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The 55th annual Louis Schwitzer Award was presented Friday, May 21 to Terry Trammell, M.D., for his work on biomedical engineering for INDYCAR driver safety. Trammell’s numerous contributions have advanced motorsports safety and prevented driver injuries. Utilizing a data-driven approach, engineering principles and medical expertise, his efforts have been recognized across multiple motorsports safety organizations throughout the world. “We are proud to once again sponsor the Louis Schwitzer Award – a program that goes beyond honoring the racers behind the wheels and instead highlights the innovation and engineering excellence behind the scenes of this world-class motorsport event,” said Frédéric Lissalde, president and CEO, BorgWarner Inc. “Just like INDYCAR, BorgWarner is committed to maintaining and continuously improving our safety culture, and Dr. Trammell has made some impressive strides in optimizing the vehicle safety for these drivers.” In addition to Trammell’s renowned orthopedic abilities, his undergraduate degree is in chemical engineering with a specialization in biomedical engineering. From the early 1990s he has worked to develop definitive data from racing crashes using the latest technology. From the earliest accident data recorders to later units like the new ADR4, Trammell has been integral to their development. The resulting G-force database has been used to continuously develop improved race car materials and design.
The Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) has released a 2020 report of safety culture assessment results; Watco has acquired the Geaux Geaux Railroad in Louisiana from Amzak Capital Management.
Among the key takeaways from the SLSI analysis of short line safety culture assessments in 2020: Railroad leadership’s commitment to demonstrating that business objectives are not prioritized over safety has been the No. 1 safety culture strength since 2017; hazardous materials exercises and training continues to be an expressed opportunity area for railroads; and housekeeping, including the proper storage of tools and materials as well as potential OSHA-related issues, is a less prevalent gap/opportunity in 2020 than in previous years.
The report will be used “to create a roadmap for the SLSI in the upcoming year,” Executive Director Tom Murta said. It will help prioritize the development of new programs, resources and tools to address industry needs.
www.vanguardngr.com/2021/05/k…
The Kaduna State Government has reassured its commitment to entrenching sustainable road safety culture for the welfare and wellbeing of road users. The Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Hajiya Balaraba Aliyu, gave the assurance at a joint press conference to commemorate the 2021 United Nations 6th Global Road Safety Week, on Wednesday in Kaduna. Aliyu said the state government had approved the establishment of Kaduna State Advisory Council to serve as a policy-making body on road safety matters in the state. She maintained that the state has always been at the forefront of promoting road safety, and had established the Kaduna State Traffic and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTLEA) for efficient enforcement of road traffic law.
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The energy-absorbing Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) Barrier has been protecting race car drivers since it was first installed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2002.
The foam used in the barrier is manufactured by Owens Corning, a company based in Toledo, Ohio, known to consumers for roofing, insulation and composite materials – and, of course, The Pink Panther™ in its marketing campaigns. FOAMULAR® is the brand name of the extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam that Owens Corning produces, and it can be found at local home improvement stores like The Home Depot and Menards.
Owens Corning considers itself a silent partner in the sport’s continual drive to maximize safety. Its FOAMULAR® material is used as a shock absorber to dissipate energy on impact. The more energy dissipated, the better chance injuries can be avoided or lessened. It’s a natural extension to the company’s safety culture, for which Owens Corning has been nationally recognized for its continued commitment to improving safety in the workplace and beyond.
John Budinscak, Owens Corning FOAMULAR® product and program leader, appreciates the company’s role in the sport each time the SAFER Barrier is struck.
Owens Corning“There are a lot of safety elements contributing to the SAFER Barrier’s effectiveness, but I’m thankful every day that we can be part of bettering the sport,” he said. “I watch video clips of what I’ll call ‘those instances’ and marvel at its effectiveness.”
