seen most of our workers’ compensation injuries related to inadequate LOTO (Lockout Tagout) procedures and where the majority of our members have the most questions; I directed our conversation to the LOTO requirements and what they are looking for. What I found out was in the 1990’s OSHA and ANSI came together as a board to interpret and clarify what actually applies to the printing industry, since there are a variety of printing presses with different technologies, and most of them spanning many years.

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By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

HAPPY NEW YEAR – 2016! A new year – new beginnings – new opportunities to change. How did your 2015 end? The Claims Department ended with a BANG! As if there aren’t enough challenges in our lives and in the work place. We contend with family, friends, health issues, school, our homes and work on a daily basis, and then, the HOLIDAYS arrive and add a lot more stress! Even though we may look forward to the holidays and consider it a “happy” time, it can be stressful, none the less. There is shopping to contend with, trying to get just the perfect present for everyone, entertaining, socializing, all adding up to an extra financial stress. People are using up vacation time and trying to get work caught up before being off for a day or more.

Is it any wonder our department sees a spike in claims at the end of the year? With everything going on, people are more pre-occupied and distracted. It is even more dangerous driving a vehicle because we are distracted by the bright lights and holiday displays along the way. Or maybe someone just left a holiday party where alcohol was served. All this on top of drivers using their cell phones while driving.

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