Safe Workplace and Safety News

AGC Press Release:

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOULKE ANNOUNCES SAFETY INITIATIVES
AT AGC SAFETY MEETING

Washington, D.C.—U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administrator (OSHA) Ed Foulke today unveiled a nationwide Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) initiative aimed at meeting the unique needs and characteristics of the Construction Industry-Mobile Workforce VPP Demonstration for Construction at the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Safety and Health Committee mid-year meeting in Denver.

Foulke also announced the appointment of AGC's Safety and Health Committee Chairman Linwood Smith (TA Loving, Goldsboro, N.C.) as Chairman of OSHA’s Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH<) while congratulating the association and its members for improving safety within the industry. ACCSH is an advisory committee appointed by the Secretary of Labor to assist OSHA in construction safety and health matters.

"AGC is proud of our members' efforts to improve job site safety and health," said AGC CEO Stephen E. Sandherr. "We are honored that Assistant Secretary Foulke addressed our association today. We look forward to working closely with OSHA on its VPP efforts for construction and expanding other partnership efforts that will formalize the relationships across the country with our chapters and companies who strive every day to make our industry safer."

"VPP is a good tool for increasing safety and health awareness within the industry," Foulke told AGC's attendees when announcing the program. "It is important for OSHA to recognize those construction companies that should be held up as models of safety and health for the rest of the industry."

Foulke also recognized AGC's efforts in promoting OSHA's compliance assistance programs, providing training through the Susan Harwood Grants and participating in other OSHA alliances and partnerships.

"OSHA depends on industry organizations like AGC to help raise issues, set standards, challenge its members, inform the industry, and work with OSHA to improve the record for safety and health in the construction industry," said Foulke.

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) is the largest and oldest national construction trade association in the United States. AGC represents more than 32,000 firms, including 7,000 of America's leading general contractors, and over 12,000 specialty-contracting firms. Over 13,000 service providers and suppliers are associated with AGC through a nationwide network of chapters. Visit the AGC Web site at www.agc.org. AGC members are "Building Your Quality of Life."

Labels: OSHA, VPP

I thought there might be something to learn from those who tried VPP and were not successful. So today I went looking for stories about VPP failures, but I could only find success stories.

Read how Frito-Lay in Beaverton, Oregon cut their workers compensation costs by almost a million dollars a year, improved productivity and created a happier workforce. Working with Oregon OSHA in 2000 they began to address safety and health problems. In 2002 they joined OSHA's VPP. The results have been dramatic.

Labels: VPP

The New Mexico State University web site provides several pages that give examples of safety signs. This is an excellent resource to help you create safety signs that are comprehensive and which communicate all the needed information.

The web page to visit is: http://www.nmsu.edu/safety/resources/safety_signs.htm

The examples include safety signs such as Safety First, Caution, Danger, Notice, and generic safety signs. There are also links to a section on safety symbols and another to pages with examples of charts, such as a PPE chart.

This page is particularly useful if you are just just getting started adding safety signs, such as in a new installation, or if you are auditing your safety signs and labels with the intention of upgrading the quality of the content.

A FREE guide / punch list for doing an audit of safety labels and signs is available from Graphic Products. You can request your free copy here: Safety Sign and Label Inspection Workbook

Labels: OSHA Signs

A feature article from Occupational Health & Safety magazine offers a good overview of OSA's Voluntary Protection Program and the benefits VPP provides. The article is written by Mike Avery who is the safety and security director at American Saw and Mfg. Company, Inc., a company with 700 employees. The article asks:

What is involved in establishing a VPP? And, from a company's perspective, is it worth the effort?

Mr. Avery writes: "In fact, VPP provides value that radiates well beyond the obvious benefits of reducing accidents, lost work days, and worker's compensation claims. VPP is a whole approach to safety and health that touches on every aspect of daily operations. Once implemented, it becomes integral to the company's way of doing business."

If you company is evaluating whether they want to get involved in VPP, read this article. It provides a good overview of the pluses and minuses, and one company's experience with VPP.

Labels: Industrial Safety, VPP

How are others implementing a Voluntary Protection Program? As we come across them we'll provide links to web sites describing how VPP was implemented at a specific workplace and the benefits that resulted. This post highlights the Voluntary Protection Program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)in Richland Washington.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Voluntary Protection Program.

This site includes a lot of detailed information, including the meeting minutes from VPP Steering Committee meetings.

Since December 2000 PNNL has published a monthly VPP newsletter called the Porcelain Press. This newsletter is designed to raise staff awareness of the Laboratory's Voluntary Protection Program and to discuss timely safety and health issues. All of the back issues are available online.

Labels: VPP

AIHA Press Release

AIHA Offers Support and Suggestions for OSHA Reform Legislation
AIHA provides extensive comments on two bills introduced by Sen. Michael Enzi

FAIRFAX, VA — The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) sent letters to Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, offering comment on two bills from his long-awaited package of occupational health and safety legislation. AIHA sees the "Occupational Safety Partnership Act" (S. 2065) and the "HazCom Simplification and Modernization Act of 2005" (S. 2067) as an opportunity to make valuable changes in the way the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enhances and promotes worker health and safety in the United States.

