Safety+ Symposium

Fredrikstad Peter Susca, OpX

Many organizations that are calibrated to learn from safety incidents are not learning enough from these unwanted events. This session will discuss the shortcomings in most causal analysis approaches and provide insight into process, system, and organizational factors that create risk.

Kelly Dorsey, Marathon Petroleum

Accidents are what happens when the unexpected takes place. In life, we all work to create strategies that help us to “control” risks. This is a good thing, but like any good thing taken too excess the return on investment diminishes. The weakness created by excessive controls is the vulnerability of becoming too robotic. An example of this vulnerability is when an incident occurs and those responding go through the motions of response without thinking of how or why those actions effect the incident. However, this is only one manifestation of the vulnerability. Others include loss in efficiencies due to not seeing where a process is in need of modification. This workshop teaches how to balance proactive strategies to reduce risk, while enhancing the use of critical thought. This approach allows for rapid reaction to an unexpected event providing a safe and effective response by empowering the responder. It also provides a new perspective on how to increase business sustainability. To stay in the top tier of performers in an industry, one must always be on the lookout for new opportunities and threats. Learn how to embrace expectations and process, while maintaining fluidity of reaction through the application of critical thought.

Cindy Lewis, UAMS COPH Office

WIIFM: What’s In It For Me? It’s the question that every person asks when they are presented with an opportunity. This session will over the soft skills that anyone can use to create a better conversation and engage employees around any topic – especially safety. You will learn how personality identification can be done quickly and why how you communicate really does matter. Join us to find out what bird you are most like (you read that right!) and how being “bird-like” can strengthen your ability to be successfully in your role in any team.

Tim Page-Bottorff, SafeStart

Even if your safety management program has robust technical systems and rigorous training, numerous incidents may occur if you fail to properly manage human factors. This session will demonstrate how human factors are the most challenging obstacle to maintaining your safety management systems. It will also review a real-world case study of how one company was able to integrate elements of human factors management into their SMS. And attendees will learn how to use a flexible framework that can strengthen human and organizational systems with the use of two learning loops.

Sharon Lipinski, Habit Mastery Consulting

According to a McKinsey study, only 25% of managers report that training changes an employees’ performance. The other 75% are left wondering, “Didn’t we do training on that?”

In this session, Sharon Lipinski, CEO of Habit Mastery Consulting, will share the 4 phases to crafting a training initiative that results in long-term measurable behavior change. All is not lost. If you conducted a training program that didn’t stick, you’ll discover how to diagnose why the training failed to have the desired impact and key strategies for reviving a past training, so you finally get the results you want.

Safety professionals will leave this session with new tools for maximizing the impact of their training programs.

Patricia Stock, TTI Environmental

The purpose of this presentation is to help EHS and Facilities professionals learn how to develop an equipment inspection program to meet release prevention requirements. When it comes to inspecting aboveground storage tanks, pressure vessels, piping, and other assets, there are many drivers such as federal and state regulations as well as factors such as business continuity and extending asset life cycle. This presentation was developed in accordance with applicable regulations, inspection standards, recommended practices, fire codes and best management practices all while keeping in mind the financial goals and duties of the organization. Inspection standards and guidance referenced in the training include API 653/510/570, STI SP001, NFPA, PSM, RMP, SPCC, BCP, and Asset Lifecycle Management considerations.

An interactive, rousing game of “Jeopardy” will test the participants knowledge of mechanical integrity components in a fun, but challenging way. Fabulous prizes will be awarded.

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Nancy Mugavero, OSHA Region V

In order from 10 -1 the presentation will cover the top 10 elements needed to have a successful and viable safety and health management system. This is a basic course which highlights the concept of a safety and health management system that will direct leadership and empower employees to create a culture where safety concerns are openly discussed and fixes readily available.

Scott Gaddis, Intelex Technologies

Permit to Work (PTW) is an approval process used to manage and mitigate risks associated with non-routine hazardous activities. Control of Work (COW) is a new approach that is similar but adds on adjacent processes, such as Operational Risk Management, Energy Isolation, Contractor Management, and Barrier Control.

Topics covered and attendees will learn:

1. An understanding of PTW – COW programs, their similarities, and differences.
2. The process for defining work activity, scope, risks, and required controls.
3. Developing a good permit process.
4. How to centralize permitting with review and permit authorization.
5. Understanding management oversight and risk control objectives and evolving from PTW to COW.

A detailed COW-PTW workflow document that supports the presentation will be offered to attendees.

Andrew Crawmer and Steve Maiuri, HAMMER – HMIS

This workshop will focus specifically on how each tenant of VPP played a vital role in the safe and effective restart of in-person training at the Volpentest HAMMER Federal Training Center during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Safety and health considerations and ways to mitigate pandemic related hazards were a huge challenge. We will illustrate how having a strong foundation in the VPP was the hallmark to our success as we worked our way through the restart of a hands-on training center in the middle of a global pandemic. Planning for HAMMER’s restart with the shifting COVID-19 landscape required the establishment of new processes including safety procedures and training methods. We will share how we utilized our existing hazard analysis tool to recognize and mitigate the COVID-19 hazard in the training courses. HAMMER is best known for collaboration and delivering highly effective instructor-led hands-on health and safety training utilizing a workers training workers model. We will share with you how management leadership empowered HAMMER staff and worker trainers to rewrite curriculum and develop new ways to deliver health and safety training resulting in meaningful worker involvement, pride, and ownership.

