6 tips for safer crews A safety program is crucial for successful operations.
Keeping crews safe and job sites accident-free are top priorities for every landscape company, but achieving a safety culture that’s front-of-mind with every employee doesn’t just happen on its own.
Building a safety culture takes intention and requires routine safety meetings, standard safety protocols and management and leadership teams that take safety seriously.
To glean tips for establishing a safety-first mentality, Lawn & Landscape spoke with three firms who have won national awards for their safety records – Clarence Davids & Company, with multiple locations serving the Chicago area; Mahoney Associates, in Southampton, New York; and Snow & Sons Tree & Landscaping in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Florida may require hospitals to conduct anonymous patient safety surveys Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would require hospitals to conduct anonymous employee surveys on patient safety culture, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
Every other year, hospitals would have to survey employees on how well their teams work together and communicate, along with whether staff members feel comfortable raising safety concerns with superiors. Survey results would then be shared with the public.
The Florida House of Representatives has previously passed similar proposals, which failed to gain traction in the Senate. However, this week the Senate Health Policy Committee passed the bill in a unanimous vote.
Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, credits the bill’s heightened support to recent patient safety issues that have come to light at hospitals like St. Petersburg-based Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. In November 2018, the Tampa Bay Times published an investigative report on safety and quality issues at the hospital’s heart surgery unit.
“If we were asking clinical staff on a regular basis, ‘How do you feel about the quality of care at this hospital?’ and it’s going to be public, God knows the CEO of that hospital is going to make sure they put eyeballs on that data and that could save somebody’s life,” Mr. Sprowls told Tampa Bay Times.
[Marking the Ocean Ranger tragedy in Newfoundland and Labrador) [www.saltwire.com/news/prov…)
Today marks the 38th anniversary of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger drilling rig off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
A news release from the provincial government says it joins all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in remembering the 84 lives that were tragically lost on this day in 1982.
“Our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends who lost their loved ones as a result of the Ocean Ranger tragedy 38 years ago,” Premier Dwight Ball stated.
“A priority for our government is the health and safety of offshore workers. We want to ensure a strong health and safety culture in our offshore industries and we will continue to make necessary improvements so family and friends can have peace of mind as their loved ones work in our challenging ocean environment.”
The annual Ocean Ranger memorial prayer service was held on Friday at St. Pius X Church in St. John’s, hosted by Gonzaga High School.
EPCOR Utilities Inc. (EPCOR) today filed its annual and fourth quarter results for 2019.
“As we enter 2020 we look back on a decade of growth and transformation for the company,” Mr. Lee continued. “A decade of working to build a proactive, zero-injury safety culture has resulted in a rate of incidents that is now less than half what it was in 2009. Similarly, a diligent focus on operational excellence has resulted in improved reliability, with water main breaks and electricity interruptions in Edmonton cut nearly in half over the last ten years. Our people established and built a major utility business in the United States – first in Arizona and New Mexico, and now expanding further into Texas. In Canada, our footprint extends across four provinces, and our Energy Services team reached one million customer connections served in 2019.”
Proposed bill would increase interstate speed limit
There is a financial cost too. NHTSA estimates that the economic cost of speed-related crashes is more than $52 billion each year. There is data that clearly highlights the negative impact of raising the speed limit. A recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study examined longer-term changes in 41 states. During 1993-2013, a 5 mph increase in the maximum state speed limit was associated with an 8 percent increase in fatality rates on interstates and freeways.
Motorists often drive faster than the speed limit. The AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index found that a large proportion of drivers confess to exceeding posted speed limits with nearly half of drivers (45.6%) saying they have driven 15 mph over the speed limit on a freeway in the past month.
For these reasons, AAA will oppose these legislative proposals. Illinois’ highly congested roads and poor infrastructure coupled with higher speeds will only lead to more crashes and greater danger to the motoring public.
Safe truckies to be rewarded by new Victorian program
“FOR every incident involving a truck, there are dozens of examples of professional heavy vehicle drivers that live and breath safety every second they are behind the wheel and on the job.”
Those are the drivers that a new program for the transport industry that aims to unearth so the safety culture that operators enshrine within their organisations everyday can be promoted and celebrated.
