I believe the most significant challenge we (safety professionals) face is those outside (and even some inside) our profession and their lack of understanding of RISKS. I am confident that any safety pro reading this has endured the old and tired argument… “We have been doing ________ that way for __________ years, and it has not hurt anyone, but now you want us to do ____________?!?!?” Recently,...

Federal investigators determined a truck washing company failed to protect workers from hydrogen sulfide gas as they entered over-the-road tanker trailers to clean them out, causing one worker’s fatal injuries and hospitalizing two co-workers. OSHA responded to a report of the Sept. 1, 2023, incident and found the business failed to evaluate the tanker trailers for hazardous conditions –...

A boiler maker, 36, suffered fatal burns after an explosion occurred at a refinery. A contractor employed the victim and two injured co-workers at the facility. The three employees were hospitalized as a result of the explosion. The victim died four days later from burns over approximately 90% of his body. The events occurred in the area of the South Flare and Knock-Out Drum (KO Drum). A 36-inch pipe...

The dismissal of people and their behavior concerning risk as idiotic really doesn’t help much … HomeRead More »

I will use one of the last tests when a facility has hit home runs in managing its Hazardous Communications program.  They are great with their container labeling, pipe labeling, training, etc.  They even could provide an SDS for all their significant chemicals; however, only a tiny percentage of these facilities can do this… … HomeRead More »

On Friday, January 28, 2022, at about 6:37 a.m. eastern standard time, the Fern Hollow Bridge, which carried Forbes Avenue over the north side of Frick Park in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, experienced a structural failure. As a result, the 447-foot-long bridge fell about 100 feet into the park below. The collapse began when the transverse tie plate on the southwest bridge leg failed...

It comes from this requirement in OSHA’s HAZWOPER standard and has sound logic behind it… (emphasis by me) 1910.120(q)(3)(iv) Employees engaged in emergency response and exposed to hazardous substances presenting an inhalation hazard or potential inhalation hazard shall wear positive pressure self-contained breathing apparatus while engaged in emergency response, until such time that...

This one is bound to offend some folks in the safety profession, but it was some very wise advice a dear friend and former boss gave me after I submitted my first Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to him after a corporate audit.  Just 12 years into my career, I was taught the hard way how CAPs get written and managed to closure.  But his analogy of what he expected of me stuck with me to this...

A mature Safety Management System (SMS) will contain a Hazard Identification Element that identifies hazards that adversely affect safety. These HAZARD ID processes also provide practical and objective mechanisms to assess the risk presented by those identified hazards and implement ways to eliminate or mitigate the associated risks those hazards may pose to the worker, environment, and business. The...

Effective SMS implementation heavily depends upon a clear, mutual understanding of ERRORS and VIOLATIONS and the differentiation between the two. The difference between ERRORS and VIOLATIONS lies in INTENT. While an error is unintentional, a violation is a deliberate act or omission to deviate from established procedures, protocols, norms, or practices. Errors or violations may result in non-compliance...

The source is unknown, but this is hilarious.  The supporting actor gets my vote for an Oscar.

Maybe 1% of businesses we come across are ready for something more than a fundamental approach to safety management. Most have not even given a formal and structured Safety Management System (SMS) a chance to work, or they have stripped down an already very basic SMS to nothing more than “window dressing” and then complained, “It did not work for us” after a year of trying. Somewhere...