Archive for the ‘Safety Management’ Category

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iPad Safety Inspection Software – Interview with Shaun Ricci

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Today we’re releasing the second video in our iPad safety inspection software interview series. This series features interviews with the people behind Field ID’s leading inspection software and safety compliance management system, and the company’s new Field ID iPad app. In this video, Field ID Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Shaun Ricci talks about why the iPad is an ideal device for inspection and safety compliance software applications. You can view the video below, or on our YouTube channel here.

 

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Warehouse safety infographic highlights dangers, injury stats and tips

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

At Modern Safety, we’ve touched on topics relating to warehouse safety in the past. Today, we’re sharing a great infographic from Storage Solutions, packed with information about the dangers of modern warehouses and how to prevent them. This infographic not only looks good, but it clearly highlights top areas cited by OSHA, the most injury prone areas, and even tips for forklifts.

Thanks to Storage Solutions for creating this infographic and sharing it with Modern Safety:

 

Warehouse Safety the Dangers of Modern Warehouses and How to Prevent Them
Warehouse Safety the Dangers of Modern Warehouses and How to Prevent Them

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NSC recognizes safety management leaders who ‘get it’

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Safety LeadersAre you a business leader that “gets it”? Thousands of business leaders “get” safety and have successfully integrated sound safety management practices into the fabric of their companies. Each year, the National Safety Council accepts nominations for a program that recognizes them.

This week, the NSC announced the 2012 list of CEOs Who ‘Get It.’ This is annual recognition of business leaders who demonstrate world-class safety. These leaders understand the value of safety and work with employees at all levels to ensure safety remains everyone’s focus and responsibility. It doesn’t matter if an organization consists of 50 people or 50,000 people.

Many Modern Safety readers are eligible, and some Field ID users have made this list in the past few years. Basically, there are four common key elements which encompass what the NSC calls the Journey to Safety Excellence approach. If you can demonstrate that a nominee leads in the following areas, you might have a strong nomination on your hands.

They are:

-          strong executive leadership and active employee engagement

-          implementation of safety management systems

-          continuous reduction of risk

-          constant measurement of safety performance

In introducing the 2012 CEOs Who ‘Get It,’ NSC president and CEO Janet Froetscher said the NSC is “very proud to recognize these world-class leaders who exemplify the ideals of the Journey. Their inspiring stories of safety excellence will set an example for others to follow as they seek to improve their own safety programs.”

Without further delay, here are the 2012 CEOs Who ‘Get It’:

-          Dan Batrack: CEO, Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, CA

-          Jim Bell: President and CEO, Veolia ES Technical Solutions LLC, Lombard, IL

-          Rick Frost: CEO, Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Nashville, TN

-          Jim Gribbins: President and Founder, Gribbins Insulation Co. Inc., Evansville, IN

-          Jim Hannan: CEO and President, Georgia-Pacific, Atlanta

-          Frank M. Jaehnert: President and CEO, Brady Corp., Milwaukee

-          Andrew Liveris: Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI

-          Wayne Livingston: President and CEO, Diverse Power Inc., LaGrange, GA

-          Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III: Director, Air National Guard, Washington

And for the record, here are the 2011 CEOs Who ‘Get It’:

-          Dr. Mohamed Al Khalifa, general manager, Bahrain National Gas Co.

-          Charles L. Harrington, chairman & CEO, Parsons Corp.

-          Richard Hebert, president & CEO, GEA Power Cooling Inc.

-          John B. Hess, chairman & CEO, Hess Corp.

-          Ann E. Massey, president & CEO, MACTEC Inc.

-          Lee A. McIntire, chairman & CEO, CH2M HILL

-          Jeffrey M. Nodland, president & CEO, KIK Custom Products

-          Major General Frederick F. Roggero, chief of safety (retired Oct. 1, 2010), U.S. Air Force

-          Brigadier General William T. Wolf, director of army safety & commander general, U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center

-          Harold L. Yoh III, chairman & CEO, Day & Zimmermann

The NSC often calls for nominations for the CEOs Who ‘Get It’ list to be submitted by the end of August. After announcing the list the following January, the chosen CEOs are profiled in the February issue of Safety+Health magazine.