That’s the view of Victorian Transport Association chief executive officer Peter Anderson, who has put his support the VTA Driver Salute program.
The program, launched by Victorian Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC Jaala Pulford, acknowledges and rewards heavy vehicle operators and drivers that demonstrate best-practice safety in the course of their duties.
It is sponsored by leading truck tyre manufacturer and retailer Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres, and is powered by DriveRisk, a driver behaviour management company that uses video technology to help operators and drivers change behaviour and identify risk.
Texas Mutual Insurance grant affords AC to expand safety culture
AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — Amarillo College’s Risk Management Program received a $100,000 check (safety grant) on Tuesday from Texas Mutual Insurance. AC provides safety training for those who work in construction, manufacturing and transportation industries to help reduce work related accidents or injuries.
“Because of the cost which can be an obstacle for small companies to be able to provide this kind of safety, there are opportunities to allow employers to get this safety training for free,” said Jeff Wallick, Environmental Safety Director at Amarillo College. “It’s a big deal and it helps the businesses save money and keeps people safe at work.”
AC is one of ten colleges across the state of Texas to receive this grant this year.
This is the fourth grant AC has received from Texas Mutual for safety training. Since 1999, Texas Mutual has awarded $8.8 million in safety grants to various colleges.
How to: Creating a safety culture
The landscaping field harbors a number of work hazards, and simply saying you’re committed to safety isn’t enough to keep your crews safe day in and day out. You have to walk the walk and have a true safety culture to protect your employees.
“A safety culture is extremely important because our primary responsibility is for every employee to arrive home safely every day,” says Fred Peratt, owner of Environmental Enhancements, based in Sterling, Virginia. “Safety promotes professionalism to our clients, suppliers, subcontractors and employees, which shows we care as an organization.”
Creating a strong safety culture allows you to take the practices covered in your safety program and turn them into a way of life for your employees.
Some of the benefits of having a safety culture include lower insurance premiums, less downtime thanks to fewer injuries, reduced equipment damage, minimized vehicle accidents and pride of ownership with all employees.
Safety EQ: Harness the Power of Emotional Intelligence
The success of any safety professional is not tied solely to the ability to conduct assessments, recite standards and regulations, or the possession of a deep technical knowledge. A successful safety professional must have this knowledge, these abilities and possess effective leadership skills to influence actions and behaviors.
What makes a CEO say yes to a high-dollar safety improvement? What makes a front-line supervisor stop and have an effective safety conversation with an employee? Perhaps most importantly, what makes an employee wear their personal protective equipment (PPE) after the safety supervisor is out of sight?
Safety professionals must possess strong technical knowledge and be skilled in the science of safety. What is missing is learning the art of safety—that skill set that helps us lead, communicate and engage employees. The single most powerful skill a safety professional can have is emotional intelligence (EQ).
Years of Safety Disputes: Inside the Company that Flew Kobe Bryant
Before the tragedy involving Mr. Bryant, Island Express had four crashes since 1985 that damaged or destroyed helicopters, all under the company’s previous management, according to records.
Tensions over the company’s safety culture simmered even after the 2008 crash as the company came under new management several years later, according to people involved in the discussions.
The F.A.A. recorded an additional “incident” in the summer of 2018, when two Island Express helicopters were started up too close to one another, causing significant damage to the blades on both aircraft.
As recently as 2017, Kurt Deetz, a pilot and former safety manager at Island Express, resigned from his safety responsibilities, he said, over “differences of opinion” about how the company’s safety management system should be run.
Food safety culture in Brazilian restaurants
Food safety culture may establish the right environment for adequate food handling and management, reducing violations of food safety regulation, especially those related to foodborne disease outbreaks.
This study aimed to evaluate differences among elements of food safety culture in food services at low or high-risk for foodborne diseases. This study was conducted with 63 managers and 333 food handlers from 32 food services located in the metropolitan region of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The following elements of food safety culture (considering the technical-managerial and human routes) were evaluated: management systems, style, and process; leadership; organizational commitment; food safety climate (communication; self-commitment; management and coworker support; environment support; risk judgment; normative beliefs and work pressure); and risk perceptions. In the technical-managerial route, restaurants were categorized as low- or high foodborne disease risk restaurants.
