Workers are injured everyday while on the job. These injuries can often result in missed work days, poor worker attitudes, and high turnover rates, even enforcement actions from OSHA.  The good news is that the world of safety in the work place is changing. Safety is no longer something your employer tells you to do but is becoming a phenomenon where safety is weaved into the everyday behavior and mindset of all employees. 

On this episode, Safety Culture: From concept to Action, we speak with Shawn Galloway, the president and COO of ProAct Safety about incorporating safety culture in the workplace. Shawn has authored several best-selling books and is a columnist for several magazines. He helps organizations achieve and sustain safety excellence and he is definitely recognized as a top leader in the safety world. 

E05: Safety Culture - From Concept to Action

Subsurface areas such as basements are hidden harbors for silent and toxic intrusion of vapors that can lead to detrimental health effects. The Environmental Protection Agency has always had an interest in vapor intrusion, but now, rousing recent interest the agency has made a stark move. It has proposed to add vapor intrusion as a qualifier for priority sites under Superfund or the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act which will greatly impact those businesses found responsible for contamination.

On this episode, Silent and Toxic Plumes, we speak with attorney and environmental expert, Stan Millan with the law firm Jones Walker in New Orleans about EPA’s recent stirrings in Vapor Intrusion. Mr. Millan has been practicing environmental law before courts and agencies for over 40 years. He also teaches environmental law at Tulane and Loyola University. 



E08: Silent and Toxic Plumes: EPA's Recent Proposal to Rein in Vapor Intrusion

On this episode of EHS on Tap, we are speaking with the Senior Vice President of Ergodyne’s Operations and Product Management, Greg Schrab. We address the design evolution of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and how these interestingly sleek designs are attracting millennials and changing attitudes in the direction of safety and protection in the workplace.

E09: The Future of PPE Design - Intriguing Millennials to Stay Safe in the Workplace

On this episode of EHS on Tap, Emily Remmel talks to Scott Dunsmore of Lion Technologies about EPA’s recent rulemaking finalizing regulations on hazardous waste generators.

E14: Key Concepts of the Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule

Emily Remmel speaks with attorney Adele Abrams on OSHA's recent rulemaking for walking working surfaces that goes into effect January 17, 2017.

E15: Step to It: What You Need to Know About OSHA's Walking Working Surfaces

On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with Seth Brown about the costs associated with stormwater regulations as well as the key roles of businesses, municipalities, and communities in managing effective stormwater programs.

E16: Understanding The True Costs of Managing Stormwater

The new administration has been with us for a few weeks now, and we have seen a lot of activity involving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With President Trump’s new Executive Order directing federal agencies to repeal two regulations for every new one issued, his promise to roll back most of EPA’s regulations, and many in Congress calling for the agency to be eliminated entirely, things can be expected to stay very interesting.
In this episode of EHS on Tap,  we discuss the Executive Order’s effects on the EPA, whose methodology for crafting regulations has come under fire in recent years, with attorney Steven Hoch. Steven is a Partner with Morris Polich and Purdy LLP based in Los Angeles.  
Note:  This interview took place just before Scott Pruitt was nominated as the new head of the EPA.  Get the latest environmental news at Enviro.BLR.com, including Trump's recent order to repeal or revise EPA's Clean Water Rule: http://ow.ly/vSYr309yxBE

E18:  What's the Future of the EPA and Its Regulations?

Environmental managers are always thinking about how their companies or facilities are complying with federal, state, and local regulations.  Many use environmental audits as tools to help assess compliance liabilities and provide a basis for minimizing those liabilities by bringing to light areas of noncompliance. This leads to implementation of corrective measures before federal or state inspectors and investigators visit a facility.
However, conducting a comprehensive environmental audit can be a daunting task.  
On today’s episode of EHS on Tap, Doug Ruhlin, environmental and sustainability consultant and owner of Resource Management Associates joins us to talk about how to keep environmental audits manageable so that they can be an efficient, useful tool.

