Registration open for Inaugural Campus Safety Summit
The Campus Safety Culture Steering Committee at Northern Arizona University is hosting the inaugural Campus Safety Summit in a virtual format beginning at 8:15 a.m. on Feb. 18. The event will share information on NAU’s efforts to build a stronger safety culture, help all members of the campus community understand their role in safety and inform about the many opportunities to participate in active safety programming.
The morning webinar session, open to all NAU community members, will begin with remarks from President Rita Cheng followed by a brief explanation of NAU’s Campus Safety Culture initiative. Heather Nash, director of Employee Assistance and Wellness, will close the session with a presentation on the importance of sleep quality and how that impacts wellness and relates to safety.
The afternoon session of the event switches to project-specific workshops. Participants will receive Zoom meeting invitations to cover topics such as tracking purchases and chemical e-inventories, job safety roles and responsibilities, stakeholder communication and promoting stewardship through sustainable lab practices.
Registration open for Inaugural Campus Safety Summit
The Campus Safety Culture Steering Committee at Northern Arizona University is hosting the inaugural Campus Safety Summit in a virtual format beginning at 8:15 a.m. on Feb. 18. The event will share information on NAU’s efforts to build a stronger safety culture, help all members of the campus community understand their role in safety and inform about the many opportunities to participate in active safety programming.
The morning webinar session, open to all NAU community members, will begin with remarks from President Rita Cheng followed by a brief explanation of NAU’s Campus Safety Culture initiative. Heather Nash, director of Employee Assistance and Wellness, will close the session with a presentation on the importance of sleep quality and how that impacts wellness and relates to safety.
The afternoon session of the event switches to project-specific workshops. Participants will receive Zoom meeting invitations to cover topics such as tracking purchases and chemical e-inventories, job safety roles and responsibilities, stakeholder communication and promoting stewardship through sustainable lab practices.
[Metro employees fear retaliation when reporting safety concerns, commission says] (wtop.com/tracking-…]
Some Metro employees fear retaliation for reporting safety concerns, according to the independent commission responsible for overseeing safety practices on Metro.
During a meeting Tuesday, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission said that the rail agency still has a lot of work to do to improve its safety culture.
“What can we do about the fear of retaliation?” asked Chris Hart, chairman of the commission. “Has it been remedied or is it still a problem out there?”
The question came as the commission discussed a report detailing one incident from September when a crew conducted maintenance on the platform edge lights at the Tysons Corner station while the track was still energized, “putting the work crew at risk.”
“They felt that there was no potential for the workers to contact the third rail,” according to the report. “This is not accurate.”
Lawsuit alleges negligence in fatal medical helicopter crash
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed against an air ambulance company over a medical helicopter crash in snowy weather that killed the three central Ohioans on board.
The suit alleges Survival Flight and operator Viking Aviation inappropriately and recklessly accepted a flight request from an emergency care facility in Pomeroy in January 2019 despite deteriorating weather conditions.
The case was filed this week in Franklin County by the estate of Rachel Cunningham, a 33-year-old flight nurse from Galloway. Pilot Jennifer Topper, 34, of Sunbury, and another medical crew member, 48-year-old Bradley Haynes, of London, also died.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Survival Flight’s lax safety culture led the pilot to depart from Grove City without a thorough pre-flight weather evaluation. The helicopter crashed in rugged terrain near Zaleski, southeast of Columbus.
Survival Flight has said it learned from the tragedy and made changes recommended by the NTSB. In a statement in response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson didn’t specifically address the legal claims but said the company prioritizes safety and continues to improve.
Focus Forward: 3 Tips to Foster Trust, Transparency and Quality
Acknowledge the shift in expectations of businesses So much happened this year that made businesses take a hard look at their priorities and operating assumptions. We’ve seen so many companies step up in a big way. From making Net Zero commitments, to reinforcing a safety culture, to setting new diversity & inclusion goals, to extending new workforce benefits and flexible working arrangements—whether it falls under the ‘E’ the ‘S’ or the ‘G,’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have really come into focus. As a next step, companies should think about how best to make commitments, measure these impactful non-financial changes, and where and how to effectively communicate what they’ve done on a go-forward basis.
