Did you know that, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, almost half (45%) of pedestrian deaths in 2010 occurred between the hours of 6 PM and midnight? As this number shows, moving about near roads during the evening and nighttime hours can be dangerous. However, if you choose to walk or run at night, there are several things you can do to keep yourself safe.

The first is to make yourself visible by wearing reflective clothing. The more bright, light-colored, and reflective clothing you wear, the easier it will be for others to see you at night, and the less likely you'll be hit by a car or other vehicle. Besides wearing the proper attire, you should make sure to carry the proper equipment: in this case, a flashlight. This will not only help you to see where you're going, but will also help others to see you, and anything you can do to increase your visibility at night is always a good thing.

Along the same lines, you should seek out the brightest and most well lit areas of town for maximum visibility. Try to stay on the sidewalk and, when crossing the street, use the crosswalk. Try to stay away from areas without sidewalks or crosswalks.

Avoid walking or running alone; if possible, take along a friend. Bring a cell phone, and make sure to carry identification.

Finally, stay alert and aware of your surroundings. This means refraining from listening to music, texting, or engaging in any other distracting behavior; instead, use your senses to take in all that is going on around you.

Did You Know? Nighttime safety, Walking or running at night, Visibility, Well lit areas

Did you know that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offers a pocket guide to chemical hazards? If you have a chemical spill at your workplace, this guide allows you to learn about the hazards of that chemical.

In particular, the guide provides NIOSH recommended exposure limits (REL), OSHA permissible exposure limits (PEL), immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) values, measurement methods, personal protection and sanitation recommendations, respiratory selection recommendations, exposure routes, symptoms, target organs, first aid information, and much, much more. The guide, in effect, provides Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) information for all chemicals tested by NIOSH.

The ability to identify a chemical's hazards quickly helps you determine the risks of exposure and how to clean up a spill (or whether you should tackle it yourself at all).

You can search the guide online, using a variety of search criteria, to identify a chemical, identify its hazards, or identify a chemical by entering potential hazards. The guide is organized into three main, searchable areas:

1. An index of chemical names, synonyms, and trade names;
2. An index of Chemical Abstracts Service Registry (CAS) numbers; and
3. An index of Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) numbers.

The guide is available in print format, or can be downloaded from the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) website.

Did You Know? CDC, NIOSH, NIOSH pocket guide, Hazardous materials

Did you know that every year in the United States more than 800 construction workers die and nearly 137,000 are seriously injured? This is because construction workers engage in many activities that may expose them to serious hazards, such as falling from rooftops, using unguarded machinery, or being struck by heavy construction equipment.

In an effort to reduce the number of injuries and deaths in the construction industry, OSHA has released a series of computer animated videos based on actual construction incidents. Running for approximately 2 to 4 minutes, each video begins with a worksite accident and ends by giving corrective actions for preventing these types of accidents in the future. Because of their accessibility to the construction worker, OSHA recommends these videos be used for employer and worker training.

Sample topics include falls in construction, sprains and strains in construction, and struck by accidents in construction.

While the videos are animated and do not present live events, it should be noted that the videos do deal with death at construction sites and, therefore, might be disturbing for some people.

Did You Know? OSHA construction videos, Animated videos, Construction workers, Construction hazards, Construction injuries and deaths