TANK overfills. Forklift punctures. Floods. Earthquakes. Willful destruction. Spill response planners are tasked with creating plans for any possible spill incident that could occur at a facility. Often, however, the “best” or “ideal” plan to handle a situation is scrapped because of budgetary, manpower, or space constraints. Sometimes, less-than-perfect plans are developed because plan coordinators aren’t aware of the wealth of resources available in their communities. Acknowledging that the facilities may not need to purchase or store all of the items they could ever possibly need is an important first step toward achieving a more ideal spill response plan.
IN 2005, Bowater Inc., a leading producer of coated and specialty papers and newsprint, stood by its commitment to ensure the safety of its workers at a Grenada, Miss. facility that is Mississippi’s only newsprint manufacturer. Bowater looked to our Electrical Services and Systems district office in Pelham, Ala. to implement its arc flash training, perform an Arc Flash Hazard Analysis to assess its safety needs and concerns, and to coordinate its power systems.
PIPETTE selection is seldom a well-thought-out decision. Rather, it has more to do with the individual preference of the person responsible for ordering or the right salesperson's being there at the right time with the lowest price. However, pipette selection is becoming more critical due to the high cost of work-related injuries and the impact the absence of a scientist can have on a research project.
Without wearing the necessary protective equipment, more injuries and fatalities will occur on the job. This is something Jerry Bach, vice president of Sacramento, Calif.-based Safety Center, Inc., will not tolerate. Wearing personal protective equipment is not only common sense that will keep you alive and safe, it also cuts down on worker's compensation claims, insurance premiums, and personal injury lawsuits for which employers must pay the price.
OUR hands are two the most valuable and widely used tools in the workplace. Proper glove selection is essential in protecting these tools from on-the-job hazards. All too often, workers are faced with a very limited understanding of why hand protection is needed or even how to select a glove properly for their application. The wrong glove often is selected for the job task, which risks injury to the worker or a loss in productivity.
YOU'VE seen the success of safety incentive programs, and you know how to run an incentive program. But your results are never quite what you expected.
Maybe it isn't just the program. In 2004, a company I'll call CVC Industries (a fictional name representing a combination of many companies involved in incentive safety programs) invested considerable time and energy in developing a safety incentive program to improve driver safety. Although initial results were good, driver participation fell off quickly and the program ended without a whimper. What went wrong?
MORE than ever, construction companies are under pressure to provide both employees and subcontractors with effective safety training. OSHA and many states mandate safety training for employees, and recent laws such as California’s AB 1127 hold contractors responsible for the safety of on-site subcontractors. Adding to the incentive to provide safety training for workers is the realization by most companies that helping to ensure employee safety is simply good business.
THE term "incentives" has been floating around in the business world for decades now, yet the prevalent and effective use of them still continues to trail behind what is not just a trend, but rather a necessity in today's economic environment. Although there are a variety of applications for incentive programs (which include loyalty, reward, and promotional programs), perhaps the more underutilized applications fall into the categories of recognition and performance improvement geared toward sales and non-sales employees.
THE explosion at BP's Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 contract construction workers and injured 170 other workers in March 2005 is still reverberating. A lawsuit, an investigation by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), a glossy safety report from BP (along with $1.6 billion set aside for claims), and a bill in the Texas Legislature to mandate a state occupational safety and health plan were the first wave.
IN 1994, OSHA made a big change in how it inspects construction job sites. Previously, construction inspections were comprehensive in scope, addressing all areas of the workplace and, by inference, all classes of hazards. This may have forced compliance officers to spend too much time and effort focusing on a few projects looking for all violations--and too little time overall on many projects inspecting for the hazards most likely to cause fatalities and serious injuries to workers.
HERE'S the situation:
Business is tough in today's global marketplace. Everyone is being asked to do more with less. Not just a trend, this seems to be the way of the future.
Safety and risk management professionals have not been insulated from the need to become more efficient. If you are in the safety and risk management field, surely you must agree this is the case.
MANAGING workplace safety is an important goal that many corporations have recognized as a logical and effective way to provide a better working environment for employees and to cut corporate costs. A key component in safety management is the software system used to record, manage, and analyze safety-related data. With an effective system, the safety team can see exactly where accidents and unsafe situations are occurring and take proactive steps to eliminate them.
THIRTY-two million workers (roughly 10 percent of our population) are potentially exposed to an estimated 650,000 hazardous chemical products each day in more than 3 million American workplaces, according to recent OSHA statistics. Having a solid safety program helps keep your employees from being a statistic. Safety is a major concern in most businesses across the country, and
FOR decades, studies in the workplace have shown hearing protectors to be underperformers: Real-world attenuation (noise blocking) is less than the published Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) for many workers. Studies like these have spawned a variety of de-rating schemes for hearing protectors that are often misunderstood or misapplied, such as the 50 percent OSHA de-rating or the NIOSH 75/50/30 percent de-rating for ear muffs, formable ear plugs, and pre-molded ear plugs, respectively.
I recently heard a manager delightedly speak about the "miraculous" changes he saw in his company's Safety performance and culture.
No fighter pilot ever flies a combat mission solo. We always fly as a team--with our wingmen, who provide mutual support and maximize our ability to accomplish our objectives.