Toolbox talks can be an important part of your safety arsenal. Here are five tips to help make your next one even better!

Exposure to environmental noise is one of the leading causes of hearing loss throughout the world. Every day we are flooded with transport, industrial, and recreational noises.

Fall protection has long been a focal point for industries that have people working at height, with coatings contractors chief among them. This year, fall protection moved from an emphasis to a defined mandate.

Coatings applicators need to understand the potential risks of using epoxy products and know how to safely handle and apply these systems.

On February 11, 2015, Canada aligned the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

Every user of aliphatic isocyanates must be familiar with the potential hazards and have the knowledge needed to safely handle and use these products. The potential to experience health effects depends on the exposure level (e.g., airborne concentration in the breathing zone, volume of liquid/spray mist in contact with unprotected skin), duration of exposure, and other factors, including individual susceptibility.

Have you ever heard people in your workplace make statements about safety that just don’t ring true? Often these are not lies or half-truths; they are simple misunderstandings rooted in unsubstantiated beliefs.

Lately, safety practitioners seem to be on a quest similar to that of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. But instead of trying to find the Holy Grail, safety professionals are trying to find something similarly elusive: a single, all-encompassing, leading indicator upon which they can manage their entire safety function.

Have you ever thought about the value of safety? Value can be thought of in terms of money, standards, and morals. Safety values can encompass all of these.

Your crew is preparing for the day’s job. You have all the necessary tools and machinery for the coating you will apply. You have your protective eyewear and clothing to guard against physical hazards as well as respirators to protect against fumes. These are all important safety measures, but you are still not fully protected.

American industry continues to come to grips with hitting zero injuries in the workplace. More than 10 years ago, I began a campaign for this, continually running headlong at the windmills of the zero injury safety culture.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) doesn’t kill jobs; it helps prevent jobs from killing workers. Supported by decades of empirical evidence, this message has been confirmed by a peer-reviewed study published in Science, one of the world’s top scientific journals, but we will also discuss it here.

Have you ever gotten, or heard of someone who’s gotten, a skin rash when working with epoxies? Well, that skin rash could well have been a form of epoxy sensitization.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) recordkeeping requirements have been in place since 1971 (29 Code of Federal Regulations CFR Part 1904). The requirements were updated in 2002 to make it easier for employers to comply. OSHA has again updated the recordkeeping rule for 2015 to include two key changes.

It seems everyone these days knows someone who has cancer. There are very few cancers in which you can take steps to decrease your chance of getting them. As far as we know, you can’t help if you get breast cancer or prostate cancer, for instance.