Hunter Meadors, LJB Inc.

Fall protection equipment is the most visible aspect of a fall protection program, and it can be the most costly as well. Unfortunately, these investments can be completely nullified due to equipment misuse or “cheating.” This presentation covers seven of the most common equipment misuse issues and provides recommendations on what to do if you see the misuse in your work environment. After this session, participants will be better equipped to identify and correct these issues within their workplaces.

Matthew Marucci, Raytheon Technologies

We have all seen and experienced the power of storytelling. Too infrequently have we seen that power applied to safety stories. Maybe even more surprising is that when we open the door for our people to share their safety stories, it is amazing how gripping and impactful those stories can be. Especially when we craft these to be a part of our larger thematic messages, we can create huge wins for our team’s safety culture while celebrating the people who make it happen! Join us on this grand adventure to unearth your team’s safety stories and then develop effective ways to share them, creating memorable moments that can redefine your safety future.

Terry Gray, Terry Gray Enterprises LLC

This workshop is intended to spark a new zeal for safety for workers by challenging the way we see and encounter safety. This motivational presentation will inspire workers of all types to commit and recommit to safety in an energetic way. This will be a workshop that you will not forget as it shares the significance of Empathizing, Empowering, Engaging and Enlarging with your safety efforts.

Rebecca O’Donnell, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM)

The refining and petrochemical industries have a demonstrated safety record that is among the best in the manufacturing sector. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the refining industry ranks fifth out of 403 manufacturing sectors for the lowest rates of injury and illness, with a Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.5. To put that in perspective, the average TRIR for the manufacturing sector in 2020 was 3.1.

Despite this improvement in safety performance in the refining and petrochemical industries, the number of serious injuries and fatalities has seen little decline relative to the Total Recordable Incident Rate.

The AFPM Incident Classification Matrix was created by the AFPM Safety & Health Committee with the following goals:
1. Understand the causes of actual, serious incidents and high-potential near miss incidents in order to implement mitigation strategies to reduce the number of these incidents;
2. Trend the type and causes of actual, serious and high-potential near miss incidents among the refining and petrochemical industries to understand challenges in these industries.

The principles of the Incident Classification Matrix allow for its use at an individual facility or among a full industry sector. This workshop will introduce the concept and principles of the Matrix, examples of how the Matrix can be used at an individual facility or company to trend incident data, and how AFPM utilizes the data on an industry level.

So you want to become a SGE? Learn what it takes to become a VPP Special Government Employee (SGE). Hear about the program requirements and roles that SGEs can assist with beyond VPP on-site evaluations. SGE qualifications, application process, training requirements, and SGE responsibilities will be discussed. An OSHA VPP Manager and experienced SGEs will share the benefits of this unique program.

Earl Brown, Industrial Psychologists, Inc.

Cindy Lewis, UAMS COPH Office of Professional Development & Program Evaluation

Rule 1: Document everything. Rule 2: Review and implement Rule 1 continuously. Documentation is the proof that you are doing what you say you are doing. So, what needs to be documented? How much is too much? Too little? Is electronic documentation acceptable? We’ll cover the answers to these questions and give anyone starting out in their pathway to VPP a guideline on how to start collecting the documentation that you need to be successful at your VPP site visit.

Brenda Tolson-Markas, CIH Enterprises, Inc.

Industrial Hygiene is over 40% of the OSHA VPP Audit Process with advanced requirements of 1) Occupational Assessments 2) Responding to Pandemics 3) Ergonomic Requirements of Hybrid Work Environments and 4) Health Responsibilities for Employees and Neighboring Community Members.

The Future of Industrial Hygiene is evolving quickly with new 5th Edition NIOSH Methodologies along with Biological Exposure Determinants. This exciting time for Industrial Hygienists (IHs) and Occupational Health Physicians (OHs) help minimize risks associated with exposure to health hazards presented by work activities. Improvements in science and technology will increase the ability to control and reduce risks and may also enable IHs/OHs to identify some risks that were not recognized in the past. Changes in the workplace (e.g. nanotechnology, robotics) and in the work force (e.g. aging workforce, diversity in the workforce) will continue to pose challenges and drive improvements in worker protection stimulating the need for IH/OH expertise.

New evolving technology in the field of IH/OH is promising. As long as people work, there will be a need to protect their health. Public concern about risk to worker health and well-being will continue to grow. Increased access to information will lead to broader recognition that occupational illnesses and premature deaths are preventable by some degree of human control. IHs/OHs serve a dual role to promote people’s well-being and provide the science to protect them while they work.

