It’s Friday, the middle of the month … which has usually no significant meaning to this blog. It was just an observation. (Funny, right?)

This particular Friday means a little something though, as it means I get to clean off my desk by sharing a couple of safety briefs, which I call Safety Snippets. These are little tidbits of information or education that are not long enough to create full blogs about but are important enough to share with my audience.

And I bet you thought this blog was for entertainment purposes only! Silly, silly.

Safety Culture Change Course

If you have ever wanted to learn how to change the safety culture in your worksite, there is still time to register for a special course developed by the “father of safety culture,” Dr. Steven Simon.

Culture change when it comes to safety is a process and does not come easily. Dr. Simon’s Culture Change Consultants, Inc., has been putting on these courses periodically, showing the process he developed in helping change the safety culture in any workplace of any size and get positive results not only in health and safety of workers but also in overall bottom-line efficiency of the company.

The next course is slated for February 14-16 in San Diego, Calif., and there is still time to secure your space for an event that can transform your business and take it to the next level.

For more information or to register, you can check out this website or inquire at this e-mail.

EPA Farmwork Standard

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put out a blog post recently, reminding American farmworkers of an updated Worker Protection Standard, which addresses the use of pesticides and other chemicals on various farmlands and fields in the country.

The updates are designed to help reduce exposure to pesticides and develop a better methodology for treating exposure when pesticides travel on clothing from a worksite to the home. The major updates are:

  • New signage requirements;
  • Better safety requirements such as pesticide application zones and eye-wash systems in those zones, as an example; and
  • Better requirements of keeping records and communicating pesticide use and storage on a worksite.

You can either check out the recent EPA blog post or the actual updated Worker Protection Standard online for your reference and convenience.

Final HazMat Amendments

Following public and stakeholder feedback and comments, a U.S. regulatory agency that oversee hazardous materials implemented a series of amendments to standards and regulations involving the handling and transports of certain hazardous materials.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) implemented some amendments to its hazardous materials regulations, which include allowances for the shipping of damaged “wet-electric” batteries, rules for how to package nitric acid, proper testing of cargo tank pressure-relief tools, as well as requirements for handling black or smokeless powder that is used for small firearm weapons.

For more information about the final PHMSA rule in all its glorious detail, visit this link.