"YOUNG lady, I think you are in the wrong place," growled a bearded, rustic-looking Dr. James Counts, his brows knitted as he stalked into the classroom of Central Missouri State University's safety program. His second comment was that I would need a very large bottle of Wild Turkey and a long-handled wooden spoon for daily doses to make it through the course.
Devastating catastrophes and the work of key individuals have contributed to the evolution of modern occupational health and safety.
WHEN I was younger, it used to frustrate me to hear folks talk of the "good old days." As with most of us, the frustration subsided as I got older. Comparing everything from the pace of life to the cost of gasoline, a clearer understanding of the "good old days" apparently comes with age!
THE typical response to sudden cardiac arrest is not the stuff of Hollywood movies or TV medical dramas. Rarely is the most-trained, clearest-thinking person on the scene first, taking charge and saving a life against long odds. Rarer still are bystanders who instantly become part of the solution instead of a distraction or impediment. Panic, confusion, fear, people getting in one another's way--now, that's often the real world.
AS a safety professional, you have learned how to quickly identify hazardous environments, led the effort in determining the best ways to protect your employees from those hazards, and spent countless hours training those same employees on everything related to safety. It's a safe bet you can probably recite an OSHA standard quicker than a quote from your favorite novel.
COMPLIANCE requirements for using and storing flammable liquids in the workplace are quite detailed and specific. Unfortunately, the requirements are spread over a number of agencies and multiple documents.
NO one plans to be involved in an industrial accident, but it happens. In Al's case, it was simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the right time. While returning to his work area from the tool crib, a drum of caustic material slipped off a forklift. The drum hit the side of an inventory rack and split open. Al was splashed across his left side, soaking his clothing from head to toe. A significant amount of the hazardous material struck his exposed face and hands.
CRUSHING, punctures, lacerations, sprains, and even aches and pains are common problems workers have with their feet. Footwear that doesn't match their hazard exposures are a leading reason for these, but overall workplace organization and work practices are often at fault.
SUDDEN cardiac arrest (SCA) remains a significant cause of death in America's workplaces. OSHA attributes 13 percent of all workplace fatalities to SCA, and health experts estimate that more than 400,000 individuals die of SCA in the United States each year.
ACHIEVING safety excellence in mining is neither easy nor inexpensive, but sometimes it can be done relatively fast. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy has won four Sentinels of Safety awards, many Holmes Safety Association awards, and numerous federal and state mine rescue champion's trophies in the past decade, but its safety record was so-so as recently as 1990, said Dave Beerbower, the coal company's vice president of safety for the past 14 years.
Safety in U.S. coal mines has been a front-burner issue since a methane explosion killed 12 miners Jan. 2, 2006, inside the Sago Mine, located near Buckhannon in Upshur County, W.Va. That incident sparked the MINER Act, an important reform of federal mine safety regulations; a 101-page report delivered in July 2006 to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III; and an independent, 10-member commission of experts created by the National Mining Association to examine mine safety technology and training.
FRANCIS Bacon, a philosopher, once said that "knowledge is power." While this saying can be applied to many different situations throughout life, it has added value when talking about confined spaces in the work area. It's important to have a knowledge and understanding of confined spaces because the lack of same could result in serious injury, including death.
ONE of the most significant challenges today faced by law enforcement and professional cleaning companies is methamphetamine laboratory seizure and cleanup. These makeshift and chemically "dirty" facilities pose real health risks for those required to enter and clean these areas.
WHEN monitoring the atmosphere in a confined space, there are several important issues that need to be considered, reviewed, and managed. One of the major issues centers on air quality and what you are breathing, both prior to entry and during occupation of a confined space. You need to know what the oxygen content of the atmosphere is and whether there are explosive or toxic gases that could threaten the safety of the environment or, perhaps more importantly, your life.
FIRE safety is of monumental importance to building owners and managers, individuals whose fire protection decisions affect both life safety and the preservation of valuable assets. There is a variety of products available to these decision makers to ensure their buildings are properly protected.
IN the United States, the leading cause of death and debilitating injury to children over the age of one is motor vehicle accidents. Impelled by this bleak statistic, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia® and State Farm® Mutual Automobile Insurance Companies formed Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) in 1997 as a program of the Hospital's Center for Injury Research and Prevention.