The speed at which the industry and awareness of hydrogen are growing today is unprecedented. As of early 2021, over 200 large-scale projects have been announced across the value chain, with a total value exceeding $300bn1, which requires a big step change in the sector. A space that was previously limited to a few key frontrunners, now includes businesses ranging from start-ups and innovative SMEs to large multinationals, and developing a range of applications, such as long-haul trucking, shipping, aviation, steel and chemicals.
As a result, many of us working in the hydrogen industry today come from diverse professions and sectors, with different risk tolerance and levels of safety awareness and expertise. That diversity creates value in many ways, but it also emphasises the importance of fostering a strong safety culture, where all members of staff are aware of the challenges and are proactively working towards the goal of developing the hydrogen industry safely. In the energy and hydrogen business, we know we live with the responsibility to manage risk.
The past year has tested and stressed the food system, putting tremendous pressure on worker safety and supply chain resilience. Despite the challenges, the industry continued to work day in and day out to meet the needs of Americans. “Consumers could still go then and now to their favorite supermarket or online platform and have access to thousands of food SKUs that are available,” said Frank Yiannas, FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response. “We have the people in the food and agriculture sector to thank, and that’s you.”
Last week Yiannas gave his third Food Safety Consortium keynote address as deputy commissioner, reflecting on the past year and recognizing the progress and the work ahead. “I appreciate the larger conversation that the Consortium facilitates on food safety.” The Spring program of the Food Safety Consortium Virtual Conference Series takes place every Thursday in May.
Since the Fall of 2020, FDA has made advances in several areas, all of which take steps to advance the agency’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative. The goals set as part of the New Era aim to help the agency more efficiently and efficiently respond to outbreaks and contamination, and other food safety challenges. The intent is to go beyond creating food safety programs into fostering a culture of food safety and truly bending the curve of foodborne illness, said Yiannas. In September the FDA issued the proposed FSMA rule on food traceability with the intent on laying the groundwork for meaningful harmonization. Nearly 6200 comments were submitted to the docket on the Federal Register, and the agency held three public meetings about the proposed rule in the fall, hosting more than 1800 people virtually. Yiannas anticipates the final rule will be published in early 2022.
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Today, Associated Builders and Contractors announced the findings in its 2021 Safety Performance Report, an annual assessment that furthers the construction industry’s understanding of how to achieve world-class safety by deploying its STEP Safety Management System. Published to coincide with Construction Safety Week, May 3-7, the annual report details the drastic impact of using proactive safety practices to reduce recordable incidents by up to 85%, making the best-performing companies more than six times safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics industry average.
“Leading from a posture of safety and committing to a culture of safety create the conditions for all in the construction industry to complete their work without incident and go home safe and healthy every day,” said Greg Sizemore, ABC vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development. “ABC’s Safety Performance Report creates a roadmap through empirical evidence to keep workers safe on the job, regardless of the size of the company or type of work. Implementing best practices built on the foundations of leading indicators, substance abuse programs, new hire safety orientation, toolbox talks and top management engagement creates a culture that embraces world-class safety.”
In his final letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company will be as obsessed with worker satisfaction as it is with customers.
It is implementing new tools to prevent musculoskeletal disorders, which are one of the leading workplace injuries in the U.S. and affect 1.71 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organization
A combination of training, rotational jobs cycles, robots and wearable devices can help prevent MSDs, according to experts and doctors.
In his final letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos urged a deep dive into musculoskeletal disorders, which account for about 40% of work-related injuries across the company and affect millions of workers globally across sectors. It is often synonymous with jobs in manufacturing and places like warehouses.
Of course, Amazon’s treatment of its employees has become a high-profile issue, from the recent union battle in an Alabama warehouse to conditions for its essential workers during the pandemic. And it has been cited for a high incidence of workplace injuries in recent years, though the company has said in the past that it also reports more workplace incidents than peers due to a more proactive safety culture.
