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Caught in the Crossfire

Under the “general duty” clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 651- 678, “[e]ach employer . . . shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”. There is little question that allowing guns at the workplace endangers workers.

Graying Matters

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that by the year 2010, 17 percent of the U.S. workforce will be 55 and older.

Summing Up 2008

I’ve learned a lot this year about patience, planning, risk taking, and managing. Poorer but wiser, I hope, after the financial markets' tumble, I am looking back on a year of growth and anxiety, with many successes and some disappointments.

Tactical Tenting

Try this: Stand up straight with your arms at your sides, palms facing legs. Slowly raise your arms from the elbow, letting your wrists relax. Now, without turning your wrists, start “typing.”

2009 Starts Now

What OSHA hasn’t done has been much discussed this year, but I believe our focus is about to change. The 2009 shift to an active OSHA may be dramatic or subtle, depending on how the Nov. 4 elections affect congressional oversight and appropriations committees and then on how quickly a new president and Congress act.

The Green Miles

Safety is top of mind for many manufacturers, but also growing in importance is the pressure to become “green,” or environmentally sound. GreenRoad Technology Inc., a fairly new driver safety company headquartered in Redwood Shores, Calif., has taken the basic idea of a traffic signal and reengineered it into a small device that gives real-time feedback on 120 driving maneuvers to increase safety. The device is installed on a vehicle’s dash and contains three colored lights -- red for unsafe, yellow for moderately unsafe, and green for safe.



The Art of Resolving Conflicts

Quarrels at home, while driving, and at work sometimes escalate into dangerous and violent arguments. Those caught in the middle—including co-workers, family members, and emergency responders—are at high risk.

When time is short and resources are limited, this hand-held device brings the lab to the scene.

Point and Click

The American landscape was forever changed by the events of 9/11.With the anthrax mail scare that followed shortly afterward, one company found itself in a unique position to help the emergency responder community with a portable chemical identifier called HazMatID™.

It Pays to Treat Sleep Apnea

Treating commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea significantly lowers their health care costs, lowers their preventable accident rate, and reduces their turnover.While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration revised the hours of service rule in this decade to reduce fatigue-related commercial motor vehicle crashes, the evidence in two recent studies is an even more compelling reason for trucking companies to address sleep apnea.

The Untapped Secret of Selling Safety

You may be thinking, “I’m not in sales, I’m a safety professional!” You’re half right: You are a safety professional. The Truth — as we often learn the hard way — is that if we are in safety, we are indeed in sales. The fact of the matter is that we are at the mercy of our ability to sell, no matter how “tight” the presentation. Regardless of our education or the facts surrounding an issue, we are still in a position where we have to make the sale in order for a positive change to take place. And the better we are at selling, the greater our results.

Still Working on Supply Chain Safety

Quite a few federal agency leaders will be looking for work six months from now, but some are still contributing. Two, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Dr.Andrew von Eschenbach, visited Chinese health officials in Beijing and Shanghai two months ago, arriving soon after the disastrous earthquake, to discuss product safety cooperation. Both men are scheduled to moderate panels at ANSI’s July 9 Import Safety Summit in Washington, D.C.

Lock Loaded

The importance of a good lock is oft overlooked but cannot be overstated. As author/philosopher Ayn Rand saw it, the very concept of civilization can be thought of as progress toward a society of privacy, a notion that is pretty much the fountainhead of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a.k.a. the Privacy Rule.

Click Away the Pain

I don’t know how I lived without the scroll wheel on my computer mouse. In this day and age of never having enough time for anything, this one tiny item allows me to quickly scroll through a document or a Web page at blazing speeds as my ADHD demands more and more.

Mass Alert Done Right

Hearing U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board member William Wark’s Feb. 28 speech at the ISNetworld users group conference in Dallas confirmed my fear that we aren’t prepared for serious chemical leaks. By “we” I mean the public, but Wark also meant the employees who are shipping these materials and processing them.

This animated redhead is designed to keep you less distracted on the road.

Driving While Intexticated?

As the Darwin Awards annually demonstrate, there are those among our species who shun common sense. Fortunately for the collective gene pool, these individuals usually prove they are not the “fittest” and suffer the consequences.

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