Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Terry Reynolds, a 55-year-old Kansas homeowner, just wanted to relight the pilot light of his propane water heater on August 6, 2009. Unfortunately, the propane tank was leaking heavier-than-air propane gas into the water heater’s enclosure, and instead of lighting the pilot, Reynolds blew his house off its foundation and suffered burns over more than […]
By: Bradford T. Hammock and Tressi L. Cordaro With the influx of injury reports following the implementation of OSHA’s revised injury reporting requirements, OSHA developed a process for determining which incidents warrant full inspections and which can be managed through the new “Rapid Response Investigation” protocol.
According to research by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries’ SHARP Program, a chemical commonly used in commercial car and truck washes can be dangerous to the health of people who work with it. What is this chemical, and are your workers ar risk?
Small business fuels the American economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a “small business” as an independent company with fewer than 500 employees. According to the SBA, there are about 28 million such companies, which represent about 49 percent of private sector employment. Being a small business shouldn’t keep you from thinking big […]
Are the benefits of your safety program functions and performance undervalued because of communication barriers? Are you effectively measuring the performance of your program—and communicating that performance to managers in language they can understand? Keep reading for tips on how to use the tools of business managers and the format and language of the organization’s […]
You’ve got an ambitious agenda for moving your safety process forward. You’ve done the research, and you know your ideas are sound. Now how do you communicate the value of your agenda to decision makers who hold the purse strings? Keep reading for the strategies you need to succeed. You became a safety professional because […]
Once again, a major health and safety violation has cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this case, a marine terminal operator in Seattle has been found to have multiple serious health and safety violations and is facing more than $400,000 in fines. Labor & Industries (L&I) recently cited the marine terminal operator […]
Whenever workers are working on or near exposed live electrical conductors operating at 50 volts or more, they are at risk of arc flash—a potentially explosive release of electrical energy through the air that can cause serious injury or death. Here’s how you can prevent arc flash incidents and injuries. Make a Plan Employers should […]
A maintenance supervisor at a Wisconsin iron foundry was severely burned by an electrical arc flash in June 2013. The supervisor was injured while servicing a 480-volt circuit breaker without proper electrical protective equipment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the employer for a willful violation of electrical standards, alleging that the employer […]
A worker at a Wisconsin cheese factory lost two fingers in an amputation incident in January 2013. The worker was operating an unguarded cheese packing and labeling machine. When OSHA investigated the incident, it discovered that a similar amputation had occurred a year earlier. According to OSHA, the amputations could have been prevented by the […]