We always hear the call from management, “We need more sales!” The call from the marketing team: “Sales needs to do better with the leads, they don’t close enough.” The sales team complaining that “these leads from marketing are horrible.” Same story, new year.

Many distributors looking for ways to fend off disruption (read Amazon) are considering how to repurpose legacy brick-and-mortar facilities, according to NAW – the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

AD, the contractor and industrial products wholesale buying / marketing group, announced the completion of the transition of ownership from AD’s long-time Chairman & CEO, Bill Weisberg, to the buying group’s distributor members.

Headquartered in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, BlackHawk is a leading distributor of cutting tools, abrasives and industrial MRO products used in manufacturing, aerospace & defense, energy, auto aftermarket, construction, general industrial, medical and agriculture applications. 

Motion Industries, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, announced that it acquired Hydraulic Supply Company (HSC). Execution of the transaction was completed on October 1, 2018. 

The DPA Buying Group is pleased to welcome twenty new distributor members to its safety & public safety product divisions.

What are the hazards workers are most exposed to in the workplace? Environmental considerations are also crucial to mark.

Connected Hydration is a sweat-sensing wearable biosensor and cloud analytics solution that measures sweat loss, sodium loss, skin temperature, and movement to provide actionable rehydration strategies in real time to industrial workers ahead of adverse dehydration events. 

Allegations of using drones for unfair advantage during the Tokyo 2020 Games raise serious ethical concerns and underscore the need for responsible technology use in the Olympics.

Workplace violence and harassment disproportionately harms women from underserved and historically marginalized communities, including women of color, LGBTQI+ individuals, women with disabilities and women affected by persistent poverty and inequality. 

The new index advances safety management by providing a scalable, actionable framework based on leading indicators to enhance safety outcomes across global supply chains.

The Society’s membership model has been restructured to add key benefits while a new association management system is simplifying member engagements.

Free webcast scheduled on October 3 to hear firsthand accounts of the three top outstanding safety professionals. 

The theme of this year’s event was “Shared Vigilance” focusing on how everyone can contribute to lowering risks and maintaining a safe workplace by staying alert. 

The improper handling of hazardous waste brings many potential dangers, from health hazards to environmental damage, in both the short and long term.

Requests to ship hazardous and perishable goods across greater distances are increasing in frequency. With the surge of globalization, companies must contend with how to get fragile or potentially dangerous items to suppliers and end-users a world away.

Not only does OSHA have regulations for the forklifts themselves, they also have specific requirements for forklift operators. The Powered Industrial Truck Standard outlines the topics that must be included during training, as well as requirements for refresher trainings.

Growing productivity has come with an increasing waste problem for manufacturing and heavy industry. The industrial sector produces more garbage than ever, and the task of disposing of it is often difficult, unsafe and inefficient. Failing to manage refuse properly can also come with significant consequences — fines, environmental damage and long-term health problems.

Businesses can achieve maximum success during the holiday season by utilizing AI and automation in their retail shipping operations. The holiday season is critical for companies, but the increased sales often come with shipping headaches. Luckily, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation provide key solutions for simplifying shipping for businesses and customers.

When snow and “ice missiles” blowing off semi-trailers and trucks are added to the equation, the risk factor increases exponentially.

Electric vehicles are most commonly advertised as passenger vehicles, designed to help the average commuter reduce their carbon footprint and pay less at the pump. But they're making their way into the commercial sector in the form of heavy equipment electric vehicles. How are EVs changing material handling?

Companies such as GPS Insight that were bestowed with the Sustainability Leadership Award are those that have made sustainability a central aspect of their operations and goals.

AIHA announced the availability of free resources to support rail operators in reducing health risks associated with work conducted on railroads.

There is a way to remove snow quickly, safely, and efficiently from trailers with automated machines to help keep fleets clean and running on time.

The OSHA standard on powered industrial trucks is one of the top 10 most frequently penalized OSHA standards for FY 2022.

On-the-job deaths have been rising — hitting the highest annual number since 2016. There were 5,190 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2021, an 8.9 percent increase from 4,764 in 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December. 

All work performed in the energy sector presents its own challenges and hazards, but those are amplified offshore.

OSHA ordered the Maersk Line to reinstate the seaman and pay $457,759 in back wages, interest, compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages. 

Increased investment in OSH reflects the acknowledgement that high-risk industrial businesses need the most advanced solutions to function effectively and protect their workforce. 

