Training

One of the most overlooked areas of a fall protection plan is the rescue section. For many professionals, this is due to heavy emphasis put on protection and prevention rather than rescue and retrieval.

From a young age we learn that 911 is THE ANSWER when any accident happens. In fall...

A confined space is any space that:

A...

Promoting safety and safe working conditions does not always have to be dry or serious.  Sometimes some humor can help drive the point home.  These guys over at Dominion Power obviously think so!

Heat waves and extensive exposure to the sun can be dangerous. People are not necessarily aware of the dangers of heat because the symptoms can "sneak up on you". Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition that can cause death or extensive damage to your internal organs.

I was personally told...

OSHA has many safety videos that are available from their library for free. If you are an OSHA trainer you can request these videos via a PDF form available on the OSHA web site. Here is a listing of the videos that are available for the Fall Protection category. Take advantage of these...

Video can be such a pain! Especially when it catches you ignoring a safety regulation. Unfortunately we all know that the "It won't happen to me!" mindset keeps many people from practicing the proper safety procedures. Perhaps on the statistical levels, people often do dangerous things...

Yes! That's a stuffed monkey in a fall protection harness! I got this picture from a friend over the Thanksgiving holiday and it got me thinking that the best way to help create safety conscious employees is to emphasize safety from a young age.

Believe me, I'm not suggesting that we start...

Employee safety should be a top priority in any company. Apart from the obvious heartache associated with worker deaths and injuries, workers who are injured on the job could sue the company for financial damages. They may also be less productive when they do return to work. Therefore, it...

Workplace safety is not just important because of legal and liability reasons, but having healthy and happy workers should be a top priority for an employer. Below are some ways to be a great safety leader in your workplace.

A fall arrest system is the kind of fall protection which includes the safe stopping of a person already falling. It is one of many forms of fall protection, which also include fall guarding and fall

OSHA specifies under Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations that...

Nothing could be worse in safety than a false sense of security. Somebody who believes they are protected by a certain piece of equipment might take more chances – even unknowingly – than they would if they believed they had no protection at all.  Yet, we see it every day:  an unsecure...

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:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

When companies determine that their employees need some type of safety training, the knee-jerk reaction is most often, “Well, get them an OSHA 10 or 30.” They say “10 or 30” because they usually don’t know how much training their workers are required to have. The idea that a 10 or 30 hour...

Workers who spend a great deal of their time working along roadways are in constant danger from moving traffic and equipment. Employers must realize that there are federal standards that require employees to wear high visibility clothing. As of November 24, 2008, the federal government...

Every year workers die because they fall from unprotected scaffolds. This WorkSafe BC video covers the basics of fall protection on scaffolding.

@lbuzecky, Director of Safety Materials at Assoc. of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) twittered about their free library of pictorial safety images.  The library has about 130 different images and is sortable by body area, hazard type, action and date.  Looks to be a great free resource for...

WorkSafely, a web site that is dedicated to workplace safety resources, has several videos that are available.  The videos themselves take on a PSA style and offer a short bit of awareness about safety in the workplace.

Click here to see the video library.

Thanks to some helpful folks on Twitter, a safety document library was brought to my attention.  the eLCOSH (Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety and Health)  There appear to be thousands of articles that relate to safety. The library is sorted in a number of different ways to...

Inhalation is the most common route of exposure for employees to most toxic materials in the workplace.  Selecting and utilizing the appropriate respirator can be quite confusing and difficult.  Employers and employees must get a firm understanding of respirator basic knowledge in order to...

The Daily Commercial News and Construction Record has written a great article that addresses fall arrest suspension trauma.

The article deals with several issues concerning suspension trauma.  It starts by describing the basic problem with fall arrest, and that is that stopping the fall is only...

Don't wear your personal protective equipment (PPE) and receive a $50 non-compliance ticket from the Yukon Health and Safety Board. Starting July 1, not only will the worker receive a ticket, but also the Supervisor and Employer. Supervisor's ticket is $250 and the employer's is $500.

"We...

Falconer, 43, was employed as a seaman on a tugboat operated by maritime company. While carrying an engine part, he fell 14 feet through an open hatch in the engine room causing bodily injury. Falconer sued the maritime company alleging the company was negligent in failing to have safety...

On November 24, 2008, a new federal regulation, 23CFR634, went into effect...

Inspecting your harness is critical to ensuring that you are safe while working at heights. Tomcat, a staging lighting and support system company, has released a video that covers four basic inspection steps to go over before wearing your harness.

ICE is a public safety concept focusing on awareness and personal responsibility. ICE can be integrated into your daily routine and employed in the event of natural disasters, terrorist incidents, workplace accidents or medical emergencies. Increased attention to this topic followed the...

Guest blogger, Jay Rohman, of Encouraging Safety is presenting a number of remote safety seminars over the next month. Here is a listing:

The 4 Hazards Of Shift Work - How To Minimize Them 9/14/2009 Employers and workers can work together to identify and control shiftwork hazards. But...

An emergency action plan (EAP) should address emergencies that the employer may reasonably expect in the workplace.  Some examples include: fires; hazardous materials spills; tornadoes; floods; and others.  The following text identifies the main components...

At various times, your company may find itself with a spike in workload or faced with a special project that your existing staff isnt...

Its not uncommon for a companys safety program to be less thorough than it should be. Or in many cases, business...

The following safety huddle represents OSHA's safety compliance regulations for positioning device systems 1926.502(e). Always consult directly with OSHA compliance standards and manufacturer recommendations before utilizing these systems. Positioning device systems are not fall arrest...

This is a continuation of 7 Ways to Save on Safety.  Read Part 1.  Read Part 2.

The safety industry has evolved tremendously in the past few years. New technology is constantly being introduced to both the construction industry and general industry. Whether it...

Simplified Safety welcomes William Haflidson from AiX Safety as a new guest blogger. William is located in Ontario, Canada and will be providing insights to health and safety issues in Canada.

Unfortunately fall injuries happen in almost all types of workplaces. Falls are the number two...

(FOREST GROVE, Ore.) Fire officials say one person died and a second was successfully rescued today, after they became trapped in the confined space of an underground manhole on NW Timmerman Road west of Forest Grove. This recent headline could have been taken from just about any newspaper...

We sell safety products, thats a fact.  However, we are not under the illusion that simply having the right product will always protect you or your workers from an accident.  In addition to having the right protective gear you have to have the right mind set in regard to safety.

Safety Culture...