Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Safety is a process, and as such, needs to be managed. This section offers resources to create a viable safety program, sell it to senior management, train supervisors and employees in using it, and then track and report your progress. Look also for ways to advance your own skills in these areas, both for your current job, and those that follow.
Free Special Report: 50 Tips for More Effective Safety Training
Are you doing all you can to prevent language-related accidents? Learn more about breaking down hazardous language barriers in your workplace. In June 2011, an employee of an Arkansas poultry plant accidentally released toxic chlorine gas into the facility. As a result, 600 workers were evacuated and more than 150 were hospitalized. The worker had […]
Your company has rules about employees talking on their phones and texting while driving, but are they following them? New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 69 percent of U.S. drivers talked on their cell phone while driving in the 30 days before they were surveyed. And 31 percent […]
Workers who drive as part of their employment—even if all they do is drive to and from off-site meetings during the workday—can expose you to significant liability if they’re involved in an accident. To avoid liability, you need to identify drivers who could put you at risk and keep them off the road for work […]
An accident or injury is an unwelcome event at any workplace. But organizations that take strategic steps can use information about the incident to prevent similar events in the future. Hernani Veloso Neto of the University of Porto, Portugal, published research on the subject of accident prevention strategies in the March issue of the International […]
Medical surveillance is a fundamental strategy for optimizing employee health, says OSHA, which is why it is required in a number of general industry standards and recommended in other cases, such as when employees work with nanomaterials (yesterday’s topic). Although the terms medical screening and medical surveillance are often used interchangeably, they are actually distinct […]
OSHA has not issued regulations for most nanomaterials, but that doesn’t mean the agency is unconcerned about the hazards of working with these super-tiny particles. So how small is "nano"? A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. And there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch. […]
Yesterday, we reported on Alcoa’s efforts to achieve the goal of zero accidents. Today, we tell you what Skanska USA is doing to reach zero. "I’m convinced that zero is not only an aspirational goal but also something that is achievable," says chief EH&S officer Hendrik van Brenk. "Had we predicted 5 years ago the […]
According to the safety director of this global corporation, “zero” is not only possible, it is a guiding principle that shapes corporate safety efforts. Turning zero accidents from an aspiration into an attainable goal is a worthy challenge that has been taken up by many companies, among them Alcoa and Skanska USA. Today, we’ll tell […]
Yesterday, we focused on key aspects of OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard. Today, we conclude this quick review of written procedure and training requirements. As an employer, you are required to establish written procedures for locking out the piece of machinery or equipment that will be worked on and to provide training for all employees who might […]
Every year, people are killed on the job by activated machinery. Many of those deaths could have been prevented by following lockout/tagout procedures to turn off machinery that is being serviced or repaired. OSHA’s rules and procedures for lockout/tagout are found at 29 CFR 1910.147. The standard identifies three employee roles: Authorized employees are those […]