Pandemic Challenges Highlight the Importance of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety … Food Safety Culture on the Farms, in Food Facilities, and at Home
Last but not least, the New Era speaks to the establishment and support of food safety cultures on farms, in food facilities, and at home. The pandemic shined a light on what it truly means to have a food safety culture. It’s about the people who work on farms and in facilities accepting responsibility for producing safe foods and also about keeping those people safe when co-workers are sick. It’s about educating consumers on the best food safety practices when cooking at home, which more people are doing now. Taking responsibility and protecting each other is not just the foundation of a food safety culture; it mirrors one of the primary lessons from COVID-19, that we—government, industry and consumers—must all work together to help keep each other safe.
PSNS & IMF announces new safety management system
BREMERTON, Wash. — Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility formally announced the establishment of a new safety management system in a signing event May 29.
The PSNS & IMF Safety Management System is a result of new Navy requirements for the establishment of a centralized safety program that consolidates the management of the shipyard’s safety culture in one location.
The signing included shipyard leadership and members of the Safety Executive Steering Committee.
“This system provides a foundation for the safety culture that is expected and demanded in our complex work environment,” said Cody Matheson, PSNS & IMF’s deputy director for environment, safety and health.
PSNS & IMF has continually supported the infrastructure for the SMS in the myriad of programs, procedures and processes that already exist throughout the shipyard.
“Other than formally documenting the management of PSNS & IMF’s safety culture in one location, there is nothing new that we have to do as a result of the SMS,” said Matheson.
Cooperative Quest for Safety at LPEA
From her first day of work at La Plata Electric Association last July, Jessica Matlock has made safety a top priority and worked with union leaders to help protect the co-op’s employees.
The new co-op CEO previously worked for two large electric utilities and understood how dangerous the work could be.
“The two last utilities I worked for were very large and, in both cases, we had fatalities during operations and it was due to things that could have been prevented,” Matlock recalls. “Most people think that safety is just the poster board or a sticker, and it’s actually a culture issue. It’s taking care of people. It’s having their back.”
Matlock immediately began making the rounds. She wanted every employee of the Durango, Colorado-based distribution co-op to understand that she saw safety as a personal commitment involving everyone.
Tips to keep teen drivers safe ahead of ’100 Deadliest Days’
“The last decade of crash data shows that teens continue to be over-represented in crashes and summertime marks an increase of fatal crashes for this age group,” said Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Our data analysis has found that for every mile driven, new teen drivers ages 16-17 years old are three times more likely to be involved in a deadly crash compared to adults.”
AAA warns that this year could be even more dangerous for teen drivers with schools closed for in-person instruction, the vast majority of summer jobs canceled and coronavirus restrictions starting to be lifted, resulting in an increased number of teens on the road.
Due to inexperience and reckless nature, teen drivers are more likely to engage in dangerous driving habits than adults, with 72% of teen drivers admitting to participating in at least one dangerous driving behavior over the past month.
According to the new AAA Foundation Traffic Safety Culture Index: 47% of teens admitted to driving more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit on a residential street; 40% drove more than 15 miles per hour over the limit on the freeway; 35% texted while driving; 32% ran a red light, 31% reported aggressive driving; 25% reported drowsy driving; 17% admitted to not wearing a seatbelt.
AAA advises parents to speak with their children about the dangers of reckless, distracted and impaired driving, in addition to leading by example by driving safely themselves and conducting at least 50 hours of supervised driving with their teen.
Aviation psychologists do believe that when a person makes a mistake, especially if that mistake is a violation of procedures, then it is not the first time that they are doing it. Also it is believed that in an organization if one person is doing something without check and balance, then there are very strong chances that other people will also be doing it – indicating a poor safety culture in that organization. The question is: who or what allows the safety culture to get destroyed?
The aircraft data, which is downloaded after the flight has the answer. If the accountable managers of safety and operations do not do their work and do not give proper feedback to correct such pilots then as per human nature the habit patterns will continue to erode. So much so that no one in that organization will be held responsible.
