Best Practices

In an October 6, 2011 Federal Register notice (76 FR 62093), OSHA announced an informal stakeholder meeting to discuss approaches to preventing occupational hearing loss.  OSHA is hosting this meeting to gather information on best practices for noise reduction in the workplace and invites discussion on personal protective equipment, hearing conservation programs and engineering controls. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported in their July 2011 Traffic Safety Facts that their High- Visibility Enforcement model programs, aimed at curbing distracted driving, have been successful. 

NHTSA initiated distracted driving demonstration programs in two communities to test whether a high-visibility enforcement (HVE) model could reduce two specific instances of distracted driving—talking or texting using a hand-held cell phone. The HVE model combines:

NIOSH and the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) partnered in 2007 to create the Safe-In-Sound Award for Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention. The objectives of this award are to recognize organizations that document measurable achievements in hearing loss prevention programs in the work environment, and to obtain and disseminate information on their real world successes.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has categorized workplace violence into four types: 1) violence associated with criminal intent, 2) customer/client violence, 3) employee-on-employee violence, and 4) violence associated with personal relationships. The last category includes sexual violence and spillover of domestic violence into the workplace.
 

Since 2003, a steadily increasing percentage of ORC Worldwide member companies have implemented policies or guidance covering cell phone use while driving on company business, according to three surveys conducted by ORC in 2003, 2007 and 2009. In 2003, 70 percent of 40 member companies surveyed had a policy or guidance regarding the use of cell phones; by 2009 the percentage had climbed to 93 percent.

Has your company found a way to keep all contract workers and subcontract workers as safe as your own employees?   Nearly three years ago, when ORC Worldwide began looking at the challenge of protecting contract workers on behalf of a client, we discovered an astonishing absence of data on contract worker injuries and fatalities.