Rue, vice president and a partial owner of JHC, said only slight adjustments had to be made because of the pandemic due to the company’s already-robust health and safety culture. “It’s not the safety program that allows you to survive, it’s the safety culture. The family environment of our company means we’ve always been able to maintain a strong safety culture,” he said. “Our employees understood it was to protect the company, our families and themselves.”
SPOKANE, Wash. - Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs is the next in a string of officials to release a statement in response to the verdict of the Chauvin trial.
Read the full statement below:
“A Hennepin County Jury found former Officer Derek Chauvin guilty of all the murder charges leveled against him in connection with his killing of George Floyd. Many have celebrated this outcome as justice, but so many other families have failed to find justice in our court system under similar circumstances. People of color in our community and across the nation are still afraid that they will unjustly be assaulted or killed by law enforcement for no good reason. I hope that this conviction after the full due process will be at least a small step towards broader community reconciliation.
Spokane community members and their police officers have been walking down the road of attempted reconciliation since the death of Otto Zehm was similarly resolved by a jury verdict against an officer in 2011. Despite good intentions by many, this road of reconciliation has been rocky. Dozens of reforms have been implemented, but there is a tremendous amount of more work to be accomplished until our police are perceived as peace officers by all they serve.
In my opinion, we are still closer to the beginning of the community healing process than the end. But we are farther ahead than we were last year, and together we can move even farther ahead in the coming weeks and months. The progress to date is cold comfort for those who are still living in fear or who have lost loved ones. I commit to keep working to reconcile our entire community and to create a new public safety culture until everyone can fully participate in our community without fear. We all belong in Spokane, and our justice system and its first responders should reflect that principle in every respect.”
Beyond the provision of quality fuel products, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation is also extending value-added services to its customer-partners that include strengthening safety standards and measures on fleet deployments.
Such sharing of safety standards was sounded off in the recently concluded Logistics Summit of Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI), which is the bottling arm of multinational firm Coca-Cola in the country; and one of PSPC’s customer-partners under its Shell Fleet Solutions marketing program.
Shell’s safety culture, which is dubbed BiyaHero (Road Safety) program, is fused into its Shell Fleet Solutions offer to loyal customers, that also integrates fuel discounts, ferry bookings as well as the streamlining of toll payments which are all geared toward achieving efficient and more convenient fleet management.
According to Lily Keh-Camero, manager for health, safety, security and environment of Shell, through the BiyaHero program, “we’re not only providing the best quality fuel products and services, but we also share how we deliver these products in a safe and secure way.”
WSPS CEO: What we learned from surviving a pandemic
As president and CEO of Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS), Lynn Brownell knows a thing or too about the importance of organizational health. … “Here at WSPS, my main contribution centres around connecting people: government and industry; business leaders, communities and partners; our employees, volunteers and customers. There are many moving parts in what we do and many relationships that need to be nurtured. Although protecting people’s physical health and safety is still our top priority, we have moved into spaces such as mental harm prevention, the role of leadership in creating a strong safety culture, and of course, the impact of technology on everything we do.”
As a female CEO, Brownell was quick to offer up advice to the next generation of female talent. For her, it all comes down to being true to your authentic self – the rest will ultimately follow.
Read more: How to improve inclusion in the workplace
“I think anyone could apply the advice I would give,” she told HRD. “We need to encourage people to know themselves and be true to themselves and play to their strengths. We need people to bring what makes them unique individuals to their careers. Leaders need to get out there and speak to diverse groups and let them know that traditional ceilings have no value anymore – we need different viewpoints, skills and experiences. WSPS will be sponsoring the Skills Ontario Young Women’s Conference – for the third year in a row - and I’m delighted to speak to such an enthusiastic group of young people who are interested in careers in the skilled trades and technologies. It’s a different world today and the differences people bring to their professional lives make businesses so much stronger. And much more interesting!”
5 key elements of a mature food safety culture
The differences between a culture that is mature and one that is not can be stark, says Alchemy’s Laura Dunn Nelson
In order for your poultry plant’s food safety culture to be effective, or what Alchemy Vice President of Food Safety Laura Dunn Nelson refers to as mature, focus needs to be placed on five key elements.