With the ability to utilize genetic tools, databases, dermal assessments, and biological monitoring we can determine how to protect employees in occupational environments as never before.

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Danny Smith, SafeStart

This highly engaging session will examine the concepts of a human factors model that looks at both organization and individual learning loop opportunities to improve overall outcome reliability. In order to be holistic (and successful) in our approach to safety, we have to look at both!

Far too often, companies attempt to address individual issues only through organizational systems improvements. Utilizing things like the hierarchy of controls and safety management systems will accomplish much, but individual safety skills are also required. Conversely, far too many organizations fail to properly address systemic issues and instead look at events through the lens of “who’s at fault” or “who’s to blame”? This doesn’t work either and results in reduced engagement from employees, which is not productive either.

Understanding the complexities of human factors and how they impact an organization, how cultural components such as supervisory interactions, and the role of traditional safety management systems is key to achieving our goals.

As the title implies, we’ll take a fun approach to this subject by interjecting some themes, quotes, and ideas from the classic movie Back to the Future and making appropriate correlations.

Wylie Davidson, Wylie Davidson LLC

Leaving a Safety Legacy is a refreshing look at a presentation designed for attendees to put a stronger value on what matters most; their own personal safety as well as the people around them, both on the job and at home.

This message is not designed to lower mod ratings or to get a better insurance premium, those hopefully come as a result of this message. Nor is it a victim story, which can be a refreshing change to what we may normally expose our teams to. In fact, it’s actually a survivor story, it’s your survivor story, with built-in reminders designed for the attendee to refer back to long after the presentation has been delivered.

One of the best takeaways of this presentation is that every attendee can relate to it at some point on a personal level. By challenging the “What’s in it for me” mentality, which is just part of our human nature, attendees discover what and who those pieces represent and as a result close the gap between having to be safe and wanting to be.

Rodney Garringer, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest

The maturation of a safety culture is not a linear process, however it is vital to achieving a successful safety program. Moving safety to a core value rather than compliance based. Leadership commitment, employee buy-in and proactive engagement at all levels is the only successful foundation to culture change and maturity. The solution is simple just not easy. It is bridging the gap between the hearts and minds of each stakeholder with the organization. This requires and outside the box approach that looks at personal, professional and organizational successes and shortcomings. In this session we will explore the value of assessing yourself, the organizational culture and interpersonal relationships. We will discuss the importance of interpersonal relationships and how to tap into the emotional component of the individuals and the organization. Using this new paradigm, the journey begins when we honestly evaluate ourselves and our organization.

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Scott McKenna, Catamount Consulting

When it comes to safety, employee engagement is vital! If you work in the average organization, Gallup studies show, 85% of your employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged. $300 billion is lost every year in the United States due to unengaged employees. ON the other hand, employee engagement can kick your safety program into high gear and set the state for continuous safety improvement. According to Gallup reports, engaged employees have 48% fewer safety incidents, 37% decrease in absenteeism, 25% decrease in turnover, 21% increase in productivity and 22% improved profitability. Join us while we explore employee engagement and how to create it within your workforce.

Derek Sang, Bulwark Protection

The proper selection of PPE is very important. There is still a lot of misleading, inaccurate and incorrect information regarding selecting the proper Flame Resistant/Arc Rated Clothing. In this session, you will see that though the thermal hazards may be different for different industries the basics for selection, of FR/AR Clothing share many similarities.

Flame Resistant/Arc Rated clothing is used in the petroleum industry, electrical industry, O&G Exploration and where there is a danger of a worker being injured by accidental exposure to thermal hazards. However, there is still a lot of myths and misconceptions regarding how flame-resistant engineering works. We will explore common myths around FR/AR technology, FR/AR fabrics and what to look out for when specifying FR/AR Clothing. We will look at the challenges of how to build a program for extreme heat and cold and what key performance factors to look for selecting FR/AR Clothing. We will look at the regulations, the standards and the “best practices” to assist in creating a FR/AR clothing program that not only protects but employees want to wear.

Kathy A. Seabrook, Capitals Coalition/ Global Solutions, Inc.

It may sound like Alphabet soup! But the nexus of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) and EHS is driving change. Purpose driven companies, who value their people and the environment, are found by their stakeholders to be better led, managed and proactive in the face of risk. This purpose is #TrueNorth and it is proving to positively impacting corporate performance. This is likely on the radar of your CEO and board of directors and impacting decision making right now. This the time for EHS professionals. We understand risk, how to manage it and are positioned to support our companies and the business. Join us to connect some dots on #TrueNorth, ESG, EHS, innovative Risk/Impact management, decision making and explore whether you and your company are future fit.

Scott Genta, Safety Management Services, Inc.

In this Breakout Session we will discuss methods of performing Hazard Analysis on job tasks. We have all seen many ways to do this, the Job Safety Analysis (JSA), the Job Hazard Analysis (JHA), or even the Job Safety and Environmental Analysis (JSEA). In this Breakout Session we will discuss the ways to properly perform a Hazard Analysis on Job Tasks and review some examples. If you have an example you are proud of, please bring it to our workshop to discuss.

OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of 23 federal statutes, including Section 11(c) of the OSH Act. These statutes prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for engaging in protected activity such as raising a safety concern, reporting an injury, or refusing to violate a federal law. This workshop will cover how to create a voluntary anti-retaliation program to 1) receive and respond to employees’ concerns and 2) prevent and address retaliation against employees who raise concerns. It will discuss the fundamental components of an anti-retaliation program: creating an anti-retaliation policy, leadership commitment, responding to reports of retaliation, anti-retaliation training, and monitoring progress and program improvement and the benefits in maintaining effective programs that improve the organization’s bottom line. After attending this presentation, conference attendees will be able to develop anti-retaliation programs in their organizations. Attendees will also gain a working knowledge of OSHA’s whistleblower program.

Earl Brown, Industrial Psychologists, Inc

This session will cover why do we need to train our personnel and how to make sure we are training on the right things. It will also explain why procedures need to be part of an effective training program?

The difference in school learning vs. adult learning will also be addressed.

This session will provide an overview of the steps involved in job and task analyses and one method of designing the training needed for a specific facility. How to sequence the training properly will also be explained.

You will learn techniques during this session to facilitate technically accurate and effective documentation through both the initial development and during process changes. Maintaining accurate and effective documentation will increase the probability of employees using them to perform tasks in a safe manner.

Chris McGlynn, Roco Rescue

Your employee used the proper fall pro, and it engaged when it was needed, but what happens now? How do you retrieve the worker who is suspended and could experience symptoms of suspension trauma in a matter of minutes? This workshop will review the options of what happens next when your employee’s life may literally be on the line. It will feature a discussion of fall prevention, self-rescue techniques and suspended worker rescue. Volunteer participants will be given the opportunity to experience fall arrest equipment firsthand and examine the options for self-rescue.

Lantz Tolson, Certified Environmental Management, Ltd.

Over 40% of the OSHA VPP Audit Process involves numerous aspects of Industrial Hygiene. Let us have some fun and learn about this 40%! Our session will be fun with Starbuck gift cards being delivered to the winning team.

We will be having a set of questions with multiple choice answers. There will be 30 seconds in between questions for your team to come up with your answer. At the end of the game the answers and results will be reviewed. This will be an interactive learning experience throughout the course.

Let us learn together in a fun way, win some prize! Everyone will walk away with knowledge that they can take back to their operations.

Greg Duncan, VelocityEHS

Workplace safety incidents have devastating impacts on employee health, undermine confidence in safety programs, and result in annual US costs of $171 billion according to a 2019 NSC estimate. But most companies still react to individual injuries, rather than follow a prevention-based strategy. This webinar will review the key elements of proactive, risk-based safety management, using the framework of the NIOSH initiative Prevention through Design (PtD) to reduce or eliminate risks at the source. We’ll also discuss the importance of a dynamic perspective that tracks the ways risks in one area of operations affect risks in others, and will include interactive exercises to identify risks in different scenarios.

Marjorie Werrell and Zack Koutsandreas, ERGOWORKS Consulting, LLC

Using case studies and real-life examples, we will look at the major tools used by the Ergonomic Professional. Tools reviewed will include not only the physical measurements, but we will also look at some of the financial measurements utilized in the industry.

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Cindy Lewis, UAMS COPH

Do you feel like you are playing roulette when you must decide whether or not to record an injury/illness at your site? What columns do I check? How many days do I count? Do I even have to record it? What about calling OSHA? Yikes! Even if recordkeeping is not your job, you’ll learn how to categorize what happens at site and understand how it impacts VPP applications and participation. We’ll use case studies to play the game of “Recordable or Not?” to cover the trickiest cases and discuss any recent updates.

Danny Smith, SafeStart

Compliance training is obviously required, but does it go far enough? If your safety program is only meeting minimal requirements, then it’s likely that it’s not keeping your workers as safe as possible. Moving from basics to best practices that address human factors can produce more reliable and predictable outcomes. Attendees will learn how to:

Distinguish the differences between technical and people systems.

Evaluate the effectiveness of their existing training programs in addressing the human factors that impact outcome reliability.

Identify key areas where their company’s safety processes could be improved by utilizing a holistic approach to move beyond compliance.

Eric Giguere, Safety Awareness Solutions

Take advantage of the opportunity to listen as Eric Giguere, a 46-year-old former construction worker from Phelps, NY, shares his story of how he was buried alive while working in a trench. Eric explains the circumstances and events that led up to his accident and the profound effects it has had on him and his family for the last nineteen years. Eric speaks from the heart with a desire for the listeners to learn from his death-defying safety message. He has a very genuine approach and the intent of his presentation is to prevent this experience from ever happening to anyone again. Eric explains how he is an average guy and a series of extraordinary events left him with an unbelievable story to tell. Once you have heard Eric’s story, damage prevention will be more important to you than ever before!

