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Slow, steady increase in exercise intensity is best for heart health

For most people, the benefits of aerobic exercise far outweigh the risks, however, extreme endurance exercise – such as participation in marathons and triathlons for people who aren’t accustomed to high-intensity exercise – can raise the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm disorder) or heart attacks, according to a new Scientific Statement published in the Association’s premier journal Circulation.




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NSC unveils comprehensive plan for presidential candidates to combat opioid misuse

The National Safety Council (NSC), in partnership with more than 50 organizations and companies nationwide, released a comprehensive, inclusive strategy to address opioid misuse that all presidential candidates – regardless of party – should either adopt in full or use to close gaps in existing plans and policies.




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Four tips to prevent & reduce musculoskeletal disorders

No magic pills make musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) disappear, yet risk, human resources and safety departments continue to buy into programs and systems that do not affectively aid in helping employees deemed the “walking wounded.” 




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Health groups join forces to help Americans control blood pressure

In a move toward meeting goals for better cardiovascular health in the United States over the next decade, the American Heart Association (AHA) is joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Hypertension Control Roundtable (NHCR)® along with other founding members in a public, private and non-profit collaboration committed to increasing blood pressure control rates to 80% by 2025.




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Health groups urge Supreme Court to uphold Affordable Care Act

Patient and health advocacy groups representing millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions are applauding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments in the case of Texas v. United States this term. The case is the latest court challenge to the health care law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The groups filed an amicus brief urging the Court’s swift action and citing the detrimental impacts and uncertainty patients would face were the case left at the lower court level.




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For older adults, more physical activity could mean longer, healthier lives

Two studies demonstrate that older adults may be able to live longer, healthier lives by increasing physical activity that doesn’t have to be strenuous to be effective, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2020. The EPI Scientific Sessions, March 3-6 in Phoenix, is a premier global exchange of the latest advances in population-based cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians.




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Colorectal cancer burden shifting to younger individuals

The burden of colorectal cancer is swiftly shifting to younger individuals as incidence increases in young adults and declines in older age groups, according to Colorectal Cancer Statistics 2020, a publication of the American Cancer Society. A sign of the shift: the median age of diagnosis has dropped from age 72 in 2001-2002 to age 66 during 2015-2016.




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Weekly news round-up

Firefighters’ deaths lead to a lawsuit against a construction company; nurses get the recognition they deserve and new studies show what we’ve known all along: staying active can help you live longer.




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Consider ergonomics to reduce materials handling

Warehouse hazards are often the cause of workplace accidents. Choosing the correct type of storage will greatly reduce the potential hazard in a facility. The correct storage medium will reduce improper lifting, reaching and travel distance to retrieve an item.




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Hydration benefits: Why water is the essence of good health

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recommends drinking up to 3 liters of fluid a day. Water is vital for all cell function. It helps your brain to produce hormones and neurotransmitters, supports the lubrication of joints, keeps your skin cool through sweating or respiration, and your body to excrete waste.




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Understanding and reducing effects of stress on your health

Did you know that our body does not discriminate between sources of stress? It simply responds to the stress. So, whether the stress is coming from an actual event, or simply a thought, the body may react in a similar way. Now, in these times when there is so much uncertainty, stress can have a huge impact on our bodies.




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Focus on organizational and human factors impacting risk

Changes in safety and health approaches are needed both in and outside of government. Many established beliefs and assumptions concerning government operations currently are being re-evaluated and questioned. This reset presents an opportunity.




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Leaders: A purposeful presence can open up safety dialog

When I coach leaders, I often hear that the image of wallowing stays with them long after I’m gone - even when they don’t feel like wallowing! Ultimately, the thought of wallowing moves their thoughts to intentions, and then, purposeful actions.




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Provide employees with the tools to support your expectations

Expectations drive both the leader and follower. Various forms of research suggest that when leaders have higher types of expectations for their followers, those followers often live up to the expectations.




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A story of team defense: What is resilience leadership?

The hard part is getting teams to buy into the team vision to play selfless and trust that if they focus on all the intangibles, the scoring will come and at the end of the game the scoreboard will reflect their efforts.




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Safety directions need to be explicit

With more experience traveling the real world seeing safety programs in action (or inaction) I realized that words matter. They not only communicate, but they can shape the very approach you take to your safety programming. They can get you stuck or they can liberate your safety culture.




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Want better safety outcomes? Try servant leadership!