Focus Forward: 3 Tips to Foster Trust, Transparency and Quality … Acknowledge the shift in expectations of businesses So much happened this year that made businesses take a hard look at their priorities and operating assumptions. We’ve seen so many companies step up in a big way. From making Net Zero commitments, to reinforcing a safety culture, to setting new diversity & inclusion goals, to extending new workforce benefits and flexible working arrangements—whether it falls under the ‘E’ the ‘S’ or the ‘G,’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have really come into focus. As a next step, companies should think about how best to make commitments, measure these impactful non-financial changes, and where and how to effectively communicate what they’ve done on a go-forward basis.
Metro safety culture still needs work, board says
Metro’s safety culture came under scrutiny Tuesday as investigators disclosed that track workers were left vulnerable to train traffic or electric shock and other employees feared reprisal for raising concerns about safety. The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, an independent panel Congress created three years ago to monitor safety at the transit agency, issued findings at its meeting from three investigations conducted last fall. The probes emphasized Metro’s need to create, update and reinforce safety standards — something the agency has pledged after the release of a September audit that included 21 safety failures or concerns within its Rail Operations Control Center. The commission’s audit included several safety concerns that have gone unresolved for years, but also noted cultural issues that investigators say created an atmosphere of racial and sexual harassment, willful ignorance of safety protocols, and low morale that has contributed to an understaffed control center.
DPR Warns Against Illegal Sales Of LPG In Delta tribuneonlineng.com/dpr-warns… … Auwalu urged the stakeholders to develop dynamic safety culture in order to carry out their operations safely noting that safety could be achieved through compliance to the rules and regulations of the regulatory agency.
“Compliance to the rules and regulations will promote safe operations and also maximise your profit. Safety culture cannot be bought, you craft it your self.
“DPR is committed to engaging all stakeholders to promote safety culture and continue to comply with the petroleum laws, regulations and guidelines in the Oil and Gas Industry,” Auwalu said. …
Ep. 63 How subjective is technical risk assessment?
As risk assessment is such a central topic in the world of safety science, we thought we would dedicate another episode to discussing a facet of this subject. We loop back to risk matrices and determine how to score risks.
Join us as we try to determine the subjectivity of risk assessment and the pitfalls of such an endeavor.
Topics:
Risk matrices. Why the paper we reference is a trustworthy source. Scoring risks. How objective are we? How to interpret risk scores. What the risk-rating is dependent upon. Practical takeaways.
Quotes:
“The difference between an enumeration and a quantitative value is that enumeration has an order attached to it. So it let’s us say that ‘this thing is more than that thing.’ “
“I think this was a good way of seeing whether the differences or alignment happened in familiar activities or unfamiliar activities. Because then you can sort of get an idea into the process, as well as the shared knowledge of the group…”
“So, what we see is, if you stick to a single organization and eliminate the outliers, you’ve still got a wide spread of scores on every project.”
“We’re already trying pretty hard and if we’re still not converging on a common answer, then I think we need to rethink the original assumption that there is a common answer that can be found…”
Driving in India is a real-life video game
NEW DELHI: For Sunitha Dugar and her four companions who are part of a national “Safe Speed Challenge”, driving on Indian roads is nothing less than “playing a video game” in real life and one doesn’t know who will come from where on to the road. “When you are driving on the road, you should be prepared for surprises. So, it’s your responsibility to save yourself and save others. It’s actually a real video game on the road risking many lives,” said Sunita, an entrepreneur from Chennai. The five women from different walks of life are participating in the challenge that was flagged off by defence minister Rajnath Singh and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari from Wagah to Kanyakumari. Several factors, including poor infrastructure, unsafe driving, inadequate enforcement and trauma care have made Indian roads unsafe claiming 415 lives daily. Speaking to TOI, Neha Dua from Noida said, “We lack safety culture. More than speeding, speed management is the biggest challenge. You hardly find signage and road markings to help drivers”.
