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

OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OSHA at Full Force in Midst of Shutdown

Despite the government shutdown affecting many federal agencies and contractors (including the EPA), it is business as usual for the time being at OSHA. Both OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) are fully operational during the shutdown.

Marijuana grow operation

Explosion and Injury at Marijuana Processor Leads to Citation

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) cited a marijuana producer for a workplace explosion in which an employee suffered burns. As the marijuana industry takes hold in states allowing recreational marijuana use, state agencies are taking steps to ensure compliance with worker safety and health standards.

For Safety’s Sake, Don’t Sit on Your Phone

An Ohio man recently suffered a relatively minor, yet highly unusual injury—his phone caught fire in his rear pants pocket. While this incident is no cause for widespread alarm, you may want to share the story with employees to perhaps dissuade them from sitting on their phones.

Holiday Hazards: Back and Shoulder Injuries

You may not think of carrying holiday dishes, decorations and gifts as “manual materials handling,” but that’s what it amounts to. The amount of lifting, carrying, hanging, and hauling that your workers do during the holidays may well exceed what they do at other times of the year. All that lifting and carrying puts them […]

Holiday Hazards: Ice and Snow Removal

It could be a long, cold winter. If your workers have to dig out, can they do it without hurting themselves? Most workers know that shoveling snow and breaking up ice can be exhausting, but they may not be aware of the extent of their risks.

E. Scott Geller

Safety Culture 2019: Call for Speakers!

Safety Culture 2019, which takes place September 18-20 in Denver, is designed to empower employers to create an engaging and effective safety culture in the workplace that will strengthen safety compliance and engagement, reduce risk for accidents and injury, and avoid costly OSHA fines and litigation. We are currently accepting applications for speakers whose expertise […]

Holiday Hazards: Highway Safety

It was the week before Thanksgiving 2014, and the Hardman family was on their way to a dream family vacation at Disney World in Orlando, when the family’s 16-year-old son, who was driving, briefly nodded off at the wheel. Six of the eight passengers were not wearing seat belts; all six were ejected from the […]

Holiday Hazards: Fires

By itself, winter carries a heightened risk of fire, because it involves more of the things that create warmth and light—fireplaces, space heaters, candles, cozy blankets. During the holidays, even more light, heat, and potentially flammable decorations are added to that mix.