Author Archives: Dan McLean

About Dan McLean

Dan McLean is a senior content marketing manager for Intelex Technologies in Toronto, specializing in environment, health and safety (EHS) topics. He has been a journalist, market researcher, executive communications specialist and content marketer over his 30-plus year career in information technology.

Should You Be Contesting That OSHA Citation?

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Going down the road of litigation isn’t always the right path to take when your organization is on the receiving end of an OSHA citation.

Your company has just been cited for a safety violation or workplace incident by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). What should you do now?

You have 15 days to respond and according to John Ho, the co-chair of the OSHA workplace safety practice at international law firm Cozen O’Connor, contesting an OSHA citation shouldn’t necessarily be your automatic response. There are many factors to consider when determining a course of action, he says, explaining that a decision should weigh issues that may have significantly greater liabilities than the actual OSHA penalties imposed.  

“Lawyers are expensive and usually you’re going to spend more money on litigation, even if you win,” Ho says. “To fight a $30,000 to $50,000 OSHA (fine) – the cost/benefit … Read more...

Great Ideas to Ignite Your Organization’s EHS Passion

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Seasoned safety pros and newly-appointed novices can benefit from these great tips for becoming a better EHS leader.

William Gibson, a safety specialist for Ohio-based Del-Co Water Company Inc., admits he’s far from being the most seasoned environment, health and safety (EHS) professional. But he is passionate about people and a keen observer who has taken the best ideas from safety veterans he’s encountered and applied those learnings to his own professional journey.

Gibson says he stepped out of his comfort zone to become a safety manager in 2017 when his company called out for someone to manage safety for the growing organization. During a recent presentation at the EHS Today Safety Leadership Conference, he shared many of the great lessons learned during his relatively short five-year career as an EHS professional and outlined what he believes are the building blocks of a great safety program and the key elements … Read more...

ESG’s Growing Importance Will Draw Upon EHS Leadership

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Survey results show intrinsic links between the two practices of ESG and EHS with both areas sharing many common concerns and similar objectives.

The role played by environment, health and safety (EHS) in the development and execution of environmental social and governance (ESG) strategies may depend on who you ask.

A recent Safety + Health Magazine webinar highlighted 2022 research from Vance and Bourne conducted on behalf of Intelex and shed light on how EHS and ESG leadership professionals are dealing with their evolving mutual challenges. The resulting report – Big Ambitions. Complex Data. Limited Visibility – analyzes a survey of 450 professionals who occupy EHS and ESG leadership roles in North American public and private organizations representing 17 business sectors. 

Survey results show intrinsic links between the two practices with both areas sharing many common concerns and similar objectives. During the webinar it was revealed that a vast majority … Read more...

Research Reveals Collection and Quality as Top EHS and ESG Data Challenges

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Organizations are challenged in their efforts to gather EHS and ESG data and poor data quality hinders their ability to improve EHS and ESG performance.

The ability to collect data and be assured it is of high-quality are essential to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) reporting and compliance success, according to speakers at a webinar outlining recent North American ESG and environment, health and safety (EHS) research.

Traditional and ad hoc ways of collecting ESG and EHS data are not enough, according to one speaker. Virginia Hoekenga, deputy director for the National Association for Environmental Managers (NAEM), says companies must move from Excel [spreadsheets] and paper approaches to systemic and holistic management of ESG and EHS using information technology and digital systems.  

Hoekenga was speaking during a presentation of 2022 research from Vance and Bourne conducted on behalf of Intelex that explores how EHS and ESG professionals are … Read more...

Skilled and Experienced or a Proven Leader – What Type of Safety Manager Would You Hire?

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Here’s one professional who says a true safety leader shows commitment to excellence, a strong work ethic and personal accountability. Skill and experience are things you can teach.

When he was hired 12 years ago, Bill D’Amico wasn’t what most might have considered the predictable and obvious choice as global director of safety and health for pipe-joint manufacturer Victaulic Company of Pennsylvania.

But a 2010 fatality at a Victaulic foundry became a defining event and may have prompted company executives to think differently. Never again, ownership vowed, and was determined to recruit a safety leader who could radically improve safety performance and safety culture. Enter D’Amico.   

