RECENTLY, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission handed down a decision that limits OSHA's use of its per-instance/per-employee "egregious penalty" policy. The decision in Secretary of Labor v. Erik K. Ho, Ho Express, Inc., and Houston Fruitland, Inc.,1 comes just months after OSHA announced its new "enhanced enforcement policy," which implements new tactics to crack down on the worst violators of the OSH Act.
EACH year, injuries caused by manual materials handling are a significant cost to industry in terms of medical costs and lost productivity.
DETERMINING which respirators best fit your emergency escape plans may be one of the most critical steps you can take to ensure employees have the best chance for escape from a terrorist situation, natural disaster, or industrial accident.
WHEN I first became an EHS manager, I thought I knew most of what I needed to know as a professional (during the years since then, I have found out just how much I didn't know), but I would, somewhat infrequently, seek help from an external consultant either to confirm my thoughts or to provide creative solutions for the "opportunities" I had identified.
HUNDREDS of H&S software applications are available; choosing the one that can best address your needs can be a difficult process. During the past 17 years, I have seen a variety of procedures used to select software.
ARE you looking for a way to increase employee involvement in safety activities and training? Incentive programs can motivate employees to follow safety-related rules, complete required or recommended training, or participate in safety-related activities such as safety committees.
DO safety incentive programs work? This is a multimillion-dollar question when you consider the costs that unsafe practices can have for your organization. The simple answer is, it depends primarily on the focus of your safety program and secondarily on how well you implement your incentive program.
THIS is the time of year when we at Packer Engineering are often asked to investigate personal injury claims involving that old nemesis of the Great White North: "Unnatural Accumulation of Ice!" In the Midwest, we have to live with ice and snow as a regular part of our existence, and we know when traversing the slippery fields of frozen delights, one must traverse with a bit more care than in the middle of August.
HAZARDOUS areas in manufacturing facilities require a device to protect workers from injury. A popular machine guarding solution is a safety mat system that, when stepped on, initiates a stop signal, preventing injury that may be caused by a piece of hazardous equipment.
VIOLENCE has emerged as an important safety and health issue in today's workplaces. Homicide, its most extreme form, is the second-leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 709 workplace homicides occurred in 1998, accounting for 12 percent of the total 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States.
WHEN a man playing tennis at a ClubCorp Inc. resort in Austin, Texas, appeared to be suffering chest pains, ClubCorp employees responded quickly. Within 30 seconds, the company's specially trained team brought an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the man's side.
FOR almost a century, NFPA 30 has guided users of flammable and combustible liquids. From 1913 to 1957, the document was published as a model municipal ordinance. In 1957, the format was changed to a code, although the technical requirements and provisions remained the same.
THREE hundred feet in the air, stepping from girder to girder, the last thing I want running through my head is a question regarding the safety equipment I am using. Will the fundamental design of that equipment in fact save my life, or will it actually take it from me? Will I be home watching the ballgame with my family tonight, or will they be preparing for my funeral?
REPORTING requirements for a facility can cover a broad spectrum of laws, regulations, and standards at the federal, state, and local levels. These requirements may apply to a variety of media, such as air, land, water, and waste.
ACCIDENT Intervention Systems, as the term pertains to safety in industrial, manufacturing, and distribution facilities, is defined as: A systems approach to in-plant safety, where the three areas of Risk Management--People Protection, Property Protection and Code Compliance--are assessed and proper procedure is taken to neutralize workplace hazards and improve code compliance.
LOSING a valuable employee heavily impacts the organization on many levels: the loss of productivity, the impact to company morale, the employee safety and security issues, and risk and liability issues.
THE present status of ocular engineering now allows for many new concepts that change or modify the optical system of the eye. Some of these are corrections for existing ocular impairments, but they require completely new approaches to the fitness-for-duty status and qualifying of incumbents or existing employees. Let's consider a few of these changes.