Yesterday I received an email from John Conover, Jr.   He is the Environmental Health & Safety Spec. at the University of Richmond.  John wrote some very thoughtful comments about my November 13th article on Dan Petersen.  I’d like to share what he had to say – “Thanks for the reminder to all...

Hiring a safety professional can be a  confusing task for a non-safety professional with little knowledge about what the safety profession is all about.  This is especially true for organizations who are attempting to hire their very first safety professional.  To assist those who have little experience in this...

Recently I was asked by the HR Director at a growing company, “at what point are we large enough to need a full-time, in-house, safety manager?”  This is a great question that I have been asked before, but unfortunately there is no easy black and white answer. One needs to...

Under certain circumstances in the USA, your company may not be responsible to pay workers compensation benefits to an employee who was injured on the job.   These special circumstances vary from state to state, but generally these exceptions include: Work related injuries caused by a dangerous or defective machine,...

  Inadequate lighting contributes to many on-the-job accidents.   One study shows that “accidents can be reduced about 20% by improving lighting conditions”.  But how do you know if you have enough lighting for a specific task or area? Before conducting your first lighting survey you will want to review the fundamentals...

When my dad was young,  80% of workers in the United States worked on a farm.   Back then, when an industry hired a new employee they could assume that the new employee already knew allot about machinery,  electricity,  chemicals , heavy vehicles, working at heights, equipment maintenance, and confined spaces because of their...

A new study in the Journal of Injury Prevention  looks at the dangers of “distracted walking”.   Crossing a busy intersection while texting or talking on a smart-phone can be deadly.  Texters are four times more likely to disregard traffic lights.  Pedestrians talking on a phone are likely to forget...