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ASSE’s Safety 2013 officially opens with the usual pomp and circumstance this morning at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The opening general session presentation is by Peter Sheahan, on the topic of “Creative Strategies for Turning Challenge Into Opportunity and Change Into Competitive Advantage.”

The first “Key Issue Roundtable” of ASSE’s Safety 2013 takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) morning on the subject of fatigue. Specifically, “Fatigue in Transportation: Latest in Regulations & Research.” The “town hall” type of open forum/speak your mind is sponsored by ASSE’sTransportation Practice Specialty.

ASSE’s Safety 2013 features a number of educational sessions on the topic of leadership. None probably will be looked forward to more than the session tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon on “Transformational Leadership - A Key Element in the Journey to World Class.” Transformational Leadership is a fancy term, but the presentation here is real world, involving

The amount of coverage given to safety-related risk issues at ASSE’s Safety 2013 made us think of how the European Union (EU) is actually ahead of the U.S. safety profession when it comes to embracing risk. The past year saw the completion of EU-OSHA’s flagship Foresight project, which anticipates longer-term workplace risks (initially in relation to ‘green’ jobs), to stimulate debate, and make clear to decision-makers the implications of particular courses of action.

Risk assessment. The Future of Risk Control. Integrated Risk Management. Risk Management and Product Safety. Risk Management and Risk Elimination. Risk Management Forum. Risk Factors. Risk Management 101. Risk Managers From Mars. “We have 15 risk-related sessions at Safety 2013,” says incoming American Society of Safety Engineers’ President Kathy A. Seabrook, CSP, president of Global Solutions, Inc. “You are right to think ‘risk’ is a focus for the safety profession.“

A week before the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Safety 2013 conference and exposition opened for business at the Las Vegas Convention Center, registration was at more than 4,000 attendees. The expo was filled by approximately 550 exhibitors taking up more than 89,000 square feet of exhibit space.

A Pennsylvania helicopter manufacturer exposed its workers to hexavalent chromium and other hazards, according to the eight serious citations issued by OSHA. Carson Helicopters, Inc., based in Perkasie, faces fines totaling $40,500 after a December 2012 inspection of the facility was launched because of a complaint.

More fallout from those Louisiana chemical plant explosions, the compliance date for anti-fatigue rules for truckers draws near and the winner’s of ISHN’s first-ever Readers’ Choice Awards were all in the news this week:

The ability of protective clothing worn by first responder to limit exposure to hazardous liquids will undergo new testing procedures developed by the Fire Protection Research Foundation and International Personnel Protection, Inc.

OSHA has cited Gulf Coast Utility Contractors LLC with two willful and two serious safety violations with proposed penalties totaling $106,400 for exposing workers to a cave-in and other hazards while they were installing underground utilities at a job site in Panama City Beach.