OHS October 2012 cover

October 2012

  • HEARING PROTECTION: Dispelling Hearing Protection Myths
  • FOOT PROTECTION: Step Into Safety Right
  • FALL PROTECTION: Higher Calling
  • TRAINING: Mining the Value of Computer-Based Training
  • WELLNESS: Better Together
  • ERGONOMICS: Five Changing Trends in Managing Workplace Ergonomics
  • LOCKOUT/TAGOUT: Educate, Train, and Visualize
  • NSC PREVIEW: Congress Celebrates a Century
  • INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE: Three Things Every Industrial Hygienist Should Know About Gas Monitoring
  • INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE: Gas Monitoring Success Stories
  • TRANSPORTATION SAFETY: Steering Clear of Driving Program Pitfalls
  • INDOOR AIR QUALITY: IAQ Complaints: Survival Techniques for the Safety Professional
  • OIL & GAS SAFETY: Radiation Sources in Natural Gas Well Activities
  • FACILITY MANAGEMENT: 5S: The Unsung Hero of Operational and Safety Excellence
  • FACILITY MANAGEMENT: Controlling Facility Noise with Curtain Walls
  • WINTER HAZARDS: Plan Ahead to Prevent Slips and Falls
  • MATERIALS HANDLING: Choosing the Perfect Work Access Lift
  • DATIA SECTION: Drug Testing Promotes Workplace Safety
  • DATIA SECTION: The Business Case for Workplace Alcohol Prevention
  • IMA SECTION: Get in the Game: Applying Gamification to On-the-Job Safety
  • IMA SECTION: Safety in Action: A Practical Application
  • IMA SECTION: The Winding Staircase to Setting Up an Incentive Program
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Cover Story

Higher Calling

By Dave Francis

Every day, more than 500 people go to the hospital because of a ladder-related accident. Don’t be one of them.


Features

Get in the Game: Applying Gamification to On-the-Job Safety

By Michael Levy

Winning bragging rights can be rewarding in and of itself, but if there’s a carrot being dangled, we become even more determined.


Five Changing Trends in Managing Workplace Ergonomics

By Walt Rostykus, CPE, CIH, CSP

Traditionally, safety professionals have driven ergonomic improvements in an effort to reduce injuries, but all along they have been the wrong people to do this.


The 40 percent linkage to alcohol in both workplace and road fatalities is strong evidence that alcohol abuse is pervasive.

The Business Case for Workplace Alcohol Prevention

By Barry Knott

Workplace alcohol abuse need not be accepted as an inevitable cost of doing business.


In organizations with high employee absenteeism rates (more than 15 percent), the implementation of a drug testing program appears to have an impact.

Drug Testing Promotes Workplace Safety

By Melissa DiThomas

You can maintain your program effectiveness by understanding which drugs are being abused and modifying your testing panel based on that information.


The process of putting a new safety incentive program into place is at least intricate. If you do not have a process in mind for completing the journey, it can be practically impossible.

The Winding Staircase to Setting Up a Safety Incentive Program

By Sean Roark

There are many steps in implementing one for the workplace. Sometimes the last step is the hardest.


Safety in Action: A Practical Application

By Evelina Y. Stanley

With a subject as serious as this, it's worth repeating the old adage: Nobody plans to fail, but many fail to plan.


Step into Safety Right

By Brittany L. Agro

Here's advice managers should follow (and not follow) when it comes to deciding on and purchasing appropriate footwear for their workforce.


IAQ Complaints: Survival Techniques for the Safety Professional

By Linda J. Sherrard

Sometimes you cannot find a solution that works. Admit it and keep trying to find answers, but know that some complaints you may never be able to solve.


Mining the Value of Computer-Based Training

By Jonathan A. Jacobi, Bjorn Ansbro

21st-century regulations and a 21st-century workforce demand a blended approach.


5S: The Unsung Hero of Operational and Safety Excellence

By Stephen Jarman

Leadership teams that clearly link the target condition of a sustainable 5S process into the overall business strategy for operational excellence will make quantifiable financial gains.


Choosing the Perfect Work Access Lift

By Henry J. Renken

Once you have completed your shopping list of work aids to place on the platform, you can begin to add up the total weight on board.


Radiation Sources in Natural Gas Well Activities

By Gayle Nicoll

More attention and monitoring of occupational radiation exposure in the natural gas industry are warranted.


While not all older adults have hearing loss, the likelihood of noise-induced hearing loss and other hearing impairment increases as we age.

Better Together

By Terri L. Dougherty

Companies see advantages from linking safety and wellness.


Alan Brown (left), health supervisor for Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, Inc., received an innovation award from Michel Benezit of Total SA for improving safety while reducing costs. (Total Petrochemicals & Refining photo)

Gas Monitoring Success Stories

Wireless gas detection is a cost-efficient way to improve safety.


Educate, Train, and Visualize

By Danielle Gallo

Maintaining awareness is essential to maximizing your lockout program.


Workers cannot be properly protected from exposure hazards if they are not regularly using the monitors that are intended to detect the hazard. (Industrial Scientific photo)

Three Things Every Industrial Hygienist Should Know About Gas Monitoring

By Dave D. Wagner

Of course, workers cannot be properly protected from exposure hazards if they are not regularly using the monitors intended to detect the hazard.


The bottom line is that safety managers need to plan ahead for how they will address winter slip and fall hazards. They also need to understand there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Plan Ahead to Prevent Slips and Falls

By Jerry Laws

There are three ways to prevent them -– eliminating access, housekeeping, and improved traction -– but the first two aren't possible in all cases.


Fortunately, manufacturers have responded with a number of speech-friendly hearing protectors. (Honeywell Safety Products photo)

Dispelling Hearing Protection Myths

By Brad Witt

There is no surgery, no rehabilitation, no medication that returns a noise-induced hearing loss back to normal.


Congress Celebrates a Century

By Jerry Laws

NSC describes the Safety Trail in the central aisle of the expo as "a visual journey through corridors of safety milestones from the last century."


Controlling Facility Noise with Curtain Walls

By Chuck Ashelin

If source sound levels increase for any reason, it is very simple to add a second layer of flexible sound curtain to an existing one or even to augment an existing rigid wall.


Departments

Leading Habits

By Robert Pater

Provide consistent attention to the changes you want.


'The Next Revolution' is Almost Here

By Jerry Laws

In a crashless world, U.S. emergency rooms won't have to treat more than 2 million crash victims per year as they do now.


Measuring Safety Excellence: A Practical Framework

By Shawn M. Galloway

What one measurement would provide the greatest insight and facilitate performance and cultural transformation?


Artificial Intelligence