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

A Great Safety Management Tool … Made Better!

Not all the hot news in safety management happens out there. Some happens right here at BLR. Such is the case today. Yesterday’s Advisor article covered the recent announcement of OSHA’s Specific Site Targeting (SST) plan for 2008. That’s the program that will pull nearly 4,000 comprehensive inspections on industries  that survey data show as […]

Big Blowup Over Combustible Dust: Is a New Law Coming?

As reported as recently as last Sunday’s broadcast of TV’s “60 Minutes,” dust from sugar, flour, or other common materials, concentrated in certain conditions, can explode like a bomb. Critics say OSHA has done little about it, despite the loss of 119 lives. Now Congress has, and the result might be a new law affecting […]

5 More Steps to a Better Safety Program

Previously, our experts offered the first 5 steps toward using leading indicators to build a forward-looking safety effort. Today, they offer the additional steps needed to carry it out and evaluate the results. In yesterday’s Advisor, we began to describe a 10_point program to orient your organization to looking at safety from a leading indicator […]

Let Leading Indicators Lead You to Greater Safety

Two safety experts say the profession should be measuring what it does, but frequently the measures used depict the past rather than predict the future. And they offer a 10-step program to refocus the focus. It’s been said that, deep in his or her heart, every safety professional would like to be out of a […]

Your Safe Cell-Phone-Use Policy: What Must It Cover?

With states putting bans on how cell phones are used and plaintiff attorneys suing aggressively, you need a policy to protect both your employees and your organization. Here are some of the points it should cover and a means to save the work of having to write it yourself. As detailed in yesterday’s Advisor, California […]

Forklift Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Symptoms and Prevention

Anyone working around gas-powered forklifts or other gas, propane or LPG-fueled machines needs to know the symptoms of CO poisoning. Here’s a list, and steps to take if this colorless, odorless, silent killer is suspected. Yesterday’s Advisor initiated a discussion of the dangers posed by the exhaust gases of gasoline, propane, or LPG-powered forklifts. The […]

Caution! Forklift Exhaust Gases Can Kill

It’s well known that moving forklifts can kill, but so can those standing still … if their gas-powered engines are left idling. The problem: carbon monoxide poisoning.  Here are some solutions. The 75 employees of an Iowa plastics plant came to work as usual one August day, never knowing what lay in store for them. […]

Needlestick Nightmare: Here’s the Blunt (Tip) Truth On How to Stop It

More than 1,000 healthcare workers are risking bloodborne pathogens infection every day due to needlestick injuries. But the truth is that there’s a simple way to make much of the problem go away … the blunt truth, that is. Yesterday was Memorial Day.  That’s traditionally the start of the summer activities season, and for most […]

Industrial Hygiene 101

Just what do industrial hygienists actually do, and why is it important to your safety program? This week, our Safety Training Tips editor focuses on this important and highly specialized profession. What is industrial hygiene? Industrial hygiene has been defined (by NASA) as “the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace conditions that may […]