PAIN is putting a strain on your bottom line. Employees who are suffering from repetitive motion injuries are not able to work at their ultimate performance level, causing decreased productivity and often incurring medical problems that can lead to disability claims.
WITH the proliferation of lawsuits stemming from mold contamination, securing adequate insurance coverage for these types of claims can be a real challenge. As a result, the insurance manager is not always able to determine all of the risk management controls necessary to procure insurance coverage for this issue.
SIGMUND Freud, the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most authoritative thinkers of all time, is often quoted as having said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." By that he meant, sometimes a person just wants to smoke a good cigar, so people shouldn't try to read any special significance into it. It's not something a person should overthink.
HARMONIZATION. It's not a word we often hear in discussions of global policy or international relations these days. But when faced with the safety of millions of people worldwide, the idea of having a system in place that defines a single, effective way of communicating hazard classification on a global level is invaluable.
THE process of determining the cause of an equipment malfunction often can seem as daunting as a major crime scene investigation. It often appears to require expert knowledge about how the equipment was operated, how it was installed, the original design specs, changes in the environment, how it was actually being used, etc. Luckily, with just the right combination of repair expertise, root cause analysis, and corrective action implementation, the process does not necessarily have to be harder to get more productive and lasting results.
WHAT do singers Mick Fleetwood, Barbra Streisand, Engelbert Humperdinck, Phil Collins, and Bob Dylan have in common with ex-president Bill Clinton and actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy? And what do they all have in common with television personalities David Letterman and Peter Jennings? All of them lost some of their hearing.
SLIPS and falls are complex events. If you focus on just one part of the problem, such as a cracked tile or slippery floor, the risk will still exist. Instead, attack the whole problem with a systems approach that analyzes your organization and pinpoints areas needing attention.
"WE'VE got twenty-five years of audiometric data that shows what we're doing in our Hearing Conservation Program doesn't really work." I couldn't believe my ears. The safety manager at this large company administered a totally compliant OSHA-standard Hearing Conservation Program. Everything had been in place for more than two decades: noise monitoring, audiometric testing, hearing protectors, annual training, and recordkeeping.
WHEN you consider the many regulations and guidelines that health and safety officers and first responders are faced with, it is amazing they maintain the ability to detect such a wide variety of hazardous pollutants and toxic agents. There is no lack of regulations governing how to monitor chemical compounds, and the list grows longer all the time.
WE live and work in the 21st century--the age of information and the Internet. The prevalence of data and the desire to obtain more information, and get it faster, consume our personal as well as our professional lives.
Editor's note: End users' confusion about multiple classes of protective apparel will ease as they become familiar with new editions of NFPA standards for responders' protective apparel, says Jeffrey O. Stull, president of International Personnel Protection Inc. of Austin, Texas.
THE promotional products business has witnessed much debate over whether safety incentive programs are successful--or even necessary--in the workplace. Opponents claim that rewarding or motivating employees to achieve positive safety records actually encourages covering up injuries and falsifying records.
CHEMICALS and the potential risk of exposure to their vapors go hand in hand, making worker protection a complex challenge for many firms. For CH2M HILL, a prime contractor on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington State, the complexity of this challenge is compounded by large volumes of radioactive waste intermixed with the chemicals.
THE welding industry is rated number one among all industries for the highest number of eye injuries. Based on a Prevent Blindness America report (www.preventblindness.org), eye injuries accounted for approximately 15 percent of total injuries and accounted for more than three times the number reported in the construction industry.
THERE are two conflicting factions of safety professionals: those who believe it is important to motivate and reward people to achieve specified safety results by offering tangible incentives, such as merchandise and travel, and those who believe that tangible incentives are not necessary because safety results are part of their job and regular compensation.
MOST people agree cultural diversity in the workplace utilizes our country's skills to their fullest, while also contributing to our overall growth and prosperity. However, many of the workers employed in the commercial and industrial sectors continue to rely mostly, if not totally, on their native tongue.