Twenty-five years ago, as a young safety professional, I struggled to find a set of leadership practices I could call my own. In 1996, I wrote about many of the leadership practices I was already using but found more clearly established in Servant Leadership (Sarkus, 1996).




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Don’t judge behavior without knowing the situation it occurs in

Behavior is not right or wrong, good or bad. It just is. It is neutral. Approach behaviors with the dispassionate, objective view of a scientist. Not with emotions.




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Personality tendencies impact performance

It wasn’t until recently that we started understanding that people with different personalities tend to naturally pay more attention to safety attributes like work environment, people, equipment, processes, etc. based on their personality tendencies.




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How do you assess risks? It hinges on leadership & culture

Not many people walk around throughout their day with a risk assessment in hand. We should, however, always have an informal risk assessment tool in our mind that allows us to perform at least a cursory assessment until we can dig deeper or in a more formal way.




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Leadership gaps & situational awareness

The knowledge gap within utilities, construction, and related industries is more of a growing concern than ever — especially when it comes to serious injuries and exposures. 




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What happens in the boardroom affects the front line

The union steward had just recounted an incident where a supervisor asked one of his workers to step into standing water to work on corroded gauges near the coker. The work needed to be done immediately as it would delay ongoing maintenance on the fractionator to take on different stock feed.




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Why is there a shortage of skilled labor?

Whether in mining, construction, fabrication and assembly, equipment installation and repair, or other industries, there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen/ technicians to do essential work.




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Stop safety dissidents: Authority figures often ignore workforce issues

Since health and safety initiatives and overall health and safety commentary seem to be focused towards frontline workers, Positional Leaders appear to be getting a free pass on the safety train that already left the station a long, long time ago.




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5 business lessons learned amid COVID-19

If there’s one thing the global business community has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to ebb, flow and unfold on the daily, wreaking having on bottom lines in every corner of the world in its wake, it’s the outright imperative for companies to be agile “from top to bottom.”




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Changing safety culture via VPP: How one roofing company achieved OSHA recognition

Evans Roofing Company, Inc., with its subsidiaries Charles F. Evans (union) and CFE, Inc. (non-union), is a building envelope contractor licensed in 46 states. Charles F. Evans and CFE, Inc. are the only commercial roofing and wall panel contractors to hold the VPP STAR mobile work force designation.




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Complacency depends on what you’re doing

For all the COVID-19 safety guidelines circulating, some hundreds of pages long, basic best practices are straightforward and known by most Americans. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, recently recounted them in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.




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Women in construction should take advantage of available resources

Women have made amazing strides in many fields and industries throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Unfortunately, there are many others in which it remains a big challenge for a woman to rise to the top — or even, in some cases, to enter the industry at all.




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New Pureflo-supplied air respirators

New Pureflo- Supplied Air Respirators for grinding, welding and painting. Respirators are NIOSH approved with ANSI Head, Eye - Face Protection, along with three welding lens options, optional left front window, QR Suspension, APF of 1000.




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Emergency shower booths for decontamination

HEMCO Emergency Showers are fully assembled and ready for installation to water supply and waste systems. This unit is equipped with a pull rod activated shower and push handle eye/face wash for quick rinsing of eyes, face and body. 




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The Guarddog Self Closing Safety Gate

The Guarddog Self Closing Safety Gate from Bluewater Mfg., Inc is tough, durable and easy to install.




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ChillOut products to be exhibited at Safety 2013

Beat the heat and enjoy a ChillOut™ moment. ChillOut evaporative cooling towels are XL and waffled to hold more water for effective, instant cooling that lasts. Portable and easy-to-use,  simply add water.




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Mirrored safety products for blind spots and problem intersections

Se-Kure Domes and Mirrors is a true Made in America manufacturer of mirrored safety products. Full 360-degree domes from 18” to 60” in diameter, 180 & 90-degree domes are also available.




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MCR promotes Paul Harris to head of Sales and Customer Service

MCR Safety is proud to announce that Paul Harris will be leading our Sales and Customer Service as well as Consulting and Compliance teams as our newly appointed Vice President, US Sales.  




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ASSE Safety 2013 Attendee Choice Award winners

From arc flash, respiratory, foot, hand and fall protection to AEDs, gas detectors, training courses and more, attendees at Safety 2013 had a chance to check out cutting edge safety products at ISHN's booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center and vote on their favorites. The votes have been counted and the winners have been determined/




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Going to Safety 2014? Make your voice heard!

