Bump Caps: When Are They Appropriate?

“Do nothing that is of no use.”  — Miyamoto Musashi I have been in several facilities recently that used bump caps as head protection. I make it a practice to follow the safety rules of facilities where I am visiting, because I believe it important to set a good example and to show that I [...]

By |2024-03-28T11:57:13-05:00March 28th, 2024|Workplace Safety|0 Comments

“OSHA Says”: Eye Protection

“What we see depends mainly on what we are looking for.”  — John Lubbock Every chemical plant I have ever been in has these minimum requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE): hardhat, safety shoes, and safety glasses with side shields. OSHA tells us that it is the employer’s responsibility to assess the workplace for hazards [...]

By |2024-02-29T11:32:54-06:00February 29th, 2024|Gas|Comments Off on “OSHA Says”: Eye Protection

“OSHA Says”: Hard Hat Colors

“The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” — George Carlin I was recently astonished to hear someone talking about OSHA-required hard hat color codes. “Yeah, and green is for any who works in forestry,” they said. I wanted to contradict them on the spot but stopped. [...]

By |2024-02-15T09:56:34-06:00February 15th, 2024|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on “OSHA Says”: Hard Hat Colors

Too Extreme for Work? Cold Snaps and Heat Waves

“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”  — Charles Dudley Warner A few weeks ago, we were treated to the sight of icicles hanging from NFL Coach Andy Reid’s moustache during the Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game in Kansas City. That gut punch of arctic air to the Midwest overwhelmed us. Here, our [...]

By |2024-01-25T11:36:35-06:00January 25th, 2024|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Too Extreme for Work? Cold Snaps and Heat Waves

Deadly Jobs Revisited

“Automation is driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks.”  — Amber Rudd Five years ago, I had the opportunity to give a TED talk called “Deadly Jobs”. I talked about the hazards that consistently contribute to work-related fatalities and the deadly occupations in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released [...]

By |2024-01-11T14:18:16-06:00January 11th, 2024|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Deadly Jobs Revisited

Choosing The Perfect Footwear for Work

“…I can feel it in my toes. Christmas is all around me. And so the feeling grows.”  — Bill Nighy in Love Actually Although I have on a couple of occasions, I don’t usually give protective footwear as a gift during the holiday season. Most people don’t consider protective footwear to be very festive. However, [...]

By |2023-12-30T13:53:53-06:00December 21st, 2023|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Choosing The Perfect Footwear for Work

Whatever Your Reason: Incentives for Compliance

“Rather than a prosecutor saying, ‘you have nothing to fear if you have done nothing wrong,’ a more accurate portrayal would be ‘if I decide you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.’”  — Sidney Dekker There are thousands of work-related fatalities in the United States every year. Every few weeks, an intrepid [...]

By |2023-12-14T10:07:50-06:00December 14th, 2023|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Whatever Your Reason: Incentives for Compliance

Safe Limits for Oxygen Exposure: Why 19.5% to 23.5%?

“Love is like oxygen. You get too much, you get too high; not enough and you’re gonna die.”  — Andy Scott, of Sweet OSHA standards define safe lower and upper limits to the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere to which workers are exposed. The limits are a minimum of 19.5% and a maximum of [...]

By |2023-12-07T09:20:33-06:00December 7th, 2023|Chemicals, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Safe Limits for Oxygen Exposure: Why 19.5% to 23.5%?

…And Their Representatives

“Representation not only reflects, but actually changes reality.”  — Angela Chen OSHA has several regulations that allow or require employee participation in activities regarding workplace safety. For instance, there is employee participation during OSHA inspections and in the development of the elements of the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. And those regulations don’t stop at [...]

By |2023-08-31T15:37:00-05:00August 31st, 2023|PHA, Process Safety Management|2 Comments

Too Many Players on the Field: PHA Teams

“Meetings should have as few people as possible, but all the right people.”  — Charles W. Scharf Ever been in a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) meeting where there were over a dozen people? Wasn’t it excruciating? Either you wondered why you needed to be there, or you wondered why some of the other people needed [...]

By |2023-08-24T15:09:17-05:00August 24th, 2023|PHA, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Too Many Players on the Field: PHA Teams
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