Wyatt Bradbury, Hitachi Rail and University of Alabama Birmingham

Safety professionals are expected to act with integrity, demonstrate high professional conduct, and exhibit ethical behaviors. They are expected to make leadership decisions that directly impact the lives of both employees and the public. Yet, these skills are not taught and rarely reinforced. This leaves professionals to define their personal ethics on their own and navigate difficult decisions, biases, and pressures learning from their mistakes.

This course will seek to provide some context to the world of professional ethics. Ethics will not be taught but context and experiential learning opportunities will be provided through lectures and group activities. An exploration of ethics from a historical perspective will seek to expand understanding on how ethics has been viewed and used throughout civilization.

Brian Black, Kentucky Labor Cabinet

Anyone who has reviewed the VPP Worksheet has noticed the repeated presence of “MR” in the document. These are Minimum Requirements for VPP status. What are these Minimum Requirements? Why are over 30 “MR” designations present in the VPP Worksheet? In this workshop, we will discuss these baseline criteria and how to ensure that your site is meeting VPP expectations for an effective safety and health management system.

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Jack Griffith, JD Dyer, and Brad Gibson, VPPPA National Labor & Management Committee

Every employee needs some type of training, it must be documented, and tracked so there will be no lag time in retaining. Some training is required by Federal or State Law, and/or OSHA standards. Are you aware of the following Safety Training Requirements:

Emergency Action Plan
Employers required by an OSHA regulation have to have an emergency plan must train a sufficient number of employees to assist in safe and orderly emergency evacuation (29 CFR 1910.38)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Employers must provide training to any employee required by OSHA regulations to wear PPE (29CFR 1910.132 and 29CFR 1910.134)

First Aid
If an infirmary, clinic, or hospital isn’t close to the workplace, the employer must insure one or more individuals are adequately trained to provide first aid (29 CFR 1910.151)

Scott Gaddis, Intelex Technologies

Corrective and preventative action (CAPA) planning and completion have long been a challenge for the Safety Practitioner. In many circumstances found issues that are hazardous to the operation, as well as the loss and near loss events are allowed to accumulate, creating systemic failure within the SMS.

This presentation will cover a harmonized and unified approach to planning and performing CAPA.

1. Attendees will know more about and will have 4 takeaways.
2. How to leverage a better CAPA organizational culture and balance priorities of CAPA closure.
3. Technology to consider that accelerates the value from the CAPA program with sustainable corrections.

Melissa Linton, UDOL OSHA

This session will discuss when you might see OSHA at your VPP site. Discussion will include working with OSHA enforcement and how to move forward after an incident. This includes what happens with your site’s VPP status after an OSHA inspection. Learn the different priorities of OSHA enforcement and compliance assistance.

Tom West, MakuSafe

Workforce wearables can go beyond biometrics and fitness, tracking useable leading indicator data that’s relevant to employee safety and focused on the environment around an employee, not the employee themselves. This data includes things such as environmental hazards, slips/trips/falls/ergo concerns, location/proximity/contact tracing, and voice reported good-catches, providing a more complete picture of workplace risk. With this data, manufacturers, construction, and industrial organizations can better understand trends, and gain real time insights enabling proactive and preventative hazard remediation ensuring their workers safety. Companies are now deploying this technology and seeing ROI and reducing incidents and claims by 50-90%!

Zach Kiehl, Sentinel

Through an interactive and engaging presentation (focused loosely on James Bond & his sidekick Q), Sentinel CEO Zach Kiehl will take participants through a discussion on the history and future of health and safety technologies in the workplace.

George Perrett

2021 was a year of challenges for the oil and gas sector but also a year of unprecedented accomplishment. In 2021 several pipelines and industrial sites completed the year without a single utility strike. That’s right they achieved ZERO utility strikes and it wasn’t a quiet year either. North American companies added 2710 miles of new pipeline but and many of those did it without “adverse impact events.” How did they do it? According to the US based Common Ground Alliance (CGA) and the 2021 Best Practices Guide, all successful companies relied on a four-way scan of the property BEFORE anything penetrated the ground. Sure, many today rely on 811 and or include Subsurface Utility Engineering measures but we have done that for years. What’s different is the methodology employed by many pipelines, refineries and chemical plants that identifies subsurface obstructions before digging. This commitment to implement a consistent dig policy which includes proper permitting, four-way scanning and detailed reporting allowed over 70,000 utility locates to be done in a way that provided an overall 99.78% success rate.

Chris Carlsen, Roco Rescue

Confined Space entries are a regular occurrence across industries, but entering a confined space is not as easy as identifying the Entrant, Attendant, and Entry Supervisor. So much more goes into entering a confined space; it takes a team to ensure it is done safely. We will look at regulatory and consensus standards to define who should be on your team and what it takes to be a member.

