Jan 01, 2009
For a chemical manufacturer seeking to become a global supplier, keeping up with numerous foreign safety regulations and requirements can be quite a challenge. MSDgen®, a compliance tool from Carlsbad, Calif.-based 3E Co., was created to streamline one important aspect of this process, the creation and distribution of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs).
Jan 01, 2009
Under the “general duty” clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 651- 678, “[e]ach employer . . . shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”. There is little question that allowing guns at the workplace endangers workers.
Dec 01, 2008
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that by the year 2010, 17 percent of the U.S. workforce will be 55 and older.
Dec 01, 2008
I’ve learned a lot this year about patience, planning, risk taking, and managing. Poorer but wiser, I hope, after the financial markets' tumble, I am looking back on a year of growth and anxiety, with many successes and some disappointments.
Dec 01, 2008
Try this: Stand up straight with your arms at your sides, palms facing legs. Slowly raise your arms from the elbow, letting your wrists relax. Now, without turning your wrists, start “typing.”
Nov 01, 2008
What OSHA hasn’t done has been much discussed this year, but I believe our focus is about to change. The 2009 shift to an active OSHA may be dramatic or subtle, depending on how the Nov. 4 elections affect congressional oversight and appropriations committees and then on how quickly a new president and Congress act.
Oct 01, 2008
Safety is top of mind for many manufacturers, but also growing in importance is the pressure to become “green,” or environmentally sound. GreenRoad Technology Inc., a fairly new driver safety company headquartered in Redwood Shores, Calif., has taken the basic idea of a traffic signal and reengineered it into a small device that gives real-time feedback on 120 driving maneuvers to increase safety. The device is installed on a vehicle’s dash and contains three colored lights -- red for unsafe, yellow for moderately unsafe, and green for safe.
Sep 01, 2008
Quarrels at home, while driving, and at work sometimes escalate into dangerous and violent arguments. Those caught in the middle—including co-workers, family members, and emergency responders—are at high risk.
Sep 01, 2008
The American landscape was forever changed by the events of 9/11.With the anthrax mail scare that followed shortly afterward, one company found itself in a unique position to help the emergency responder community with a portable chemical identifier called HazMatID™.
Sep 01, 2008
Treating commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea significantly lowers their health care costs, lowers their preventable accident rate, and reduces their turnover.While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration revised the hours of service rule in this decade to reduce fatigue-related commercial motor vehicle crashes, the evidence in two recent studies is an even more compelling reason for trucking companies to address sleep apnea.
Jul 01, 2008
You may be thinking, “I’m not in sales, I’m a safety professional!” You’re half right: You are a safety professional. The Truth — as we often learn the hard way — is that if we are in safety, we are indeed in sales. The fact of the matter is that we are at the mercy of our ability to sell, no matter how “tight” the presentation. Regardless of our education or the facts surrounding an issue, we are still in a position where we have to make the sale in order for a positive change to take place. And the better we are at selling, the greater our results.
Jul 01, 2008
Quite a few federal agency leaders will be looking for work six months from now, but some are still contributing. Two, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Dr.Andrew von Eschenbach, visited Chinese health officials in Beijing and Shanghai two months ago, arriving soon after the disastrous earthquake, to discuss product safety cooperation. Both men are scheduled to moderate panels at ANSI’s July 9 Import Safety Summit in Washington, D.C.
Jul 01, 2008
The importance of a good lock is oft overlooked but cannot be overstated. As author/philosopher Ayn Rand saw it, the very concept of civilization can be thought of as progress toward a society of privacy, a notion that is pretty much the fountainhead of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a.k.a. the Privacy Rule.
May 01, 2008
I don’t know how I lived without the scroll wheel on my computer mouse. In this day and age of never having enough time for anything, this one tiny item allows me to quickly scroll through a document or a Web page at blazing speeds as my ADHD demands more and more.
May 01, 2008
Hearing U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board member William Wark’s Feb. 28 speech at the ISNetworld users group conference in Dallas confirmed my fear that we aren’t prepared for serious chemical leaks. By “we” I mean the public, but Wark also meant the employees who are shipping these materials and processing them.