The Safetypro Podcast - Helping You Manage Workplace Safety One Episode At A Time!

Powered by iReportSource OSHA requires that employees who are or may be exposed to toxic substances or harmful physical agents be given access to their medical and exposure records. Further, OSHA requires that such records be maintained for a long period of time because often the symptoms of the illnesses that come from the exposure don’t appear until many years later. OSHA’s requirement to maintain medical and exposure records applies to all employers who have employees exposed to toxic substances or harmful physical agents, such as heat, cold, radiation, repetitive motion, biological, chemical, etc. 29 CFR 1910.1020 — Access to employee exposure and medical records Terms you need to know Access: means the right and opportunity to examine and copy. Designated representative: means any individual or organization to whom an employee gives written authorization to exercise a right of access. For the purposes of access to employee exposure records and analyses using exposure or medical records, a recognized o

Fundamentals of Total Worker Health  Keeping workers safe is the foundation upon which a TWH approach is built. Total Worker Health integrates health protection efforts with a broad spectrum of interventions to improve worker health and well-being. The Fundamentals of Total Worker Health Approaches is the practical starting point for employers, workers, labor representatives, and other professionals interested in implementing workplace safety and health programs aligned with the Total Worker Health (TWH) approach. There are five Defining Elements of TWH: Element 1: Demonstrate leadership commitment to worker safety and health at all levels of the organization. Element 2: Design work to eliminate or reduce safety and health hazards and promote worker well-being. Element 3: Promote and support worker engagement throughout program design and implementation. Element 4: Ensure the confidentiality and privacy of workers. Element 5: Integrate relevant systems to advance worker well-being. Getting Started Create a t

Powered by iReportSource In this episode, I interviewed by Mr. Nick Lamparelli, the host of Profiles in Risk Podcast. We talk about general liability and risk management - something we don't touch on enough on the SafetyPro Podcast. We discuss my work with iReportSource and managed workflows for incident investigations. I want to dedicate this episode to the incredible development team over at iReportSource for all the hard work that goes into building an incredible service that safety pros can use to help keep workers safe: Jason Roell Taylor Mackinder Tristan Carkuff Jason Mize Argie Angeleas   The intern team: Aria Alimardani Chelsea Mackinder Mackenzie Solomon Taylor Munafo Let me know what you think about this episode. Send emails to info@thesafetypropodcast.com and share with me your thoughts. You can find me on LinkedIn! Post an update, letting me know what you think of the podcast. Be sure to @ mention Blaine J. Hoffmann or The SafetyPro Podcast LinkedIn page. You can also find the podcast on Fac

Powered by iReportSource Responsible employers know that the primary goal of a safety and health program is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, as well as the suffering and financial hardship these events can cause for workers, their families, and their employers. Employers may find that implementing these recommended practices brings other benefits as well. The renewed or enhanced commitment to safety and health and the cooperative atmosphere between employers and workers is linked to:   Improvements in a product, process, and service quality.  Better workplace morale.  Improved employee recruiting and retention.  A more favorable image and reputation (among customers, suppliers, and the community).    Each section of the following recommended practices describes a core program element, followed by several action items. Each action item is an example of steps that employers and workers can take to establish, implement, maintain, and improve your safety and health program. You can use th

Join the Community of Safety Pros today!     Join the Community of Safety Pros today!   Fatigue and its safety implications are an important topic that likely impacts every single industry. According to the National Safety Council, when people don’t get the sleep they need, they aren’t able to physically or mentally function at optimal levels - routine tasks feel more demanding. Reaction times slow. People become more forgetful, make poor decisions, and don’t communicate or coordinate well with their co-workers.   Many studies have found a connection between fatigue and increased safety risks on the job in a wide range of work settings. Long work hours, working at night, and rotating shifts are some factors that can lead to increased risks of errors, incidents, accidents, and injuries. Decreased productivity Absenteeism represents a significant cost to organizations, and sleep loss is one of its leading causes. Presenteeism, being at work but not working effectively, also leads to substantial reducti

Powered by iReportSource ANNOUNCEMENT: Visit VPPPA to register for the National Symposium and join me as I podcast on location! Listen to this episode for some details. Let me know what you think. Send an email to info@thesafetypropodcast.com and share with me your thoughts about VPP or the VPPPA. Please tell a friend or colleague about the podcast. It would mean the WORLD to me! You can also find me on LinkedIn! Post a LinkedIn update letting me know what you think of the podcast. Be sure to @ mention Blaine J. Hoffmann or The SafetyPro Podcast LinkedIn page. You can also find the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Powered by iReportSource In this announcement, I reveal a new strategic partnership that strengthens the high quality, actionable safety info you have come to expect from this podcast! I am excited to make this announcement.