For the evaluation of food safety management systems, a validated checklist was used. In the human route, food safety climate analysis was performed by evaluating five elements applied exclusively to food handlers. High-risk restaurants presented a higher percentage of violation in most aspects related to food safety regulation and physical structure. Leadership and knowledge of low-risk restaurants’ managers presented a higher level when compared to high-risk restaurants’ managers, showing that in the first group managers acted as mediators of safe practices. Food handlers from low-risk restaurants presented higher scores in food safety knowledge, organizational commitment, and food safety climate when compared to food handlers from high-risk restaurants. In restaurants with lower risk for foodborne diseases, the elements of food safety culture were better evaluated, indicating fewer violations of food safety regulation. In these restaurants, a consistent food safety climate was perceived within the technical-managerial route.
Summit on laboratory safety coming to UO on March 4
UO Safety and Risk Services will host its second annual summit on laboratory safety on March 4.
The half-day event is aimed at university faculty members, staff and students who manage labs and who work as principal investigators. Its goal is to teach best practices for preparing for and preventing major incidents such as lab fires or equipment failures.
This year’s summit theme is “Emergency Planning for Research Continuity.” It will take a look at lessons learned from a catastrophic freezer failure in the UO’s Stankunas lab in 2019 and from a 2014 fire started in UO’s ZIRC quarantine room. Both incidents had lasting effects on some research efforts at the university.
Speakers will discuss preventive measures that labs can take to minimize risks, as well as researchers’ ongoing recovery efforts. The summit also will feature a Q&A session with the UO fire marshal group and the Eugene-Springfield Fire Department and a keynote address from André Le Duc, UO’s chief resilience officer.
Health and Safety freelancer brings 10 years of knowledge to Whanganui
A Health and Safety Consultant is bringing his skills and expertise to Whanganui to help local businesses succeed.
Gerard Luby has 10 years of experience under his belt working with a range of industries “trying to build their health and safety culture and awareness”.
Having previously worked as a health and safety manager for KAH NZ Ltd at Mt Ruapehu, Luby now resides in Whanganui freelancing out to create and train management and staff with his business Premier Safety.
He said there is a global shortage of health and safety professionals and it is getting harder to find these people, so that is where freelancing comes in.
“A lot of people have the willingness to get health and safety compliant but may not have an understanding of how to apply the necessary systems.”
He said if you look at the New Zealand figures in terms of workplace fatalities to other nations of similar size you will realise that there is an ongoing need to promote and support the development of good health and safety practice.
East Kent baby deaths: Former trust chair demands openness A coroner ruled Harry’s death was “wholly avoidable” and was contributed to by hospital neglect.
Inspectors at the Care Quality Commission are considering a possible criminal investigation, and Kent County Councillor Karen Constantine has demanded a public inquiry.
The Labour councillor said: “If we have to stop short of a public inquiry, then we need a deep dive into the safety culture, and I think it needs to be broader than maternity.”
Campaign to halve road deaths by 2030
She was officiating at the 7th edition of the Road Safety Journalistic Awards in Harare last Friday.
“Let me implore the media to play its part in the campaign to reduce road traffic deaths by 50 percent by the year 2030,” she said.
“Constant knocking smoothens the rock. Repeated mass road safety reportage will surely see Zimbabwe gaining milestones in the inculcation of a road safety culture for every road user.
“Therefore, the media have a role to play in so far as the fight against road traffic injury is concerned. The jungle behaviour of some road users, unlicensed drivers, corruption associated with the testing and licensing of drivers, the condition of our roads, the driver errors causing road crashes, traffic congestion and any rot associated with enforcement of traffic laws must be named and shamed.”
Western Food Safety Summit registration available
Tim York, president of Salinas, Calif.-based Markon Cooperative, is the keynote speaker for the opening day of the Western Food Safety Summit.
The theme for the May 6-7 event at Hartnell College is “Creating a Sustainable Food Safety Culture,” according to a news release.
York, a founding member of the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, kicks off the two-day event. Dennis Donohue, director of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, will be the keynote speaker on May 7, according to the release.
Twelve other speakers, who will address food safety issues ranging from Food and Drug Administration programs to water sampling and treating procedures, are scheduled for the event.