Nelson offered her input on how a mature culture can help plants meet continuous food safety improvements while speaking during The Poultry Federation’s Food Safety Conference, held virtually on March 29-31.
HAI issues statement on March 23 NTSB hearing
Helicopter Association International (HAI) appreciates and supports the work of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for their March 23 hearing to ensure the safety of flights for paying passengers in all aircraft.
“At HAI we believe that elevating the safety culture of our VTOL industry is a global imperative,” says James Viola, president and CEO of HAI. “Helicopters are used in a wide variety of missions, including flights with paying passengers. Our industry is committed to improving operational safety for all mission segments.”
HAI supports the requirement for a safety management system (SMS) for any for-hire passenger-carrying operation. Additionally, HAI strongly recommends that all aviation operations, not just those for hire that carry passengers, adopt an SMS program. An SMS provides a ready-made, ongoing process to improve operational safety and is endorsed by aviation regulators and safety organizations around the world as the best way to systematically manage aviation risk.
NBAF UPDATE | Becoming highly reliable in protecting the U.S. … Austin will develop and manage the NBAF training program that will be required for everyone who will work in and around containment — the secure area where the biohazards will be located. In addition to developing NBAF’s biorisk training program, Austin is one of the many individuals who is championing a new NBAF initiative: to become a high reliability organization, or HRO. These organizations have high risk potential but a strong safety culture and an emphasis on planning to prevent major system failures. Some examples of HROs include aircraft carriers, air traffic control, nuclear power plants, fire departments and critical health care facilities.
According to Austin, HROs focus on solving small process failures to prevent large ones. These unique organizations accomplish this by empowering everyone at an institution to stop work and address possible safety concerns before they become a large issue. They also encourage everyone to actively look for areas where there could be failure and determine how best to mitigate. This “focus on failure” as Austin puts it, is designed so that large-scale failure can be prevented.
We are still defining what an HRO will look like at NBAF, but we already know that it is an important part of the safety culture we’re developing. This is one of the many reasons why it is important to use the time before NBAF becomes operational for planning. …
A Safety Services announcement asked: “Did you know that Shriners Hospital also contains UC Davis research labs?” Shriners Hospital for Children-Northern California sits adjacent to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The answer: Yes, Shriners Hospital houses UC Davis research labs. Kiho Cho started the safety committee in early 2019 and it has met regularly since, addressing unique issues that can arise from working in a combination hospital/research area. Cho is a professor of surgery at UC Davis Health and an associate investigator and manager of burn research at the Shriners hospital.
Adrienne Zweifel, associate biosafety officer, and Elizabeth Ingham, School of Medicine safety officer, nominated the committee for the Safety Star award, stating: “Dr. Cho recruited other researchers to create a research safety committee whose mission has been to identify and alleviate confusion surrounding general safety procedures and reporting requirements. This supports a proactive safety culture. The committee members work together to identify and resolve safety concerns.”
Another gold price spike ‘is coming’ - Barrick Gold CEO … Hambro pointed out that capital flows are changing dramatically towards more ESG-compliant companies. “It is not just a function of liquidity, but it’s a fundamental shift in capital markets. This is about investing from a more evolved perspective into companies that are compliant through the ESG lens.”
Being a good steward of the environment is core to the mining companies, Bristow said, noting that there needs to be a standardized format and investors could have access to. “One of the critical issues is trying to get equivalency. To get one version of the truth that is trusted. That is a challenge to the industry. We need to embrace our critics and work with our institutions,” he said. “What we haven’t done a good job of is make it uniform.”
The ESG standardization is like the early days of safety culture and reporting of incidents, Hambro said. “There were lots of metrics that people were using. It took a while to become standardized. But now that it is, the industry has become much safer.”
