It may not feel like year-end yet, but 2025 is just around the corner. Staying ahead of the safety trends and regulatory changes that will impact the new year will help you plan budget allocations, prioritize your projects and keep your employees safe.
We can’t see the future, but here are some key trends, developments and technologies we expect to come into play in the next few months.
1. Wearable Technologies for Workplace Safety
As industries like warehousing, manufacturing and construction face increasing safety challenges, wearable technologies are starting to emerge as an option to help improve worker well-being and productivity.
In 2022, these industries experienced over 700,000 nonfatal injuries and more than 2,000 fatal accidents, prompting companies to explore tech-based solutions.
What Are Wearable Safety Technologies?
Wearables are devices worn on the body that can provide various types of support, monitoring or training to workers.
Wearable safety technologies include:
- Exoskeletons: Assist with heavy lifting and repetitive overhead tasks, reducing physical strain on the body.
- Smart Helmets: Equipped with sensors to detect environmental hazards, like extreme heat or dangerous movements.
- Ergonomic Sensors: Monitor body posture during tasks like lifting, alerting workers to unsafe movements in real time.
Wearables enhance employee safety and increase productivity, but they also present challenges when it comes to privacy, high cost and lack of training resources.
As industries continue to innovate, wearable technologies have the potential to reshape workplace safety, but careful consideration must be given to weigh the costs vs. benefits and to employee concerns.
One thing is certain, high-tech solutions will never replace the benefits of sturdy passive safety equipment. Learn more about wearable technologies.
2. Data-Driven Safety Programs
In complex work environments, leveraging safety analytics is becoming essential to help reduce workplace accidents and ensure employee well-being.
“Safety analytics” is the science of studying the root causes of workplace incidents. By running analytics on safety data, you can create a structured framework for assessing health and safety policies.
Establishing a data-driven safety management process allows you to:
- Proactively Reduce Safety Incidents: By identifying potential hazards before they lead to accidents.
- Enhance Root Cause Analysis: Upgrading processes for analyzing incidents and implementing corrective actions.
- Anticipate Safety Risks: Using predictive models to foresee and prevent accidents.
- Optimize Safety Observations: Utilizing data to refine processes and workflows with a safety-first mindset.
- Improve Safety Audits: Streamlining audits and inspections based on comprehensive data insights.
- Mitigate Incident Impact: Lowering the consequences of accidents through effective planning.
- Enhance Response Times: Boosting the capabilities of field workers during emergencies.
The Need for Reliable Data and Analytics Tools
Access to reliable safety data and effective AI-assisted analytics tools is crucial for data-driven safety management to be effective. Such tools provide safety leaders with insights that inform better decision-making.
But access to these kinds of tools along with the expertise that’s needed on how to use them isn’t yet readily available for all workplaces. While it’s an exciting trend to watch, it will be interesting to see how quickly it becomes widely available.
3. OSHA’s Heat Safety Rule
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is set to release its first-ever national heat safety rule in 2025. The rule aims at reducing the growing number of heat-related injuries and fatalities in the workplace, especially in physically demanding industries.
The new regulations are part of OSHA’s broader initiative to protect workers in industries exposed to high temperatures including construction and manufacturing.
Key Requirements for Employers:
- Heat Hazard Identification: Employers must conduct regular heat risk assessments and monitor workplace temperatures.
- Preventive Measures: Hydration, scheduled rest breaks and access to shaded or air-conditioned areas will be mandatory.
- Training and Education: Annual heat safety training will be required, along with programs that help new and returning workers adjust to these new requirements.
- Emergency Planning: Companies must develop a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (HIIPP) and a Heat Emergency Response Plan.
- Recordkeeping: Employers will be responsible for maintaining records of heat-related incidents and conducting regular audits of safety measures.
Impacted Industries
This rule will apply to a wide range of sectors, including construction, agriculture and manufacturing, especially in regions prone to extreme heat. However, exemptions apply for workers in “sedentary” positions or at job sites kept under 80 degrees.
4. Stricter Lead Regulations
Lead poisoning is a serious health hazard, and it remains a concern in construction and manufacturing industries. Often referred to as the “silent killer,” lead exposure can occur through contaminated surfaces, clothing and most commonly with the inhalation of lead dust and fumes.
Workers in jobs like renovation, demolition, steel welding and battery manufacturing are especially vulnerable. Prolonged exposure to lead can cause memory loss, fatigue, high blood pressure and even kidney disease.
New Cal/OSHA Lead Standards
Starting January 1, 2025, Cal/OSHA will enforce stricter regulations to protect workers from lead exposure. The permissible exposure limit (PEL) will drop from 50 micrograms per cubic meter to 10, and the action level (AL) will be reduced to 2 micrograms per cubic meter.
These limits are designed to lower the risk of lead poisoning and reduce blood lead levels for workers.
To comply with the new regulations, companies must:
- Conduct air monitoring to regularly measure lead levels in the workplace.
- Implement engineering controls that use ventilation and dust suppression to minimize exposure.
- Create a compliance plan and train workers on proper hygiene and protective equipment like respirators.
There are a lot of new technologies on the horizon, all developed with the intention of making the world a safer place. But it’s important to remember the Hierarchy of Fall Protection (also applicable to other safety procedures), which begins with eliminating the hazard and is followed by passive fall protection.
Sensors, analytics and smart technology are no match for the power of a well-designed guard rail.
We’ll keep an eye on these trends as we move into 2025. Remember, when you need fall protection for your workplace, nothing beats the expertise and passion that EDGE Fall Protection provides.
Contact us at sales@edgefallprotection.com or 844-314-1374.