It is immensely important to know that aviation is based on a block-building approach of managerial hierarchy. If any of those managers are not doing their job then the safety culture will immediately collapse and the results will be deadly.
How Chipotle’s past food crises prepared it for the COVID-19 outbreak
Chipotle Mexican Grill is faring relatively well during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has its traumatic food safety scandals from a few years ago in part to thank.
In 2015, the fast-casual burrito chain dealt with an E. coli outbreak, followed by other food safety problems, that decimated its business for a long time; comparable sales fell by one-fifth the following year.
To win back customers, Chipotle changed how it prepared food—practices that inadvertently readied it for the current pandemic. The protocols included washing hands between every task, putting hand sanitizer at the door, and changing air filtration systems, measures prescribed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as local health authorities, for the current crisis.
“We already had a well-being and a food safety culture in place,” Chipotle chief executive Brian Niccol tells Fortune. Chipotle has also added measures to ensure social distancing, among other newer moves.
Build a strong culture: Tips for ‘talking safety’
No one can keep an entire organization safe on his or her own. Collaboration is needed to create a strong safety culture in which everyone looks out for each other.
There’s no magic formula to make someone heed safety advice. But improving the atmosphere around safety conversations can make it easier to give and receive advice in a graceful, constructive way. Here are some ways you can do that:
Retire the ‘safety police.’ The “gotcha” approach is counterproductive, experts say. When workers feel they’re being policed, they find ways to hide their unsafe behaviors, resulting in lost opportunities for improvement. To make a genuine, long-term impact, take a persuasive approach rather than a punitive one.
Speak the worker’s language. Instead of presenting the information in the way that makes the most sense to the speaker, consider how the worker will receive it. Before saying anything, take a moment to think about who is being spoken to and what he or she cares about, and tailor the conversation to speak to those motivations. And remember: Good communication goes both ways. Instead of doing all the talking, listen to what workers have to say – especially any questions or objections they bring up, which can reveal their motivations. Demonstrate care and concern. By far, the greatest reason to give a worker for adopting a safe behavior is concern for his or her well-being, and the best way to avoid the appearance of lecturing is to show concern for that person. Be calm and keep emotions in check to help send the right message. Focus on specifics. To avoid expressing judgment or disapproval and provoking a defensive reaction, limit comments to the precise unsafe behaviors or conditions that were witnessed. Get (and give) permission. If you’re concerned that well-intentioned advice will come off as intrusive, it may help to set the stage for the safety conversation beforehand. Lead by example and encourage others to do the same. Workers tend to do what those around them are doing, so it’s essential to demonstrate safe behaviors in addition to talking about them.
Ep.28 How does coordination work in incident response teams?
EPISODE SUMMARY On this episode of Safety of Work, we discuss how coordination works in incident response teams.
EPISODE NOTES Dave is joined by special guest, Dr. Laura Maguire, a researcher at the Cognitive Systems Engineering Lab at Ohio State University. Her recent research pertains to the topic at hand. Tune in to hear our informative discussion.
Topics:
● Dr. Maguire’s personal relationship to safety.
● Exploring coordinated joint activity in the tech industry.
● The difficulty of doing research in the natural laboratory.
● What Dr. Maguire noticed during her research.
● Why breakdowns in common ground occur.
● Why a phone call can involve effortful cognitive work.
Quotes:
“In cognitive systems engineering, we’re most interested in what are the generalized patterns of cognition and of interpreting the world…”
“Doing research in what we call the ‘natural laboratory’ or trying to examine cognition in the wild, is really, really hard.”
“Tooling is never going to solve all of the problems, right?”
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Newport News Shipbuilding announced it is withdrawing from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program.
Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin made the announcement on her Facebook page.
Boykins said the shipyard chose to withdraw after an employee died on the job last year.
