CORPORATE America is often accused of focusing only on the bottom line, making profits. As anyone who has ever operated his own business will tell you, without profits, your business organization will soon cease to exist and a major void of earned income that supports families, businesses, and charities will result, causing them to suffer major impacts that threaten their very survival, as well.
CHEMICALS and a bustling workplace can lead to a lethal combination. Keeping track of what is being used, how it is being used, and the disastrous effects that may occur if it is used incorrectly can seem overwhelming. Chemical hazard communication is a difficult topic to manage, but there is hope out there.
WE sometimes hear the expression, "His life is hanging by a thread." This becomes true literally for those who fall while protected by a "fall arrest system." By definition, this "system" consists of an anchorage connector, a body harness, a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or a suitable combination of these.
WHAT exactly is "OSHA First Aid," and what do you need to do to comply with regulations for your industry?
CARBON dioxide is the fourth most common gas present in the earth's atmosphere, with an average ambient concentration (in fresh air) of about 350 ppm. Carbon dioxide is one of the most common byproducts of living organisms. With every exhaled breath, we produce and release CO2 into the atmosphere (with an average concentration in exhaled breath of about 3.8 percent).
ONE of the biggest barriers to effective use of hearing protection devices (HPDs) as the last line of defense against noise in the workplace is that there has never been a good way to test performance. How can we trust PPE if we don't know how well it works? Laboratory rating systems do a good job of measuring the protective capability of HPDs to block noise, but study after study has shown that real people working in real noise conditions rarely achieve the levels of protection that would be expected based on the laboratory testing reflected in the noise reduction rating (NRR) label on the HPD package.
DID you know that OSHA considers a brick a hazardous material if is cut or sawed during construction? And that a highway patrol officer enforcing Department of Transportation regulations considers over-the-counter primer a flammable liquid? Hazardous materials aren't always visible to the untrained eye, yet they are present at just about every construction site in the United States.
Editor's note: Changing the way employees' hours were scheduled and providing recognition for their efforts have been successful strategies for Virginia Blood Services (www.vablood.org) of Richmond, Va., says VBS Vice President of Organizational Development Eleanor Boens. The independent, non-profit organization serves the state's two largest hospitals and many other hospitals in Virginia.
Editor's note: Don't overlook the message you send to employees by deploying automated external defibrillators. They can be a powerful symbol of a company's commitment to its workforce and its culture, as Teradyne Inc.'s Loren Eaton, vice president of human resources, and Andy Porter, manager of corporate communications, pointed out in a Feb. 9, 2006, conversation with Occupational Health & Safety's editor. Excerpts from the conversation follow.
SEND in your best-trained people to clean up aging facilities that were once part of the nuclear weapons-production complex. The two "K Basins" and their contaminated contents pose a potential threat to the nearby Columbia River. The Basins are like indoor swimming pools, each holding more than a million gallons of radioactive water. Tens of thousands of irradiated fuel assemblies that once filled the cores of nuclear reactors are stored in the Basins.
Editor's note: The U.S. chemical industry deserves praise for taking care of its own security by spending millions of dollars to harden plants' perimeters, says Jerry Blackman, Honeywell's Global Director of Industrial Security Solutions. Honeywell Security's products for industrial customers (call 602-313-4712 for information) include video recorders, cameras, perimeter control and lobby access systems, intrusion sensors, control panels, and wireless fire and burglary alarm systems.
TODAY, businesses that require workers to wear cut-resistant gloves are faced with a dilemma. Greater safety awareness together with regulatory requirements, higher worker's compensation premiums, and other factors are prompting companies to mandate higher levels of protection.
A survey conducted in March 2006 by The Marlin Company and Occupational Health & Safety showed safety meetings and effective workplace communications are making American workplaces safer than they used to be.
A few years ago, a new manager was appointed to oversee the refinery of a multinational petroleum company. In an earlier life, "Joe" had been a behavioral safety observer who recognized the benefits of having an employee-driven initiative to enhance other safety mechanisms. His reports, for the most part, were not convinced.
THE effective management of occupational health and safety (OH&S) information remains a significant logistical challenge for many businesses. Most large organizations create, collect, and store vast amounts of OH&S data to meet regulatory requirements, to reduce absence, to improve workplace productivity, and to safeguard an organization's most important asset: its workers.