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From effective leadership to entrepreneurial spirit, Lisa Hallsworth exhibits all the characteristics one could hope for at the helm of Safety Data Sheets (SDS) management company Rillea Technologies[MF1] . Having a knack for physics in school, Hallsworth pursued a degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo, opening the door for her entry into the chemical engineering field. Now, with 32 years of industry experience, she explains the motivations behind her vision for improved chemical safety, which led to the creation of cutting-edge safety software, SDS RiskAssist.
“A lot of my time working with chemical safety was spent … looking at the chemicals that were being used and then looking at what various regulations within Canada and around the world had to say about those chemicals,” says Hallsworth. “And that takes a huge amount of time. [For] every different project that I worked on, I’d ask — ‘How is it safe to proceed with this project? What are we required to do by regulations? What do we know about it from research, and how do we handle the chemicals?’ And really, what I came to realize was there is a lot to chemical safety, [which] is super challenging.”
Each day, when 14-year Brakeman Taylor Morel straps on his steel-toed boots, raises his tinted safety glasses and plugs in hearing protection, he brings experience, accountability and sharp focus to the job.
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As a result, Morel’s peers elected him as one of the Gulf Coast Service Unit’s Total Safety Culture (TSC) facilitators. Morel provides safety insights to a portion of Louisiana’s TE&Y employees, stretching from Beaumont East to Avondale Yard in Union Pacific’s Southern Region.
Since hiring on as a brakeman in 2007, Morel said safety in the yard became second nature, but it was time for a new challenge.
“I felt like I wasn’t really doing as much as I could in regard to safety,” Morel said. “When I saw what the facilitators were doing, touching on that safety component at every single terminal from Beaumont to Avondale, I realized the reach was more than just my own little world.”
During his term as facilitator, Morel hopes to celebrate positive peer habits and use them as teaching moments to underscore the “why” behind certain railroad procedures and processes. By putting a process in the context of safety and the reason behind it, he believes employees can better understand the importance of doing tasks the right way every time.
www.miningweekly.com/article/h…
Harmony Gold reports that an employee has died after losing control of a heavy-duty vehicle. The accident occurred near the Mponeng mine salvage yard. The driver was on his way to the Savuka central salvage yard, near Carletonville.
“The recent spate of loss of life incidents are of real concern to the Harmony family and we are deeply appalled. The tragic consequences of these incidents will continue to affect the families, colleagues and friends of our deceased colleagues for many years. “However, we will continue our focus on embedding our risk management process to create a more engaged and proactive safety culture. All Harmony stakeholders are profoundly committed to making renewed and concerted efforts to prevent accidents through our ongoing humanistic transformation safety initiatives. Our prayers are with the families, friends and colleagues of the deceased during this difficult time,” says Harmony CEO Peter Steenkamp.
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In the world of health and safety, we sometimes talk about the work of academics, coining the phrase “work as imagined and work as done.”
That phrase articulates an important concept. We often imagine things are going well somewhere and everything is being done according to plan. When we visit that place, we find that things are not so simple as we would hope, and see people deviating from established expectations and procedures.
We often point to this drift, as Rasmussen put it, to be a cause of incidents.
I recently heard some people talking about High Reliability Organizations (HROs) and Human Organizational Performance (HOP). Safety culture even came up. These are all very interesting theories and are useful to us in the health and safety realm.
The primary issue between theory and practice is operationalizing a theory or idea into something that will work consistently in most places. I say that because there’s nothing that works all the time, everywhere.
Environment, Health, and Safety Managing Director Tolga Durak heads a team working to build a strong safety culture at the Institute and to implement systems that lead to successful lab and makerspace operations. EHS is also pursuing new opportunities in the areas of safe and sustainable labs and applied makerspace research.
Durak holds a BS in mechanical engineering, a MS in industrial and systems engineering, and a PhD in building construction/environmental design and planning. He has over 20 years of experience in engineering and EHS in higher education, having served in such roles as authority having jurisdiction, responsible official, fire marshal, risk manager, radiation safety officer, laser safety officer, safety engineer, project manager, and emergency manager for government agencies, as well as universities with extensive health-care and research facilities.
Q: What “words of wisdom” regarding lab/shop health and safety would you like to share with the research community?
