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This blog comes from the Guestbook discussion board on risk communication expert Dr. Peter Sandman's website www.psandman.com and is reprinted here with Dr. Sandman's permission.

An interesting week just concluded here in Washington. It was almost like a perfect storm of events.

Green is sexy. It's in vogue. It gets splashed on billboards and endorsed by celebrities.

Last week I covered the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) annual meeting and as is always the case I ran into more than a couple of earnest looking safety professionals who, with a straight face, claimed that they were trying hard to work themselves out of a job.

Dr. Dan Petersen defined world class safety as an organization that was within the best 10 percent of his customers at that particular point in time.

I've been blessed to know and play for some great college coaches. I also played with some outstanding athletes on the high school and college level.

I learned a few years ago that by reading books and acquiring information that are completely unrelated to your work or current project, you open up to new and different opportunities.

At this week’s ASSE annual conference in Chicago OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels and NIOSH head John Howard walked out and took seats on the stage of the Skyline Ballroom at McCormick Place for a rather casual one-hour sit-down with moderator Diane Steagal representing ASSE.

The economic doldrums in the U.S. has thrown a very heavy wet blanket on OSHA standards-setting efforts (OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels spends more time these days explaining how OSHA regs don’t kill jobs than talking future plans).

Ahmed S. AZZAM, QHSE Country Manager for Ideal Standard Eqypt, told us an almost unimaginable crisis management story on Sunday at the conference. Ahmed is VP of the ASSE Egyptian Chapter, which has 260+ members. He is attending the conference with the chapter’s president and treasurer.