Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Safety is a process, and as such, needs to be managed. This section offers resources to create a viable safety program, sell it to senior management, train supervisors and employees in using it, and then track and report your progress. Look also for ways to advance your own skills in these areas, both for your current job, and those that follow.
If a company conducts a proper accident investigation, it may be used as a basis for collecting data to find causes and prevent recurrences. This goal can only be achieved if the entire procedure is a fact-finding mission rather than a method for placing blame on someone. Avoiding blame is especially important when interviewing witnesses […]
At many companies, you will find that management just does not take safety seriously enough. They fail to understand the immediate costs and long-term effects of on-the-job accidents. These costs can include medical expenses, higher workers comp premiums, equipment repair, and personnel expenses. Then there are the undefined costs of low employee morale, retraining, loss […]
Wouldn’t it be great to learn everything there is to know about preventing accidents at your worksite? Unfortunately, in these days of advancing technologies and new equipment and materials, it’s almost an impossible task. That’s why a supervisor should concentrate on acquiring, at a minimum, a good working knowledge of the following eleven building blocks […]
Estimates on domestic violence cases number in the millions every year. What can you do when one of those cases involves your workplace? Here’s a true story about domestic violence and what you can do to help employee victims. When an employee at one company was being harassed by an ex-boyfriend some years back, the […]
Gary Findley, Safety Director for Grand Package Corp., was concerned when he heard that the company’s workers compensation insurance carrier wanted to conduct a safety audit of the plant. “Don’t worry,” the president of Grand Package reassured him. “It’s not as if we’re having an OSHA inspection. The insurance company is coming here to help […]
Whenever there’s an accident—whether someone is killed or someone breaks an arm or leg—somebody is sure to ask, “How did it happen?” The answer should always be the same: “It didn’t happen. Accidents don’t just happen; they’re always caused.” Suppose you fall down the stairs in your house and break a leg. That didn’t just […]
Chances are you employ someone who is being abused. Is that any of your business? It is when domestic violence enters your workplace. According to government statistics: As many as 1 in 4 women have experienced domestic violence at some time in their lives. Nearly 3 out of 4 Americans know someone who has been […]
An OSHA compliance officer showed up one day at a factory to conduct an inspection. He noticed a worker had just used a 4-pound sledgehammer with a crack that extended halfway down the handle. Immediately he cited the company for failing to make sure that the tools and equipment used by employees were safe (Sec. […]
No one likes to think about garbage; but if not handled properly, it can contribute to a fire that can burn your whole operation down. In one case, a fire broke out in a metal dumpster on an loading dock unequipped with sprinklers. Flames spread into the building, causing over a half million dollars’ worth […]
Corporate environmental sustainability is undergoing transformation from a footnote in annual reports to a fundamental pillar supporting a company’s financial disclosures to shareholders. CEOs are starting to recognize that issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and impacts on natural resources concern society, and that these issues affect their business. As greater attention is paid […]