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Building a food safety culture requires buy-in from everyone
Anyone who has spent a few years working in the food industry, whether you are involved with the production of foods, beverage or ingredients, knows the truth of Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
It is up to the processor’s management team and staff to build the programs necessary to keep Mr. Murphy out of their operation. One of the tools that more and more operations are adopting is what is known as “the food safety culture.” The term may be relatively new, but the philosophy is not. In fact, the philosophy may well go back as far as 1844, when Alexandre Dumas wrote “The Three Musketeers.” In other words:
“All for one and one for all, united we stand, divided we fall.”
In other words, everyone in the operation is working together towards a common goal of food safety. The “food safety culture” verbiage may be relatively recent, but there are food processors that have adopted the philosophy all over the world. As an example, I was in a facility in Southeast Asia once that had developed its own food safety culture. At their morning management meeting, the management staff stood and together recited their food safety philosophy. It turned out that each and every worker in the plant not only knew this philosophy, but were able to explain it and their role in ensuring the production of safe, high quality products; all for one and one for all.
Your Role in Improving EMS Flight Safety
You’re on the scene of a terrible car crash and decide to request a helicopter air ambulance to transport a patient. In the moment, you’re probably not thinking about all the things that occur behind the scenes after you make that request, but helicopter operators are making a lot of important decisions, some of which you—the emergency responder—can influence.
After your call, the operator should assess the risks—such as weather, flight conditions, and which pilot is on duty—to determine if it’s safe to accept the flight. How—and if—those risks are assessed and mitigated can determine whether the medical flight transport leads to success or tragedy.
Let’s look at an accident involving a medical transport flight where the risks were successfully evaluated by two companies, but, unfortunately, not by another.
Arkansas drops COVID-19 directives, erasing months of progress in an instant
It has been a tough year, but the pandemic is much better because of the mask requirements implemented by Gov. Hutchinson in summer 2020. He provided the cover for our schools, municipalities, counties, and businesses to require masks for the safety of all Arkansans. Within hours of the Governor’s mask requirements, my local City Council of Conway passed their own requirement. Real conversations with school administrators about masks started when the Governor acted for the safety of Arkansas students. The Governor set expectations on masks and eventually the state followed.
For some it took longer. My local Conway Police Department only recently stopped posting group photos of officers without masks. They grew to understand their responsibility to lead on masks and set good examples for students wearing them all day, every day. Others in our community learned to wear masks the hard way after there was an outbreak or death in their house of worship, family gathering, school, or workplace. Private business took on the public education and outreach to encourage and eventually require mask use. The mask safety culture protected me personally after a masked worker performed maintenance activities in my home carrying the virus.
Since then, our Conway community has come together to vaccinate educators. On Friday, February 26, all Conway Public Schools staff who wanted the vaccine received their second dose. So many leaders and businesses collaborated to keep our community safe. Other leaders are helping those over 65 navigate the confusing online myChart signup and raising concerns about groups who may not be able to sign up online or get transportation. … All of that hard work is likely erased when Gov. Asa Hutchinson repealed almost all of the COVID-19 safety directives The Governor said, “We will not see a change in behavior.” We are ALREADY seeing a change in behavior. Within hours, some restaurants were back at 100% capacity with pictures on social media. Many are taking this as a signal that the pandemic is over.
Process safety specialist Ming Yang wants industry to design for resilience and incident recovery as well as safe operations cen.acs.org/safety/in…
Ming Yang has lots of experience teaching people about safety from very basic concepts. When he arrived at Nazarbayev University, in Kazakhstan, in 2017, he became the first professor to teach chemical process safety to undergraduate engineering students at the school. Before then, students had been given basic protective equipment such as goggles, but that was about the extent of their health and safety training. When Yang ventured out of the lab to do research in Kazakhstan’s growing petrochemical industry, he realized that process safety was only just emerging there, too, and he found that businesses were initially reluctant to cooperate with him. Yang moved to Delft University of Technology in June 2020 to join a new initiative to improve chemical process safety management. He is developing a software tool to continuously assess system resilience and safety. Through this work and collaborations with industry and government, Yang hopes to get people outside his field to respect safety research as they would any other scientific pursuit.
