ASSP 2022

Twenty-two workers have died as a result of trenching and excavation hazards this year, surpassing the year-end total of 15 from 2021 and prompting OSHA to launch enhanced enforcement initiatives under its national emphasis program for excavations. According to the agency, its compliance officers will perform more than 1,000 trench inspections nationwide where they may stop by and inspect any excavation site during their daily duties.
“OSHA is calling on all employers engaged in trenching and excavation activities to act immediately to ensure required protections are fully in place every single time their employees step down into or work near a trench,” says OSHA Administrator Doug Parker. “Every one of these tragedies could have been prevented had employers complied with OSHA standards.”
OSHA standards require protective systems on trenches deeper than five feet and mandate that soil and other materials be kept at least two feet from the edge of a trench. Additionally, trenches must be inspected by a knowledgeable person, be free of standing water and atmospheric hazards, and have a safe means of entering and exiting prior to allowing a worker to enter.

• Download our Tech Brief on the ANSI/ASSP A10.12 standard on excavation:

https://www.assp.org/docs/default-source/asspdoc/a10_12_technical_brief_2022_05.pdf?sfvrsn=48279447_0

• Listen to The Case for Safety Podcast episode on trenching and excavation:  

https://www.assp.org/resources/the-case-for-safety-podcast/2020/07/29/episode-46-trenching-and-excavation-safety

​Cold Stress- Winter Is Coming!
It seems almost counter intuitive to start talking about preparing employees for cold stress when it is 80° outside, but the reality is that cool weather is on the horizon. Employers should make a plan now and provide training to keep folks that will have occupational exposure to cold weather safe.
Employers should take the following steps to protect workers from cold stress:

• Schedule maintenance and repair jobs in cold areas for warmer months.
• Schedule cold jobs for the warmer part of the day.
• Reduce the physical demands of workers.
• Use relief workers or assign extra workers for long, demanding jobs.
• Provide warm liquids to workers.
• Provide warm areas for use during break periods.
• Monitor workers who are at risk of cold stress.
• Provide cold stress training that includes information about:
  • Worker risk
  • Prevention
  • Symptoms
  • The importance of monitoring yourself and coworkers for symptoms
  • Treatment
  • Personal protective equipment

 
Workers should avoid exposure to extremely cold temperatures when possible. When cold environments or temperatures cannot be avoided, workers should follow these recommendations to protect themselves from cold stress:

• Wear appropriate clothing.
  • Wear several layers of loose clothing. Layering provides better insulation.
  • Tight clothing reduces blood circulation. Warm blood needs to be circulated to the extremities.
  • When choosing clothing, be aware that some clothing may restrict movement resulting in a hazardous situation.
• Make sure to protect the ears, face, hands, and feet in extremely cold weather.
  • Boots should be waterproof and insulated.
  • Wear a hat; it will keep your whole body warmer. (Hats reduce the amount of body heat that escapes from your head.)
• Move into warm locations during work breaks; limit the amount of time outside on extremely cold days.
• Carry cold weather gear, such as extra socks, gloves, hats, jacket, blankets, a change of clothes, and a thermos of hot liquid.
• Include a thermometer and chemical hot packs in your first aid kit.
• Avoid touching cold metal surfaces with bare skin.
• Monitor your physical condition and that of your coworkers.

 
 
 
 

​Good news—this year’s Southern Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Conference is coming up in October! This year’s conference, scheduled for October 18-20, is partially in person and partially virtual. The in-person sessions will be held at the Ashland Hills Inn in Ashland, Oregon. To be specific, the first day (known as the professional development workshop) will have a four-hour in-person leadership development class called Harnessing Leadership for Business Through Purpose, Direction, and Motivation. This will be a fun and interesting class that safety professionals, leaders, and supervisors will truly benefit from. Companies need leadership, but for many, leadership in the truest sense escapes the fold because the skills needed for true leadership must be learned and honed. Why not come to a class like this and learn from a dynamic individual who has well-honed leadership skills which have been challenged to the highest levels of performance? 
 
Following the professional development workshop will be a lunch with a technical class called Discover the Importance of Sleep to Maximize Employee Performance and Safety. Health, human resilience, clear and focused minds all depend on adequate sleep. Evidence shows that many workplace incidents occur because worker performance is hindered by fatigue. This class will provide insight on how to help our workforces improve sleep-related performance. Anyone wishing to attend this lunch event will need to register specifically for the lunch. The in-person day will be capped off with an awards ceremony and a networking mixer. Be sure to attend these events as well! 
 
