Gems from the Safety 2012 Educational Program
Next month's ASSE annual conference in Denver has experts speaking about near misses, hearing protection, welding fume exposures, near misses, fall protection, and a host of other timely issues.
You'd be wise to take a walk through the educational program of Safety 2012 if you plan to attend the big trade show in Denver, because the opening events are now less than two weeks away.
The schedule is packed with sessions of interest and includes a June 4 plenary session (1-2 p.m.) with OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels where attendees may have a chance to ask him about the new GHS final rule, National Emphasis Programs, and other agency priorities.
There will be key issue roundtables on each of the three main days of the American Society of Safety Engineers annual conference (June 4-6). Some sessions feature a single presenter or a panel of experts. These look particularly appealing:
Monday, June 4
- Session 531, 3:15 – 4:15 p.m.: Welding & Industrial Hygiene. This session will review industrial hygiene considerations for welding processes, including: an overview of exposures for various welding processes; welding plume components; the current regulatory environment regarding exposures; and methods for characterizing exposures. The presentation will review lessons learned through more than 20 years of experience in evaluating welding activities. Speakers are Michael A. McCullion, CSP, ARM, Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors National Association (SMACNA), and Victor J. D'Amato, CSP, CIH, Atrium Environmental Health and Safety Services, LLC (Ashburn, Va.)
- Session 531, 3:15-4:15 p.m.: Ergonomic Strategies for Managing Rising Rate Obesity in the Workforce. Since ergonomic-related stressors have been shown to be a significant loss driver for the over weight/obese OW/OB population, this workshop will focus on ergonomic risk reduction strategies as they relate to the OW/OB workforce. The speaker is Vicki Missar, CPE, of Aon (Upper Chichester, Pa.)
- Session 544, 3:15-4:15 p.m.: ANSI Doesn’t Certify Equipment – Who Does? Randy Wingfield and Kevin Denis of Gravitec Systems Inc. (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) will address the common misconception in the fall protection industry that ANSI certifies fall protection equipment and will explain how the ANSI/ASSE Z359.7-2011 standard, Qualification and Verification Testing of Fall Protection Products, works to change this.
Tuesday, June 5
- Session 653, 3:4:15 p.m.: Why the ANSI Ergonomic Standard A 10.40 Is the Future of All Standards. The speaker is Frank L. Burg, CSP, of Accident Prevention Corporation (Woodstock, Ill.)
- Session 664, 3-4:15 p.m.: Supervisors – Are They All They Can Be? In this session, speaker Eddie Greer, CSP, OHST, director of business development for the Board of Certified Safety Professionals and a former ASSE president, will explore the skills necessary for supervisors to be effective players in the overall safety process.