“This year’s summit program is extremely strategic, and that’s because this is an increasingly critical moment for food safety in the fresh fruits and vegetables industry,” Western Food Safety Summit Chairman Jess Hogg, quality assurance manager for Scheid Vineyards, said in the release.
Florida mistakenly man pumps $60 of gas on deck of his boat
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Mistakenly inserting a fuel nozzle into a fishing pole slot, a Florida man pumped $60 worth of gasoline onto the deck of his boat and the ground of a gas station, fire rescue officials said.
The incident happened Monday in the Orlando area, Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said on Twitter.
The gas flowed from the fishing pole hole and onto the deck of the 24-foot (7.3 meters) boat. The 31-year-old man realized his mistake and quit pumping.
As he tried to clean up the mess, the gasoline began leaking from the boat onto the ground at the 7-Eleven store. He told personnel and then called the fire department’s non-emergency number, Jachles said.
A technical rescue team siphoned the gas from the boat and cleaned up. The situation was described as a “level 3 hazmat,” meaning the potential of hazard was high, Jachles said.
[Updates: Hazmat unit at University of Bristol halls as student rushed to hospital amid coronavirus global emergency] [www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris…)
A University of Bristol student has been rushed to hospital with “flu-like symptoms” amid a global coronavirus emergency.
Footage taken today (January 30) shows a hazmat unit at the Wills Hall of residence in Stoke Bishop.
A letter from the university to students reads: “Earlier this evening, one of the residents in Wills Hall reported feeling unwell with flu-like symptoms.
“As a precautionary measure, the student has been taken to hospital.
“We are working closely with Public Health England (PHE) and will continue to monitor the situation and support this student.
Government to release report flagging safety culture at Southwest, WSJ reports
A government report flagging safety culture at Southwest Airlines is due to come out as soon as the end of the week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The Office of the Inspector General highlighted several concerns about the safety culture of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of the airline in a draft of the report, the newspaper said.
Southwest has been the subject of multiple safety-related issues recently, including a proposed $3.9 million fine from the FAA over allegedly incorrect weight calculations, in addition to the carrier allegedly receiving special treatment in regard to approval to commence flights to Hawaii.
A Southwest spokesperson said the company has communicated its “disappointment” in the draft report to the inspector general and pushed back on some of the report’s contents.
“The success of our business depends, in and of itself, on the Safety of our operation, and while we work to improve each and every day, any implication that we would tolerate a relaxing of standards is unfounded,” the spokesperson said.
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The WSJ said that in the draft report nearly two-thirds of the 46 FAA employees interviewed raised concerns about the culture at Southwest. The report stated “it is clear that the Agency is not yet effectively navigating the balance between industry collaboration and managing safety risks at the carrier,” according to the report.
ABS Awarded $2.1 Mln for Safety Research
ABS announced on Wednesday it has been awarded more than $2.1 million for two projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
The money from the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is part of $7.25 million awarded to eight projects aimed at advancing safety offshore.
“As part of our mission to promote the security of life and property and preserve the natural environment, we are continuously working to push the frontiers of safety and so we are delighted that GRP has chosen to support these exciting projects,” said Matt Tremblay, ABS Senior Vice President for Global Offshore.
A project to develop an integrated offshore energy industry safety culture evaluation, benchmarking and improvement toolbox led by Dr. Kevin McSweeney, ABS Manager of Advanced Technology & Research, in cooperation with Lamar University and the University of Houston, received $1,440,330.
A second project providing recommendations for data science technologies to aggregate essential exposure data and enable analysis of safety incident rates around the world led by Dr. Xiaozhi (Christina) Wang, ABS Vice President of Digital Solutions, in cooperation with Safetec, received $739,992.
The GRP’s competitive Safer Offshore Energy Systems Grants program supports projects that produce datasets, strategies and tools for measurement that will promote a culture of safety in the oil and gas industry.
“A culture of safety has nine characteristics,” said Kelly Oskvig, senior program officer for the Gulf Research Program’s SOES initiatives. “Through this grants competition, we hope to provide the tools to help strengthen some of those characteristics as well as answering a few critical questions - what best practices can oil and gas adapt from other high-risk industries? How can an organization measure improvements of its safety culture? How can data be used to better understand the dangers?”