Day two and three of the conference will be held virtually. With the necessity of early planning which started in January, we were unable to predict with certainty what COVID-19 restrictions may be in place. As a result, we planned the virtual part of the conference to ensure we would be able to offer classes that are necessary according to Oregon OSHA guidance for safety committees and to cover other elemental necessities of safety that are important to our communities. Besides the safety committee classes such as Safety Committee 101, Hazard ID, and Root Cause Analysis, other important elements to be covered include Construction Safety, Safety Culture, Serious Injury Prevention, Safety Technology and Apps, Ergonomics, and Silica Awareness.
 
We look forward to this year’s conference; learning opportunities, recognition events, networking, and comradery in safety are just around the corner. See you there! You can visit the OR-OSHA website conference section or the Southern Oregon Chapter of the ASSP to view the conference information and to gain links to register. You can also use the QR Code attached to go directly to the registration site.

​A fellow safety professional from a peer company asked me why I am so plugged in to the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). Rather than saying the same thing I always do, I spent some time reflecting on the question and wondering if there are any different reasons at this time in my life. I had to consider what keeps me “plugged in.” I came to the same conclusion I always have: it’s the people. It’s the people whom I serve in the company I work for and the people in the safety community. It just seems the right thing to do if I am going to call myself a safety professional. When I first entered the safety career field many years ago, I became involved right away. Since that time, I have remained plugged in. But to stay in the game, I had to ask myself if there is any value in the time and effort.
 
I took a new job about 10 years into my safety career. My direct supervisor was the president of the organization. At 7:30 am on the first day of work at the company, I met with my new supervisor so we could lay the foundation of building a safety program. It turned out to be a very short meeting because he only had a few things to say; he mostly wanted to know what questions I had. I asked him two questions: “What are my work hours?” and “What are your expectations for the position?” Regarding the work hours, he told me that the hours are mine to figure out—just get the job done—create a best-in-class safety program. Regarding the expectations, his first words were, “Get involved in your trade organization and participate.”  I found this a bit funny because I was going to ask permission to stay involved with the ASSP. He noted that it was a requirement for my continued development. He was a very intelligent and well-educated man, and he was a renowned leader in the construction industry—because he was plugged in to his “trade organization.” He knew the value of being involved in the trade organization of one’s career.
 
My message here? This is a huge part of being in the safety career field. Each of us may be serving our company well, but I firmly believe that if we are not involved in the safety community, we are not serving to our full potential. In other words, we are holding our potential back from our employers and ourselves. The networking, the moral and uplifting support, the knowledge base, and the friendships have become so important to me. Sometimes I get cynical about the day-to-day goings on because it seems that there is no finish line in our career field. However, when I go to an ASSP chapter meeting or event, I see so many people with varying, but positive, perspectives and I feel inspired to keep up the effort. 
 
For your team, for the safety community, and for your self-development, may I suggest that you consider attending the monthly meetings for the local chapter of the ASSP. At the Southern Oregon Chapter, you will get to know people who are on a similar path, and when you build those types of relationships, you will gain more than you are putting in. It is worth the time and effort. Maybe not on the first or second meeting, but as you go, you will find it to be a very wise effort for your professional career.  
 
If you are already actively participating, keep it up because you are making a difference in the safety community.
Chris Lawrence

Is your business prepared for a natural, health, or human-caused hazard? One of the first steps to prepare your business or home is to create an emergency action plan. The best way to protect your employees is to keep them informed of what to do in case of an emergency.
While Oregon OSHA has a rule that lays out the basic requirements for your Emergency Action Plan (see OAR 437-002-0042), there are many more ways that you can prepare your business and employees.
 
The three main steps in getting started are:

• Identify your risk
• Develop a plan
• Take action

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has developed their Ready.gov website to help everyone develop or enhance their existing plans. The Ready Business program helps businesses make preparedness plans to get ready for hazards.
In Oregon, some common issues are power outages, flooding, and earthquakes. Click the following links to get started.
 
Earthquake Toolkit:
https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/ready-buisiness_quakesmart_toolkit.pdf
Flooding Toolkit:
https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/ready_business_inland-flooding-toolkit.pdf
Power Outage Toolkit:
https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/ready_business_power-outage-toolkit.pdf
 
Remember—September is a great time to dust off your plan, have employees complete an annual training, and reinforce your existing plan. Plan, prepare, and protect. Visit https://www.ready.gov/business to learn more.

 
It’s a new chapter year!
 
