Safety Awakening – “Don’t Believe What You Read On The Internet”

September 1, 2015 No Comments

“Don’t Always Believe What You Read On The Internet”

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Many practicing safety professionals spend much of their day on the Internet.  In addition to doing searches, we also visit  safety blogs and on-line safety magazines.   These are a great ways to stay on top of the latest developments and to find out what other safety professionals have to say about various subjects.

But beware, many people who write or publish on the Internet do not have professional safety qualifications and their writings should be taken with a large grain of salt!

The economy is tough.  Unable to find jobs in their chosen careers, some journalists, psychologists, and liberal arts majors have taken to the Internet to create a new career.   Some of these folks now fancy themselves as “non-traditional” or “unorthodox” safety people and have become safety bloggers and editors at popular on-line safety magazines.  Most have never stepped foot in a factory or construction site.

Before you take safety advice from any of these self-professed Internet safety experts, check out their professional credentials.  Do they have:

• safety certifications (such as CSP or CIH)
• a BS, MS or PhD degree in occupational safety from a well-known university
• experience working for a governmental safety agency (e.g. OSHA)
• experience managing an EHS department for a private company

Without the above types of professional credentials, I usually disregard what the writer has to say…

Awakenings