In August 2019, 58-year-old supervisor Tim Ewing was working inside a tank on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier when he fell to his death.
“After careful consideration, and in light of the fatality we experienced last summer, we have made the decision to withdraw from the program at this time,” Boykin said in the post.
“While safety will always remain at the forefront of everything we do, we have work to do to reestablish the safety culture and program our employees deserve.”
The Voluntary Protection Program Star status is the highest seal of approval OSHA gives to a worksite in recognition of its safety programs and practices.
Boykin said the shipyard is already planning for reapplication to the program in 2021, and “actively working to improve our safety culture.”
NTSB Cites Safety Culture Failure In Air Ambulance Crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Tuesday that the Jan. 29, 2019, crash of a Bell 407 air ambulance helicopter in Zaleski, Ohio, was caused by the operator’s “inadequate management of safety.” The helicopter, which was only certified to operate in visual flight conditions, collided with trees in a heavily wooded area after failing to maintain altitude following inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions. All three crew members onboard were killed.
As previously reported by AVweb, the aircraft was operated by Survival Flight Inc. and was en route to pick up a patient from Holzer Meigs hospital in Pomeroy, Ohio. According to the NTSB, a thorough preflight weather evaluation had not been conducted prior to the accident flight. The board found (PDF) that pilots and operations staff at the company routinely failed to comply with preflight risk assessment procedures, noting that noncompliance with those procedures had become “normalized by Survival Flight’s deficient safety culture.” Company employees also reported in post-accident interviews that they encountered pressure from management “to operate flights in challenging conditions and to take flights that other helicopter air ambulance services turned down due to inclement weather.”
“This accident was all but invited by the actions and culture of Survival Flight,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “Unfortunately, we have seen yet another case of how a poor safety culture can lead to tragedy.” The NTSB also cited inadequate FAA oversight of Survival Flight’s risk management program and the FAA’s failure to require helicopter air ambulance operators to have safety management systems as contributing factors in the accident.
Parliament supports jail for bosses on mine deaths
Australia’s toughest mine safety laws passed in Queensland Parliament today with executives facing up to 20 years’ jail if Queensland mine and quarry workers die because of their criminal negligence.
Mines Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said establishing industrial manslaughter as an offence in mines and quarries was another key reform by the Palaszczuk Government to protect the state’s 50,000 mine and quarry workers.
“This offence sends the clear message to employers and senior officers that the safety and health of their workers is paramount,” Dr Lynham said.
“In the past two years we’ve had eight workers die, and a gas explosion in an underground coal mine has put five miners in hospital.
“It’s not acceptable.
“Safety on a mine site is everybody’s responsibility.
“But a safety culture needs to be modelled right from the top and creating the offence of industrial manslaughter is to ensure senior company officers do all they can to create a safe mine site.
Safety of Work Podcast Ep.27 What Makes Teams Effective?
EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, we discuss what elements make an effective team. We define “teams” and explain how research on teams is performed.
EPISODE NOTES We use the paper, Embracing Complexity, to frame our discussion. Tune in to hear our chat about this important issue.
Topics:
The definition of a team. What unit to study when researching teams. Compositional and structural features. Mediating mechanisms. Average member attributes and how they contribute to performance. How diversity affects teams. Fault lines. How to measure a team’s success. The positive effect of innovation.
Quotes:
“A topic that comes up a lot in the research is virtual teams. Who would have guessed that teams meeting over Zoom was going to be a topical and relevant hot-button topic?”
“…The research suggests that functional diversity, as well as individual educational diversity have positive relationships with team performance.”
“There were some studies that said if there is a general climate in the organization around innovation, then the team will display more innovative characteristics and things like that.”
New CSB Accident Prevention Guidance for Executives
The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released a new guidance document entitled, “CSB Best Practice Guidance for Corporate Boards of Directors and Executives in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry for Major Accident Prevention.” The new seven-page document is focused on the importance of the role of boards of directors and executives in ensuring that there are effective safety management systems in place to properly manage risks, with the goal of preventing major accidents and protecting workers, the public, and the environment.