CCDI criticizes formalism, corruption in hotel collapse, chemical plant explosion
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) criticized some government bodies and individual officials for engaging in formalism, bureaucracy, malpractice and corruption while disclosing details of the investigation into the collapse of a hotel used as a COVID-19 quarantine center in East China’s Fujian Province last year and the explosion at a chemical plant in East China’s Jiangsu Province in 2019.
Investigation details revealed in a TV series broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) since Thursday exposed the problems in relevant organs in the collapse of an illegally constructed building used as a COVID-19 quarantine center in Quanzhou, East China’s Fujian Province on March 7, 2020, which caused 29 deaths, and the deadly explosion that struck a chemical plant in Xiangshui county, Jiangsu Province on March 21, 2019, which killed 78.
These problems show that official malpractice could inflict damages to people’s lives, health and property safety, and corruption is the biggest source of pollution in the political ecosystem, the CCDI pointed out.
According to the CCDI, former official Liu Deli from the fire department of Quanzhou failed to fulfill his responsibilities, abandoned his supervision responsibility for his own personal interests and connived in the illegal reconstruction of the hotel.
Health and hygiene protocols guide produced for travel firms
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has partnered with the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) to produce guidelines for integrating health and hygiene protocols into company culture at travel firms.
The From protocols to a safety culture guidelines follow on from the health and safety protocols WTTC released in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and are intended to help travel companies build consumer confidence around their health and hygiene practices, so that they will feel comfortable travelling once lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Covid-19 hygiene measures
Maintaining confidence in your workplace cleaning during coronavirus
Talking toolkits: unpicking Covid-19 return-to-work advice
The guidance looks at common health and hygiene pitfalls, provides a “toolkit” for managers – including sections on infection control and Covid-19 risk assessments – and offers specific advice for managers in customer-facing roles, including handling those who deliberately flout restrictions and controls.
Ep.62 What are the benefits of job safety analysis?
EPISODE NOTES
It’s difficult to give an introduction to this topic, given that a JSA is such an amorphous topic. Generally speaking, we’re talking about job or task-hazard analysis; the idea behind task-hazard analysis is that you break the task down into steps and figure out what controls are necessary to keep the task safe.
Tune in to hear us clarify the idea of and benefits from job safety analysis.
Topics:
The lack of standard terminology. Why some claims from JSA’s are implausible. The structure of the study covered in the paper. Why the analysis in the study is more of a comparison. The overconfident optimism of the researchers. How JSA’s clarify worker’s duties. Who makes the decisions. Hazard awareness. Loss prevention. Practical takeaways.
Department of Labor Awards Delta Air Lines Whistleblower $500,000 in Compensatory Damages
On December 21, 2020, a Department of Labor (DOL) Administrative Law Judge awarded a whistleblower $500,000 in compensatory damages and found that Delta Air Lines (Delta) violated the whistleblower protection provision of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR 21).
Karlene Petitt is currently employed as a First Officer for Delta. In March of 2011, Petitt “complained about Captain Thomas Albain’s simulator training.” Years later, in January of 2016, Petitt met with two Captains and provided Delta “with a 43-page written safety report entitled ‘Assessment of Delta Air Lines ‘Flight Operations’ Safety Culture,’” according to the decision. A different Captain presented Petitt with a March 17, 2016 letter that “advised her that she was removed from service…based on alleged concerns regarding [Petitt’s] mental health and whether she still met the standards required for a First Class Medical Certificate.”
Boeing Names First Chief Aerospace Safety Officer
Boeing continues to reorganize its safety infrastructure, announcing on Wednesday that it has appointed Michael Delaney to the newly created role of chief aerospace safety officer. In his new position, Delaney will lead development of the company’s Global Aviation Safety program. He previously served as Boeing’s vice president of Commercial Airplanes Digital Transformation and led the Confident Travel Initiative.