Roadside work zones pose extreme risk for the laborers who build and maintain our highways, roads, bridges, tunnels and utilities. Highway maintenance jobs are among the most dangerous in the U.S.

As technology plays an ever-greater role in the shipping and logistics industry, bad actors have found new ways to infiltrate every part of a freight company. Here’s how trucking companies can protect themselves against cybercrime.

Effective winterizing strategies can protect your equipment from corrosion damage during cold seasons.

The new device includes an anti-overload sensor and an alarm to alert operators of potential risks.

The research highlights the average number of fatalities that normally occur per month and per day of the month and compares these figures with the average number of fatalities during each national holiday. 

Actions to reduce risk can range from using sensors for better construction fleet management to holding periodic training sessions about emerging issues.

Driving during a national holiday is always a risk. Stay safe out there!

In the manufacturing and construction industries, proper vehicle maintenance is not just about keeping the wheels turning.

Researchers at the National Safety Council and the University of Michigan found that about one in 20 adolescents ages 10 to 17 and one in 10 young adults ages 18 to 25 report prescription opioid misuse, based on a new review published in Preventive Medicine. However, effective intervention programs are not in place to address prescription opioid misuse among young people, and NSC and University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center researchers are urgently calling for evidence-based prevention programs to be developed and tested.

Thirty-three cases of the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma draw attention to talcum powder as a non-occupational source of exposure to asbestos, according to a study in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Our findings strongly suggest that asbestos exposure through asbestos-contaminated cosmetic talc explains cases once deemed idiopathic or 'spontaneous,'" according to the report.

“We strongly oppose the administration’s proposal to create a separate government agency to oversee tobacco products. This unfortunately comes from an administration that has repeatedly placed the needs of the tobacco industry on equal footing with public health.

A heart attack may cause tingling and numbness in one hand. If a person is experiencing a suspected heart attack, they or someone near them should seek emergency medical help. Severe blockages in the heart's main blood supply can cause chest pain as well as tingling and numbness down one arm or the other.

Doctors met a patient at a surgical center outside Boston to invent a new operation, a way to perform arm amputations that might allow patients to move their prosthetic hands more like real ones. The right arm resting on a blue surgical drape before them came from a cadaver; it’s just the limb, ending at the shoulder. It came from the Anatomy Gifts Registry. Devising a new operation is like re-engineering the anatomy.

In rodeo, it’s not really a matter of if you’ll get injured, but when and how badly. Last year, a major shoulder injury that tore six of the eight tendons in his riding arm took one rider out of competition for several months. Every rider who competes in professional rodeos carries a catalog of their injuries.

The American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society have partnered to launch a Give Blood to Give Time campaign to raise awareness on how blood donations help patients fighting cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation, used to treat cancer, can damage the body's ability to generate healthy blood cells and cause potentially life-threatening conditions. Blood transfusions from generous donors help to provide patients with critical clotting factors, proteins and antibodies needed to help their bodies fight back.

The CDC yesterday confirmed another infection with 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States in California. The patient is among a group of people under a federal quarantine order because of their recent return to the U.S. on a State Department-chartered flight that arrived on February 7, 2020. All people who have been in Hubei Province in the past 14 days are considered at high risk of having been exposed to COVID-19 and subject to a temporary 14-day quarantine.

Research from the University of Kentucky’s Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC) shows that a diet high in fiber could possibly reverse the adverse effects that environmental toxins have on cardiovascular health. The findings are part of UK-SRC’s “Project #1,” which examines how nutrients affect toxicity caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in vascular tissues.

The coronavirus continues to claim victims; new incidents at Chevron’s Richmond, California refinery and OSHA launches a website to help it commemorate its 50th anniversary. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Longer sitting times were associated with higher levels of heart disease risk among overweight and obese post-menopausal women overall, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the open access journal of the American Heart Association.

Although obese employees incur higher direct and indirect costs, the extent of obesity-related costs tends to be lower in some industrial sectors — including healthcare, reports a study in the February Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dominique Lejeune, MSc, of Groupe d'analyse, Ltée, Montréal, QC, Canada, analyzed variations in the relationship between obesity and healthcare and other employee costs.

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in Albuquerque, New Mexico operates a 76-million gallons per day (rated capacity) wastewater treatment plant that treats a daily average of five million gallons of sewage from New Mexico’s largest city and its surroundings.