Chairman Dr. Katherine Lemos said, “April 20, 2020, marked 10 years since the catastrophic Macondo/Deepwater Horizon blowout, fire, and explosion. The CSB’s final report determined that a robust process safety program is important to a company’s overall success. Companies operating offshore have the potential for major accidents that threaten the lives of workers and may result in catastrophic environmental damage, as seen in the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon blowout and explosion.”
The guidance document includes the following for boards of directors and executives:
Ensure that a robust safety management system is in place that integrates internal safety requirements with regulatory requirements to control major accident hazards and that identifies, prevents, and mitigates identified process safety deficiencies. Promote a strong process safety culture. Ensure that at least one of the company’s directors has the necessary and relevant education, experience, and training to gather, assess, and communicate important process safety-related information. Develop a process safety policy that is periodically reviewed and revised, as necessary, and is an integral part of the company’s culture, values, and performance standards. Establish a board champion for process safety who initiates discussion at all board meetings and leads process safety oversight and other initiatives on behalf of the board. Communicate process safety policies and their importance, as well as the crucial role of workers in risk identification and management. Establish strong Board visibility, including site visits, presentations, and board-level training initiatives, including health and safety training courses, as well as the creation of company-specific programs with an emphasis on process safety.
Question Of The Month: How Can Flying Clubs Encourage Members To Stay Proficient?
Pilot proficiency relates to all pilots, whether in a club or not. Members of flying clubs, can, however, gain some useful help and guidance if their club really embraces the notion of a structured pilot proficiency program as part of its safety culture.
During the popular AOPA flying clubs workshops (keep an eye out for emails about these events, and also visit the PIC Events page), we ask a True|False question: “All flying clubs have a safety culture?” Most responses are “False”, suggesting that not all clubs have a (formal) safety culture, but the stinger is that such a club definitely does have a safety culture, and it’s not a good one.
Before we dig a bit more into this topic—and present a solution—we need to resolve the common confusion between currency and proficiency.
Western Plant Health Applauds California’s “Farm Safety Culture” as Model for Nation
Western Plant Health (WPH), today applauded California farmers and agricultural businesses for their leadership in meeting the state’s essential need for fresh fruit and produce production while maintaining high public safety standards during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Our farmers are really unsung heroes who long ago built a culture of safety that is now benefiting our state during these difficult times,” said Renee Pinel, President & CEO of WPH. “Without missing a beat, California farmers have kept filling our shopping bags in large part because their health and safety rules were already in place and the norm – not some new requirement arising from an emergency.”
WPH, a trade association representing companies that supply farmers with fertilizers and crop protection products that help grow healthy crops, said that the state’s farm community has served as a national model for how to conduct business without compromising the safety of the food, environment, workers and neighboring communities.
“While most people and industries were caught off guard by the COVID-19 crisis, California farmers were already taking many of the mandated safety precautions as a matter of routine,” Pinel said. “With such strict food handling and pesticide practices already in place, our farmers were able to continue supplying grocery stores and food banks throughout the state and nation.”
She also noted that a decades-long collaboration with federal and state regulators was instrumental in helping build a culture of safety.
“All Californians can be proud of the culture of safety that has been created on the state’s farms,” said Pinel.
Businesses can make or break the first stage of reopening
The seven metrics needed for a Phase 1 opening have been met, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the metrics that public health officials and politicians look at don’t apply exactly the same way to rural small communities and wildly dense metropolises alike. That’s one reason that the businesses that are permitted to reopen are responsible for creating their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) in order to keep their employees safe and ensure that the pandemic remains manageable in our region. Those procedures will need to include not just continued testing, but also screening in the form of questions each employee will have to answer, such as “Do you feel well?” and “Have you been exposed to anyone who has tested positive for Coronavirus?”
