News and Updates

March 2019: OR-FACE published a new fatality investigation report about a farm mechanic who died after a torch cutting explosion that occurred when he was attempting to remove a lid from an old drum that formerly contained a flammable liquid. You can download the report here. 

October 2018: October has been a busy conference and meeting month for OR-FACE. During the annual FACE meeting at NIOSH's Division of Safety Research headquarters in Morgantown, WV, Layla Mansfield shared updates about OR-FACE activities over the past year and various works in progress. This year's annual FACE meeting was scheduled to coincide with CDC's National Occupational Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS). At NOIRS, Barb Epstien highlighted OR-FACE's agriculture industry partnership with SAIF, including the social network analysis underway with Oregon wine growers and the hazard alert developed for SAIF's agriculture seminar series. Also this month OR-FACE published an investigative report about a construction worker who was killed when a trench collapsed. You can download that report here.

September 2018: OR-FACE participated in the 11th annual meeting of the CSTE Western States Occupational Network (WestON) in Denver this month. Barb Epstien gave a Quick Takes presentation on OR-FACE's partnership with the Oregon Trucking Associations (OTA). You can find a copy of her presentation here. Barb also led a "brain buster" small-group breakout session, discussing successes and challenges in OR-FACE's mobile toolbox field research study. More information about the WestON meeting can be found on the Oregon and the Workplace blog.

June & July 2018: OR-FACE has been busy this summer with multiple activities and projects. We are serving on the GOSH 2019 conference planning committee as co-leaders of the Construction Track. We also are working on final stages of the 2016 annual report of fatalities in Oregon and a fatality investigation report, and have been busy with field studies. Stay tuned for more updates on all of these activities and projects soon.

May 2018: OR-FACE participated in multiple events in Portland during the 5th annual National Safety Stand-down in May. A highlight was a stand-down training event developed in collaboration between the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center, OR-FACE, AGC-Oregon-Columbia Chapter and Oregon OSHA. The event was free and open to the public, and was held at the Portland Sheet Metal Institute. The stand-down training event featured the OSHA 7405 short course, "Fall Hazard Awareness for the Construction Industry" along with a panel discussion and demonstration of the use of fall protection equipment. Barb Epstien facilitated a toolbox talk using OR-FACE's recently published toolbox talk guide  about a construction worker who died after falling 20-25 feet from a pump-jack scaffold platform. The toolbox talk generated insightful attendee discussions about how they would prevent similar incidents from occurring on their jobsites. You can download this toolbox talk in English here and in Spanish here. OR-FACE also participated in a short video produced by NIOSH entitled, "A Five Year Look-back, National Safety Stand-down to Prevent Falls in Construction".

March and April 2018: OR-FACE has been busy getting ready for National Safety Stand-down to prevent falls in construction. We have been working with the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center to develop an engaging agenda for this year's Stand-down event in Portland. OR-FACE will be presenting a toolbox talk about a construction worker who died when he fell 20-25 feet from a pump-jack scaffold platform.  We also were honored to participate in a video being produced by NIOSH to commemorate the 5-year anniversary of the Stand-down campaign. Watch for a blog post coming soon for more details, and in the meantime, the event flyer can be found here. Also read about our Share a Story, Save a Life! campaign on this page; we hope you'll participate.
OR-FACE's field studies are moving forward, with active recruitment underway for residential construction companies to participate in the Mobile Toolbox Talk project.

February 2018: Save the date! OR-FACE is participating in the planning for this year's local National Safety Stand-down event. The event is being held at the Portland Sheet Metal Institute on Friday, May 11, 2018. The Stand-down is part of OSHA's Fall Prevention Campaign. Falls from elevation continue to be the leading cause of death for construction employees. The goal of the stand-down is to encourage focused discussion between employers and employees about fall prevention, and from those discussions, spark action plans to improve safety practices. Check back here for Stand-down updates as plans unfold.

January 2018: OR-FACE's updated agriculture hazard alert is now available in Spanish. You can download the document here. We thank our partners at SAIF for the collaborative effort in developing this resource, both in English and in Spanish, and for helping to disseminate it to farmers and ranchers across Oregon through their Agriculture Safety Seminars.