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April 10, 1766: Patenting of the Fire Escape
The multi-storey building was a mainstay of industrial revolution cities. Although it was an ingenious solution to space constraints, piling people on top of each other floor by floor created major safety problems. One of the biggest was figuring out a safe way to evacuate inhabitants of the upper floors from the building during a [...]
Practice Makes Perfect
The tragic events unfolding in Japan over the past week has us all thinking in terms of disaster preparation and emergency evacuation.
The Importance of Practice
You know the old joke about the guy in New York City who’s lost and turns to a police officer to ask: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
The officer’s response: [...]
Why It Pays to Protect Your Workers
There’s no debate that our eyesight is invaluable: vision is a primary way humans experience the world, and without it, many jobs would prove impossible. The government has recognized the value of sight by passing legislation for workplace eye safety, and employers institute safety measures of their own to protect workers’ vision. While these combined [...]
Understanding Tsunami Warnings
There are three levels of tsunami warnings.
1. Advisory: An earthquake has occurred in the Pacific basin, which might generate a tsunami.
2. Warning: A tsunami was, or may have been generated, which could cause damage; therefore, people in the warned area are strongly advised to evacuate.
3. Watch: A tsunami was or may have been generated, but [...]
7 Ways to Survive a Tsunami
Tsunamis, also known as seismic sea waves, are a series of enormous waves created by an underwater disturbance such as an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption or meteorite. A tsunami can move hundreds of miles an hour in the open ocean and smash into land with waves as high as 100 feet (30 meters) or more.
From [...]
Preparing for a Flood
Do you know the flood risk of where you work or live? If you live on a flood plain, you’re probably aware of the risks. A flood plain is an area near a body of water, such as a river, that floods periodically. It may not flood every year, but it will flood some years.
If [...]
After the Flood
Floods are once again taking a toll on North America. We all know that floods are dangerous. What’s less well known is that many flood-related injuries and fatalities occur during clean-up. Here’s some safety information to share with your workers, especially if they live in low-lying areas or flood zones.
Clean-Up May Be More Dangerous than [...]
A Valentine’s Day Job Hazard Assessment
Few activities pose greater hazards than falling in love! It all starts with a fall. Those who fall deepest in love fall hardest. When love enters your life it takes your breath away. Not only do you lose the ability to breathe, you risk breaking a vital organ – your heart. Cupid’s arrow can leave [...]
EMERGENCY RESPONSE SPECIAL ISSUE
Most of the things we write about for SafetyXChange apply equally to a US and Canadian—and indeed a global audience. But today’s feature story is about a US law. So we’ve divided the issue and added separate materials on a topic of Canadian law. Both stories deal with the same theme: [...]
OHS Law Requirements & How to Comply with Them
EPCRA is a US law. So, in the interest of equal time, here’s an article on a parallel topic for our Canadian members. It’s an overview of fire preparedness and response requirements in the OHS laws. There’s also a chart that summarizes the general fire protection requirements in each jurisdiction’s OHS law. [...]