Panelists: Adrianna Carrera, MAGID; Alsie Nelson, Ergodyne; Alexander Bradley, PhD, DuPont Personal Protection

As rates of heat-related illnesses rise, the US government is cracking down on employers to ensure workers are protected from heat hazards while on the job. The International Safety Equipment Association has been working closely with OSHA on this vital issue, and the premier PPE trade association has this year launched a Heat Stress Solutions Product Group. In this panel discussion, members of this expert team will share tips for creating and maintaining a successful occupational heat ill prevention program and highlight solutions to help keep workers cool.

Terry Gray, Terry Gray Enterprises

This workshop is a “First of its kind” Safety presentation that will convey a important safety message that is entirely done to music using rhymes and melodies. This presentation will take you on a safety journey of a individuals experience trying to make an impact through good and bad times but never to give up on the mission to encourage safety with the message from the nationally sought out presentation “The Safety Man Movement” come enjoy this informational, inspirational and moving safety presentation as we continue to Empathize, Empower, Engage and Enlarge with Safety!

Greg Duncan, Velocity EHS

Workplace EHS training is arguably the most important step we can take toward preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and other negative safety outcomes. Simultaneously, EHS training is also essential to compliance with a broad range of health and safety standards. That’s why one of the fundamental roles of EHS professionals is to make sure that workers have the training they need, when they need it so that they can work safely. That means having a formal, well-developed EHS training program.

Whether it’s establishing training requirements, identifying workers’ training needs, developing the right training mix, scheduling and coordinating training sessions, tracking completion and evaluating program performance, training programs have a lot of moving parts. Managing all of these elements in systematic and coordinated fashion, and setting ourselves up for long-term training success means building our training programs around a solid framework rooted in continuous improvement principles that adapts to the changing training needs of our workers, and the business itself.

Whether you’re a new to training management or a seasoned EHS professional, this session will show you how to manage a highly effective workplace health and safety training program, and introduce key tools, strategies and concepts that will help you overcome training program management challenges, both old and new, and reduce the time and effort needed to keep your program running at peak performance.

Matthew Marucci, Raytheon Technologies

Who doesn’t enjoy a fun game? The answer is obvious and point to the hidden power of using games to connect in an expected and effective way with our team members. When used strategically, these games can raise safety awareness, challenge all of us to lift our team’s safety performance and inspire us to commit our “energy” to create a safe environment for all.

In this 75 minute presentation we will play games! After we play each game, we will work together to develop an understanding of the hows, whys and outcomes of each game type. We will explore how we can use the games to target areas in which we want to enhance our team’s understanding. We will have fun seeing opportunities to use these games to challenge our team to raise our level of safety excellence. We will observe the unique teaming dynamic the games foster and reflect how we can channel this into building teams inspired to think in new ways to reduce safety risks for their team members. Please join us in a fun, interactive, dynamic presentation that will forever change how you think about “playing to win”!

Wyatt Bradbury, Hitachi Rail and University of Alabama Birmingham

One of the greatest challenges as professionals is bridging the gap between work as imagined and work as done. The best laid plans and organized hazard analyses tend to see extensive field modification without ever putting that back in the original terms of the risk matrix or circling back to make the analysis a true living document. This model seeks to present approaches to high level and localized level hazard analyses in the scope of a process that can be used to close the gap and empower our employees to make appropriate risk calculations. Additional risk management considerations beyond the mere probability and severity will be discussed in addition to the various tools that can be used to help gather the information that will contribute to a comprehensive high level and local level collection of data for analysis.

Camille Oakes, Better Safety

Leaders face a frustrating daily challenge: Getting employees to listen, follow rules, and take action to make the best decisions: especially when we are talking about working safe. Why, then, does it sometimes feel like no one is listening?

Influencing people to action is arguable the biggest goal of any Safety Professional—to get someone to choose the Safe choice when we are not watching. Effective communication is one of the best ways to achieve that goal. In our role, we are regularly expected to communicate incredibly important information—technical reports, emails, weekly scorecards, bulletin boards, presentations, trainings, management meetings, toolbox talks, Standard Operating Procedures, and so on. If the communication is lackluster, the action in response will also be lackluster.

In this engaging live session, with brainstorming and small group discussions, learners will discover:
• The different ways people learn and the three main communication methods.
• Methods to handle challenging communication including: hybrid and remote work, multi-employer worksites and communicating technical information to the layperson.
• How to use motivation to persuade and inspire people to take action.

Better communication can go a long way in inspiring safe actions in frontline workers, technical specialists, and any level of leadership. Learn how to make your safety message stick, to adapt around challenging communications and social differences, and why you should find everyone’s motivation. All learners will walk away with a safety communications plan template to help you communicate for action.

Gary Higbee, SafeStart

A common problem in the safety field is a lack of executive or senior management support when it comes to safety initiatives. Executive and senior manager leadership can influence safety performance and at the same time drive productivity and quality improvements. A lot of this has to do with the data they’re receiving. This session will help participants understand the difference between productivity data, quality data and safety data and teach them how to use that data to appeal to senior leadership when it comes to approval for safety initiatives. It will also provide an understanding on how human factors impact safety at all levels and demonstrate the impact that will have on the company through real-life examples and strategies.

