You can read summaries of their presentations on our Web site.

If you look around the Web, you can also find sites selling ISEA standards, and the standards of many other organizations, at deep discounts.  One of them even claims to be “powered by the American National Standards Institute.”  It’s not, of course.  And the standards developers get nothing for the pirated documents this site provides. 

Before you click through a purchase from one of these discount sites, consider what you’re doing.  You’re buying stolen property.  And consider who you might be dealing with.  It’s nearly impossible to track down who’s behind these sites, but the one mentioned in this post is hosted by a Web service in Iran.  Do you really want to provide them your contact information? 

Think about it.

The 29 new QSSP’s (here’s the list) from around the US and five foreign countries completed the course on April 20.  They received classroom instruction from a faculty of safety experts on how to identify and evaluate hazards, manage health and safety in an organization, and how all the parts of the safety and health program have to work together.  They studied air sampling and exposure levels, respiratory and fall protection basics, electrical safety, confined spaces, capabilities and limitations of PPE, and lots more. 

What this means to the customer is that their PPE vendors can be their partners in prevention.  QSSP’s learn what safety directors and employers face as they try to control hazards, protect workers and manage compliance with a host of regulations.  They also learn how to explain the true cost of an injury on the job, how that injury affects the whole enterprise, and how deeply it cuts into profits.  Then they can sell solutions and sustainability.

Don’t take our word for it: Read what Bob Ennamorato says about QSSP in his PPE Forum blog.  Check out the QSSP Web site to learn more about the program, search for QSSP’s in your area, and learn how a QSSP can help your business.

Really? 

When I got back to the office I opened a newsletter and found an article about the lobbying campaign from a coalition called Friends of NIOSH to preserve part of that agency’s funding.  A few pages later there was an item about Public Citizen’s call for legislation to require government agencies to reject bids from companies with bad safety and health records.  Now let’s see … organized efforts to get a legislative result are called lobbying, right? 

Sure, there are businesses and interest groups that lobby for less safety and health regulation.  The Chamber occupies a big building a block from the White House, and it’s surely full of lobbyists.  But just a block away there’s an equally big building that’s just as full of lobbyists – the headquarters of the AFL-CIO.  And there are plenty of other groups out there — ISEA being one of them – that lobby for safety and health in the workplace.  Call it advocacy, lobbying, whatever – it’s all the same, and it’s an important part of the deliberative process of government.

Just don’t call it hazardous.

Maybe it’s because the standard – in this case, ANSI/ISEA Z87.1 for eye and face protection – is well known, almost universally specified, and referenced in the OSHA regulations.  Still, not even mentioning it in an article on vision protection selection raises some concerns.  All glasses are not safety glasses, and even some that look the part haven’t been subject to the rigorous testing that the standard requires.   Standards provide a convenient shorthand: you specify Z87.1 so that you don’t have to use a long list of requirements.  But don’t think that everyone knows about a standard.  When you’re telling people how to specify PPE, don’t forget the standard.

But you also might see some in the stands.  Boston.com reports that a Mass Eye and Ear doctor is sending 24 pair of Peltor ear muffs, in children’s sizes, for kids of the players.  The reporter quotes the doctor as saying “anyone lucky enough to attend the Superbowl should think about wearing some sort of hearing protection device, like earplugs, especially during the fireworks display, Blue Angels jet flyover, or halftime show where decibel levels could reach above 120.” 

It sounds like someone at NIOSH is going to try to do some real-time noise research at the game. A Twitter feed from  Noise Noise Research (@NIOSHNoise) suggests that anyone going to the Super Bowl download a noise meter smartphone app and send the results, which will be tweeted in real time (#noiselevel) during the game.

The risk of buying a counterfeit may be small if you’re picking up a “designer” handbag or a pair of sunglasses.  But what if it’s a bogus software program that fries a computer network?  A drug that doesn’t work?  A critical component in an airliner?  One international organization estimates the annual cost of counterfeit products at $600 billion.  The human cost can be higher.

Think about PPE.  You purchase and wear PPE expecting it to do one thing – protect your eyes, ears, lungs, limbs or life against a hazard.  You may never need it, but when you do, there’s often no second chance.  Suppliers, users and regulators have agreed on standards of performance for all types of PPE.  Manufacturers design, build and test equipment to meet those standards.  You’re not going to buy a pair of safety glasses or a respirator from a street vendor, but what if you’re getting it from a Web site?  It’s critical to make sure what you’re buying is the real thing.  Know your suppliers.  Make sure the PPE you’re buying has been tested for compliance with all appropriate standards.   Remember what you’re buying it for, and don’t ever settle for “good enough.”