Why not get this into your calendar now, and start thinking about who deserves to be on the next list?

 

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Workplace safety solutions needed to address economic burden of injuries

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

workplace safety solutionsWorkplace safety advocates often talk about the high cost of neglecting safety and prevention measures, but the overall medical and health care costs of job-related injuries and illnesses are even “greater than generally assumed,” according to a new study. In fact, the costs are higher than those racked up by cancer and stroke. And the argument for workplaces to adopt better workplace safety management solutions grows even stronger…

Workplace injury and illnesses cost the United States about $250 billion per year, according to the newly published research. The study, titled “Economic Burden of Occupational Injury and Illness in the United States,” was detailed in the latest issue of the Milbank Quarterly, a multidisciplinary journal of population health and health policy.

Here are the official findings, directly from the study:

Findings: The number of fatal and nonfatal injuries in 2007 was estimated to be more than 5,600 and almost 8,559,000, respectively, at a cost of $6 billion and $186 billion. The number of fatal and nonfatal illnesses was estimated at more than 53,000 and nearly 427,000, respectively, with cost estimates of $46 billion and $12 billion. For injuries and diseases combined, medical cost estimates were $67 billion (27% of the total), and indirect costs were almost $183 billion (73%). Injuries comprised 77 percent of the total, and diseases accounted for 23 percent. The total estimated costs were approximately $250 billion, compared with the inflation-adjusted cost of $217 billion for 1992.”

We found this to be an amazingly high cost, but we were even more surprised that the study’s author, J. Paul Leigh, declared the costs to be “at least as large as the cost of cancer.” Only about 25 per cent of the costs, adds Leigh, are covered by workers’ compensation, so “all members of society share the burden” of these costs.

Industries and businesses with higher rates of jobsite or worker injury may need to look at how safety is currently being managed. There’s always room for improvement. This $250 billion cost to the economy may seem somewhat abstract in the context of day-to-day operations, but chances are that there’s a real cost you can assign to downtime caused by worker injury or illness – no matter what business you’re in.

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The DARPA fire suppression wand (magic not included)

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

At Field ID, we’re crazy about new technology, innovation in both hardware and software, and how it can all come together for safety management. Given its importance to overall safety, fire safety management is clearly very important to many of our users. So when I stumbled on a DARPA project fire suppression using a “magical” wand, I was so impressed had to share it.

It’s not really magic. But breakthroughs in science can be just as impressive, and they can create the illusion of magic. This video of the technology in action is a perfect example of what I mean.

 

 

Here’s the background. The DARPA Instant Fire Suppression (IFS) program, a U.S. military initiative, sought to establish the feasibility of a flame-suppression system based on destabilization of flame plasma with electromagnetic fields and acoustics techniques. The DARPA research team at Harvard University has recently demonstrated suppression of small methane and related fuel fires by using a hand-held electrode, or wand. TIME Magazine named DARPA’s fire suppression technology among the 50 best inventions of 2011.

Many of today’s fire suppression technologies are decades old and focus largely on disrupting the chemical reactions involved in combustion by spraying water, foams or other chemicals on the flames. They can also cause damage to valuable property, environmental toxicity and have limited effectiveness for some types of fire. All existing suppressants are composed of matter and must be physically delivered and dispersed throughout the fire. This limits the rate at which fires can be extinguished and the ability to combat fires in confined spaces or behind obstacles.

But DARPA’s approach is truly novel. One day, this new approach could eventually make its way to commercial and residential use. Can you imagine using a wand to deal with small to large scale fires and eliminating certain problems such as fire extinguisher size or distance to a fire hydrant? It may be possible in the future, but for now this technology is in its early stages.

According to Matthew Goodman, DARPA program manager: “We successfully suppressed small flames and limited re-ignition of those flames, as well as exhibited the ability to bend flames. These effects, to date are very local—scaling is a challenge that remains to be overcome. We’ve made scientific breakthroughs in our understanding and quantification of the interaction between electromagnetic and acoustic waves with flame plasma.”

Technology is evolving every day, and so is Field ID. Personally, I can’t wait for the day that the first “fire suppression wand” gets entered into our system for inspection or safety audits.

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