I recently wrote an article detailing how to ensure you are using your fall protection equipment properly.  If you are the inquisitive type, it may have left you asking the question, “How, exactly, does a safety harness work?”  In reality, there is a fairly simple answer to this question:...

Not all safety harnesses are created equal.

It is easy to think that because a harness has ANSI stamped on it that it will be safe and compliant with OSHA. That is not necessarily the case. How do we assure that the harness we purchase is currently designed to hold my weight and body...

One of the most neglected aspects of Fall Protection is the rescue and retrieval plan.  Sure, you've selected your harnesses and lanyards, debated the feasibility of railings, and calculated your fall distance, but what do you intend to do once the worker has fallen?  While the worker is...

If your company requires employees to work above 4’ in general industry and above 6’ in construction, it is important that you have a policy in place for working at heights.  While 4’ and 6’ might not seem all that high, people have died or suffered serious injuries when falling from...

If somebody was walking on a construction site and saw a large hole in the roof with nothing around it, they would immediately recognize this as unsafe. It is an opening that leads you to a 30’ drop onto a hard surface.

Calculating fall clearance is not as simple as some may lead you to believe. If done incorrectly, anyone who uses the system could be at risk of severe injury or death.

Having a basic understanding of how to calculate fall clearance will help you know when to hire a qualified person and when...

Despite efforts to reduce falls, they still remain the number one killer in construction.  They also account for approximately 12% of fatal occupational injuries across all industries (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t01.htm). We educate, inspect, and discipline, yet falls continue to...

This is the million dollar question, isn’t it?  For years, many of us in the industry watched as prizes were awarded to workers based on safety performance.  Sometimes this meant a group lunch or a t-shirt, but other times it was something as big as a truck or boat being given away.  This...

"It was just a freak accident."

"There was no way we could have seen that coming!

If you haven’t heard something like this, spend a little time doing incident investigation in an occupational setting.  Trust me, it won’t take long.  Statements like these perpetuate the belief that accidents...

It seems in life sometimes that getting a job is all about who you know, but regardless of whether or not that is actually the case, once you have a job, there is no doubt that keeping it depends on what you know.  In only the rarest of situations is an employer going to continue to pay...

In this economic climate, saving money is of utmost importance. However, when it comes to safety

This is a tightrope...

Update: This post was updated in June of 2018 to align with the new Walking-Working Surface Rules posted by OSHA.

Warning line has received a bad reputation over time. Should it have? Maybe. Warning line is the equivalent of someone saying, "Hey, don’t go over there!" When I think of...

Seems like a simple question with a simple answer, doesn't it? However, many times, our actions seem to...

Whenever I deliver a training class to a group of workers for whom I’m also serving as a safety consultant, I explain that there are two things I need to do: 1) Keep them safe and 2) Keep the company compliant.

We have all heard the story. OSHA comes into a factory or onto a construction site and things are such a mess they immediately shutdown all operations.  Work stops.  That steel beam being lifted into place by that crane?  Leave it hanging.  Those trucks full of concrete?  Let them go to...

Perhaps you decided to read this because you thought, "Of course not!  Everyone knows that is a crazy dangerous, not to mention non-productive." However, studies show that walking and texting are pretty much akin to walking blindfolded.

Researchers at Stony...

So, everybody's got a smartphone or a tablet, right? If not, what are you waiting for? That little communication device sitting in your hand is no longer just for talking. Gone are the days when you could say the best thing about your phone is that it is rugged enough for your job or it...

Everybody has an idea of what this phrase means, but for somebody in the EHS field – more specifically, for somebody whose career revolves in some way around OSHA – “Competent Person” has a very specific two-part...

A safety professional may read the title of this article and feel it’s child’s play. How could somebody not know how to look for risk? That same safety professional may even be tempted to use a phrase that I cannot stand: common sense. I once heard a speaker explain that common...

Fall protection rules can seem complicated because every situation is different.

By now, you could probably wallpaper half your office with all the training postcards and fliers you receive in the mail. Your SPAM folder in your email is probably filled with them, too. How do you sort through all of this to find quality courses for your employees?

My...

Safety railings are the best form of fall protection. Once safety railing is in place, nobody needs to think about using them, they're just there. Yes, they need to be maintained in good condition, but workers don't need to remember to put them on, adjust them properly, worry...