“I had zero safety experience, so why in god’s name would a global company of 5,000 people that just had a fatality hire someone who didn’t know a damn thing about safety or foundries,” he said, during an October panel discussion at the … Read more...

Close Calls and Near Misses Target a Safety Improvement Bullseye

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By tracking and analyzing safety close calls and near misses today, organizations are better able to reduce tomorrow’s incidents that might cause injuries as a result of workplace hazards.

American industrial safety pioneer Herbert Heinrich long ago did the math regarding the importance of reporting and tracking of near-miss and close-call incidents. By his calculation, every workplace injury is preceded by up to 29 other minor injuries that may have required first aid and perhaps as many as 300 near-miss incidents where someone narrowly missed injury.   

Reporting, tracking and learning from close calls and near misses – those instances when someone was almost injured, machinery was nearly damaged, productivity could have been lost or a financial loss might have happened – is key to minimizing potentially catastrophic incidents. Near misses should never be ignored and safety professionals must continually track and analyze them, according to Intelex Vice President and … Read more...

What is Incident Management in Safety? (And How Does It help Your OSHA Recordkeeping?)

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Incident management, the process of identifying, documenting, responding to and eliminating workplace injuries and illnesses, is a fundamental obligation for many employers. An important aspect of incident management in safety is OSHA recordkeeping and determining what incidents should be tracked and what data needs to be collected and reported to regulators can be confusing.

Say you reported to your manager that you had a headache. You’re not sure what caused it and are given three acetaminophen capsules. Is this considered a first-aid case by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or is it a recordable injury incident that must be tracked? What if you were only given one capsule? Is it still first aid or should it be recorded by your incident management system? 

An employee goes on one day of light duty at work. Is that a recordable? What if it lasts two days? A worker sprains an ankle … Read more...

Look for the “Believers” to Evangelize Your Safety Culture

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Occupational health and safety, like anything, needs to be imbedded into culture and culture is created by the employees.

Safety cultures should be created by employees for each other – empowered, invested and supported by the company – as opposed to forced down and then begrudgingly adopted or ignored.

That’s the view of Neil Bedwell, a council member of Forbes magazine who heads up a consultancy that focuses on culture called Local Industries, based in Atlanta. Employees represent the most important stakeholders in any workplace initiative, he says. In the context of health and safety, guidelines may be created by a small group of senior people, but it is the employees on the floor who bring these principles to life day-by-day and minute-by-minute.

“Occupational health and safety, like anything, needs to be imbedded into culture and culture is created by the employees,” Bedwell says. “Health and safety … Read more...

EHS Software and Technologies Help Businesses Keep Pace with Transforming Work

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The speed and the pace of work is creating new challenges and opportunities for health and safety in the massive volumes of data that can be captured by EHS management systems and how it can be used to improve performance.

Technology is the driving force behind workplace transformations and will be the engine powering environmental health and safety or EHS management to ensure it keeps pace with the ever-changing and increased speed of work.

An article in the Houston Chronicle (CHRON) reports that technology’s impact on work has exponentially increased the rate of production and speed at which business occurs, adding that, “technology in the workplace has helped workers become more efficient than ever before. What used to take hours now can take minutes.”

The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report says 73 percent of executives predict significant industry disruption in the next three years due to technological changes, … Read more...

Is an EHS Management and Sustainability Approach Right for Your Business?

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Sustainability and EHS software may be just the thing your organization needs to help keep your workers safe and protected.

Keeping workers protected and workplaces safe needs the commitment and involvement of all divisions within a business. It also requires an integrated approach to what might be described as EHS&S or environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability. One that includes:

  • Steps to define and prepare for risk,
  • Aligns a stronger and safer workplace culture,
  • Maps EHS and sustainability goals and objectives, and,
  • Consolidates for consistency across all business segments.

An EHS&S information management system may be just the thing your organization needs, but how would you know? Check out this four-phased approach, below, for answers and guidance.

Phase 1. Step Back and Evaluate Your Needs:

Are you only managing permits and compliance deadlines? If so and your business is small, simpler could be better.

“You can have a process … Read more...