“In the News” Panel - Continued

The focus of our comments on all three articles seemed to center around the importance of communication. In the case of the Costa Concordia sinking, discussed the impact on the loss of the lack of communication from the parent company for the first 36 hours following the tragedy. What took them so long to make comment, to reach out to the victims? If it hadn’t been for the locals on the island the survivors would...

“In the News” Panel

IOSH put together a very interesting panel session for the second day of the conference. The panel consisted of: me, as President of the American Society of Safety Engineers; Andrew Cooper President-Elect of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering; Sue Pilkington, President of the Safety Institute of Australia; Malcolm McIntyre, Past President of IOSH; and Subash Ludhra, President of IOSH.

This session had the...

The Safety and Health Monster – Continued

The “safety and health monster” was a big theme at the conference. My fraturnal greetings supported IOSH’s position, and I was quoted in tweets sent out by the members of the audience. I said, “There is no “health and safety monster” here in the U.K., in the U.S. or worldwide. Smart companies know that the economic impact of investing in safety and health is a very positive one.” Andrew Cooper President-Elect...

The Safety and Health Monster

Apparently, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron believed that the UK’s safety and health regulations were unnecessarily complicated and were creating a burden on business. Of course IOSH, which represents professionals working in health and safety condemned his remarks.

Richard Jones, IOSH’s head of policy and public affairs, said: "Labelling workplace health and safety as a monster is appalling and...

IOSH Safety Conference

I attended the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) annual professional development conference and exhibition in Manchester, England from March 5th through 8th. IOSH is a sister organization to the American Society of Safety Engineers, so I attended to give fraternal greetings on the first day of the conference, as well as, taking part...

More on Pedestrian Safety

I mentioned in my last blog that my daughter and I had received several warnings regarding road-crossing safety in the UK. Apparently, the government has taken the issue to heart. They have the greatest “Wait” and “Cross with Care” signs. The “Wait” sign rather than being a red hand is the silhouette of a man with his hands on his hips. The “Cross with Care” sign is a stick figure walking. In addition to the lighted...

This trip was to the United Kingdom to speak at the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) Conference and Exposition. IOSH is a sister organization to the American Society of Safety Engineers. On the flight over my daughter had a brief conversation with the gentleman sitting next to her. He was American but had lived in London for two years. He warned us about the traffic...

There are rules about food when you are traveling to adifferent country, and if you violate them do you do so at your own risk. I had a cold, was hunger, nervous, and I took a risk. I had yogurt for breakfast. And then paid for it with a very bad case of food posioning. Luckily for me ourASSE-MEC hosts had connections, and quickly got me into the hospital. It must have been the “American” hospital because all the staff were in western style uniforms...

The ASSE-MEC arranged camels for us to ride, so I rode a camel. This camel was much better cared for than the one I rode in Egypt in2000. She (yes, still guessing) had big beautiful eyes with long lashes andglossy coat and seemed gentle. However, I still remembered the warning from my guide in Egypt that camels will bite and they spit. Apparently the spit is very gross smelling, so you definitely don’t want to be hit by camel spite. While posing with...

Have you ever held a falcon on your arm? The falcon was beautiful. I was able to hold him (I’m guessing here) both with and without his hood on. The handler kept telling me to hold the falcon in close to me rather than at arms length. Yes, the safety geek inside me was saying “Are you crazy? He could really rip a hunk out of my face with that beak.” I think the bird calmer than I was. He must be used to the attention, because when I strokedhim, the...

Now I bet when you think of the Middle East you think that it is hot and dry. No so Bahrain. The Kingdom of Bahrain is an island kingdom, so it isn’t as dry as you might think. Its weather while we were there is much like that we’ve been experiencing in Southern California – except that it was very windy. Like the Santa Ana’s only with the wind coming off the The Gulf rather than the mountains. The temperatures at night dropped down into the low 40s...

Now the ASSE-MEC Conference wasn’t all work and learning, we were treated to the local culture, if only briefly. The Chapter hosted a Chapter Night Out at the Movenpick Cultural Center. I don’t know if you’ve been following the news, but there was a return of the October 2011 protests in Bahrain that prompted a Travelers Alert from the US Department of State. Since it wasn’t a Travelers Warning and considering where we were staying we didn’t change...

ASSE-MEC invited me to be the Tuesday afternoon keynote. Needless to say, I was nervous considering the caliber of speakers that hadpreceded me. As a keynote speaker you get twice as much time to speak as the average panel speaker. My presentation was on “The Past, The Present, The Future – The Evolution of Safety – What’s Next.” It is wonderful what we’ve achieved in the last 100 years. The formation of the American Society of Safety Engineers was...

The ASSE-MEC Monday afternoon keynote speaker was a surprise. He had a great sense of humor. So often presenters are a little on the dry side, but he was funny while delivering a great message. He spoke of Emotional Intelligence. Did you know that those with a high emotional intelligence quotient and a lower intelligence quotient are more successfulthat those with a higher intelligence quotient and a lower emotional intelligence quotient. The reason...

The ASSE-MEC kicked off the Conference with two keynote speakers. The second keynote speaker kept everyone’s attention throughout his presentation. Dr. Birrer climbed Mt. Everest twice as the team physician, but only made it to the top once. Climbing the mountain has always sounded romantic, the reality it is very tough. He called it an easy climb as far as the technical skills of climbing go, but it is a very tough mental challenge. You have to endure...

On Monday of the ASSE-MEC Conference, Justin MacElhatten of Industrial Scientific talked about the goal of “zero deaths.” He introduced me to a new book, “Work Accidents and the Law” written by Crystal Eastman. In the book, she talks about “safety by design.” More and more efforts are being made to a design safety into the job, such as placing tie-off on steel girders so that construction workers can safety tie off. Interestingly, she wrote her book...

The ASSE-MEC leaders were very excited because at the last minute the Minister, the Prince, and the US Ambassador were in attendance at the opening ceremonies. That meant that I was moved off the agenda, and from the front row to the second row. It was one of the most impressive chapter PDCs I’ve attended. They had keynote speakers at the beginning of each day and again just after lunch. The keynotes that were standouts for me were both of Monday...

I recently had the opportunity to attend the American Society of Safety Engineers Middle East Chapter’s (ASSE-MEC) Professional Development Conference and Exhibition. It was held in the City of Manama in the Kingdom of Bahrain – a small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It was very well attended with over 1,000 people present. It also included 17 pre-conference two-day training sessions and 42 concurrent sessions over the course of the three-day...

As President of ASSE, I am taking lots of flights in addition to those required by my paying job. Most of my flights are domestic, which means I fly economy. But on occasion, I get bumped up to first class. I used to dream of getting to travel in the first class section – now, not so much when it’s a domestic flight (within the geographic US). Yes, in first class they give you these great big seats. The seats in first class are wider, deeper and recline...

Let me give you some back ground on the following string of thoughts. Eleven years ago I was inspired by the speech given by the President of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). It was then that I decided that I would like to be in his shoes or rather in his place wearing my own shoes.

At the time, I was already involved in my ASSE chapter, the Orange County Chapter, and was serving as its President-Elect. I was inspired but didn’t...

 

I participated in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Vigil on March 24th in New York City. The vigil was held at the New York Fire Museum which is located in Station 30 – one of the fire stations that reported to the Triangle fire that fateful day – March 25, 1911. The vigil was attended by 180 people – descendents of the Triangle...

First, on Saturday, March 25, a fire broke out on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory located in the Asch Building in New York City killing 146 young women and men.

 

The workers were trapped in the building. The exit doors...