Electricity Remains Leading Cause of Workplace Deaths

• Electricity contact or exposure continues to be one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and injuries in the United States, according to updated workplace safety statistics from the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI).
• Between 2011 and 2023, there was a total of 1,940 workplace fatalities involving electricity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics .
• During this period, 74% of fatalities occurred in non-electrically related occupations.
• “Most of the electrical fatalities that occurred in the workplace were from accidental contact with electricity,” said Daniel Majano, ESFI Program Director who compiled the data.
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EPA Says Formaldehyde Poses ‘Unreasonable Risk’ in Workplace

• The US Environmental Protection Agency, in a final risk evaluation published prior to Jan. 20, found that formaldehyde poses “unreasonable risk” to workers under multiple conditions.
• The agency last month said the “unreasonable risk” determination is warranted because of “non-cancer effects in workers and consumers from acute dermal and inhalation exposures” as well as “cancer effects in workers from long-term inhalation exposure.”
• The American Chemistry Council issued a statement opposing EPA’s decision.
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Study Finds Some Positive AI Uses in Occupational Medicine

• A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found a wide range of positive uses for artificial intelligence in occupational health.
• In a so-called meta study, which looked at 27 previous studies, researchers from West Virginia University found that AI could be used to successfully predict noise-induced hearing loss in steel factory workers, predict return-to-work and disability duration, and forecast changes in white blood cell counts among workers exposed to benzene, among other positive application.
• The researchers said occupational health clinicians using AI models in real-world settings could likely “optimize their clinical utility.”
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Evidence Grows Linking Occupational Dust, Chemical Exposure to Rheumatic Diseases

• A study published this week in Nature finds there is now a “substantial and growing body of evidence” that occupational dust and chemical exposure is linked to the risk of various systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) including rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis.
• That exposure typically occurs in mining, stonemasonry, building or other trades.
• Though long observed, the connection has only become more widely recognized in the past decade because of the use of high-silica-content engineered stone in construction and home renovation, according to the article.
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