Powered by iReportSource Every day, thousands of lives are lost due to work accidents or fatal diseases linked to work activities. These are deaths that could and should have been prevented and must be in the future. Whether you are an employee, a manager or a business owner, you share a common goal – you don’t want anyone to get hurt on the job. Improved productivity stems from ensuring people operate in workplaces that provide transparency and build trust throughout their operation and supply chain. In addition, responsible practices are becoming increasingly important to brands and reputations. ISO 45001 is the world’s first International Standard dealing with health and safety at work. Quite simply, it offers a single, clear framework for all organizations wishing to improve their OH&S performance. Directed at the top management of an organization, it hopes to provide a safe and healthy workplace for employees and visitors. In order to achieve this goal, it is important to control all factors that mi

Powered by iReportSource   NIOSH developed the Dampness and Mold Assessment Tool for both general buildingsCdc-pdf and schoolsCdc-pdf to help employers identify and assess areas of dampness in buildings. “Implementing regular visual inspections for dampness can help to identify trouble areas before they become major problems and help to prioritize maintenance and repair,” said David Weissman, M.D., director of NIOSH’s Respiratory Health Division. “The Dampness and Mold Assessment Tools provide an inexpensive mechanism to investigate, record, and compare conditions over time.” Office buildings, schools, and other nonindustrial build­ings may develop moisture and dampness problems from roof and window leaks, high indoor humidity, and flooding events, among other things. Damp building conditions promote the growth of mold, bacteria, fungi, and insects. Occupants in damp buildings can be exposed to pollutants in the air from biological contaminants and the breakdown of building materials. Research has shown that

Powered by iReportSource Safety Inspection or Safety Audit? This issue has come up before, and I want to tackle it in this episode. So some coaching is going on in this episode. First, let’s get the definitions out of the way: Inspection: Physical checks for acceptable conditions conducted at the direction of regulatory requirements, guidelines, policies, procedures, etc. outlined in your overall safety manual or as a part of a safety management system. Audit: An independent review of the effectiveness, implementation, and compliance with established regulatory requirements, guidelines, policies, procedures, etc. outlined in your overall safety manual or as a part of a safety management system. It is important to note that independent does not necessarily mean from an outside organization. Independence means not being responsible for the activity being audited or free of bias and conflict of interest, which means you cannot audit your own work. So think of an inspection as a specific physical check to see if

Powered by iReportSource How Do I Get The Most Out of My Safety Conference Attendance? A professional safety conference always best treated as a learning experience. Your company is probably footing the bill, and so you may be tempted to handle your next safety conference as a paid vacation. Don’t do that, as you’ll be missing one of the most significant growth opportunities in this field and your career. Here, I’ve included four simple tips to get the very most out of your attendance in a safety or any other conference.  1. Treat the Conference Like a Class If you’re attending a safety conference, the odds are good that you’re a safety professional, and that means the odds are good that you’ve spent some time in a classroom at some point in your life. To make the most of this experience, you need to bring those skills to bear on conference seminars, workshops, and demonstrations. An excellent way to take notes at a conference is to identify which areas your organization could improve, and then tailoring your

Powered by iReportSource Every safety leader wakes up each morning looking to avoid any accidents. And, each day, you want to take steps to improve your culture of safety. That’s no easy task, which is part of why an analytics dashboard is so helpful in giving you the information you need to do just that. Listen to this episode to get a quick introduction into 4 ways you can use data to improve your safety culture. Use data to drive shared accountability A great scorecard tells a story of what’s happened, what’s currently happening, and what needs to be done next. Part of that picture is also about improving accountability to make sure what needs to happen does happen. iReport’s dashboard is one example of a tool that supports accountability and improvement: it shares accountability documents created, proactive reports, critical actions needed, the number of days without incidents, the number of incidents, the type of incidents, and more. In doing so, it helps to make the connection between what’s been done

Join the Community of Safety Pros today! Join the Community of Safety Pros today! Does your company help develop employees through coaching? Not to be confused with training, or even consulting, coaching is a much more collaborative process that helps to bring out someone’s best work. Two-thirds of employees cite that coaching improved their performance within their company and also improved their satisfaction (1). Coaching sessions can include open-ended questions and discussion on personal and professional goals and objectives. If coaching happens consistently, it can strengthen relationships between managers/employees and peers. It can reinforce the right kind of behaviors you want to see in your business to promote safety and health. Last, it also helps workers have more support as they work through challenges or problems, both personally and professionally (2, 3, 4). Here are the top tips you can utilize for effective safety coaching: 1. Don’t assume leaders know how to coach Make sure leaders are equip

Powered by iReportSource Each year, you want to do all you can to protect the health and safety of your workers. You know that those investments pay off. After all, the average return on safety investment is as much as $4.41 for every dollar that’s been spent. But how do you prioritize your safety and health investments? Depending on the resources you have available this year and beyond, here are four areas to invest in: 1. Safety performance indicators It’s so essential for any business to be able to show and measure its safety performance. Learn Faster, spot critical areas that need attention, and take consistent action to support health and safety. Prioritizing the recording and tracking of leading indicators will also result in: More timely preventive and corrective actions The ability to better respond and recognize hazards More effective prevention through design and training. If you haven’t already, invest in a comprehensive tool that can simplify or make this kind of real-time reporting possible. 2