Derrick Henry, Phillips 66

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Brandon Schroeder, Believe In Safety

Believe In Safety is a story that takes you on an incredible journey. This story begins with “the day” an ARC flash nearly took Brandon’s life. One of the most valued aspects of Brandon’s story is the full disclosure of his pre-accident mindset; he discusses the realities of the safety culture on the job and how this led him to that fateful day. He vividly describes how this accident changed not only his life, but the lives of those that love him. Come and experience this message and leave with a renewed energy and focus on safety.

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Margaret Morrissey, Kore Stringer Institute; Matt Block, MAGID

The four objectives of this presentation are to:
1. Educate safety professionals on the dangers of occupational heat stress and signs/symptoms of exertional heat illnesses.
2. Explain how safety professionals can identify if heat is a hazard in their workplace.
3. Explain what an on-site heat safety assessment looks like and
4. Educate safety professionals on prevention strategies that can reduce risk of heat-related injuries and illnesses.

Description to come.

Lynn Tegeler, Central Plateau Cleanup Company

Our Challenge

At specific facilities posted as airborne radioactivity area (ARA), our electrician’s role is to ensure that all electrical hazards are de-energized and eliminated when preparing facilities for cold and dark and eventual deactivation and demolition. This requires appropriate PPE that is not only compliant but also ergonomically suitable and protective from radiological and chemical hazards.

We will discuss how we approached this challenge to create a safe, compliant ensemble to be used by electricians in a radiologically and chemically contaminated area. We will cover how we addressed the challenge by evaluating the existing PPE on hand, collaborating with a sister company and outside vendors to create and customize PPE to protect our electricians in these circumstances, and testing and verifying the effectiveness of the newly revamped PPE.

More information to come.

Richard Rivkin, Saf-T-Gard International, Inc.

OSHA mandates the use of rubber insulating equipment when the probability of contact with 50 volts AC or higher exists. Regardless of the heavy fines, serious injuries and deaths that occur from arc flash and electrical incidents, compliance continues to remain an issue. What’s even more shocking is that many workers are not using rubber insulating equipment because they simply don’t know they need it.
The danger of workplace exposure to arc flash and electrical hazards continues to increase as workers’ responsibilities expand to include interaction with electrical equipment. In reality, almost every single facility has a need for arc flash and electrical safety – whether the company is a larger facility with building engineers overseeing distribution, or a smaller facility with maintenance staff working around floor or wall sockets.

This beginner level presentation will examine and answer some of the most frequently asked questions to help teach employers and workers how to identify the OSHA requirements for use of rubber insulating equipment to better recognize greater need for arc flash and electrical safety and how to understand and apply the ASTM specifications for in-service inspection and testing of rubber insulating equipment, as well as how to properly care for rubber insulating equipment to ensure long-term safety, compliance and cost savings.

Al Woodson, Office of Partnerships and Recognition, Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor

Cindy Lewis, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Do you want a clear, concise way to prepare your company for VPP? Come and learn more about a unique program that prepares companies/contractors to meet the rigorous VPP requirements. As a participant, you are offered opportunities to work with experienced VPP participants who will guide you through the three stages of OSHA Challenge. As an administrator, you are offered opportunities to assist companies/contractors to implement an effective safety and health management system and improve the safety and health of their workers.

Description to come.

Bill Davidson, SLIPNOT

Although falls, slips, and trips generate more than $19 billion in costs per year for businesses getting funding to remediate high-risk areas can be the fight of your life. Bill Davidson, CEO, of SLIPNOT can help you think like a CFO. Learn how to prepare and present a business case for safety improvements that will get attention and action.

• How to translate your safety needs into CFO-speak that can’t be ignored.
• What data to gather to present a financially driven business case for safety changes at your company.
• How to evaluate what consumables are costing you versus long-lasting safety installations.
• Assessing the price of lack of action and opportunity costs.

Description to come.

Curtis Reece, Jared Davis, Saprena Lyons and Andre Layson
Idaho National Laboratory & Idaho Environmental Coalition

For many of us the pandemic required a sudden pivot in the workplace of our workforce. The Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) and the Idaho National Lab (INL) sent nearly 65% of our workforce into telework status overnight. This drastic change to the way life in general resulted in immeasurable uncertainty, fear, lack of understanding regarding what would happen next and how to deal with the new expectations of work based upon new criteria and new circumstances. How would we keep our employees engaged and involved in their safety and health? How would we foster and combat the fears and the feelings of isolation? How would we avoid employees feeling isolated while developing a continuous sense of connection when suddenly, we had thousands of employees thrust into a new work dynamic that had never been faced in history? Join IEC and INL for an interactive and informative dialog about how we quickly, efficiently, and effectively paved the way on a moment’s notice to maintain and enhance employee involvement at a pace that is expected of a VPP star site. Come ready to learn how safety and health excellence climbed to the next level based upon creative strategies to ensure our workforce maintained their physical and mental wellbeing. This workshop is designed to demonstrate the successful implementation of the elements of VPP during challenging times.

