Preventing Eye Injuries and Diseases in the Workplace
Eye-related injuries are some of the most common hazards in the workplace, and some professions are at a higher risk for these accidents than most. As a matter of fact, over 20,000 eye injuries happen in professional settings every year, affecting employee morale and resulting in a productivity decline. But eye experts emphasize that 90% of these cases could have been prevented with proper eye protection. In line with this, it’s best to be prepared with the correct protective eye gear, depending on your workplace, to lessen the chances of any injuries or disease. Below are some of the most recommended safety [...]
2023 State of Safety Training Survey
WORKPLACE SAFETY SURVEY We surveyed 1,583 safety professionals in Q1 and Q2 of 2023. Most safety professionals have deep experience (OVER 70% have more than 5 years) and are deeply committed. MOST of the companies have safety meetings at least monthly (34% have daily or weekly meetings). The biggest challenges to safety training are 1) keeping employees engaged, 2) finding new sources of material and 3) communicating the value to management. OVER 90% of safety professionals believe that blended learning is superior to any one format –the variety improves engagement, comprehension and retention. The most effective safety [...]
National Day of Mourning
April 28, the National Day of Mourning, is a day to remember and honour those who have died or been injured on the job.
Workplace Compliance
SafetyNow's Workplace Compliance library includes 286 courses from "Anti-Harassment For Everyone" to "Legally Hiring" and "Legally Firing." DOWNLOAD CATALOG
Selling Management on the Value of Safety Perception Surveys
As safety budgets shrink, companies are under mounting pressure to ensure that every dollar they spend on safety programs, activities and equipment directly helps to improve safety performance. But in making decisions about how to reduce injuries and illnesses, companies often overlook a crucial factor: the perceptions of their own workers. Studies show that workers’ perceptions of a company’s safety culture and senior management’s commitment to safety have a measurable impact on injury rates. More precisely, the evidence suggests that in companies with low injury rates, a high percentage of workers have a positive perception of management’s commitment to safety; [...]
Personal Liability of CEOs for OSHA Violations
Make sure your CEO understands that he or she can be held personally liable for certain safety violations. Give your CEO this briefing to make your case. OSHA cited two New Jersey corporations for willful violations. One citation carried a $96,300 fine; the other a $196,000 fine. In both cases, OSHA also cited the father-and-son team that owned the corporations. The father was the president and the only officer and director of both corporations. The son, a lawyer whose only clients were the corporations, ran the corporate offices out of his basement. Corporate officers normally aren’t personally liable for the [...]
PPE for Spill Cleanup – Quick Tips
Employees who are engaged in emergency spill response operations no matter where they occur are covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) standard, 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.120. As first steps in limiting worker exposure to spill hazards, engineering controls and administrative (work practice) controls must first be considered. If circumstances prohibit the use of engineering controls or work practices, or these measures do not sufficiently reduce worker exposures, OSHA mandates that personal protective equipment (PPE) be used. Once the need for PPE is established, a careful evaluation of [...]
When Does the Lockout Tagout Standard Apply?
OSHA’s Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) general industry standard covers the servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment in which the unexpected energization or startup of machines or equipment, or release of stored energy, could cause injury to employees. Employees servicing or maintaining machines or equipment may be exposed to serious physical harm or death if hazardous energy is not properly controlled. The Lockout/Tagout (LO/TO) standard establishes minimum performance requirements for the control of hazardous energy sources such as electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, and thermal. 29 CFR 1910.147(a)(1)(ii)(A-E) of the general industry standard identifies the following areas the standard [...]
How to Use Total Cost Assessment to Demonstrate Business Value of Your Safety Initiatives
Convincing senior management to invest in safety initiatives can be an uphill battle, especially when the initiative isn’t specifically required by law. Of course, demonstrating that the initiative will cut costs and/or boost revenues is a great way to sell it to the business people who control the purse strings. But doing so is easier said than done. So how can you demonstrate that a safety initiative will have a positive effect on your company’s bottom line? One possibility is to use Total Cost Assessment (TCA), an accounting method that’s designed to measure the true profitability of EHS investments. Although TCA is [...]
5 Steps to Emergency Preparedness
If the California flooding has taught us anything, it's that emergencies can happen at any time. Your workers play a key role in the execution of your company’s emergency preparedness plan. Given the current conditions, maybe it’s a good time to review the topic of emergency preparedness with your workers and go over the 5 steps to emergency preparedness. Step 1: Evaluate Your Existing Plans Your first step is to review and re-evaluate your company’s emergency response plan, making sure that plans are in place for all possible types of emergencies. These can include, but aren’t limited to: Fires and [...]
Meeting Minutes – Tips and Tricks
SIMPLE TIPS FOR BETTER MEETING MINUTES Meeting minutes help with communication at work and they ensure people have a common understanding of what the meeting was about, what was done, and what they should be doing next. PURPOSE OF MINUTES Minutes are particularly helpful for formal meetings as they serve as a permanent record of the discussion and the decisions that were made. A written record of the meeting in the form of minutes can be especially useful for people who were not able to attend in person as they get to see what came up in the meeting. TIPS [...]
Hearing Protection PPE Requirements
Employees must be given a selection of several types of hearing protection to choose from. For routine noise levels, earplugs, canal caps or earmuffs can be used. There are many styles and sizes, some even designed to allow the wearer to “hear” conversations while providing a barrier to extremely loud sound levels. For extremely loud areas, such as working around jet engines, special ear muffs are designed for more significant noise reduction. Your vendor can help you make some choices. If you do not have a vendor, interview several before you select one. When making your selection you should consider [...]