E21: Environmental Audits 101: What Every Facility Manager Should Know

OSHA’s lockout/tagout rule aims at protecting workers from hazardous energy in the workplace.  Dave Galt, BLR’s Senior Legal Editor for Safety and resident lockout/tagout expert joins us to address issues such as: Does OSHA’s standard reflect current technology? What are some of the alternative methods that can be used that offer the same protections as lockout-tagout? And, under the Trump administration, can we expect any changes to OSHA’s lockout/tagout rules or their enforcement?

E22: What's On The Horizon For OSHA's Lockout/Tagout Rule?

Today we’re focusing on the health part of EHS—mental health, to be specific. The mental health of employees at your organization is an important factor affecting everything from the company’s efficiency to the likelihood of a violent incident. Unfortunately, it’s also a factor that is all too easily overlooked. Employee assistance programs, or EAPs for short, are a great tool for creating a happier, safer, and more productive workplace for employees—but there can be many challenges to implementing them.
Here to talk about EAPs and how they can boost your safety and violence prevention efforts is Raquelle Solon, Business Solutions Engineer at FEI Behavioral Health and a speaker at BLR’s upcoming Workplace Violence Prevention Symposium (live.blr.com/event/workplace-violence-prevention-symposium)

E27:  The Value of EAPs—From Productivity to Violence Prevention

A robust incident investigation process driven by effective root cause analysis is a critical component of any safety and health program. When safety professionals employ a methodical approach, they provide information that helps determine the basic cause of an incident and leads to the creation of processes, policies, and methodologies to prevent reoccurrences of similar incidents. In short, you need to know what went wrong in order to ensure it doesn’t happen again! However, it can sometimes be a challenge to know where to start.
Here with us today on EHS on Tap to discuss root cause analysis is Francis P. Sehn, Vice President and Senior Risk Control Consultant for Willis Towers Watson.

E29: Root Cause Analysis—Learning from Incidents to Improve Prevention

Way back in 2012 the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act (also known as the e-Manifest Act) directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a hazardous waste e-Manifesting system. After over 5 years of development, the EPA is ready to launch the e-Manifest system on June 30th. But what does it all mean for generators and transporters of hazardous waste?
Here with us today on EHS on Tap to discuss the new e-Manifest system and how it’s going to affect hazardous waste shipment is Phil Comella, a partner in the Freeborn & Peters LLP Litigation Practice Group and Leader of the Environmental Law and Toxic Torts Practice Group.

E30: What’s the Story with e-Manifests?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s electronic reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses, also known at the recordkeeping and electronic submission rule, has been a source of confusion for many EHS professionals. Deadlines for compliance have been delayed time and again, and some professionals aren’t even sure what compliance means for them and their organizations. Fortunately, our guest for Episode 32 of EHS on Tap--Jay Finegan, Compliance Services Leader for Dakota Software-- is here to help us sort through it all.

E32: The OSHA Recordkeeping and Electronic Submission Rule—Safety  Meets Big Data

If you’re an EHS professional, your organization’s safety culture must be a major focus—but a strong culture can be tricky to build. Sure, it’s easy to say that you want a safety culture built on inspiration, not fear, and that the goal is for employee engagement in safety to be positively pursued, not mandated. But how do you walk that line between encouragement and discipline, between being a safety coach and being a safety cop? Our guest has some suggestions!

Here with us today is Shawn M. Galloway, President of ProAct Safety. Shawn is a consultant, professional speaker, and author of several bestselling books on safety strategy, culture, leadership, and Behavior-Based Safety.His clients include most of the best safety-performing organizations within every major industry, and he has received awards for his significant contributions from multiple organizations, including the American Society of Safety Engineers.