Two people, one in safety vest and helmet, speak in a room.Author Samantha Lushtak, right, is an environmental health and safety specialist. Photo provided. It will be up to business owners to implement a safety culture that ensures safety, compliance, and honesty among their workforce. Business owners who aren’t used to being safety specialists will have to take on that role to some extent, as they incorporate public health direction into their own plans to successfully reopen.
Business owners will have to create a safety culture in which employees will be comfortable answering the screening questionnaires suggested by Public Health Director Frank Kruppa truthfully. Employers will need to quickly create or adjust their safety cultures so that employees will not be afraid to answer in the affirmative about a potential COVID contact or be nervous about lost wages, missing out on a promotion, or some other career or income damaging prospect should they be turned away at the door.
Jobless pilots swapping wings for railway tracks
Its managing director, Peter Lensink, said he was pleased to be able to offer employment to pilots, whose skills were ideal for driving trains.
“I really feel for the pilots who are in this position and I’m really pleased we have an alternative and hope they will adapt to driving a train on a piece of metal instead of flying free up in the air,” he said.
“We only hire highly skilled people and airline pilots have got similarities to the skills and competencies required as a train driver.”
Lensink said both the airline and rail sectors have a strong safety culture and required specific skills including concentration.
Experts seek thorough study on water bodies near LG Polymers
As per Greater Vizag Municipal Corporation (GVMC) officials, water samples will be collected from these water bodies and sent to laboratories to test. the reslts are expected back by Monday. However, experts wanted APPCB staff to do the tests as they have better testing facilities.
Toxic chemicals released from the LG Polymers may also make their way to the sea, causing marine pollution and loss of marine life. “Here is an opportunity for researchers to generate information from this accident. But there is no such effort. It is due to the total absence of a safety culture in this country,” said Dr Babu Rao Kalapala, a former scientist from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT).
He said the accident on Friday was preventable. ‘The styrene accident was a failure to inspect and enforce safety on the part of the government authorities and sheer negligence and incompetence on the part of LG Polymers. No amount of financial compensation can exonerate those responsible for the crime.”
“Despite the opacity at the government level, it is evident that a failure to properly manage storage of styrene led to this accident. It is well known that styrene has a tendency to self polymerise at temperatures above 20 degrees C. There are storage standards in Europe and other countries that must be adhered to. There is none in India. Companies have to follow the standards in their own interest but in this case LG Polymers failed,” he added.
West Australia: McGowan Government to hold urgent Farm Safety Summit … As stated by Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston:
“The Agriculture industry is 10 times more dangerous than the mining industry, so we need Western Australian farmers to address their safety culture.
“The high cost of workers’ compensation in the Agricultural sector demonstrates their safety culture is inadequate.
“Not only are farm workers and their family subject to working on dangerous farm sites, it’s also costing the industry excessive amounts of money.
“It’s time for the farming industry to improve their culture, this will save lives and money.
“I look forward to meeting with the farming groups to discuss how we can improve safety on site.”
Ep.26 Is good safety leadership just good leadership?
We use the following papers to frame our discussion: Development and Test of a Model Linking Safety Specific Transformational Leadership and Occupational Safety and Contrasting the Nature and Effects of Environmentally Specific and General Transformational Leadership.
Topics: How leadership is studied. The two-part study conducted in Development and Test. Are environmentally specific and general transformational leadership two different things? How the study in Contrasting the Nature and Effects was conducted. Safety leadership vs. leadership/ Why good leadership leads to good safety practices.
Quotes: “How much do these things vary and how much do our explanations for these things explain why they vary? And the answer is, they don’t.”
“Don’t start measuring and tinkering with the statistical relationships between things until you’ve actually pinned down what those things are.”
“I strongly believe that we can’t easily change the values that people hold.”
