Major chemical incidents can be prevented by applying process safety management principles. Process safety management (PSM) is the control of process hazards in order to prevent process-related injuries and incidents. The CSB has conducted seven investigations with 26 resulting recommendations relating to improving state and federal process safety management programs.

How do people get to a point where they fear safety? How can something like a checklist or an SOP or a safety manager create fear? Our body is equipped with automatic protective wiring that reacts to scary stimuli with a fear response.

A global company that sells more than $10 billion dollars a year in tires has been recognized for its safety achievements by the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA). The organization has presented Michelin North America, Inc. with eight safety awards this year for its manufacturing plants in the U.S., as well as a leadership award for taking an innovative approach to worker safety.

In our previous two columns on this subject, developing an actionable safety plan is covered in three parts. First Actions was explained in Part One (October 2017 ISHN) and Core Actions detailed in Part Two (January 2018 ISHN). The rest of this column focuses on Sustaining Actions.

Grainger welcomed more than 12,000 attendees in February to its annual Grainger Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. “An event like this for Grainger showcases the types of products, solutions, services and expertise we offer customers,” said Deb Oler, Grainger senior vice president and president, North American Sales and Services.

Recently, I did some health and safety “due diligence” consulting work for a client who wanted to acquire a small, 65-employee business. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with supervisors and employees and touring the facility and was struck by two important findings: this small company didn’t have much by way of written programs that supported health and safety regulatory compliance AND it had a remarkably good safety record -- one that much larger companies would envy.

Injuries in the workplace cost American companies billions of dollars every year. According to OSHA, it is estimated that employers spend 1 billion dollars a week on workers compensation costs in the United States. That is just the money going towards workers compensation. There are also costs that come from the days that injured employees miss work. Injuries and accidents that force injured employees to miss at least six days of work cost employers in the United States about 62 billion dollars a year.

A highly anticipated global standard aimed at creating safer workplaces everywhere will be published on March 12, according to the Switzerland-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that spearheaded the five-year development process with support from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Companies can purchase a hard copy of ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems from ASSE beginning the week of the standard’s publication.

Learn about resilience management and leadership; driving safety and quality with project management; human performance tools; leading indicators and KPIs; social media platforms to create safe performance and safe cultures; organizational culture and performance; and investigation methodologies at the Resilience Management Summit, to be held May 14 and 15 at Oviedo Amphitheatre and Cultural Center, Orlando, FL.