The three critical and costly items where contractors ask for help more than any others are Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations, personal injury and safety.  

I have spent many years as the boss and fully realize how many critical items we are responsible for and how much attention that requires. Unfortunately, as the boss, you forget about your own personal safety. My No. 1 concern is for you, the contractor — for your safety and that of your managers and all your employees.

The title of one Thursday session at ASSE’s Safety 2013: “Why Every Safety Professional/Manager Must Understand the Ideas of Peter F. Drucker,” presented by Jay C. Brakensiek, CSP, MSIH, EMBA, Claremont University Consortium, Claremont, CA. Brakensiek was a former student of Professor Drucker, considered the “Father of Management.”

In an exclusive with ISHN magazine, outgoing ASSE President Rick Pollock explains the profession’s expanding focus on risk and myths about human performance, as well as other issues. “ASSE now has, and will into the future, have a much greater focus on risk. Clearly, any true business leader understands the concept of risk as it applies to investment and decision making. Business is about understanding enterprise risk and how investment is always at risk of loss or under performance."

“Are we kidding ourselves?” Dr. Tom Krause, founder of BST and now an independent consultant, asked several  hundred safety pros at a session at ASSE’s Safety 2013. Kidding about what? Dr. Krause’s point: low OSHA injury rates are deceiving many companies into believing they have better safety performance than is really the case.

ISHN picked out these sound bites from keynoters, speakers and attendees at ASSE’s Safety 2014 national professional development conference and expo in Orlando this past June:

From absorbents and apparel to eye, foot, hand, fall protection and more, ASSE Safety 2015 attendees reviewed innovative products and services June 7-9 at ISHN's booth in Dallas's Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The votes have been counted and the winners are below...

A key issues roundtable discussion Monday afternoon will address how to manage OSH risk and business polarities when there are competing priorities. Too often high visibility incidents cause organizations to switch into “fire-fighting” mode rather than executing their strategy.

This year will be the twelfth annual Executive Summit. The Summit, which takes place on Wednesday, brings the perspective of industry and corporate leaders to occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals. Understanding this perspective significantly benefits OSH professionals and improves their effectiveness in directing safety and health programs in their organizations.

A Monday morning session will explore hazards associated with hydrocarbon vapors and gases in the upstream onshore oil & gas industry identifying common tasks with potential for exposure. The focus will be on control measures, safe work practices, air monitoring procedures and PPE requirements. The session will reference NIOSH studies and blog posts.

This Monday session will describe and illustrate how NFPA 652 addresses combustible dust hazards, and how it works within the current structure of the existing NFPA combustible dust standards. How NFPA 652 relates to the current OSHA combustible dust enforcement activities will also be discussed.

The keynote speaker at Monday's opening general session at 7:30 a.m. is Frans Johansson, author of “The Medici Effect,” whose presentation is called “The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World.”

Here at the Safety 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Safety Engineers in hot Atlanta, safety pros are expressing concern over OSHA's new electronic recordkeeping rule.

A number of vendors at this year's Safety 2016 expo, which opened Sunday afternoon, are promoting risk management and risk assessment tools.

A walk through the Safety 2016 expo floor on Sunday afternoon revealed a stronger emphasis than ever on safety data collection and analysis. The age of "going mobile" has come to professional safety. The idea is to make safety inspections, audits, job safety analyses and job observations faster, smarter, and easier to do.

Almost every training vendor at the Safety 2016 expo in Atlanta is promoting some form of online training and education. "eLearning" signs and banners are ubiquitous, as though online is the only way to train employees.

One trend evident at ASSE's Safety 2016 expo in Atlanta is products and services aimed at the "worker athlete."

At the Safety 2016 expo it's clear OSHA's emphasis on preventing serious fall injuries and fatalities has caught the attention of PPE and facility safety vendors.

Tim Page-Bottorff, CSP wants you to know that safety doesn’t have to be boring. When conducting safety training, the best way to engage your audience is with humor, he said. Stories are the best way to get started, Page-Bottorff said on Monday during a flash session on the expo floor.