E34: Safety Culture—The Balance Between Coach and Cop

Good training is the cornerstone of every successful environment, health, and safety program. However, it can be a challenge to ensure that your trainees engage with, absorb, and—perhaps most importantly—retain the information you need to communicate to them. There are plenty of methods and tools out there that aim to maximize adult learning, and one of them is making a great impact in the training space right now: Microlearning. Today on EHS on Tap, we’re chatting with Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify. Carol is a microlearning expert who is here to help us learn more about this training tool and how it can help EHS professionals in their employee education efforts.

E39: Microlearning: Techniques to Jumpstart Your EHS Training Programs

The threat from workplace violence is very real, and employers simply can’t afford to ignore it. In this episode of EHS on Tap, we’re talking about the intersection of workplace violence with another common organizational concern: substance abuse. We are joined today by Patrick Prince, the associate vice provost and chief threat assessment officer for the University of Southern California. In addition to his role at USC, Patrick is a standing member of corporate threat assessment teams for several Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous cities and government agencies, and he has consulted on more than 2,800 cases of workplace violence.

E40: Understanding the Links between Workplace Violence and Substance Abuse

The Trump administration has pursued an overall deregulatory agenda at the federal level while emphasizing compliance assistance over enforcement; however, this is at the same time that more stringent regulations are being introduced by many individual states. It’s all resulted in a complex patchwork of regulations—in this episode, we discuss the issues with Ian Cohen, Product Marketing Manager for Cority’s Safety, Environmental, and Sustainability solutions, where he works to deliver products to the market that are designed to meet clients’ needs in an ever-changing regulatory environment.

E42: A Patchwork of Regulations: Environmental Compliance in the Trump Era

Professional development is essential to advancing a career in any occupation, and, of course, the environment, health, and safety field is no exception. There are many opportunities for development out there for the 21st-century safety professional, ranging from traditional certifications to supplemental training to brand-new educational programs supported by digital delivery methods. With so many options (and, in many cases, so little time), EHS pros may wonder what’s the best course of action for continuous career development? While every individual’s path will vary, our guest today has some great ideas on how you can proactively learn and develop your professional knowledge, not just for the benefit of your own career, but also for the benefit of your organization as well. Joining us today for our EHS professional development discussion is Jill James, Chief Safety Officer with Vivid Learning Systems, an HSI company.

E45: Certifications to Soft Skills: Professional Development for 21st-Century EHS Careers

There are many initiatives demanding the attention of EHS managers these days, but two things are near the top of every safety professional’s priority list in today’s work environment: One, improving organizational safety culture; and two, leveraging appropriate metrics and data to improve safety performance. What some of these professionals may not fully realize, however, is that the two can overlap—and while you can take steps to measure your company’s safety culture, you have to strategize your approach in a different way than you would while analyzing your other workplace safety metrics. You may feel like you don’t know exactly where to begin, but we have an expert here today with some fantastic ideas to help get you started.

Joining us for today’s episode is Chuck Pettinger, Ph.D., Process Improvement Leader at Predictive Solutions, a fully owned subsidiary of Industrial Scientific Corporation.

E47: Yes, You Can Measure Safety Culture … Well, Sort Of!

In our latest episode, we’re talking about a form of personal protective equipment that is almost synonymous with safety itself: Head protection! Head injuries are incredibly serious, so it makes sense that the hard hat has become the PPE that is particularly emblematic of safety. However, other than a few fit tests or maybe the color occasionally changing from yellow to white, blue, or orange, some may think that there’s little to be changed or improved upon with traditional hard hats—but they would be wrong! Head protection is evolving to be more effective, comfortable, and easy to use, and new solutions are helping to protect the workforce better than ever before. In today’s EHS on Tap episode, sponsored by Ergodyne®, we’re taking a special look at head protection with a couple of experts who are on the cutting edge of the evolution of this important form of PPE.

Joining us today on the podcast are Chris Cota, Product Manager for Ergodyne, and Aaron Skemp, Ergodyne Product Specialist.

EHS

JBuiltman