A session at ASSE’s Safety 2013 focused on, “Integrating Risk Management and Prevention Through Design Standards,” and ASSE has been beating the drum in support of what’s known as PtD. Presenters were Georgi I. Popov, PhD., QEP, University of Central Missouri, Overland Park, KS; and John N. Zey, Ed.D., CIH, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO.
Two sessions this week at ASSE’s Safety 2013 took up the subject of zero injury goals. The first was presented by Tom Krause Ph.D., the founder of BST who now works as an independent consultant in Ojai, CA after selling the company to Dekra of Germany. Tom posed the question: “Are We on the Path to Zero or Are We Kidding Ourselves?“
A highlight at ASSE’s annual professional development conference, this year titled Safety 2013, is the Executive Summit Panel Discussion. This year’s featured panelists: Robert Zaist, President of Energy and Construction, URS Corporation; Rafael Moure-Eraso, Chair, U.S. Chemical Safety Board; Lester Grey, Sr. Vice President of Operations, Perdue Farms; Stephanie Buchanan, Vice President of Operations, United Airlines, Houston Hub; and Virginia Valentine, Nevada Resort Association.
In recent years, the issue of the aging workforce in the U.S. has been a staple education session at safety and health meetings. So too this week at ASSE’s Safety 2013, which featured a session on, “So You’re Retired? Not So Fast - Attacking Injuries of an Aging Workforce.” According to a recent AARP study, 70 percent of workers report they plan to work past retirement or never retire.
OSHA has cited Witt Plumbing Inc. for five safety violations, including two willful, after a worker died from injuries received when a trench collapsed at a job site in Hastings, Jan. 16. The worker was locating a sewage drain pipe at a home under construction when the unprotected trench collapsed.
While U.S. oil & gas companies have, for the most part, refused to disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – on the grounds that such information is proprietary, their European counterparts have launched a new website to disclose those and other details.
An explosion at an Indiana grain bin Monday afternoon claimed the life of 67-year-old James Swank, news sources report. Police believe Swank was on top of a tower when the blast – which may have been a grain dust explosion, caused him to fall approximately 175 feet.
This much is clear after the first full day of ASSE’s Safety 2013 in Las Vegas talking to attendees and strolling the exhibits. We’ll call them the top 12 topics du jour: FR clothing market – 500K electricians and 269K power line installers should be wearing flame-resistant fabric clothing.
What kind of business confab in any field is on top it without a session or two or 12 on new communications technology devices as business tools? Certainly ASSE is “with it.” On Wednesday afternoon Safety 2013 features an education session; “Streamlining Safety Operations Through Widespread Use of Mobility.”
On Wednesday morning at ASSE’s Safety 2013 in Las Vegas a vexing, long-standing irritant to safety professionals is addressed by Canadian consultant Corrie Pitzer -- why safe organizations fail. Pitzer calls it “drifting into disaster.”