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Drywall: a Familiar Product with Hidden Hazards
Drywall is a simple product that revolutionized interior construction by eliminating the extra time and craftsmanship required for traditional lath-and-plaster walls and ceilings. Today, nearly all commercially available drywall is made of gypsum plaster with a paper...
Spotters: A Critical Element of Site Safety
By Jordan Hollingsworth, CHST, CSP, CUSP Lead Advisor Reprinted from Incident Prevention Magazine (link) Many OSHA regulations call for someone on the job site to make sure that people, equipment and the site don’t come together in the wrong way. Generally known as a...
Five Simple Steps for Compressed Gas Safety
By Safety Management Group It was only a small propane tank, similar to those used on construction sites and in industrial locations. The propane was supposed to be supplying a small heater, but much of it was actually escaping through a leaky valve. The gas ignited,...
What is the PEL and How Does it Work?
By Safety Management Group Workers in many industries perform their tasks with and around a wide variety of chemicals. Each of those chemicals may pose some level of danger to the workers’ well-being, depending upon how closely and how long they come in contact. But...
The Seven Elements of Successful Emergency Action Planning
By Alison Montgomery, API Safety Advisor Safety Management Group For most of us, our familiarity with emergency evacuations goes all the way back to childhood. When the school’s fire alarm sounded, we lined up and moved outside in an orderly fashion as the teacher...
Safety Challenges of Communications Towers
By Safety Management Group If it seems as though towers are sprouting out of nearby fields, industrial parks, and neighborhoods with increasing frequency, it’s not your imagination. Communications companies and others have been scrambling to keep up with the...
Asst Labor Secretary Responds to 2013 Workplace Injury and Illness Data
Statement from Assistant Secretary of Labor Dr. David Michaels on 2013 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Bureau of Labor Statistics reports steady decline in workplace injuries and illnesses WASHINGTON, December 4, 2014 – Dr. David Michaels, assistant...
Accident Investigation Kits – What You Need to Know
By Safety Management Group You’re supervising a jobsite that’s two hours away from your company’s offices, and the unthinkable happens: one of your subcontractor’s craftspeople has been seriously injured. His coworkers are performing first aid, and you can hear the...
Working Safely With Industrial Vacuums
By Safety Management Group There are many hazards around workplaces that are all too easy to ignore, because they seem to be benign. One of those is the use of vacuum. Workers may encounter vacuums both in the permanently installed systems that are used in many...
Five Electrical Hazards Worth Remembering
By Safety Management Group Electricity is so commonplace in our lives and on our worksites that it’s easy to forget that it’s potentially dangerous. When most people consider the dangers of electricity, they think about the potential for being shocked or electrocuted....
Better Discipline for Safety Violations
By Safety Management Group Even if they were not mandated by law, workplace safety programs benefit workers and employers alike by reducing the number of injuries, enhancing productivity, and even improving the quality of work. When everyone knows and follows...
Ten Steps to Safer Operation of Cranes
By Dave Remter, Account Manager, and Mark Steinhofer, Ph. D., CHST, Account Manager Safety Management Group It happened again in September. A 25-year-old man working for a wireless tower installation company climbed behind the controls of a small crane in...
The Right Track for Railcar Safety
By Safety Management Group Trains have long fascinated and frustrated people. For every child who hypnotically watches a long train full of colorful freight cars roll by, there a driver who’s running late and wishes railroads had never been invented. Railroads play a...
The Hidden Dangers of Aerosol Cans
By Safety Management Group We use them around the house for everything from touching up patio furniture, to dusting furniture, to making the air (or people) smell better. You can find them on nearly every jobsite, in most work vehicles, and in offices. They’re small...
Identifying and Demonstrating the Value of Safety
By Safety Management GroupConstruction is an increasingly complex business. As buildings become more sophisticated and owners more sensitized to issues such as energy efficiency and “green” materials, and as organizations become smaller in an effort to...
Safely Working With Petroleum Products
By Jordan Hollingsworth As with many of the conveniences of the modern job site, petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and oil are so familiar that we don’t give them a second thought. But that familiarity masks the inherent dangers associated with these...
Using NFPA 70E to Guide Your Electrical Safety Program
By Safety Management Group It’s a given that electrical safety is a key part of workplace safety. By following what’s outlined in NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, you’ll protect your workers and stay on OSHA’s good side where electrical...
Ten Often-ignored Office Hazards
Written By: Daniel Scott When most people think about industrial safety, the images that come to mind are of massive machinery in factories, the inherent dangers of construction sites, or the destructive potential of power tools. By comparison, office environments...
Safer Strategies for Excavations Around Underground Utilities
Jordan Hollingsworth, CSP, CRIS, CHST, CHSP Safety Advisor Nothing brings construction projects to a halt faster than the discovery of a gas pipe, electrical line, sewer tile, or water pipe that nobody knew was there. A crew with a backhoe is digging a trench and...
Budgeting for Safety Shouldn’t be an Afterthought
Written By: Travis Spotts This is the time of year when most companies are trying to project next year’s costs and revenues. While nearly all of them attempt to forecast as accurately as possible, far too few give a great deal of thought to safety. Safety affects the...
What Exactly is a Qualified Electrical Worker?
By Safety Management Group State and federal regulations regarding workplace safety can often be confusing or ambiguous. But whether a company fully understands the rules, it is expected to fully comply with them. One area that raises many questions involves the need...
The Seven Steps of a Thorough Accident Investigation
By Safety Management Group There’s a tremendous difference between investigating a workplace incident and finding someone to blame for it. Unfortunately, it’s all too common for companies to confuse the two concepts. When something goes wrong, they work hard to...
Video: OSHA Rules for Tractor Operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZWmgC8t6Zc A training video for farm workers on the OSHA safety rules for operating tractor equipment. Produced by Compel Media, LLC. Compel Media is a social media video production company, helping its clients produce compelling media...
Hot Work: Controlling Spark Producing Activities
Written By Vince Plank, CSP Hot work activity is a common task that is necessary in a variety of workplaces. General industry workplaces usually require maintenance shops or fabrication areas while construction jobsites generally require some type of cutting and/or...
