Columns

A number of industrial industry professionals address issues in the industry.

ARTICLES

The need for an active counter-infection strategy

Chad Rissanen

May 7, 2021

The internet is awash with pieces of advice for workplaces looking to re-open. Amidst a thousand hygiene recommendations, it can be difficult to piece together a coherent anti-Coronavirus game plan for the long term.

Safety Analytics

Data does not speak for itself: You have to speak for it

Angelo Cianfrocco

Chuck Pettinger

Nick Goodell

May 6, 2021

The data “will speak for itself.” If you have spent any time in the data analytics world you have heard this phrase thrown around. But is it true?

Editorial Comments

CDC and OSHA recently updated workplace guidance related to Coronavirus

Benita Mehta

April 27, 2021

CDC’s new guidance offers employers tips on how to implement such programs and outlines steps employers should take before reopening workplaces.

Thought Leadership

A tangled web: subjective perspectives, risk assessments and ethical dilemmas

Part 1 of 3

Cory Worden M.S., CSHM

April 27, 2021

In this three-part series, the role of personal perceptions and the influence of invalidated information on them used in risk assessments will be explored. Part 1 discusses how perceptions are developed.

Best Practices

Can PWFA transform how OHS is practiced?

Pregnant workers bill could be enacted this year

Dan Markiewicz, MS, CIH, CSP, CHMM

April 27, 2021

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065, February 2021) is being fast-tracked into federal law. The bill has wide bipartisan support. President Biden campaigned on the law’s passage.

Missed opportunities and a path forward (it took a pandemic)

Cory Worden M.S., CSHM

March 22, 2021

As humans experienced the first global pandemic since 1918, it also experienced a multitude of missed opportunities that would have mitigated the frequency and severity of COVID-19 exposures and infections. Contrary to many messages communicated by politicians, the pandemic is not a political issue. Instead, it is a hazard, subject to scientific hazard control.

Editorial Comments

OSHA reveals top 10 violations for fiscal year 2020

Benita Mehta

March 22, 2021

OSHA announced its preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2020. As is usually the case, the Top 10 violations didn’t change from FY 2019, they just swapped numbers.

Best Practices

Does an abundance of titles hurt the OHS practice?

Quality varies in an unregulated credentials market

Dan Markiewicz, MS, CIH, CSP, CHMM

March 18, 2021

If the CIH and CSP are high-water marks for quality, what are the lowest quality OHS credentials? The constant flux of the unregulated OHS credential market along with hazy transparency and other issues e.g., no standard benchmark makes this an impossible question to answer.

Who is blocking the bully policy?

Edward Stern

February 9, 2021

Many private and public entities have no anti-bullying policy at all. Some have policies with holes in them; some of the language undermines the policies’ stated purposes.

Why is there OHS malaise in the U.S.?

Voluntary best practices implementation is risk management

Dan Markiewicz, MS, CIH, CSP, CHMM

February 8, 2021

Federal OSHA is stagnant and ill-prepared to regulate future risks. OSHA has only 1,850 inspectors to cover 8 million U.S. workplaces. OSHA has no regulations for rising concerns such as infectious disease, EMFs, psychosocial hazards, or ergonomics.