Columns - Articles - Page 18

Are you guilty of these common misconceptions about bad safety habits?

April 16, 2021

What’s that one worksite habit that really grinds your gears? Every safety pro has one pet peeve they hate to see but can’t seem to eliminate. Bad safety habits happen on every job site, but breaking those habits isn’t as easy as slapping workers on the wrist or offering them rewards.

Missed opportunities and a path forward (it took a pandemic)

Cory Worden M.S., CSHM

March 22, 2021

As humans experienced the first global pandemic since 1918, it also experienced a multitude of missed opportunities that would have mitigated the frequency and severity of COVID-19 exposures and infections. Contrary to many messages communicated by politicians, the pandemic is not a political issue. Instead, it is a hazard, subject to scientific hazard control.

Editorial Comments

OSHA reveals top 10 violations for fiscal year 2020

Benita Mehta

March 22, 2021

OSHA announced its preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2020. As is usually the case, the Top 10 violations didn’t change from FY 2019, they just swapped numbers.

Best Practices

Does an abundance of titles hurt the OHS practice?

Quality varies in an unregulated credentials market

Dan Markiewicz MS, CIH, CSP, RMP

March 18, 2021

If the CIH and CSP are high-water marks for quality, what are the lowest quality OHS credentials? The constant flux of the unregulated OHS credential market along with hazy transparency and other issues e.g., no standard benchmark makes this an impossible question to answer.

Who is blocking the bully policy?

Edward Stern

February 9, 2021

Many private and public entities have no anti-bullying policy at all. Some have policies with holes in them; some of the language undermines the policies’ stated purposes.

Why is there OHS malaise in the U.S.?

Voluntary best practices implementation is risk management

Dan Markiewicz MS, CIH, CSP, RMP

February 8, 2021

Federal OSHA is stagnant and ill-prepared to regulate future risks. OSHA has only 1,850 inspectors to cover 8 million U.S. workplaces. OSHA has no regulations for rising concerns such as infectious disease, EMFs, psychosocial hazards, or ergonomics.

Editorial Comments

2021 to bring many changes, hopefully for the better

Benita Mehta

January 17, 2021

I’m sure many people are happy to bid good riddance to 2020 and hopefully look forward to a better 2021.

Thought Leadership

Whistleblowers, past and present

How to avoid repeat mistakes and understand ethical dilemmas

Cory Worden M.S., CSHM

January 17, 2021

In this series, the concept of and need for whistleblowers is explored along with historical and present-day cases.

Best Practices

An interpretation of PWFA laws

Dan Markiewicz MS, CIH, CSP, RMP

January 17, 2021

Workplace hazards today are broad and complex. Where specificity of law is absent or ambiguous, such as workplace safety for Covid-19, OSHA’s “General Duty” clause, section (5)(a)(1) of the OSH Act, becomes an enforcement incentive.

Building successful careers

Women in construction should take advantage of available resources

Donald Meeker

December 8, 2020

Women have made amazing strides in many fields and industries throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Unfortunately, there are many others in which it remains a big challenge for a woman to rise to the top — or even, in some cases, to enter the industry at all.