Dave Johnson

Our last blog (10/26) discussed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s claim that “companies are people, my friend.” What if he told the protestor he encountered at the Iowa State Fair “companies are actually like countries, my friend”?

NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard gave a presentation on Tuesday on a recent study of the supply and demand for OSH professionals in the next 5 years. Demand (25,000 pros are expected to be hired by U.S. industry) far outstrips supply (13,000 college graduates in OSH will be available).

One exhibitor tells us the safety world has to get with it and conduct business like business-to-consumer models. He has a touch screen service in testing where, as his signs say, “Order Here” and “Buy Now.”

1) Consumer products and marketing continue to crossover to workplace safety. One of the new examples we see: Puma Safety Shoes. Timbaland is also here. And Skechers. And the surf culture clothing company Billabong.

Halloween morning in sunny, cold Philadelphia. It’s 9:30 am and in the elevator leaving our hotel a young couple, man in orange dreadlocks and pajamas, woman in leather jacket, tights and wearing a Joker’s daft hat and bells, seem to planning for a long Halloween.

ISHN Editor Dave Johnson interviews John Montigny, Chief Marketing Officer for Honeywell Safety Products (HSP) a $2-billion business unit of the Honeywell Life Safety Division of Honeywell, Inc. Honeywell Safety Products (HSP) acquired Sperian Protection in September of 2010 combining with the earlier acquisition of North and Norcross to form HSP. 

Last week in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, AZ under cloudless cobalt blue skies and 90-degree temperatures approximately 500 senior level environmental health and safety professionals met for two days at the 19th Annual NAEM EHS Management Forum.

Last August while trolling for votes at the Iowa State Farm, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney created a media stir when, egged on by an irate protestor, said, “Corporations are people, my friend.”

More than 40% of the environmental health and safety pros we surveyed this past September for ISHN’s 27^th annual White Paper Reader Survey expect to work longer hours and take on more job-related distress in 2012.