Crystal Main, Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Labor & Industry

This presentation will discuss how Virginia Challenge is a step by step three-stage process that gives you a road map to making your company one of the safest and healthiest in the country. When you complete Virginia Challenge, you should have a safety and health management system (SHMS) that will also prepare you to apply for VPP STAR recognition. Virginia Challenge is an opportunity for sites whether private or public sector to improve their SHMS through mentoring, training, and progress tracking with the help of an electronic form. Challenge was launched in 2004 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and VOSH signed the Virginia Challenge Directive in 2018 under Virginia VPP.

Kelli Heflin, Onward Energy and Alex Miller, Vistra Corporation

The Power Generation VPP workgroup was formed over 2 years ago. It was developed to provide Power Generation companies a forum to discuss the challenges we face and how to develop best practices to meet those challenges.

Wyatt Bradbury, Hitachi Rail and University of Alabama Birmingham

This presentation will introduce participants to the concept of network of influences mapping. A case study will be reviewed and as a class we will demonstrate how this approach can reframe our investigations in support of finding all potential influences that contribute to situations. This approach will also demonstrate how bias and preconceived notions influence traditional root cause analysis and how this approach can work in support of SMS objectives to bring the organization together to identify problems and present solutions.

Tony Crow, INJAM

Tony Crow worked for Texas Utilities at a Coal-fired Power Plant for 26 years. On February 15, 2003 he was totally BLINDED for life. He shares the importance of communication, wearing the Proper PPE, and speaking up when others are involved in non-safe actions because ACCIDENTS CHANGE LIVES FOREVER.

Ginger Benecke and Andy Foster, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions

Dr. Tommy Hysler, Health and Safety Council

Navigating COVID-19 from an employment standpoint has been like riding a roller coaster. Trying to keep a work environment safe and healthy while also trying to keep up with local, state, and federal guidelines and mandates has been difficult for any employer. Where do we stand with the current state of the pandemic? What are the most recent guidelines for employers to keep a healthy workforce? This information changes almost daily, so this workshop will provide a concise and easy to understand status of what you, the employer, needs to know.

Earl Brown, Industrial Psychologists, Inc.

Is “Once Trained – Always Trained” the way to go or is Refresher Training Needed?
This workshop will address why we need refresher training. Also addressed will be when would we need refresher training. Signs refresher training is needed will be discussed. Methods for identifying refresher needs will be explained. One method of providing the OSHA PSM required refresher training will be presented and discussed.

Jacqueline Annis, Office of Partnerships and Recognition, Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor

Join OSHA for an interactive discussion about OSHA’s VPP-PSM Supplemental questions. Learn basic information about the development of the three PSM Supplements. Review the results of the 2019 and 2021 Supplement B narrative questions. Focusing on the results of the narrative questions, you will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the response data.

Timothy White, RNR Rescue

Rope access has a proven method of achieving a safe work position at height and in areas of difficult access. Worldwide rope access companies have delivered an exemplary safety record based on a commitment to thorough training and diligent operational procedures.

But oftentimes it can be a challenge for safety management to fully understand the work being performed by a contracted rope access team and their compliance to fall protection and rope access standards.

We will explain rope access, the safety procedures of working at height, the certification process as established by the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT), and give attendees hands-on experience with modern rope access equipment.

Jack Griffith, Central Plateau Cleanup Company (formerly-CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC))

Attendees in this workshop will hear from unions safety representatives their unique role, how they are selected, roles and responsibilities, along with day-to-day activities. For sites considering establishing a union safety representative program this workshop will help develop a strong foundation, so you won’t need to recreate the wheel for success. Join us and learn the value and benefits of this unique program.

Drew Saunders, Honeywell Gas Analysis and Safety

Join us for an engaging journey of all things gas detection to better understand how the technology works, the evolution of gas detection, how the different technologies apply to different use applications and so much more. The workshop will help the attendee understand core fundamentals of gas detection technology and use applications. How do EPA/OSHA/NIOSH influence and drive gas detection requirements for worker safety? How do chemical/physical properties effect our ability to use the right gas meter for the right job? Whether it be a portable or a fixed gas detection device every user needs to firmly understand the basics of Gas Detection 101—join Drew as he guides you through this interactive workshop coverall all things gas detection.

Don Wilson, SafeStart

When it comes to safety, most companies experience the same problems: repeated injuries, TRI goals not being met, disengaged employees, lack of management participation and employees taking shortcuts. SafeStart Chief Client Officer Don Wilson has heard it all. In this session, he will reveal the five proven elements to reach optimal safety and share the success stories of companies who have followed these methods to reach desired safety outcomes. Participants will come away with new perspectives, best practices, and tips and tricks from several EHS professionals on how to incorporate these methods to complement an existing safety management system.

Randy Royall, Randyroyall.com

Randy will have you on the edge of your seat laughing, crying, and wanting more. Randy shares his personal story of how an accident almost cost him his life along with the financial, mental, and physical struggles he endured. Come early and get a good seat!

Description to come.