A: EHS staff always strive to help maintain the safety and well-being of the MIT community. When it comes to lab/shop safety or any areas with hazards, first and foremost, we encourage wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling potentially hazardous materials. While PPE needs depend on the hazards and the space, common PPE includes safety glasses, lab coats, gloves, clothes that cover your skin, and closed-toe shoes. Shorts and open-toe shoes have no place in the lab/shop setting when hazardous materials are stored or used. Accidents will and do happen. The severity of injuries due to accidental exposures can be minimized when researchers are wearing PPE. Remember, there is only one you!
“The concept of a ‘safety culture’ is something that I identified for myself as very important, early on in my career,” says Maria Moracho Ramirez, Senior Safety Officer at the IAEA. “It relates to a culture of behaviour, and if you’ve been a trainer, you know that training for influencing behaviours is very complicated.”
In organizations dealing with nuclear and radioactive material, a strong safety and security culture helps to prevent accidents, as well as intentional acts that could lead to theft of nuclear material and/or harm the facility. It refers to the way in which safety and security is perceived, valued, prioritised and integrated into organizations. It involves leadership and other human factors. “Developing effective training to influence culture and change behaviours is challenging,” Moracho Ramirez says, “because it is quite different from explaining, for example, the design of a nuclear power plant, which follows a more straight-forward flow and can also be demonstrated physically.”
Not one to back away from a challenge, at the IAEA Moracho Ramirez has pioneered the concept of the IAEA’s first-ever IAEA International School on Nuclear and Radiological Leadership for Safety. The school focuses on fostering a culture of safety and on demonstrating the links between leadership and safety. Since its launch in 2017 it has attracted more than 200 early to mid-career nuclear professionals.
Lobster fishing crews in southwestern Nova Scotia are reminded to make safety a priority and follow rules and guidelines as they begin their fishing season.
Dumping Day, traditionally the last Monday in November, marks the official start of the fishing season in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 along the southern and western shores of the province.
“Safety must be top of mind for the hundreds of fishers who set out on the water on Dumping Day to set their traps,” said Jill Balser, Minister of Labour, Skills and Immigration. “While very important for Nova Scotia’s economy, lobster fishing is dangerous work. A successful season also means every crew comes home safely at the end of their workday. I strongly urge all fishers to take the time and necessary steps to keep themselves safe, to be sure they get home to their loved ones.” Before heading out every morning, it is important for crews to: monitor the weather assess their boats examine their safety gear and check on others on board stay on the lookout for potential working hazards wear their personal flotation devices stay prepared for emergencies. Quotes: Fishing is difficult and sometimes dangerous work. I urge everyone – captains and crews – to take a moment to think about safety on board the boat. Locate your safety gear, run through your safety drills and be ready for the unexpected. Do it for yourself, your crewmates and your family. We want everyone to return home safely. Steve Craig, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture
I’m proud of the work the fishing industry has put in over the last six years. We’ve seen a shift of not just knowing about safety but caring about it, with more captains taking steps to improve safety on their vessels, attend wharf-side safety demonstrations, and focus on safety training for their crew. While fishing remains a dangerous job, these are all positive signs of a changing safety culture. Stuart MacLean, CEO, WCB Nova Scotia
Audits are an essential part of any laboratory safety program. Audits are the exams of safety preparation. Most of us do not like to do audits or have our facility audited.
Several years ago, my employer hired two auditing consultants from DuPont as part of their training program in laboratory safety. These gentlemen had been managers of research laboratories; they shared their safety management experiences with our research managers and staff. On the afternoon prior to their formal presentation, the consultants carried out an audit of our laboratories.
While our audits tend to focus on objects in the lab (e.g., labels, hazardous materials, safety equipment, working spaces, storage, waste collection, general housekeeping), the consultants were more interested in the people working in the lab. Most of the audit time was spent talking with the researchers in their work area. The consultants would introduce themselves, explain that they were conducting an audit for the company.
They asked the researcher to explain their job tasks. How did you learn how to do this? Who taught you? Are there any significant safety issues in performing this task? In general, do you feel safe working in this area? The researchers were quite comfortable talking with these consultants. Some enjoyed talking about their work; others appreciated being asked for their input about the lab and lab safety.
Board members play a pivotal role in influencing the culture of their organisations.
However, one key danger for organisations is when directors believe that “the absence of failure is a measure of success” .
