National Safety Survey: Accidents Happen ... Or Do They?

Allen Cortez, director of safety and administration for Hanover Co., thinks that some of OSHA's moves under the new administration will be beneficial to the industry. In particular, he's focused on the cranes and derricks standard.

“I think the crane standard is something that we've needed for quite some time, and I'm anxious to see that put in place,” Cortez says. “I think that all companies should be required to adhere to a crane standard. I think there's some other areas [such as OSHA's focus on recordkeeping] that will have some benefit, but I'm not sure it's where the rubber meets the road for actual builders and people exposed to safety hazards on the job every day.”

Many EHS leaders shared the occupational health and safety challenges they would most like to see OSHA address in the coming year, with common responses including:

• Updating PELs
• Ergonomics
• Saving the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP)
• Combustible dust
• Fall protection
• Recordkeeping
• Simplifying regulations
• Crane safety

Other respondents mentioned distracted driving, confined space safety, the challenges presented by shrinking budgets, the aging work force, indoor air quality and more.

One participant wanted OSHA to learn “how to be the enforcer yet still provided PRACTICAL consultative services, particularly to small businesses,” while another stated, “OSHA/MSHA can't make a workplace safe. Companies need to own safety and make the necessary expenditures.”

ENFORCEMENT OVERDRIVE

Many survey respondents rallied for an increased focus on enforcement, particularly in high-risk occupations, while others worried that OSHA was being too aggressive in this area.

“OSHA is now turning away from working with companies to make them safer places to work,” one EHS leader complained, adding that the agency is “going back to just being the sheriff.”

“They are regulation and penalty [hungry],” the respondent continued. “They have stated several times that they will get companies to comply by raising fines and increasing audits. I understand that regulations and enforcement is necessary … but they are moving to an extreme.”

“OSHA makes everything seem so black and white with no gray areas,” another said. “No company is perfect. Neither are most companies so bad, careless or indifferent that they dream up ways to put their employees in harm's way day after day.”

The survey results showed that even if EHS leaders consider enforcement important, they don't think it's the only solution. Compliance and cooperative programs, like VPP, also received a fair share of attention in the survey comments.

KEEPING VPP

Don Henning, project manager at Clean Air Engineering, explained that his organization currently is in the process of trying to obtain VPP status.

“Our company, for a long time, has tried to get everybody involved with the safety programs that we have, and this concentration on trying to achieve VPP has been successful in getting everybody on board,” he says.

Since Clean Air Engineering has begun working toward VPP status, Henning says the company experienced higher training rates, more input from management groups and higher attendance at safety meetings.

“I've seen a lot of benefits from it,” he says. “I think any government agency that tries to help the industry achieve a better safety and knowledge record and better safety programs is a better way to go than to do the ‘gotchas’ all the time to just find the violations.”

Henning wasn't alone. Many respondents used the survey to stress the importance of maintaining VPP despite recent funding and program management concerns.

“Back off on the enforcement initiative and concentrate again on the cooperative programs such as partnerships and VPP, ” one respondent wrote.