Join the Community of Safety Pros today! Join the Community of Safety Pros today! What are some of the top mistakes employers make when it comes to OSHA recordkeeping? (article link HERE) Even with good intentions, here are some of the top mistakes that can happen, resulting in major headaches and even citations: Not understanding what an OSHA-recordable work restriction is Not using enough detail in records Not using a system to track employees’ days away from work and other events Not keeping OSHA 300 logs up to date during the required 5-year storage period Lack of alignment between workers’ comp recordkeeping and OSHA recordkeeping Let’s take a closer look at some of these common errors, and what steps you can take to avoid making the same missteps. 1. Not understanding what an OSHA-recordable work restriction is Don’t make the mistake of believing an injury is not recordable as a work restriction if your injured employee is still doing useful work, even if that work is within their job description. Ju

Powered by iReportSource Findings from a survey conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) show that precautionary measures to minimize worker exposure to high-level disinfectants (HLDs) are not always used. The study results were recently published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. The recent release is one of a series of reports detailing results from the 2011 Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers, the largest federally-sponsored survey of healthcare workers in the U.S. Respondents included those who chemically disinfect medical or dental devices using one or more of the following HLDs during the past week: glutaraldehyde orthophthaldehyde (OPA) peracetic acid and/or hydrogen peroxide Information on various exposure controls and impediments to using personal protective equipment (PPE) was assessed. Findings suggest that recommended practices are not always used by healthcare workers. The following describes examples of pract

Powered by iReportSource  How would you like an OSHA inspector to launch a drone over top your job site or building, looking for hazards and violations? Perhaps workers on the roof, forklift operators in the yard, cell tower workers on a mountain - an OSHA inspector could see it all without even stepping foot on your property. It's not as far-fetched as it may sound. OSHA has authorized the use of drones by certain inspectors to collect evidence during inspections in certain workplace settings. But before you freak out, currently, OSHA inspectors are only allowed to use drones for enforcement purposes in areas that are inaccessible or pose a safety risk to inspection personnel. The other issue worth noting; OSHA must obtain express consent from the employer prior to using a drone on an inspection. In addition, personnel on-site must be notified of the aerial inspection prior to the drone's launching. So, for now, most employers don't have to worry. But, it is something that employers should keep in mind, in

Powered by iReportSource Have you ever struggled to make your safety processes mesh with other existing business processes, like quality or maintenance? By using lean principles and tools it can be easy to do just that. Stop trying to convert workers and take the work to them, in terms/tools they are comfortable using. This can be as simple as using a layered audit approach - piggyback off another inspection that is done frequently. Or leveraging existing operator checks, sprinkling safety-related checks in there. If there are chemical checks needed for quality then add checks for labels, SDS, spill kits, PPE, etc. to the list. Using lean manufacturing is all about first asking what else are we doing that has worker's attention? Can we leverage those efforts? I read a pretty decent article touching on this and you can find it here: https://www.industryweek.com/safety/think-lean-make-safety-simpler But for a deeper look and some real-world examples listen to this podcast episode. Be sure to share your tips on

Powered by iReportSource In this episode, I will talk about preparing for an OSHA inspection and how to best handle the event should one occur. Here, my focus will be what to do up-front, and should a compliance safety and health officer (CSHO) arrive at your facility, what to expect and what you should have ready to make it go smoother. I will also talk briefly about how to handle any alleged violation and potential citations that come your way. Let’s first get some definitions out of the way: I already mentioned the CSHO (Compliance Safety and Health Officer): This is the federal OSHA employee who conducts inspections for the agency — a.k.a. “OSHA Inspector.” General Duty Clause (GDC): A section of the OSH Act — Section 5(a)(1) — that requires employers to protect employees from recognized, serious hazards, regardless of whether there is a specific standard addressing that hazard. OSHA often uses the GDC to cite employers for not protecting workers from ergonomic-type risks, workplace violence, and heat st

Powered by iReportSource OSHA has changed course in its view of employers' post-incident drug testing programs and injury rate-based incentive programs. In a Memorandum to Regional Administrators and State Designees published October 11, the Agency now says most of these types of programs do not run afoul of the anti-retaliation provisions of the injury and illness recordkeeping regulation at §1904.35(b)(1)(iv). This is a massive shift in policy guidance from that published when the Agency issued the final rule in May 2016 requiring employers to submit injury and illness records electronically. As part of that rulemaking, OSHA added a provision that employers do not have any barriers for employees to report injuries or illnesses. The rule also said that employers could not discriminate or punish employees for being injured. While the rule itself didn't address drug testing or incentive programs, policy guidance published along with it indicated that most post-incident drug testing programs would be in violat