If you're headed to the Safety 2014 Conference & Expo in Orlando June 8-11, make sure you stop by the ISHN booth to vote on the top, most innovative EHS products in the second annual ASSE Attendee Choice Awards.




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ISHN/ASSE Safety 2014 Attendee Choice Award winners

From arc flash, respiratory, foot, hand and fall protection to gas detectors, training courses and more, attendees at Safety 2014 had a chance to check out cutting edge safety products at ISHN's booth in Orlando's Orange County Convention Center and vote on their favorites. The votes have been counted and the winners have been determined.




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A developing story: wearable technology for heat stress monitoring & illness prevention

Workers in many fields – construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, emergency response, firefighters among others – toil in high heat stress conditions. These tasks can lead to rapid increases in body temperature that raise the risk of heat-related illnesses.




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VelocityEHS strengthens industrial hygiene product suite with Spiramid acquisition

VelocityEHS, the global leader in cloud-based environment, health, safety (EHS) and sustainability solutions, announced today it has acquired Spiramid, developer of the most advanced and easy-to-use system for managing industrial hygiene (IH). The acquisition adds Spiramid’s occupational safety & health software and unparalleled IH expertise to the most trusted EHS platform in the industry.




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First responders get life-saving sensor readings, video surveillance

It’s a bird, it’s a plane… no, it’s a Squishy Robot, dropped from a helicopter or a drone to transmit crucial environmental data to emergency responders at disaster scenes.




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In-ear exposure monitoring gives real-time hearing protection data

Excessive noise is prevalent across industries. From manufacturing to construction, agriculture to oil and gas, more than 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise each year.1 Wherever unsafe levels of noise exist, employers are responsible for providing hearing protection devices (HPDs).




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Mobile app identifies safety, work at height, weather exposure risks

Responses provided by Carol Hanover, Field Director, Risk Control, Travelers




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Top products of the week

Technology to enhance machine guarding safety and enhance field operations and new forms of foot protection are the top occupational safety and health products of the week.




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Delegating safety to employees

We sat down with Matthew Elson, CEO of SHE Softwares to discuss implementing safety programs, and a positive safety culture for workers. Below are excerpts from that conversation.




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Globe and Mail highlights Blackline Safety’s G7 wearable as a winning product, propelling Canada’s top growing companies

The G7 connected wearable from Blackline Safety (TSX.V: BLN) was one of five products highlighted by the Globe and Mail in their new Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing companies. Having earned position No. 231 on the ranking, Blackline achieved a three-year revenue growth of 145%.




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Hearing Protection Fit Testing: How NIOSH revolutionized practices

When loud noises cannot be reduced or eliminated through engineering controls, workers who are exposed to them must use hearing protection devices (HPDs) to conserve their hearing. This notion is not new, nor is the concept that HPDs require fit-testing to be effective.




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eCompliance unveils concept app: eC Edge

eCompliance unveils its newest advancement in their product line-up at NXT 2019: The Future of EHS, their annual conference. The concept version of the eC Edge App was announced to attendees today to give customers and prospects a first-hand look at the advanced functionality the product will begin to offer in 2020.




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Embattled Johnson & Johnson recalls some of its baby powder after the FDA finds asbestos

Tainted love: Johnson & Johnson recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration found asbestos in one container, The New York Times reports. The company, which once marketed its baby, body, and wellness products as being “for all you love,” has long denied that its talc-based products ever contained cancer-causing asbestos, but it faces more than 15,000 lawsuits from customers who say their products caused them to develop ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to asbestos.




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Connected technology is a game-changer

Traditionally, safety departments get opinions and guesses thrown at them, says Stinson. There may be a hazard. Equipment doesn’t seem to be working. “Now you have objective data all mapped out. It’s very important that this is objective data, so you know for a fact that a part of plant is leaking. It’s a fact, not a suspicion,” he says.




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Your Thanksgiving travel may be dicey

Depending on where you live, you may encounter severe weather if you must be on U.S. roadways this week, whether you're driving for work or traveling to and from the homes of loved ones. Forecasters are predicting multiple storms from coast to coast, with conditions worsening as we get closer to Thanksgiving. Some 55 million travelers are expected to travel 50 miles or more from their homes for the holiday, according to AAA. That’ll make it the second-highest Thanksgiving travel volume since AAA began tracking in 2000.