Environmental Health and Safety

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Tracy Clingingsmith, Safety Manager for Alamo Group in Seguin, Texas, has been named the 2018 Safety Professional of the Year (SPOTY) by J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. The SPOTY Awards recognize industry professionals who lead unique and effective approaches to their safety programs. When Clingingsmith started as Safety Manager at Alamo Group in Texas, she changed the culture of how all employees, from the top down, thought about safety.

Experienced employers — from industrial safety managers to construction supervisors -- keep a close eye on measures for worker fall protection. Failures in this category have led OSHA’s annual list of top 10 most-cited violations for most of the past decade.

More than 95,000 signatures will be on a petition delivered to Congress tomorrow, urging the EPA to “Ban Asbestos in the U.S. Now, Without Loopholes or Exemptions.” That delivery is timed for Mesothelioma Awareness Day, an effort to bring attention to mesothelioma, a lung disease caused by exposure to asbestos and the inhalation of asbestos particles.

As more organizations offer increasingly comprehensive programs for workplace safety and health, researchers and organizations alike look for the best examples and tools to measure their effectiveness. With so many programs available, how do organizations know which one is best?

Producing flame-resistant (FR) fabrics dates back to around 450 B.C. when textiles made from asbestos, which was known to have fire-resistant properties, were used to wrap the bodies of the deceased before they were placed on funeral pyres.

If you’re in construction, maritime, hydraulic fracturing, or other general industries using silica, the new silica standard and silica dust should matter to you. Chances are, you could be getting exposed to dangerous respirable silica dust that you can’t even see. And, what you can’t see, can hurt you.

It didn’t take very long into the first morning of the construction industry safety conference for me to start second-guessing myself. While the prominent event presented a unique opportunity for me to network with contractors and safety directors who work directly in the field, and it allowed me direct access to the people who manage safety policies and procedures within an industry where Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) members’ equipment is used, I couldn’t help but wonder if the other attendees had different viewpoints about safety than I did.

The U.S. Labor Department says its new Office of Compliance Initiatives (OCI) will strengthen compliance assistance outreach by promoting a greater understanding of federal labor laws and regulations. In announcing the new office last month, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta said OCI efforts will help companies prevent violations and protect Americans' wages, workplace safety and health, retirement security, and other rights and benefits. As part of its work, OCI will work with the enforcement agencies to refine their metrics to ensure the efficacy of the Department's compliance assistance activities.

Petroleum refineries are laden with various thermal and chemical hazards. Adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) is instrumental in providing a safe work environment for employees to complete the task at hand.

Use Improved Visual Literacy to deliver enhanced safety performance; advance your safety program; and engage employees. COVE – the Center of Visual Expertise – announces dates for its forthcoming two-day Visual Literacy program. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn: 1) Identify, interpret and act upon visual information; 2) Improve hazard awareness, pre-job analysis, BBS; 3) Enhance risk management and communication; and 4) Mitigate bias and improve decision making.