FORTUNATELY, it's not every day that a 10,000-gallon holding tank fails or a forklift harpoons a drum of solvent sitting next to a floor drain. But no matter what spills, facilities need to be prepared.
A driver for a messenger service is injured in a company car in a traffic accident on his way to work.
IF you have more work than time, then the answer to the question above should be yes. Today, almost all administrative, management, planning, and tracking functions of safety can be tackled with readily available and, usually, reasonably priced off-the-shelf software.
THE safe operation of a forklift is a skill that requires the ability to anticipate accidents. When this ability is learned through "trial and error," it is only evaluated when property damage or serious injury occurs.
WORKING with electrical systems exposes utility workers to an average of five to ten explosions of energy every day. When working with these same electrical systems at height, there is no room for error.
IMAGINE this: An employee walks into a hazardous workplace environment and sustains a foot injury that could have been prevented. While the employee must now endure a painful injury and lost time from work, his employer is faced with a dip in productivity and exposure to a potentially damaging worker's compensation claim.
Editor's note: Ninety percent of safety managers understand the need for proactive behavior based safety recognition, but many of them find their recognition strategy is still the old school, says Bill Sims, Jr., president of Bill Sims Award of Excellence in Columbia, S.C.
NEVER before have communication interoperability and information sharing among intelligence and law enforcement agencies been as critical as they are in this post-9/11 world.
RECENT years have seen rapid developments in the number and types of products available to provide hearing protection as mandated by OSHA in 29 CFR 1910.95(b)(1). Not only has the design of hearing protection devices (HPDs) evolved, but the technology and materials used in their construction have advanced, as well.
THIS paper will establish that two age-old beliefs, often applied, are barriers to inquiry into the reality of systemic design and engineering, operational, and cultural causal factors for incidents resulting in serious injury.
CITING employees as a company's most valuable asset is so common today that it borders on cliché. Every organization, it seems, claims it as a management philosophy, but few actually live it.
Editor's note: Skanska USA Building Inc. (www.skanskausa.com) of Parsippany, N.J., has tied IFE into incentive bonuses for its six Co-Chief Operating Officers who oversee company operations, the Account Managers who report to them, and each AM's project teams.
GOOD ergonomics is good business. According to a November 2003 productivity study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lost productive time from common pain conditions among active U.S. workers costs an estimated $61.2 billion per year while at work and in work-related absences.
NOISE is a particularly insidious hazard. It can be enjoyable and hazardous at the same time. The effect that it has on our hearing generally depends on how long we have been exposed to the noise and how loud the sound is.
AT the end of the day, the goal of occupational health and safety professionals is not only to keep all employees safe, healthy, and on the job, but also to send them home safe and sound to their families and loved ones. Getting to that goal has sparked numerous debates and philosophical discussions over the years.