Looks like we’re going to have to outfit workers with wearable devices to monitor their blood pressure and heartbeat to be on the alert when stress levels driven by office and assembly line political chatter get dangerously high strung.

Despite the potential for serious injuries and fatalities, gloves were not considered when arc flash standards for clothing were first developed in the 1990s. For years electrical industry safety experts wanted the same type of rating on gloves as they had for clothing and face shields.

How many of you have lost your fight and bark for safety? How many of you have dialed back your efforts because you are tired or have been beaten down over the years? But don't you owe yourself and others your best- or a new best?

NFPA states that hundreds of deaths and thousands of burn injuries occur each year due to shock, electrocution, arc flash, and arc blast — and most could be prevented through compliance with NFPA 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace®.

I approached a couple of employees, and asked if one of them would volunteer to wear an air sampling pump. One employee, "If you tell me who you voted for president, I might wear the pump." I knew at that point that I'd get some honest results from industrial hygiene (IH) sampling.

Businesses by and large would rather not know about employees’ mental struggles, and related so-called weaknesses and fragility, and employees don’t want managers and supervisors to know out of fear of losing their jobs. This is a dangerous silence all around.

Social nocebo1 is a contagious illness that impacts upwards of one-quarter of people who encounter it. Conditions are ripe for a rise of social nocebo in the workplace. The following are key actions that occupational safety and health pros must take to anticipate, recognize, evaluate and control social nocebo.

What are boundaries? A practical definition is “the lines or limits that are not to be crossed,” such as not passing a school bus when its red lights are flashing and one doughnut per week. We all create boundaries, some less rigid than others, but they’re meant to benefit and protect us without getting in the way of what we want to accomplish.

You might recall last year the fatal accident involving a self-driving Tesla. It reinforced the need to be vigilant even as we are assured (or assure ourselves) that “the machine will handle it.”

An executive coach says when he asks senior leaders what safety means to them, many pause and say, “Well, safety means everybody gets to go home.”  What, are we fighting a war?