OSHA reported at the annual meeting of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association (VPPPA) held August 25-28 in National Harbor, MD, outside of Washington, DC that as of July 2014, there were 2,293 active Voluntary Protection Program participants, protecting more than 875,000 workers.

OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels continued his agency’s campaign to raise awareness of the safety and health risks faced by temporary workers – an increasing employment tactic used by many businesses in the economy’s sluggish recovery – in his remarks to attendees at the annual meeting of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association held August 25-28 in National Harbor, MD, outside of Washington, DC.

By ISHN Editor Dave Johnson, reporting from the annual VPPPA conference: Mistakes will happen, it’s human error, people are people working within the context of systems, so GE takes people out of the equation and focuses on risk, the risks of the systems that employees work within, said Ann R. Klee, the VP for Environment, Health and Safety at GE, speaking at the opening session of the 30^th annual meeting of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association (VPPPA), in National Harbor, MD, outside of Washington DC.

On Friday, July 11, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a national press conference he was “disappointed,” “deeply troubled,” “frankly angry,” “astonished,” “unsettled,” “upset” and had lost sleep over safety lapses at CDC facilities that “never should have happened.”

These words keep surfacing at safety conferences, speeches, articles and conversations and paint a picture of the issues and trends important to the profession here in 2014: Value– as in, “What’s the value of having a safety professional around here?”

ISHN conducted an exclusive interview with Mike Williamsen, of Caterpillar Safety Services, who presented a talk at ASSE Safety 2014 on “Culture of Correct: Developing a Worldwide Safety System.”

ISHN conducted an exclusive interview with John Drebinger of John Drebinger Presentations, who presented a talk at ASSE Safety 2014 on “The ‘How To’ of Watching Out for the Safety of Others.”