“There is nothing more important to Boeing than the safety of our employees, products and services, and over the past year we’ve taken a series of actions to improve our safety practices and enhance our safety culture, including the establishment of our enterprise Safety Management System (SMS),” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a message to employees. “Building on these efforts, today we will continue to strengthen our safety infrastructure by naming Mike Delaney as Boeing’s chief aerospace safety officer.”
Boeing’s Global Aviation Safety program includes the company’s Product and Services Safety (P&SS) organization, which was formed in 2019 as part of Boeing’s response to the fatal accidents of two 737 MAX aircraft, Aerospace Safety Analytics and Global Aviation Safety System. The Confident Travel Initiative, a program created last May to address air travel health risks during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, also falls under the Global Aviation Safety umbrella. Delaney will step into his new role immediately.
Communication, training keys to good farm safety
Employers must set a good example of safety culture for their employees
Good farm safety standards are based on communication, training and by setting a good example, according to a panel of experts who spoke during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Virtual Convention.
“From a safety culture standpoint, communications, training and leading by example are critical parts of it,” said Jess McCluer, vice president of safety and regulatory affairs at the National Grain and Feed Association.
Megan Goodspeed, research assistant for the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, said employers need to set a good example for their workers, but also reinforce best practices.
The country that faltered after the coronavirus first broke out in Wuhan has now successfully tamped down the virus and they don’t want to let it spread again. China mandates all incoming travellers go into a strict two-week quarantine. Those arriving from European countries, which many in China perceive as unwilling or unable to control the outbreak, are particularly suspect.
In Sweden, where I spent the summer months, only the neurotic seemed to worry about Covid-19. Only once did I see a group of medical workers screening people at a shopping centre. It was for head lice.
Ep.61 Is Swiss cheese helpful for understanding accident causation? safetyofwork.com/episodes/…
EPISODE NOTES
The article we reference provides a historical account of the “Swiss Cheese Model”. Since there are many versions of this same diagram, we thought it best to look back through time and see the evolution of this particular safety model.
Topics:
Why the model represents the presence of folklore in safety. The methods used in Good and Bad Reasons. The cognitive processes that lead to errors. Whether the model represents accident causation appropriately. A defense of the model.
Quotes:
“He’s just trying to understand this broad range of errors and sort of work with the assumption that there must be different cognitive processes.”
“It was initially, sort of, only published once in a medical journal as an oversimplification of his own diagram.”
“The other critique is that the model lacks guidance.”
“ ‘I never intended to produce a scientific model’ is the worst excuse possible that an academic can give in defense of their own model.”
Trans Mountain project remains on safety stand down www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/tran…
In addition to an Oct. 27 death in Edmonton and a Dec. 15 serious injury in Burnaby, there have been 91 confirmed cases of COVID-19 along the construction route, with 12 of those cases being active as of Dec. 28.
… “Over the past two months, we have seen safety incidents at our worksites that are unacceptable to Trans Mountain. This is inconsistent with Trans Mountain’s proud safety culture,” Anderson said at the time. He did not specify which safety incidents he was referencing.
A proactive safety tool, AFCMRS helps commanders assess the safety climate of their units through anonymously surveying member’s attitudes and perceptions. These surveys can be conducted at any echelon in the Air Force and Space Force from the squadron to the major command or field command.
“The AFCRMS survey helps leaders find hidden safety risks, inform mitigations, monitor changes, or affirm a safe culture,” said Col. Geoffrey Ewing, chief of the Human Factors Division and a physician of aerospace and occupational medicine. “Airman and Guardians want to be safe, compliant and productive by nature. A safe working environment for them directly results in increased productivity and trust in leadership.”