The NSC Congress & Expo is a conference with exhibits, a meeting whose main purpose is continuing education and training in all facets of safety – transportation, community, education, occupational.  It’s an annual event, and moves around the country.

To the exhibitors who were at both, including a lot of ISEA member companies, the contrast is stark.  At A+A, companies meet customers and potential customers, show their products, and make deals.  Everyone there is focused on occupational safety and health.  At the NSC show, they show their wares to some distributors and some end-users, but it’s a much smaller crowd, with varied interests.  There are times when the trade show floor seems empty of anyone but exhibitors.

Not surprisingly, these exhibitors are unhappy with the US trade show situation.  It’s not just the NSC – the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo (AIHce) and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Safety Exposition are more focused on workplace safety and health, but they come in for their share of gripes as well.  Companies question the value of bringing their wares to three trade shows every year, not to mention the regional conferences and multitude of market segment shows that have some safety component.  They chafe at the lack of interest among attendees at these conferences, which are after all not held for the primary purpose of putting buyers and sellers together.

When the discontent rises to a level approaching outrage, exhibiting companies call for a better deal.  They feel their requests are reasonable: merge the three big US shows (NSC, ASSE, AIHce) into one big trade show and hold it every other year.  In other words, make it the equivalent of A+A.  They say they’d be willing to pay double what they’re paying now for booth space, and in fact they’d probably book more floor space in a consolidated show.  ISEA has conducted surveys, and organized a meeting with the executive heads of the three sponsoring organizations a few years ago.  To be fair, all of them have taken steps to improve their shows for exhibitors.  And these events are the primary market exposure for some companies.  But the fact remains that they are conferences, not trade shows.  There is no broad-based workplace safety and health trade show in the United States.  PPE companies, feeling they have to be there, are forced to send booths, products and people to multiple events every year, with diminishing returns.

So what do you think?  Is is time for a single workplace safety and health trade show in North America?  Would you attend?  Would ou exhibit?  What would be your expectations for such a show?  Share your thoughts here, and keep the conversation going.

Representatives from ISEA, Honeywell, and 3M, discussed emerging PPE technologies that provide cost-effective solutions for employers. In-ear dosimetry allows for real-time exposure monitoring under the hearing protector, which documents noise at the eardrum without relying on rating methods or estimates of protection. Innovation in intelligent communication technology enhances worker safety by blocking noise, while allowing voice and warning signals to be heard more naturally. Improved hearing protectors allow speech frequencies to be discerned with less distortion and helps combat worker isolation and overprotection in the workplace. These advances in technical function and ease of use will help employers monitor exposure and allow workers to maximize the noise reduction capabilities of their hearing protection devices.

In addition to technical advances in hearing protection devices, ISEA, 3M and Honeywell representatives also advocated for consistent training on the use and selection of hearing protectors, and new OSHA regulations setting the permissible exposure limit for hazardous noise at 85 dBA (it is currently 90 dBA) and lowering the exchange rate to 3 dBA from 5 dBA.

ISEA’s Marketing and Communications Committee organized this event to showcase the expertise of ISEA member companies in helping users deal with personal protection issues and concerns.  Keying off the “OSHA top ten” in safety violations, they chose fall protection, hearing protection and respiratory protection as subjects, adding PPE conformity assessment as a general topic.  Experts from the product groups were Marty Lorkowski of Scott Safety, Theresa Shulz of Honeywell/Howard Leight and Tom Wolner of Capital Safety, with MSA’s Eric Beck representing the Standards Policy and Planning Committee.

The presenters covered fall protection regulations and standards, expected changes to the EPA Noise Reduction Rating testing and labeling rules, how to plan and run an effective respiratory protection program, and ISEA’s progress on a conformity assessment standard.  There are links to all the presentations on ISEA’s Web site. 

According to Marketing & Communications Committee chairman Rusty Franklin of Sellstrom, the NSC was “thrilled” with the forum, and “definitely want to do it again next year.”  Educating and informing the user community is an important part of ISEA’s mission to protect the safety and health of workers worldwide.