UP Engineer Earns Top Safety Honor
Union Pacific Locomotive Engineer and TSC (Total Safety Culture) Coordinator Wade Wilde of Ogden, Utah, has received the Class I railroad’s 2020 J.C. Kenefick Safety Award.
The annual award was presented during a virtual ceremony, which UP recently shared on Twitter. Named after former UP Vice Chairman, CEO and President John Kenefick, the award has been the top safety honor for a union employee since 1986. (Kenefick “guided the company into the era deregulation after the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980,” and worked to more than double the railroad’s size through acquisitions and to gain access to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, UP noted on its website.)
Wilde, the 2020 honoree, is a 16-year railroader who works in the Rocky Mountain Service Unit and is actively involved as a leader in the TSC program. A voluntary employee-led initiative, TSC “teaches employees safe behaviors while providing observations and feedback,” according to UP. “TSC directly empowers our union employees to address at-risk behaviors and receives the full backing of senior management.”
Traffic fatality plan up for review
A plan that aims to bring the number of traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero will be up for public review during a virutal town hall next week.
The Maui Metropolitan Planning Organization will present a draft of its Vision Zero Action Plan at 4 p.m. Feb. 25 via Zoom.
Over the past year, the organization has been working with the county and the Healthy Eating Active Living Coalition to engage the community and get feedback on roadway safety concerns and opportunities.
Maui MPO Executive Director Lauren Armstrong said that they analyzed the data and came up with seven Vision Zero priorities from the draft plan: • Eliminate impaired driving. • Create safe speeds. • Eliminate distracted driving. • Create a safety culture. • Build safe streets for everyone. • Institutionalize vision zero. • Improve data to support decisions.
Achieving a safety culture amid a pandemic
Every day, WPAC members and their employees work tirelessly to ensure leading safety practices are implemented and embraced. We know we will be measured by our collective efforts as an industry. Our reputation and the trust of regulators, the general public and the families of our employees depend on this. That we achieved this and more in 2020 was no small feat in the context of a global pandemic.
With the support of our partner, the BC Forest Safety Council (BCFSC), and the commitment of our members from the boardrooms to the plants across Canada, we were able to overcome the challenges of not being able to meet face to face. It meant long, virtual web conferencing, technical glitches and it required at times more patience and perseverance than most have with technology on the best of days.
Boeing Replaces Two More Directors as Part of Its Post-737 MAX Crisis Overhaul
Boeing (NYSE:BA) said late Wednesday that two of its directors are retiring. This is the latest development in the aerospace giant’s response to criticism over its handling of the 737 MAX crisis.
Boeing said that Arthur Collins Jr., a board member since 2007, and Susan Schwab, a director since 2010, would not stand for reelection. Collins is the one-time CEO of Medtronic, while Schwab is a former U.S. trade representative. The company is continuing to overhaul its governance following issues with its 737 MAX, which was grounded for nearly 20 months following a pair of fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 that claimed a total of 346 lives. Post-accident investigations uncovered some embarrassing details about the safety culture at Boeing, eventually leading to the resignation of CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
Another board member, David L. Calhoun, replaced Muilenburg as CEO. Boeing last year replaced two longtime directors with new representatives who have engineering experience, adding former United Technologies exec Akhil Johri and Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf. Including the most recently announced changes, four of the 10 directors have been replaced since the accidents.
Boeing chairman Larry Kellner said that “the board will continue to take steps to identify a pipeline of diverse candidates with appropriate expertise who bring qualified perspectives.”
Boeing still faces blowback from the crisis, including shareholder lawsuits accusing the board of lax oversight. Since the accidents, Boeing has also split the roles of chairman and CEO and added a safety committee to the board.