The Penn State topic is way too complicated to sort out in a short email. (It may never be fully understood). At one time I worked for a large construction company that had a good safety culture, yet when there was an issue of challenging a client on unsafe procedures the construction company always backed down.

Regarding Penn State, I think the problem is that it is not so much the administration of the institution that will suffer, but the university and the students.

I'm a proud PSU graduate and currently live in the community. When you all speak of the culture, it's like we are being talked about like we are objects inside of a fishbowl stereotyped by the bad actions of a few, instead of as individual people.

I have scanned the Freeh Report, but am not surprised that Freeh states the PSU culture has to change. So what is Freeh suggesting the PSU culture change to?

I hear a lot of complaints from safety professionals. Chief among them is that they are held accountable when other people get hurt. It’s a fair bone of contention.

The EHS Professionals LinkedIn group recently conducted a canvassing on what constitutes the greatest challenge face pros in 2012: management leadership, building safety cultures, or obtaining and maintaining technical knowledge. Here are some of the posted comments:

So, Congress has recessed until after Labor Day. Just before they left town, they passed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded for the next six months.

The Chemical Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the Deepwater Horizonaccident. The core finding was that the crew was too focused on reportable lost-time accidents and too unfocused on process safety.