Though it’s hardly rare, new construction at a major health care facility is anything but “business as usual.” A building project can disrupt normal safeguards, create stress, and open pathways for infection. When an outpatient cancer care clinic embarked on a six-floor expansion in June 2005, health and safety and infection control professionals worked closely to develop and implement a detailed program to monitor and control airborne particulates.
Every safety program has the opportunity and responsibility to review selection, use, policy, and follow-up and to make those changes needed right now.
Few of us can imagine losing our hearing or vision, or the physical recovery from facial damage from an injury and the hardships this loss would cause to the injured or his/her family and relationships—from time, bills, and potential lost earnings alone. Yet these injuries are very common at the workplace and sometimes are shrugged off as the cost of getting the job done by employees and supervisors alike. What can we as safety leaders do to help drive home the message of always wearing appropriate PPE? And how can we keep our efforts on the front burner with upper management?
High humidity and high temperature are the key ingredients for a recipe of disaster if the body is not properly prepared to handle a hot environment. Whether exposure is a result of regular employment (such as in a foundry, steel mill, or other heated environment), fluctuating seasonal temperature changes (heat waves during the summer), or abruptly changing environments (such as vacationing or business travel), heat stress conditions can have a serious impact on one’s health and well-being.
The company behind a hand-held, FDA 510(k)-cleared automated nerve conduction testing device that is used by thousands of U.S. doctors to diagnose Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is still trying to prove its value to insurers. NeuroMetrix Inc. of Waltham, Mass., said last October that about 5,500 physicians' offices and clinics use the NC-stat device in their practices, even as NeuroMetrix works to overcome reimbursement challenges.
The ability to adapt the workplace to the size variation among computer workers is critical to both promoting users' comfort and protecting their health. While adjustable workstations are commonly thought of in terms of adjusting heights and depths to accommodate differences in sizes of users, it is also important to recognize the importance of adjusting computer workstations to accommodate differences in tasks.
Do you believe a person's mind can make him sick? Or, on the flip side, the way we think can potentially boost our health?
Last year, the 6,000-squaremile National Capital Region around Washington, D.C., which includes the Pentagon and offices for about 340,000 federal workers, received the first seven Mobile Evacuation Buses produced by High Point, N.C.’s Sartin Services Inc. Ed Sartin, the company’s president, said emergency responders in many jurisdictions are looking for vehicles that can accommodate multiple patients.
Question: One of our forklift truck operators recently complained of headache. I think he might have been overexposed to carbon monoxide (CO).
TradeFair Group Inc.'s Industrial Fire, Safety & Security conference is growing rapidly, in terms of attendance and exhibitors, and the 2008 edition (Feb. 6-8) offers a strong seminar lineup at Houston's Reliant Center. It has become a leading conference for Gulf Coast petrochemical emergency officials and vendors serving the energy sector.
Ergonomic hazards can get dicey when conditions turn icy. Here's some advice.
Cold is relative. Just ask a spouse. The old joke about Floridians firing up their furnaces while, in the same weather, Minnesotans are out gardening in shorts and flip-flops is funny because it's grounded in truth. What is refreshing to one can be uncomfortable to another.
It was a model job site, each employee wearing spotlessly clean safety glasses or goggles at every workstation. (Here is where experience comes in, however. The trash cans and floors held the evidence: newly deposited wrappers from someone walking through and handing out new equipment just before the inspection!)
Increasingly, health & safety professionals find themselves the dubious owners of a variety of software tools and large-scale software systems. These tools and systems serve a variety of purposes, from assessment to measurement, to data management and analysis, to large-scale EH&S program automation and administration.
The summer of 2003 was one of the wettest in Maryland history. Later that fall, an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) investigation in a leased facility revealed mold growth in the air handing units (AHUs) and main supply duct of all 12 of the building’s HVAC systems. During the next two months, we worked with occupants, our leasing agent, the building owner, and his contractor to successfully remediate the mold growth. We decided to assess mechanical hygiene in 15 other buildings.
I’ve seen many executives and senior managers sincerely seeking to enhance employee involvement. They realize engaged workers are more likely to be more motivated, do higher-quality work, make better suggestions, deliver improved service, be more alert and aware—and show far better Safety results.
Kimberly-Clark’s Conway, Ark., plant reduced its musculoskeletal incidents by 50 percent following installation of an on-site Employee Maintenance Center (EMC). Improvements in reportable incident rates have continued each year since the EMC launched in 2004. At a sister plant 20 miles down the road in Maumelle, reportable incidents fell from eight to zero in the year following the launch of its center.
The Lean Sigma Scorecard brings together the best of Lean Enterprise thinking, Six Sigma processes, and the Balanced Scorecard’s multiple perspective management. It combines the use of data to deploy strategy and drive improvement, as well as streamlining internal processes and procedures to maximize efficiency. The Lean Sigma Scorecard framework is uniquely positioned to address many of the shortcomings in traditional safety management.