Category: Special Topics in Safety Management

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

What Everyone Should Know About Electrical Hazards

Some employees work directly with electricity and face the greatest risk of shocks, burns, and electrocution. Others may be exposed only indirectly, but they, too, can be injured or killed. That’s why all employees should be trained to understand electrical hazards and take proper precautions. OSHA ranks electrical hazards as among the most dangerous and […]

The "Secret" to a Safer, More Efficient Workplace

There are hazards even in the safest workplaces. And one of the best ways to eliminate these dangers is through effective housekeeping. There’s a double payoff for emphasizing housekeeping and general maintenance—they make your workplace safer and more efficient. There are hidden hazards in even the safest-looking workplace. And most of them can be eliminated […]

The Most Underrated Key to Workplace Safety

In some workplaces, good housekeeping tends to fall at the end of the priority list for both management and employees. But that’s a problem because there is a direct correlation between a clean, neat, well-organized workplace and a safe healthy one. Good, safe housekeeping doesn’t just happen. Nor is it something you can do once […]

Lockout Training Prevents Deadly Accidents

OSHA requires authorized and affected employees to be properly trained in lockout/tagout requirements and procedures. Do your employees have the knowledge they need to prevent deadly accidents? Here’s a true story excerpted from BLR’s Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout that dramatically illustrates to employees why lockout/tagout is so important. Laundry Worker Fatally Injured A laundry worker propped […]

OSHA’s Special Rules for Group Lockouts

Whenever machine maintenance or repairs are performed by a group of employees, you must develop and implement a group energy control procedure that provides the same level of protection as a personal lockout or tagout device. Machine maintenance and repair operations performed by a group of employees are often more complex than similar operations performed […]

Cold Weather Hazards: Are Your Workers at Risk?

Winter is here—well, technically not until December 21, but the cold weather has already arrived. For the next few months, many workers will be required to work briefly or for sustained periods in cold weather conditions and will face the special hazards that such work entails. The two main health hazards of overexposure to cold […]

How to Talk Turkey About Impaired Driving

December is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month and Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s (MADD) Tie One On for Safety event occurs between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, during which time more than 1,000 people die in traffic accidents nationally. What better time to talk to employees about impaired driving? National Drunk and Drugged Driving […]

PPE Training, from Head to Toe

Yesterday, we talked about the use of face masks and respirators to protect against H1N1 exposure. Today, we expand our discussion to include the use of respiratory protection in general, as well as other types of personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to protect against an array of workplace hazards. Respiratory protection is an important part […]

H1N1: Should You Use a Face Mask? Respirator?

Are face masks or respirators really necessary to protect against H1N1 at work, on the street, or at home? That’s the question on the minds of a lot of people these days. See what CDC recommends. If you’ve been wondering about whether to use a face mask or a respirator to protect against the H1N1 […]

Near-Miss Reporting: You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Know About

If you don’t investigate today’s near-miss incident, you’re not going to prevent tomorrow’s accident. And, because you can’t examine what you don’t know about, make sure you can rely on employees to report all incidents. Near-miss incidents (or “close calls,” as they’re also often dubbed) are leading indicators of safety performance. A “leading indicator” is […]