The AFCMRS program hails from a solid history beginning in 2007. In the last five years, 4,724 total unit surveys were completed consisting of 289,929 individual participants. There were 28,854 aircrew members; 55,064 maintainers; and 88,922 other support personnel accounting for the majority of the career fields surveyed.
Blue Diamond Reaches 5 Million Hours Without Lost Time Incident
The company held a socially distant celebration as they marked the safety milestone. Company leaders attest to the culture as well as strong training programs focusing on the well-being of workers. President and CEO Mark Jansen remarked in a recent press release that the facility’s workforce is dedicated to personal responsibility and continuous improvement and that “safety is a year-round priority.”
The company adds that safety programs at Salida include grassroots efforts like “Safety Culture Teams” and says 90% of team members have achieved OSHA 10-hour training. Salida achieved the safety benchmark even amidst an expansion that added a warehouse allowing for 50 million pounds of additional almond storage capacity. Jansen says the milestone represents the company’s “commitment to a Zero Harm culture.”
Ep.60 How does Safety II reimagine the role of a safety professional?
Topics:
Defining a safety professional and other key terms. Two modes of safety: Centralized control and guided adaptability. Thematic analysis of different safety theories. The peer-review response to David’s paper. Understanding which resources people draw upon. Listening to technical specialists beyond the front line. Improving operational scenarios. Facilitating learning. Practical takeaways. What we’d love to hear from our listeners.
Quotes:
“Centralized control is the big, main idea that pervades, I suppose, our current and traditional… approach to safety, which is about trying to reduce the variability of work…”
“We’ve got all of these people complaining that Safety II doesn’t give you any sort of practical implementation. So you…submit a draft of this paper and the immediate response is ‘Oh, this isn’t offering anything new’, when it was answering the exact thing that people are constantly complaining about.”
“And then secondly…to understand the issues and uncertainties being grappled with by technical specialists. And try to look for where the organization might be discounting emerging information.”
Implementing a sustainable process safety culture
For Eastman Chemical Co., a “zero-incident mindset” is essential to safe, reliable and quality production.
In their book, “Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life,” Jason Riley and Patrick Van Horne describe the importance of identifying potential issues – also known as “bangs” – early to prevent bad things from happening. While they talk about prevention from combat perspectives, Eastman team members talk about prevention from business and operations perspectives, where the “bangs” can be explosions, fires, releases, injuries or worse – the process safety world.
Getting “left of bang” means moving from a reactive mode to become relentlessly proactive. Moving a business from “fix” – reacting post-incident – to “prevent” requires more than awareness and better tools, processes or technologies. It requires purposeful, informed behaviors. It’s a culture change. This article describes Eastman’s journey toward an improved process safety culture.
Apple reportedly took years to drop a supplier that used underage labor
In 2013, Apple found that one of its suppliers, Suyin Electronics, a firm that made HDMI and USB ports for the company’s MacBook lineup, had employed underage workers. The manufacturer promised to clean up its act, but a follow-up investigation by Apple found three more underage workers, including one 14-year-old, on Suyin’s assembly lines. While Apple didn’t give Suyin new work in the aftermath of its findings, it continued to work with the firm due to some existing contracts, and it took the better part of three years before it finally cut ties.
In the other example, Apple conducted an investigation into Biel Crystal, a company that makes glass screens for the iPhone. After Apple found that “the environmental, health and safety culture in Biel is weak among all levels of management,” it called for more than two dozen corrective measures. However, one year after the investigation, Biel had yet to implement many of the improvements Apple ordered, and the two continued to work with one another partly because removing Biel from its supply chain would have left
Cornerstone of patient safety and infection control at hospitals
The role of patient safety and infection control: According to the World Health Organization, patient safety practices aim to prevent and reduce risks, errors & harm that occur to patients during provision of healthcare. A cornerstone of the discipline is continuous improvement based on learning from errors and adverse events. Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health services. Infection control is a byproduct of a patient safety culture. It is responsible for administering and promoting best practices to ensure the safety of our patients/ residents, visitors, and staff.