User Poll

  • What’s your favorite job to do as a safety leader?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

SafetyXChange Feedback

Thoughts? Let us Know

Uncategorized

Pet Peeves & ‘Common Sense’

“Last Thursday’s article on pet peeves [by Dave Gouthro] refers to ’simple common sense.’ Well, I also have a pet peeve of my own: the term ‘common sense.’ Boy, do I dislike it. In a past situation, I was involved with improving Accident Investigation at a workplace. In reviewing existing investigations, [...]

Read Full Article

Manual Labor

Here’s a training blooper submitted by a SafetyXChange member who asked to remain anonymous to avoid embarrassing his colleague.
A safety engineer on our staff reported an occupational back injury that resulted in time off from work. Another safety engineer investigated the injury and found that the accident had been caused by lifting a box [...]

Read Full Article

Joke of the Week

How many safety personnel are needed to change a light bulb?
Fifteen:
One to conduct the Project Safety & Health Review;
One to prepare the Job Safety Analysis;
One to review the Standard Operating Procedure;
One to check regulatory requirements;
One to assess training needs;
One [...]

Read Full Article

July 26, 2002, The Quecreek Mine Miracle

Any time a worker survives a mine accident, it feels like a miracle. Multiplied by 9, it’s like a miracle on steroids. So what happened 8 years ago on this date in the Pennsylvania Quecreek Mine is a tale worth retelling. 
It began 2 days earlier, on July 24. At 8:50 [...]

Read Full Article

July 12, 1949, Baseball Adopts the Warning Track

Innovations like the batting helmet, catcher’s mask and padded walls have made the game of Baseball much safer to play since the fatal beaning of Cleveland Indians’ shortstop Roy Chapman in 1920. And if you believe the “Internet,” today represents the anniversary of another one of Baseball’s safety features. On this [...]

Read Full Article

Death on the Diamond: The Tragedy of Ray Chapman

With Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game a day away, this seems like an appropriate time to reflect
on one of the game’s darkest moments. It happened on August 16, 1920. The Cleveland Indians had travelled to the Polo Grounds in New York to take on an upstart team [...]

Read Full Article

June 29, 1864; The Grand Trunk Railway Disaster

19th century Americans weren’t the only inhabitants of North America with the ambition to build a railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Construction of Canada’s version of the transcontinental railroad, the Grand Trunk Railway, started in 1853. Six years later, it began operations between Ontario and Quebec.
Unfortunately, the great [...]

Read Full Article

The Tragedy of the Victoria Hall Stampede

On June 16, 1883, excitement and laughter filled Victoria Hall in Sunderland, England. Hundreds of children had been looking forward to this day, and now they gathered in the event center to enjoy the travelling entertainers, Mr and Mrs Fay.
Toward the end of the show, it was announced that children with [...]

Read Full Article

Phenomenal Woman

Phenomenal Woman
By Maya Angelou (Selected by Barbara Semeniuk)
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size.
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
“It’s in the reach of my arms,
[...]

Read Full Article

Dr. James Young Simpson

It’s hard to imagine but for centuries surgery was performed without anaesthetics. No wonder it was considered a treatment of last resort, one that patients often failed to survive.
The ancient Sumerians first used herbal remedies derived from opium poppies as anaesthetics in 4200 BC. A 10th century Persian work describes a cesarean [...]

Read Full Article