To combat this, board member education is vital, according to experts who argue board members need broader training to ask the right questions and to understand how their mindset and decisions affect their organisations’ workplace culture and performance.
Actively taking steps to promote and facilitate an ongoing safety culture plays a crucial role in preventing life-threatening incidents across University of Nevada, Reno settings. On Nov. 8, 2021, Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S), part of Research & Innovation, hosted a webinar where University leaders and esteemed guest speakers discussed the importance of continually reinforcing a culture of safety.
“From our laboratories, classrooms and meeting spaces, to our performing arts venues, athletics venues and residence halls…it’s imperative that we support and strengthen a culture of safety,” said University President Brian Sandoval in opening remarks. “This starts with policies, procedures and resources, but a culture of safety is much more. It’s a culture where we are vigilant, where we value the opportunity to continually improve, where we value training and preparedness, where we look out for one another.”
Mark McLellan, University of North Texas vice president for research and innovation, and Craig Merlic, UCLA professor and executive director of the UC Center for Laboratory Safety, were guest speakers at the event. The program also included remarks from Environmental Health & Safety Associate Director Ben Owens and University Vice President for Research and Innovation Mridul Gautam.
Gallup reports that only 22% of people believe their organization has a clear direction. To evaluate and improve food safety culture, organizations must value and prioritize strategic, tactical and operational planning involving team members across functions at every stage to reach their desired Blue-Sky vision.
Cultural shift Guiliani said making a case that a fleet is as safe as possible starts at the top and hits every person on the way down, adding it’s not solely about safety. Safety is tangental to prevention. “It’s all about developing, changing, the culture of prevention,” he said. “You need to start preventing. What are we doing from a driver management standpoint to either minimize or prevent accidents in the beginning?”
It is common for accident reports and the analysis of large-scale disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon blowout, to point to communication failures. This narrow explanation implicitly assumes that accidents could be prevented if employees spoke up about safety. In contrast, the first author of this paper, whose professional experience is introduced in this Commentary to provide context, has frequently observed that there are, in fact, many cases when employees speak up but are not listened to. These patterns of communication (or lack thereof) occur at the intersection of personal, leadership, and organizational factors, which jointly affect how safety issues are recognized, communicated, and addressed. As such, communication problems are at “the tip of the iceberg” of safety problems, not at their root. In this paper, we review research on high-reliability organizations (HROs) with excellent safety records to identify their communication patterns and practices and how they contribute to the ability to enact five principles of HROs: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, deference to expertise, commitment to resilience, and sensitivity to operations. We then apply this lens to investigate the Deepwater Horizon disaster, based on court documents, expert reports, and personal interviews. Specifically, we investigate how the communication patterns between the onshore experts and the offshore crews compared to the recommendations of HRO theory and how existing discrepancies might help explain the accident. We found that many employees were aware of safety issues and communicated concerns openly, but there was little organizational response to the issues they raised. This failure to listen was largely owed to factors that were not directly related to communication, such as time pressure and lack of resources, and a culture that valued a “can do attitude” and getting things done so much that it got in the way of sensitivity to operations, expert-based guidance, and communication about problems. Moreover, the challenges of the project and its aggressive timeline created an extreme, almost toxic, commitment to resilience. Based on these findings, we discuss recommendations for improving safety in offshore oil and gas production.
Airlines are high-reliability organizations (HRO) evolving in an ultra-competitive and regulated environment where market differentiation is challenging (e.g., a limited option of original equipment manufacturers (OEM), routes) and thin profit margins.
Often they are defined by their business models (i.e., legacy carrier (LC) or low-cost carrier (LCC)).
Because the industry is in perpetual motion and is publicly visible as most airlines care about their brand image, the slightest mismatch could result in financial, operational, and safety disasters.
For instance, the recent fiasco of the Boeing 737 MAX causing the loss of 346 souls is more than a technology failure. There were indications of real deep problems that have their roots in the organization’s leadership.
www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/…
Orlando, FL — Creating or cultivating safety culture at organizations of all sizes is a people-intense exercise that requires caring about and regularly checking in with workers.
I. David Daniels, president and CEO of ID2 Solutions, and Steven Schoolcraft, corporate vice president of safety, health and environment at Parsons Corp., amplified that view above all Oct. 11 while speaking during the Campbell Institute Forum at the 2021 NSC Safety Congress & Expo at the Orange County Convention Center.
