What is occupational safety?  

• Occupational safety is the science used to evaluate the work environment for safety hazards posed by a variety of job tasks. Safety considerations, awareness, training and controls are important protecting workers in job tasks in the manufacturing, construction, healthcare, transportation and service industry operations.
• Occupational safety uses a hierarchy of controls designed to prescribe safe work practices in the areas of driving safety, electrical safety, slips, trips and falls, working at heights, hoist and crane operation, heavy equipment operation, working in confined spaces, operating powered industrial vehicles like forklifts and personnel lifts, excavation and trenching, respiratory protection and many other topic areas.

Challenges  

When designing a work task, it is important to keep the worker from being injured.  The worker is the most valuable asset to a business.  Lost production, medical expenses and worker replacement can be eliminated or minimized by establishing appropriate hazard controls. A job hazard analysis must be completed in order to identify potential safety hazards that can lead to illness and injury could include:

• Electrical hazards
• The control of hazardous energy, also known as Lockout Tagout
• Driving hazards
• Fall hazards
• Confined space work
• Excavation and trenching
• Ladder use
• Hand tool and power tool use
• Manual material handling
• Machinery use
• Physical hazards like noise, radiation, lasers, and heat and cold stress

Benefits  

A qualified occupational safety professional:

• Will have the knowledge, skill, experience, training, and education and uses reliable facts, data and methodology:
• To recognize potential hazards that pose safety concerns,
• To perform surveys, methods, and testing to make a proper exposure assessment,
• To prescribe a hierarchy of controls for controlling potential hazards.

Best Practices  

A qualified occupational safety professional will use a hierarchy of controls, in the following order, where feasible, to determine the best control method.

• Elimination - Design or re-organise the process to eliminate hazards
• Substitution - Substitute the hazardous operation with something safer.
• Engineering controls – Isolate workers from the hazard by using local exhaust ventilation, automation, light curtains, guards, barriers and similar strategies.
• Administrative controls – Change the way the work is done by limiting the time in the hazardous area or establishing other limitations on work practices
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Prescribe equipment to be worn by the worker for protection.

How Can OSC Help?  

Ralph V Collipi Jr. possesses important expertise, knowledge, credentials, and experience in the area of industrial hygiene.  This includes:

• BA Zoology from the University of New Hampshire
• MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Massachusetts Lowell
• Certification in the comprehensive practice of in the industrial hygiene (CIH)
• Certification as a Certified Hazardous Material Manager (CHMM)
• Certification as a Certified Environmental, Health and Safety Auditor (CPEA)
• More than 40 years of experience as an occupational health professional
• More than 10 years of Expert Witness work
• More than 40 years experience in the area of emergency preparedness and response
• Expertise in occupational health compliance program
  • Development,
  • Implementation,
  • Management Systems and
  • Assessment

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