Workplace safety: there’s no argument anywhere that it’s not crucially important. Not all workplaces are alike, however; each work sector has different dangers and safety requirements. One line of work that has perhaps some of the most stringent safety requirements is the construction sector; due to the very nature of what the job entails, safety requirements for construction crews are often far and above any other.

When it comes to workplace safety, nothing should be taken for granted. Companies should assume that hazards are lurking around every corner. Even something as simple as walking can present a safety risk in some workplaces.

To some extent, operating a successful business comes down to workplace risk management.

No matter the industry or the place of employment, there are always workplace safety hazards that can potentially threaten the well-being of employees. The first step in mitigating the threat they pose or eliminating these hazards altogether is identifying them.

As an EHS professional, your job isn’t just about responding to issues after they’ve already happened. If you only ascribe to reactive safety, you’ve already allowed a problem to fester. Your job is also about preventing things from going wrong in the first place.

Safety has about as many facets as there are entries in the dictionary, but a lot of the work of EHS revolves around one thing: identifying and controlling hazards.

In the first part of this three-part series on confined spaces we introduced you to some of the grim statistics for confined spaces, talked about the numerous standards and provided two tools to help make understanding the standards a bit easier.

In any industrial setting, health and safety is everything. If you can’t keep workers protected and convince them that they are safe on the job, things are likely to fall apart quickly. Of course, putting together a plan for industrial hygiene and safety is easier said than done. There are a lot of factors to consider that are sometimes easy to overlook.

Job hazards get a lot of attention in the safety world. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s General Duty Clause, an employer is legally obligated to provide a workplace reasonably free of recognized hazards.

Of all the activities a safety professional engages in, dealing with confined spaces can be one of the most stressful and challenging, especially for those who are new to the safety profession or those whose experiences in the field haven’t required much interaction with confined spaces. What most safety professionals do know, regardless of experience level, is that when not managed properly, confined spaces can be deadly.