“If you don’t care about your employees from a safety perspective, you probably don’t care much about them in terms of their production either,” Daniels said. “Because you don’t care enough to be able to create the safe environment so they can give their best, you look at them as a cog, you look at them as a machine. But if you’re concerned about them as a whole human being, you’re concerned about the role that they play in the company or the organization,” you then show your investment.
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Dan Strand admits he went through an evolution of understanding that WorkSafeBC’s job is more than just building programs and that it also supports leaders in establishing a better safety culture.
This involves building workers’ confidence in safety programs. “The worker’s voice is so important,” says Strand, Director of Prevention Field Services at WorkSafeBC. “I have an understanding of how programs evolve, and how that voice needs to be brought to the table so that [workers] feel they’re part of the solution.”
Strand oversees a team of around 380 occupational safety and hygiene officers that are located all around the province inspecting workplaces.
As opposed to OHS organizations in certain other provinces, in B.C. workplace compensation and prevention are under the same umbrella. “We’re all one happy family here,” says Strand.
You’ve built the best team of drivers of your career. They’re safe, reliable, efficient — and happy to be on board. You’re ready to enjoy the benefits of a stable, productive fleet.
But competitors keep trying to lure them away. With supply chains stretched to capacity as the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, demand to haul freight and an accompanying need for drivers are both soaring.
Industrywide, truck driver turnover remains at a historic high. Drivers are leaving fleets for better wages, benefits or more convenient shifts. So, how are you going to keep that great team of drivers intact?
Prioritize safety: It goes without saying but — safety first. Be sure you’re checking all the boxes, and manage your fleet with your drivers’ well-being at top of mind. That means making sure that your drivers are properly trained to operate your fleet’s vehicles and maintain a steady schedule of training updates. Follow maintenance schedules to ensure your vehicles are roadworthy. Check tires, perform daily walk-arounds and the like.
Make it known their actions matter and safety is your top priority. Build a safety culture that engages with drivers on their routes. And use technology to check for dangerous road conditions and driving. By incorporating these safety features and processes, you are not only ensuring your drivers feel safe and secure, but also valued.
And drivers are more willing to stay at a company when this culture of safety is established and consistently practiced. By not investing in a safety culture, drivers will leave for other fleets that make this a priority.
September 29, (THEWILL) – The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has reiterated its commitment to passenger safety and the need to ensure stakeholders in the air transport chain receive constant training. … Yabudu, represented by the airport manager, Murtala Mohammad International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, Mrs Victoria Shin-Aba, noted that safety is key and can only be guaranteed when everyone observes safety practices.
He explained that trained staff are guaranteed to prevent accidents at airports, adding that a well-trained staff equals safe passengers. …. Mrs Shin-Aba disclosed that ACI Africa chose September 2021 to celebrate Safety Week in all airports in Africa.
She said the objectives for this year’s ACI safety week were to adopt an inclusive approach by involving all internal and external stakeholders whose activities impacted safety directly or indirectly and promote the airport’s safety culture by sharing experiences and knowledge.
Liebherr-Australia executive general manager customer service – mining, Tony Johnstone, says it’s in the company’s DNA to ensure safety is a key part of its workforce’s day-to-day activities.
“At Liebherr, safety is not just one person’s responsibility, it’s everybody’s,” Johnstone tells Safe to Work.
“The key is engagement from the most senior of our leadership positions down.
“We see safety as being part of everybody’s role. Visibility and active participation by all of our leadership groups is imperative to our strategy for a safe work environment and desire for a safe work culture.”
www.suffolknewsherald.com/2021/09/2…
There seems to be a lot of traffic crashes lately, and whether that’s attributable to the pandemic, a growing population or something else is anyone’s guess. The most likely explanation is that it’s the result of a lot of different factors.
There have not, however, been a lot of accidents lately — at least not if you ask the Virginia State Police.
That’s because the state police recently began a push for journalists to replace the word “accident” with “crash” when reporting on a traffic incident.
The reason for that request? Only rarely are traffic crashes truly accidental in nature, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya states in a paragraph she has recently begun appending to nearly all of her news releases about crashes on Virginia highways.
