Pennsylvania workshop enables safety professionals, industry and OSHA to share best practices

On Oct. 31, OSHA and a consortium of Eastern Pennsylvania companies gathered for an annual open forum for safety professionals from the area to share best practices in occupational safety and health.

Workshops provided an opportunity for attendees to function as both teachers and students, instructing and sharing information with others in the industry to develop novel solutions to safety and health issues that have real-world impacts. For example, one of the ideas shared in a past forum was "First Move Forward," which requires that all vehicles (personal or company) are backed-in or driven through a parking space so that the vehicle faces forward and does not have to be placed in reverse upon departure. In companies where First Move Forward has been implemented, struck-by incidents have been nearly eliminated.

The 2014 workshop focused on several key areas including: worker involvement in injury and illness prevention and OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program and OSHA Challenge. The Challenge Program provides participating employers and workers the opportunity to work through a three stage program to develop an effective safety and health management program, and then implement, track and monitor the program, improving it along the way.

Source: OSHA.gov