Life in Ghana: The search for water.

Thermostatic mixing valves and common sense can help prevent injury and litigation.

A young guy who was about the size of Bruno Mars came to my seminar once, and we were chatting during a break. I asked him how long he had been in the business. It’s good to see young people getting involved.

Most hydronic systems have the boiler running up to 180° F with water returning from the system at 160°. This rarely happens in real life, but it’s the traditional way we do things.

Material handling consists of the moving, handling, and storing of materials in a facility using manual force, employee-operated equipment (forklifts), and automated equipment (conveyors). The handling and storing of materials inside a facility includes activities like:

This article is really about putting all of the concepts in the previous articles together to come up with what will hopefully be the most significant change in thinking so far.

In September 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along Florida’s southwest coast, bringing high winds, storm surges and massive flooding.

NTSB investigators said failed wheel bearing caused Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

The industrial gas safety series will further provide partners and customers with the ability to protect employees and their facilities when working near both toxic and hazardous gases.

Today, optrel, a leading manufacturer of active eye protection products, introduced its new crystal2.0 welding helmet with Crystal 2.0 Lens Technology (CLT2.0) — representing a quantum leap forward in optical clarity for welders before, during, and after welding.

The Orange County Sanitation District in Huntington Beach, California provides wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal services for approximately 2.6 million people. They had a combination of loud industrial equipment, cavernous space, and highly reflective surfaces creating an acoustic nightmare.

The natural gas meter may be the textbook example of something that is said to be “hidden in plain sight.” Every structure – from house to hospital and grocery store to commercial warehouse – that uses natural gas as the feedstock for its furnaces, stoves or water heaters has at least one of the (usually) gray boxes bolted to its exterior.

Employees working at water treatment plants face danger every day. The work is inherently treacherous, as water makes every step potentially hazardous, and sometimes even life-threatening.

Garney Construction trialed a new continuous monitoring smart PPE system, comprised of sensors worn on the arm of its workers and technology that collects data to signal when the worker may be headed for trouble while working in the heat.

The trade show and congress cover all aspects of a holistic prevention culture – from corporate health management and personal protection to workspace design and workplace safety management. 

The central theme of Safe + Sound Week is to promote the implementation and enhancement of safety and health programs in workplaces. 

The company is accused of failing to protect workers from dangerous silica dust, leading to serious health issues.

Agency says manufacturer could have prevented an electrician from suffering severe burns during an electrical arc blast if required safety standards were followed.

American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Executive Director Dennis Hudson has been honored with the President’s Distinguished Service Award by the U.K.-based Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). The presentation occurred in November at the IOSH annual conference in Birmingham, England. The award honors the work and achievements of individuals who have made significant contributions to IOSH or the occupational safety and health profession for several years.

ISEA's $5,00 scholarship is awarded annually to a student in an accredited college or university, pursuing a degree in occupational safety, industrial hygiene or a related field. Deadline is Nov. 1.

These new services join a comprehensive suite of consulting services offered by J. J. Keller, a leader in safety and regulatory compliance for 70 years. 

SoterGenius uses image and video analysis, chat functionality and document analysis to automate compliance checks against OSHA guidelines.

The industrial gas detection series is modularly designed for easy integration and custom configurability.

Safety 2024 will be held Aug. 7-9 in Denver. Presentations should address key occupational safety and health issues as well as emerging matters and innovations relevant to the profession.

Northern Ireland Water has purchased more than 700 connected wearable devices by leading safety technology provider Blackline Safety Corp. for its frontline workers.

Tyndale announces the completed expansion of their Houston DC to 118,260 square feet, which is more than 50% more square footage than its original size.

The winter session’s discounted early rate expires after Nov. 16.

The Center provides a central point for partners to engage with NIOSH on the broad spectrum of firefighter-related research and services.

Doug Backinger of Caster Concepts discusses the growing trend of automation and ergonomics in the materials handling industry.

Construction site managers and safety managers bear the responsibility of helping to ensure the safety and security of a jobsite and its workers.

Fastenal Company announced its financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2017. Net sales increased 108% for the year, and 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Gross profit for the year was 10.1%.

Requests to ship hazardous and perishable goods across greater distances are increasing in frequency. With the surge of globalization, companies must contend with how to get fragile or potentially dangerous items to suppliers and end-users a world away.

Electric vehicles are most commonly advertised as passenger vehicles, designed to help the average commuter reduce their carbon footprint and pay less at the pump. But they're making their way into the commercial sector in the form of heavy equipment electric vehicles. How are EVs changing material handling?

 
Next-generation IoT system digitizes daily processes, adds capabilities, streamlines logistics and provides actionable, on-demand machine insights.

Effective winterizing strategies can protect your equipment from corrosion damage during cold seasons.

Research from the University of Kentucky’s Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC) shows that a diet high in fiber could possibly reverse the adverse effects that environmental toxins have on cardiovascular health. The findings are part of UK-SRC’s “Project #1,” which examines how nutrients affect toxicity caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in vascular tissues.

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in Albuquerque, New Mexico operates a 76-million gallons per day (rated capacity) wastewater treatment plant that treats a daily average of five million gallons of sewage from New Mexico’s largest city and its surroundings.

Many of the OSHA cases that cite “willful” violations present mysteries. The mysteries are why the alleged violations were categorized as willful. These charges are not a mystery to OSHA, but they are mysteries to readers of citations. Since the penalty for a willful violation can be over $130,000, there should not be any mystery about such charges.

Warehouse hazards are often the cause of workplace accidents. Choosing the correct type of storage will greatly reduce the potential hazard in a facility. The correct storage medium will reduce improper lifting, reaching and travel distance to retrieve an item.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recommends drinking up to 3 liters of fluid a day. Water is vital for all cell function. It helps your brain to produce hormones and neurotransmitters, supports the lubrication of joints, keeps your skin cool through sweating or respiration, and your body to excrete waste.

Twenty-five years ago, as a young safety professional, I struggled to find a set of leadership practices I could call my own. In 1996, I wrote about many of the leadership practices I was already using but found more clearly established in Servant Leadership (Sarkus, 1996).

Se-Kure Domes and Mirrors is a true Made in America manufacturer of mirrored safety products. Full 360-degree domes from 18” to 60” in diameter, 180 & 90-degree domes are also available.

Tainted love: Johnson & Johnson recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration found asbestos in one container, The New York Times reports. The company, which once marketed its baby, body, and wellness products as being “for all you love,” has long denied that its talc-based products ever contained cancer-causing asbestos, but it faces more than 15,000 lawsuits from customers who say their products caused them to develop ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to asbestos.

Mobile EHS software is improving workplace health and safety programs by disseminating critical tasks – like incident reporting – and making EHS a part of everyone’s job. Now every employee has the ability to feed real-time information on workplace risks directly into a centralized location.

The Future Security and Safety summit, and the Fire Protection and Technology Summit agendas are in place, with several speakers confirmed.

Expert Kathy Seabrook explores how EHS professionals can leverage sustainability initiatives to drive business value and enhance safety performance in this session from day one of the ASSP Safety 2024 conference. 

The submission deadline is Sept. 11 for the Professional Development Conference and Exposition in Orlando.

World-class blind adventurer Erick Weihenmayer motivated several thousand safety and health pros during the opening session of the 2024 NSC Safety Congress. 

A special feature at A+A 2025 will again be the North American Pavilion, organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America and co-sponsored by the National Safety Council (NSC).

The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was signed into law on December 29, 2022 and becomes effective in June. Here’s a detailed look at what this means.