December 2003


Features

Six Keys to Success

By Jeanette Keton

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.


The Lowdown on Regulatory Reporting

By Andrea Clark

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.


Putting Accident Intervention Systems into Action

By Dennis Hutchinson

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.


Assessing Your AED Needs

By Mark Altmann

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.


Keep Your Eye on the Individual's Visual Function, Part 2

By Bernard R. Blais, M.D., FAAO, FACOEM, FACS, Thomas Tredici, Sr., M.D.

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.


The Revised NFPA 30

By Philip Fillweber

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.


Designing a Balanced Fire Protection Plan

By Fred Goodnight

IT was a Monday night last May at Las Palmitas, a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, when a fire broke out in its lounge filled with a crowd of 200 customers.


Lost in the Translation

By Roger Brooks, Jr.

ON a cold November evening in Michigan last year, a 20-year-old Hispanic worker was killed while removing bridge formwork as he stood atop an elevated truck bed. When he and a co-worker attempted to lower the platform, which could also serve as a dump truck, the bed malfunctioned and would not go down.


Will My Safety Harness Save My Life?

By Emmett McGregor

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?


Do You Have an Evacuation Plan that Works?

By Stephen V. Magyar, Jr., MBA, CSP

FIRE, tornado, bomb threat, hazardous material spill--all are emergencies that can, and often do, strike without warning. They are disruptive to normal operations. They frequently cause serious injury, property damage, and production downtime.


Departments

Your New Form 300

By Jerry Laws

OSHA's new fiscal year began Oct. 1 and within hours the new-for-2004 Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) was unveiled. OSHA announced in December 2002 it would add a separate column for hearing loss cases but would not add a column for musculoskeletal disorders.


Fleet Feedback

By Valerie Weadock

EVEN in the worst of weather, Santa can depend on Rudolph to deliver him and his famous bag of goodies to millions of rooftops, safe and sound. But with a shortage of flying reindeer and magical sleighs, ensuring your employees and/or products are safely transported can be more daunting than sliding down a chimney.


The Space Between

By Matthew A. Forck

THIS safety thing really makes me scratch my head. One would think our workers, with their expansive job knowledge and physical skills, would perform their job safely all of the time, yet sometimes corners are cut. There seems to be a space between what a worker knows is safe and what he actually does (an at-risk act).


Artificial Intelligence