S. 2065 would create a third-party workplace review program. The concept, which has been supported by AIHA for several years, would allow employers to hire qualified third party occupational health and safety personnel to review a workplace. If the review were positive, employers would receive exemption from assessment of any civil penalty for a period of two years.

As noted in AIHA’s comments, there are more than 6 million workplaces under OSHA jurisdiction, but only approximately 2,000 compliance officers in the agency’s federal and state programs. A 2004 General Accounting Office report stated, "Using consultants could leverage existing OSHA resources by helping workplaces that might never otherwise see an OSHA inspector, especially small employers, and possibly also by enabling employers to address additional safety and health issues that might not be covered under an OSHA inspection for compliance standards."

In addition to detailed comments on the various aspects of the program as outlined in the bill, AIHA offered additional suggestions to increase support for the third-party review concept among industry and labor. The association proposed that the program be established as a two-year pilot program, limited to two or three states, with a focus on small businesses. AIHA also suggested the formation of a special advisory committee to assist the Secretary of Labor with the establishment and implementation of the program.

With regard to the other sections of S. 2065, AIHA offered its support for codification of the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and programs to expand small business participation in VPP. The association also supported an increase in assistance to small businesses through increased funding for consultation programs and the implementation of a pilot program to enhance future assistance. In addition, AIHA supports efforts to encourage continuing education and professional certification for OSHA personnel, as well as the development and implementation of a training and education exchange program for OSHA and industry.

Concerning S. 2067, AIHA offered its support for the development of model material safety data sheets (MSDSs) that would comply with the requirements of OSHA’s hazard communication standard and would be made available to the public. The association also encourages the establishment of a commission to consider and make recommendations to Congress on whether or not to adopt the U.N. Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). AIHA sees S. 2067 as a way to improve communication of procedures for handling hazardous substances.

AIHA is keenly interested in the issues surrounding MSDSs because they are essential tools in the protection of employees exposed to chemical hazards in the workplace. Members of several of AIHA’s expert committees have extensive experience and direct involvement with the technical and policy issues regarding MSDSs. Many are involved in the development or review of MSDSs for their employees.

With regard to both of Sen. Enzi’s bills, AIHA offers to assist Congress in any way possible in the development of legislation that will best protect workers.

The full text of AIHA’s letters is available at www.aiha.org under "Government Affairs." For more information regarding AIHA’s comments to Sen. Enzi or other questions concerning AIHA Government Affairs, please contact Aaron Trippler, AIHA director of government affairs, at (703) 846-0730 or atrippler@aiha.org.

Founded in 1939, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is the premier association of industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety professionals. AIHA’s 12,000 members play a crucial role on the front line of worker health and safety every day. Members represent a cross-section of industry, private business, labor, government and academia.

Labels: OSHA

You'll find the latest press releases from OSHA's VPP program here. Most are recognizing new STAR members of the program, but there are also links to VPP news and programs.

Labels: VPP

VPP is the abbreviation for OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, a program that recognizes the excellent safety records and practices of organizations that can serve as role models for others.

An article in Occupational Hazards describes what it takes to be at the top level, "Star" and stay there. There are two levels in VPP, STAR and MERIT, plus a third called STAR DEMONSTRATION that is for organizations dealing with special or unique safety situations.

The article features interviews with representatives from several corporations that have been accepted as STAR participants, including Georgia-Pacific and Monsanto. They describe their experience with VPP, the benefits it provides and their ongoing activities as STAR members of VPP.

The article concludes by saying:

"VPP for Construction (VPPC) is based on OSHA's VPP experience, in general, as well as successes garnered through the construction-related Mobile Workforce and Short-Term Construction Star Demonstration Programs. The core of the initiative is based on the principle of effective safety and health management systems. It mirrors the general VPP design by continuing to offer participation at either the Star or Merit level, with the possibility of future Demonstration Programs. The new initiative is unique, however, in that it creates two categories of participation: one for long-term, site-based construction projects; and the other for companies, divisions and other business units that employ mobile workforces and work at various sites or projects not always controlled by the participant."

Labels: VPP

The purpose of this blog is to provide information that is useful during the VPP application process; in maintaining your VPP status; and--more importantly--for anyone working to improve the safety in their workplace. In most posts we'll provide links to web pages that provide information that can help improve safety. Although we might have a slight bias toward providing information about safety signs and labels, because that is our business... we're labeling and sign making experts, this blog will cover as wide a range of safety related topics as possible.

This blog is a part of the Safe Workplace web site. Our web site features information about OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, and in particular about safety related labeling and sign making.

Please feel free to add your comments to any of our posts, or use the comments to ask a question. All blog comments are immediately emailed to us for moderation (spam will not be allowed) and we'll respond to questions as soon as possible.