Institute for Safety and Health Management

Ronald Dotson, MS, is a professor of occupational safety and health (OSHA) at Eastern Kentucky University and serves on the board of directors for the Kentucky Safety and Health Network. He is an OSHA Training Institute construction trainer, and he operates an excavation business. Dotson is a certified safety and health manager with ISHM, a construction health and safety technologist through BCSP, and an active member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, the Institute for Safety and Health Management, and the National Association of Safety Professionals. His current research interests include playground safety and occupational injuries of educational service employees. 

There are many suppliers and manufacturers of PPE. Several factors should be evaluated before choosing a supplier. Those factors are the product s quality, whether the product meets the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or the National Institute for Safety and Health s (NIOSH) standards, and availability and delivery of the PPE. Prior to choosing a supplier, test performance data should be requested and samples obtained for circulation among the workforce to get feedback from the actual users. The worst thing management can do is buy bulky or uncomfortable PPE that the workers will avoid wearing, especially when they know comfortable PPE is available. 

On July 25, 2005, the American National Standards Institute approved the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Standard, designated as ANSUAIHA Z10-2005. Thus, for the first time in the United States, a national consensus standard was issued for safety and health management systems applicable to organizations of all sizes and types. 

Chapter 20, Applied Ergonomics Significance and Opportunity, and Chapter 21, On Quality Management and the Practice of Safety, address the design, engineering, and risk assessment aspects that are fundamental in those endeavors. Comments are included in Chapter 18, Prevention through Design The Standard, on the extensive involvement at the National Institute for Safety and Health (NIOSH) on its PtD initiative. 

National Institute for Safety and Health (NIOSH). 2011. Online at http //www.cdc.gov/ niosh/ http //www.cdc.gov/search.do q=management+responsibility spell=l ie=utf 8 subset=niosh. 

There are at least two industry consensus standards for injury and illness prevention programs. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) have published a voluntary consensus standard, ANSI/AIHA ZIO—2005 Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (ANSI/AIHA 2005). The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Project Group, a consortium of selected Registrars, national standards bodies, professional associations and research institutes, has produced a similar document, OHSAS 18001—2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSAS Project Group 2007). These consensus-based standards have been widely accepted in the world of commerce and adopted by many businesses on a voluntary basis. 

With each level of the organizational hierarchy appropriately prepared, educated, and trained, and with their acceptance of their safety and health duties and responsibilities, mechanisms for appropriate feedback should be instituted. In order for employees as well as managers to be truly empowered in safety and health, appropriate lines of communication with timely feedback should be established. All levels within the organizational hierarchy should be encouraged to provide their thoughts and ideas for safety and health improvement, especially at the managerial and employee levels, and appropriate and timely feedback is essential. 

One of the best ways to determine that potential is to examine the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), which by law in most jurisdictions must be provided by the manufacturer for any hazardous material used in the workplace and made available to the employees by plant management. The MSDS provides all the information necessary to determine the hazard potential and the requirements for control of any hazardous substance. Still other information can be found in the various guidelines published by the American Industrial Health Association, or by the U.S. National Safety Council, or by NIOSH (the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) or various other national, state, or provincial government bodies. (See Appendix II for information on sources.) Once you have an inventory, of course, you can start relating potential health problems to possible sources in particular areas. Also, in the process of preparing this report, you will begin to build an invaluable library that will stand you in good stead for further consideration of the problems at hand. 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (2004). Protecting Emergency Responders Safety management in Disaster and Terrorism Response (v3). Cincinnati, OH. 

Under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), BP must be managed as a hazardous waste according to federal and/or state regulations. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) federal drinking water standard is 0.2 mg 1 . The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health occupa-... 

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