“Cab-facing cameras allow fleets to understand if the driver acted or reacted appropriately, if they were distracted, sleeping, etc. Having both cameras helps fleets identify, coach and correct unsafe driving habits on a proactive basis. By pinpointing a driver’s areas of improvement, fleets can proactively coach and correct before an incident occurs. On a similar note, it allows fleets to recognize and reward safe driving habits to encourage a stronger safety culture,” he said.
It’s also important to make sure that video telematics solutions aren’t solely used to keep track of negative events.
“Video telematics should drive positive change and a culture of reward and recognition,” said Kevin Aries, head of global product success at Verizon Connect. “It’s not always about policing the bad stuff, but rewarding the good.” … Of course, every fleet is different, and some may decide that they don’t want or need the cab-facing camera, which is why each of these video telematics solutions makes the inclusion of driver-facing video optional. “As the driver shortage continues,” he went on, “fleets are understanding that a strong safety culture is paramount to not only attracting but retaining top-performing drivers. Prioritizing safety shows the company’s commitment to its culture, underlining how much the company values its drivers and ensuring they return home safely.”
Mariners need more safety management training, experts say
Another hurdle some companies’ safety management teams face is a negative safety culture, which can have a major influence on human factors such as behavior and performance, incidents and injuries.
Kenya Nixon, regional director of loss control and safety for Cooper Consolidated, said among the expressions she most dislikes hearing is “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” She said the words “safety first” are used a lot but, “let’s be honest, it’s not always first.”
Implementing culture changes breaks down this way, according to Nixon — about 20% want to change, 60% are on the fence, and 20% don’t ever want to change. Individual companies have to want to change. “It’s about communication,” she said. “Don’t just tell them what to do, tell them why.”
Preventing Skin Exposure to Pesticides Among Apple Growers and Factors Influencing Use of Protective Clothing The data show, however, that apple growers also rely on trade know-how in developing and implementing prevention practices that become an integral part of their activities and that they present as complementing their use of PC. These findings suggest that practices that do not comply with recommendations may be seen as adaptations to common microexposure situations, to a lack of information about PC or to rules unsuited to the realities of growers’ work and needs. The prevention practices reveal the growers’ concern about the risks associated with their work.
Thanks to a combined sociological and ergonomic approach, this project produced findings and recommendations firmly rooted in the realities faced by growers. Getting farm workers involved in developing, testing and validating safety rules through trade collectives could yield outcomes that result in better protection against pesticide exposure. If the agricultural community and public health stakeholders join forces, it should be possible to design measures grounded in the realities of growers’ work and social dynamics.
Federal grant leans on leading UND research programs to solve deepwater safety concerns in Gulf of Mexico (https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/4873239-Federal-grant-leans-on-leading-UND-research-programs-to-solve-deepwater-safety-concerns-in-Gulf-of-Mexico)
The Academies announced late last week that Daniel “Kwasi” Adjekum, an assistant professor of aviation in the UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, has been awarded $755,000 to support research as part of a larger $7.25-million Gulf research program. The initiative aims to develop an improved culture of safety in the oil and gas industry.
Adjekum, an internationally respected aerospace researcher, is uniquely qualified to transfer knowledge and skills from the aviation domain to oil and gas work. He has published extensively on safety culture in aviation and is a highly sought source regarding issues in aviation safety for major media networks.
Good start for Europe’s one-stop shop
As part of ERA’s digital agenda, the agency is preparing a digital road map for data interoperability. “Having removed the physical barriers to interoperability, we should avoid the pitfall of building new digital silos as more digital technologies are introduced,” Doppelbauer explains.
“Safety culture, which I should have mentioned first, along with human and organisational factors, completes our list of priorities for 2020.” ERA now has about 150 signatories to its European Safety Culture declaration, but to accelerate the process it has adopted a new approach to get people to sign up. In October, the Dutch NSA invited all railway operators in the Netherlands to a meeting. “We got 24 signatures in one go to sign the declaration through peer pressure,” Doppelbauer says.
“It is really important to create a European safety culture. Human factors have played a role in virtually every significant railway accident. ATO will help to limit the impact of human factors, as will a better man-machine interface to avoid misinterpretation of safety rules.