Frontline supervisors are the lynchpin of safety, Judy Agnew said during a session Monday morning on safety leadership. She offers five tips for frontline supervisors to better engage the workforce, which not only improves individual performance but leads to a safe work environment for all.

When it comes to ladder safety, avoiding fines and fatalities is a big concern. Three of OSHA’s top ten “serious” violations in 2015 were related to falls. Every day, one person dies in a ladder-related accident. Fall prevention is a focal point for safety leaders.

In today’s workplace, fatigue is four times more likely to contribute to workplace impairment than drugs or alcohol, Susan Sawatzky of In-Scope Solutions said Monday. Yet this prevalent health and safety risk is still largely under-recognized by the majority of organizations and industries, she said.

A spirited Plenary Session on Wednesday, June 21, will be held town hall-style, featuring some of the most recognizable names in safety. They will focus on the controversial topic of behavior-based safety (BBS) to understand the human side of safety performance improvement in a time of political transition and de-regulation.

While all sessions at Safety 2017 are sure to be interesting and educational, there are some standouts in the schedule, which should not be missed.

This year’s Executive Summit provides attendees the perspective of industry and corporate leaders in regards to the OSH profession. The event offers opportunities for executive-level networking and leadership development as well as updates on economic trends and business strategies. Understanding this perspective significantly benefits OSH professionals and improves their effectiveness in directing safety and health programs in their organizations.

A flash session on the expo floor Tuesday at Safety 2017 focused on the science behind flame-resistant clothing. Speaker Scott P. Francis told attendees to beware of simple terms. He said for flame-resistant, arc flash PPE, words like 88/12, inherent, certified do not tell you anything about specific fabric or fabric manufacture. It’s important to know what fabric your garment is made from and who makes the fabric, Francis said. “Fabrics perform very different so you should know the specifics on protection, comfort and value.”

On Thursday, June 22, Dr. Tim Ludwig drew an audience of 500 attendees at ASSE’s Safety 2017 to his presentation on stopping the ever-popular blame game as a safety practice and instead striving for a better understanding of human behavior.

Behavior-based safety has been practiced since the Ford Motor Company used it to increase seat belt usage in 1970s. Controversy has dogged it ever since, especially in the 1980s and 1990s when the BBS bandwagon attracted a small army of consultants.

On the expo floor at ASSE’s Safety 2017, Caterpillar displayed one of the latest tools in the battle against unsafe fatigue on the job. In-cab monitoring is a way to keep operators alert and safe.

ISHN's White Paper presents in-depth research of the EHS field and profiles of industrial safety and hygiene companies.

For all the change brought on by the recession and post-recession uncertainty, it’s status quo for most EHS departments in 2012, according to ISHN’s reader survey:

State of the EHS Nation: Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey

State of the EHS Nation:

Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey:

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

While U.S. companies contend with a shortage of EHS professionals and skilled laborers, a global look at current and expected hiring reveals a complex picture. According to ManpowerGroup's first-quarter 2013 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, the majority of employers in the global labor market are less confident about adding staff than they were at the start of 2012, suggesting a more difficult time ahead for job seekers in some countries.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

Here is the methodology behind the survey:

Personal protective equipment (PPE) for the eyes and face is designed to prevent or lessen the severity of injuries to workers.

It’s been a long hard slog for the U.S. economy to recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2008

According to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, EHS department staffing should remain stable in most organizations in the coming year. Expectations for overall EHS department headcounts in ’15: only 5% see headcounts shrinking “slightly” and a scant 1% plan on “significant decreases.”

One factor behind the favorable job satisfaction found in the EHS ranks, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, could come down to the bottom line – salaries. Fifty-five percent of respondents expect “slightly higher” incomes in 2015, and 6% expect “much higher” salaries.

There’s certainly no lack of challenges facing the EHS profession now and in the coming years, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey. Almost four in ten (39%) of ISHN subscribers say contending with an expanding workload is one of the biggest challenges they face on the job.

The most pressing issue facing EHS professionals in the new year, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, is an age-old challenge that has been reported in ISHN State of the Nation surveys since the 1980s – dealing with the safety and health attitudes and behaviors of line employees. Consider: