January 2015 OHS

January 2015

  • FOOT PROTECTION: Evolution of the Met Guard
  • FALL PROTECTION: Does More Work Mean More Risk for Communication Tower Workers?
  • DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Smartphones Are Employees' Lifelines During Disasters
  • INCENTIVES: Is Your Safety Program Under RAPPs?
  • INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE/CHEMICAL SAFETY: GHS in the New Year: Five Resolutions for Success
  • 2014: YEAR IN REVIEW: Falls, Recalls, and a Scary Virus
  • OIL & GAS SAFETY: Meeting the Challenge
  • OIL & GAS SAFETY: HSE Leaders Share Their Strategies
  • OIL & GAS SAFETY: Below the Hook Safety -- Oil & Gas Drilling and Well Servicing
  • LOCKOUT/TAGOUT: Process Automation and Lockout/Tagout: Finding the Proper Balance
  • LOCKOUT/TAGOUT: Ensuring Safety with a Lockout/Tagout Program: Seven Steps to Compliance
  • CONSTRUCTION SAFETY: Ten Feet Tall and Falling
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Cover Story

According to OSHA

Does More Work Mean More Risk for Communication Tower Workers?

By Craig Firl

Here's what employers should know to safeguard employees.


Features

Lockout and tagout devices (locks and tags) must identify the name of the worker applying the device.

Ensuring Safety with a Lockout/Tagout Program: Seven Steps to Compliance

By Brad Montgomery

Procedures, devices, and personnel must be set in place to prevent a serious injury when a worker thinks a machine is safely off.


The NIOSH app was introduced last year. It includes selection and inspection tools and was developed by three researchers in the agency

Ten Feet Tall and Falling

By Cheri Genereaux

Construction workers are used to contending with elevated risk levels, so they’re more likely to have a skewed perception of that risk.


There is a growing global push toward hazardous location competency training.

Below the Hook Safety – Oil & Gas Drilling and Well Servicing

By Dave Terry

Many less serious incidents, as well as some serious incidents, would have been prevented had a fail-safe braking system been installed.


The free, web-based program will train health care providers on proper donning of PPE, safe removal of gear, and active monitoring skills.

2014 Year in Review: Falls, Recalls, and a Scary Virus

By Matt Holden

2014 was a year of landmark decisions, calls to action, and unpredictable challenges to overcome. Here are a few of the biggest topics and headlines from the past year.


Technology such as AWG can reduce the draw on municipal resources in water-starved locations, and provide a cost-effective way for drillers to continue their operations without being a drain on local resources.

Meeting the Challenge

By Mike Woods

A "Voice of the Customer" study reveals insights into the challenges of managing an effective flame-resistant clothing program.


Standard operating procedures (SOPs) outline the necessary steps to take in order to ensure inadvertent reenergization does not occur while specific and routine tasks are taking place. (Rockwell Automation, Inc. photo)

Process Automation and Lockout/Tagout: Finding the Proper Balance

By Jimi Michalscheck

This is the hard part, keeping the requirements in mind while also keeping your production humming along.


It is through events like the 2014 HSE Excellence for Offshore Operations Forum where the ideas that truly foster progress first take form.

HSE Leaders Share Their Strategies

By Fred Stawitz

One takeaway: The first step to an effective risk management approach is to divest from the outcome and focus on the execution.


Pictograms are required safety data sheet elements that are intended to convey specific hazard information visually.

GHS in the New Year: Five Resolutions for Success

By Kraig Haberer

As you are aware, the deadline to train employees on GHS has passed. However, it is required to train new employees, as well as provide training when a new physical or health hazard is introduced into the workplace.


JOW

Evolution of the Met Guard

By Alison Nestel-Patt

Advanced foam technology is being used in integrated metatarsal guards that are raising the bar on impact protection.


Smartphone technology is making it easier for employees to quickly access disaster plans, with or without a WiFi connection.

Smartphones Are Employees' Lifeline During Disasters

By Chris Britton

Smartphone technology is making it easier for employees to quickly access disaster plans, with or without a WiFi connection.


Departments

Sounding the Alarm on Skin Cancer

By Jerry Laws

"The findings raise the alarm that not only is skin cancer a growing problem in the United States, but the costs for treating it are skyrocketing relative to other cancers," said the lead author of the report, Gery Guy, Ph.D., of CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.


Elevate Culture by Releasing Adhesions

By Robert Pater

Where are nagging sore spots or ongoing areas of dissatisfaction? Wounds that just don’t seem to heal?


The Only Way Safety Will Continuously Improve

By Shawn M. Galloway

Sometimes to make progress, the right question isn't "What do we need to do?" The question is often "What do we need to stop doing?" or "What are we doing that is sending the wrong message?"


Artificial Intelligence