2010 was an unfortunate year for workplace safety. Who can forget the mine disaster at the beginning of the year that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia as well as the off shore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico blast that killed 11 workers. These events captured the attention of the general public as they were well portrayed by the media outlets but there were many other events that went unnoticed this past year.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) has released their list of the Top 10 Workplace Tragedies for 2010.
Over the past year nearly 5,000 workers died while on the job. Given the range of incidents that did happen, most of these could have been prevented. Most of these incidents the workers involved did know that there were underlining issues that made their workplace unsafe. As well, these companies that were involved knew the hazards they were placing their workers in but failed to make any changes to improve their conditions.
Now that we are in a new year, how can we look back and reflect upon these tragedies and improve workplace standards? This year OSHA is planning on working on improving hazards in the workplace with their Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) which would look as such workplace incidents more closely and improve such safety conditions.
