Anyone who's been a safety professional for a few years is eventually going to be asked by someone on the floor or job site “how did you get into this safety business anyway?”  When I was first asked this very question some 20 plus y...

With the arrival of summer comes the hotter workplace.  Depending on where you live, it can be quite a swing in temperature.  The daily high here in Maine is roughly three times what we were seeing two months ago.  Factor that into wo...

Here is a morbid anxiety that sometimes can kick in on a construction site: Fear of being buried alive Fear of being placed in a grave while still alive as a result of being incorrectly pronounced dead. The abnormal, psychopathological version of th...

There was a recent incident at a school project in Maine worth reviewing. It involved a dump truck that backed into a propane tank fill pipe. Once the pipe was broken, the propane discharged and ignited. The truck driver was burned as he escaped the ...

Lyme disease is sometimes a work-related issue and sometimes not. You need to ask yourself if your employee’s job duties put them at risk of contracting the disease. Do they work where ticks thrive? Forests, brush or shorelines? If the answer i...

Every summer the warm weather brings out the roadwork crews. Although reduced speeds and stop and go driving can be frustrating for drivers—commercial and public alike—it is necessary to maintain the infrastructure. If you think about it,...

As the temperatures go up, so do the amount of miles that Americans drive. Getting to and from vacation spots is a rite of summer and even the high price of fuel will not deter families from driving to distant locations. With this increased traveling...

Here is a scenario that any business owner or human resources director would love: You need a new employee and, without even advertising, a young person walks in, not only able to do the job, but willing to take on additional tasks. They go on to ret...

School is out and kids are looking for work. Approximately 2.3 million will get a job this summer in the U.S. and 157,000 of them will get more than just a pay check—they’ll get hurt on the job too. Lacerations, burns and broken bones are...

The following scenario always makes me scratch my head and wonder: "Why can't they see it?"  I walk onto a job site and do my “self-preservation survey,” which means identifying hazards. The vast majority of the time it's safe to pr...