Most crashes are the result of a driver’s choice to, say, drive drunk or distracted, speed, run a stop sign or red light, make a sudden lane change too close to other vehicles, try to make it across the lanes before the cars that are coming, or some other unsafe move.
Changing the way we talk about and write about these incidents is important, Anaya implies in her statement. It’s “just one small, but significant, part” of a comprehensive approach by the governor’s Executive Leadership Team on Highway Safety. Changing the state’s “highway safety culture” could result in reduced fatalities and injuries on Virginia’s roads.
“Nothing we do is worth endangering ourselves and the motoring public,” he said. Avoid phrases like hard-runner and use terms like a good, safe driver.
It should be reiterated to drivers that they have the final say in safety, he added.
Falldin said safety and compliance can be established using culture, teamwork, training, and technology. He said a disproportionate number of accidents occur within a driver’s first six months with a carrier, no matter if they are experienced or not.
It is advantageous to bring them into your safety culture as soon as possible, else they will continue with their previous company’s culture.
Safety and operations departments’ actions must match their words, and everyone must be on the same page, Falldin said.
This year’s World Patient Safety Day was yesterday commemorated in Accra with a call on health service providers to offer quality service to patients.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Mr Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, who launched the event, said medical negligence posed a threat to healthcare delivery since any such negative attitude could lead to prosecutions and payment of fines.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that patients are taking more interest in defining and ensuring adherence to standards of care that they wish to receive from service providers.
“We, therefore, have to continually re-examine our quality and safety culture to respond to the complex needs of today’s patients,” he said.
The event, which was on the theme: “No quality, no coverage: Safe maternal and newborn care now,” was attended by stakeholders within the health sector who deliberated on promoting patients’ safety in the country.
www.tradearabia.com/news/IND_…
Oman’s Port of Salalah recently commemorated the 16th Global Safety Day, the employee safety campaign by reaffirming its safety commitment, ‘We lead with care,’ which is at the core of its operations.
Strategically located on the trade crossroads between Asia and Europe, and serving the markets of East Africa, the Red Sea, the Indian Subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf – the Port of Salalah is operated by APM Terminals as part of the APM Terminals global terminal network. The port operates both a container terminal and a general cargo terminal.
As part of the annual international awareness-raising campaign across the APM Terminals network, Port of Salalah joined other operating ports to mark this drive towards employee safety for the 16th consecutive year.
“Safety is a joint effort and is part of how employees and other stakeholders could work together to build an inclusive and collaborative safety culture across the port’s various business units. With this as a focus, Port of Salalah engaged its employees through presentations, workshops, and activities to listen, learn and respond to its people’s needs and create a safer working environment for all,” Port of Salalah said in a statement.
DETROIT (AP) — The new chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board wants governments and businesses to change the way they look at highway safety, considering the whole system rather than individual driver behavior.
Jennifer Homendy, nominated by President Joe Biden earlier this year, said such an approach works in aviation, where there were no U.S. fatalities last year. On the roads, there were 38,680 deaths nationwide, the greatest number since 2007. More than 8,700 motor vehicle deaths were reported in the first three months of 2021, up 10.5% from a year earlier. At the same time, vehicle miles traveled declined.
“The current approach, which favors automobiles and punishes only drivers for crashes, is clearly not working,” she said Monday in remarks prepared for a speech to the Governors Highway Safety Association conference in Denver. “If we are going to get to zero, we will have to do something different.”
Homendy used speeding as an example of the “Safe System Approach” to road safety. Rather than focusing solely on drivers, she questioned whether the whole system failed. She asked whether road designs encourage high speeds, or whether “ill-conceived” federal guidance has led to increasing speed limits in states. She also asked about states that take away the ability of local authorities to set lower speed limits and “manufacturers who design vehicles that can exceed 100 miles per hour or that have no speed limiters.”
Blue Sky Pastures has gone from strength to strength since winning the Westpac Supreme Award at the Southland Business Excellency Awards two years ago.
After posting losses for consecutive years, the business, previously known as Blue Sky Meats, recorded a 36 per cent growth in net profit before tax to $5 million in 2019.
… Blue Sky Pastures had also experienced significant changes in workplace culture, recording an 85 per cent reduction in injuries over the past three years, O’Donnell said.
“Before 2016, there hadn’t been a particularly good health and safety culture, there wasn’t the reporting or the management. So we put the basics in place. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” he said.