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A Ralphs Market king cake, one of the popular symbols of Mardi Gras season in New Orleans.

The Big Easy Beckons

The International Stroke Conference 2012, with 2,600 people expected, starts a big year for medical and EH&S meetings at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

The Spider Sit Stand from ergoCentric Seating Systems offers adjustable seat height and a tilting seat pan. (www.ergocentric.com)

Sit Stand Stations

The human body responds best to a balance between static and dynamic activity, between activity and recovery, between sitting and standing.

GHS is designed to help workers identify the intrinsic hazards associated with chemicals and convey detailed information about hazardous ingredients.

OSHA to Adopt GHS

The revised classifications may have a significant effect on business operations.

Ignite sessions at AIHce are five-minute presentations for which AIHA is still taking suggestions.

Filling Your 2012 Conference Calendar

Three of the year's big trade shows take place in Denver, Indianapolis, and Orlando. It's not too early to make plans or to register for some of them and for other must-attend events.

This photo from the Asahi Shimbun Facebook page shows a ship capsized by the tsunami.

Cataclysm and Recovery

In 2011, the world experienced both. Expect more of the same — and then some — in the year ahead.

Emergency Notification and the Protected Learning Environment

What happens when events outside demand that emergency information has to penetrate the protective cocoon of the classroom?

Winter fires were more severe than average fires during the year and resulted in more injuries and more deaths, the USFA report shows.

Preparing for the Holiday Fire Season

Cooking fires and fires caused by open flame increase during the winter holiday season, the U.S. Fire Administration, insurance companies, and safety groups warn.

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center was the host facility for the 139th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

Workplace Safety Session Caps APHA Annual Meeting

The five-day event included nearly 1,000 sessions on public health issues.

Stretches and short walks are the best way to prevent muscle and back injuries.

Prevention Better than Tension in the Workplace

For employers, the prevalence of back pain in the office is a significant barrier to productivity. Employees are at their most productive state when they are healthy, happy, and pain free.

If the symptoms persist and a cause is not determined, it is important to encourage the employee to confer with a specialist, such as a neurologist, geriatrician, or geriatric psychiatrist with experience in dementia.

Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease in the Workplace

Early onset Alzheimer's disease symptoms, by definition, manifest in patients before age 65 and can occur as early as the thirties and forties.

Some suits on the market offer certification to both standards. This means a suit for use in situations that do not require a Level A suit, one that also provides liquid splash and gas chemical protection. (Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics photo)

Spending Less and Getting More from Your Hazmat Suit

It is imperative for hazmat teams to understand the requirements of NFPA 1994 and NFPA 1992. Doing this not only determines your safety during use, but also gives peace of mind while in the hot zone.

OSHA has reported that 29 CFR 1910.22, its walking-working surfaces standard, was the seventh-most-cited standard by its compliance officers in the Eating Places Industry Group from October 2008 through September 2009.

A Readiness Roadmap

A new FSIS guidebook will help small plants cope with emergencies.

Emergency planning starts with personal preparedness. Promote this concept to your teams and provide resources to help them get started, like those offered by your local Red Cross to help them get a kit.

More than Checking the Box

More than ever, preparedness is simply a cost of doing business. Now is a great time to focus on it: September is National Preparedness Month.

Fall Conference Season in Full Swing

The calendar is full of big meetings from early September to mid-December, including VPPPA, NSC, A+A, the IFMA World Workplace 2011, and NFPA's Fire & Life Safety Conference.

The Lightstep technology marks safe escape routes in green. Unsafe routes are crossed out with a red X.

A Bright Idea for Life Safety

The Lightstep technology to be installed in three Upper Iowa University buildings this winter is a life safety product that answers post-9/11 needs for safe, fast emergency evacuations, UIU’s president says.

Modern tower cranes and workers wearing PPE are raising the Sagrada Familia spires ever higher.

La Sagrada's Second Century

Seeing modern tower cranes at work and scaffolding surrounding the soaring spires of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's magnificent basilica, is a reminder of safety's worldwide importance and progress.

OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels

Pushing the Envelope

OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels has been persistent in trying to tackle big issues. The proposed rule to strengthen the eight-hour reporting requirement after work-related fatalities or hospitalizations is a perfect example.

This NASA photo shows the July 8 launch of shuttle Atlantis as seen through the window of a Shuttle Training Aircraft.

Fading from View?

The International Space Station -- the world's biggest orbiting workplace and a designated national laboratory -- has continued U.S. funding through 2020, at least. With space shuttles being retired, will the public lose interest entirely?

Real knowledge and understanding do not come from raw data alone. It is the careful and skillful interpretation of data that leads to real understanding.

The Illusions of Risk Assessment

Real knowledge and understanding do not come from raw data alone. Careful and skillful interpretation of data lead to real understanding.

Roadrunner is a supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, shown in an NNSA photo.

NNSA Supercomputers Do Double Duty

From simulating space junk to mapping the spread of pandemic influenza, the world-class supercomputers owned by the three laboratories of the National Nuclear Security Administration have helped to solve a surprising list of non-defense challenges.

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Upcoming Webinars

2/29: GHS will happen…are you ready?
We invite you to attend this webinar to see how GHS is being used today in several workplaces to enhance worker comprehension and safety.

3/14: 10 Webinar Best Practices. Step-by-step guide to executing a winning webinar
By attending this webinar about webinars, you will learn the what, why and how’s of this exciting, collaborative marketing tool.

Spotlight

For February, OH&S puts the spotlight on:

Poll

OSHA Region 6 Administrator John Hermanson says the agency assessed the maximum statutory fines, a total of $21,500 for four alleged serious violations, against a small Oklahoma grain company in connection with amputation injuries suffered by two teenage workers. Does this case demonstrate the need to increase the amounts OSHA can issue in penalties?