Embry-Riddle Plans Lower-Density Operations for Summer B and Fall 2020
Following careful preparations, and in compliance with state and local guidance, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has launched a three-phase “crawl, walk, run” reopening strategy. Our goal is to resume lower-density operations on both of our residential campuses in time for the Summer B term on June 30 and the fall semester on Aug. 24.
Embry-Riddle’s Summer B plan – including face-to-face, low-density learning environments as well as students in our residence halls – will be confirmed on May 15. Please plan accordingly. Our planned, safety-focused, step-wise approach and new health precautions will allow us to safely navigate our return to delivering on our mission – education. With each step forward, we will be guided by Embry-Riddle’s safety culture and our ability to rapidly engineer and implement solutions when confronted by unforeseen emergencies.
Our safety culture, which requires each of us to proactively voice concerns – without fear of negative repercussions – has allowed us to jump many high hurdles this spring. Physical distancing principles are being applied through smart pathways, barriers and lower-density solutions for residence halls, classrooms, workspaces and more. Daily wellness checks and advanced cleaning protocols are now the norm. Supervisors will soon be reaching out to employees with information on work options and expectations. Every member of our community is taking personal responsibility for their safety by wearing cloth (non-surgical) face coverings and other personal protective equipment.
Kindness – Building a better chemistry culture
Chemistry World and the Inclusion and Diversity team at the Royal Society of Chemistry are proud to offer the first of a monthly webinar series to support the chemical sciences community in response to and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
Throughout the Building a better chemistry culture series, we will illuminate the science behind the issues being experienced and provide support tailored to the needs of chemical scientists including sharing coping strategies and reducing stigma around mental health and wellbeing.
The very first webinar will take place during Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW, 18-24 May) and will highlight the MHAW theme of kindness. We will explore how to build a better chemistry culture through the incredible impact of kindness, and examine examples from the chemical sciences.
Our speakers Sarah Bond (expert on inclusion and diversity), David Hamilton (expert on kindness) and Zoë Ayres (R&D chemical scientist) will discuss:
The importance of kindness and how it can be applied to individuals, teams and the wider community The science of kindness and its impact on health Self-kindness and the importance of focusing on caring for one’s own mental health Learnings from examples of kindness in response to COVID-19 to build a better chemistry culture
By building skills to support your lab members, you lay the foundation for success
‘The most challenging thing is the management,’ says chemist Josep Cornella, who has been leading a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research in Germany since 2017. ‘I was good in the fumehood, but then they take you out of that, put you in an office and give you eight people to manage.’
While there are other challenges associated with heading up a lab – including attracting funding and preparing lectures – managing a research team is arguably one of the bigger ones. In a recent Wellcome Trust survey of more than 4000 scientists, 80% said they had the skills to manage a diverse team. But of the people being managed, only 11% had been asked for feedback by their supervisor. They also reported experiencing few of the behaviours associated with effective management, like noting achievements, discussing career aspirations and providing support with personal issues.
How to build a forklift safety culture
IF YOU ASK THEM, most forklift operators, fleet managers, and warehouse workers will say that safety is their number-one priority. They’ll probably also say that they continually think about safety while they’re at work. More often than not, though, such assertions are closer to aspiration than reality.
Yet it is possible to develop an environment where every employee and contractor actually does consider safety to be his or her responsibility and does think about it throughout the workday. That describes a “safety culture,” which Don Buckman, Hyster Co.’s environmental health and safety manager, defines as “a set of beliefs, attitudes, and actions consistently adopted by everyone in the organization to make the right decisions that value safety.”
The word “everyone” is key: A successful safety culture requires each individual to value and prioritize safety, regardless of his or her position on the organization chart. “We want every person who comes to work, including not just forklift drivers but also office staff, to have a ‘zero injury mindset,’” says Ed Johannesen, director of manufacturing for UniCarriers Americas (UCA).
This commentary describes the construction of the 2019 ACS Exam for Chemical Health and Safety. A particular and unique challenge in this process was the lack of a standardized curriculum in chemical health and safety instruction in the United States.