There are so many things going on in our world that it seems like time is just a blur. While still with us, the response to the coronavirus has stabilized, and we are now back to in-person meetings! We had a great safety conference last October with some great speakers—although the bulk of the activities were online. Despite all challenges of operating in such an environment, our chapter has done well and pulled through.    
 
Surely, we must recognize our members for staying the course and adapting to an ever-changing safe work environment. Changes by the Center for Disease Control, the Oregon Health Authority, government regulations, personnel changes, etc. have all been a challenge to navigate. The flow of change seemed endless. Our members have gone through a lot, and it is such a blessing to see how they have succeeded.   
 
As we roll into the new chapter year, I want to thank those who have stepped up to continue the chapter legacy of success! Take a look at this list of outstanding people who have taken on roles to support this chapter and its members. 
 

I can see that our chapter is in good hands for the future! Without question, this team was handed an outstanding chapter that was headed up by these people who gave it their all:  David Hanson was the back-to-back president whose efforts really did carry our chapter through the pandemic. There are no words that will do his commitment, work ethic, and success justice. Patti McGuire, this year’s vice president, held the treasurer position for many years. Again, as with all of the team, there are no words to do her service justice. She is an amazing person, and I can say this for sure: We have not had a better treasurer and supporter of our chapter. Mike Hill will still be doing meticulous work on the 2022 safety conference just as he has done for several years now with past conferences. What an inspiration. He has done such an awesome job at running our conferences, you would think it was his profession! Yet, like all board members, he volunteers his time! Kyle Valley did such a great job of keeping the chapter newsletter going and getting personnel involved. It may be like the proverbial herding of cats, but he stayed the course and knocked it out of the park. (That was for him—many of you may not know that he was once a professional baseball player!) Our monthly programs were still first-rate because we have a true professional named Jen Killpack who was the program director. Again, the professionalism she brought to the table was nothing short of outstanding. Karrie Hyde Bogart was running our chapter operations effort and did such a great job of jumping into that role despite being in another challenging volunteer role. Again, when I get beat down by the mental rigors of day-to-day safety, I think of folks like her, and I find myself being inspired to step up even more. We had some vacancies in positions throughout the year and we found some excellent people to stand in the gap. These outstanding professionals (Jeff Mook, Nilda Martinez, and Shyra Vaughn) helped the board finish the year in style! And the good news: these three awesome individuals volunteered to stay on for this new chapter year. 
 
As you can tell, I really do admire all these dedicated professionals! It takes dedicated folks such as them to make this chapter a success, but it takes really special people to stay the course when you consider the challenges we have seen over the last couple of years.
 
When you are out and about and see any these folks, please take the time to help us recognize them for their efforts. They deserve it without hesitation.
 
Chris Lawrence
 ​

As high temperatures continue throughout the summer, OSH professionals should be prepared to protect employees who will be exposed to heat and wildfire smoke. Oregon OSHA adopted new permanent rules designed to protect workers from the dangers of exposure to wildfire smoke and heat.
 
The permanent heat rule went into effect June 15th, 2022 and the wildfire smoke rule on July 1st, 2022. These rules are designed to prevent heat-related illnesses and exposure to wildfire smoke, both of which have the capacity to be relentless during Southern Oregon summers.
At 80°F, the heat rule calls for employers to provide water, shade, the ability to communicate, and training. Once the heat index reaches 90°F or higher, there are further requirements, which include frequent cooling breaks and an acclimatization plan. A written plan is required for the heat rule, which is also required to be located at each work site.
 
When implementing the wildfire smoke rule, it is important to understand the basics, such as learning about AQI (Air Quality Index) and what the various numbers mean. With the wildfire smoke rule, the rule takes effect when the AQI reaches 101 and filtering face piece respirators need to be made available for voluntary use.
 
When the AQI reaches 251, employees exposed to wildfire smoke are required to wear a filtering face piece respirator in accordance with Appendix A in the rule. When the AQI reaches 501, Appendix A is no longer applicable, and you will need to implement a Respiratory Protection Program (i.e. medical evaluation and fit testing).
 
You can read more about the new requirements of the heat and wildfire smoke rules here:
https://osha.oregon.gov/OSHARules/adopted/2022/heat-wildfire-smoke-rule-summary-2022.pdf.
 
In safety, the first and best line of defense is to remove the hazard whenever possible. When possible, rescheduling work for the coolest part of the day is a great idea. For many professions, such as public works, law enforcement, etc., this is not always feasible. Setting up misting tents, providing cooling packs or vests, and my personal favorite for law enforcement: Cool Cop Body Armor Air Conditioning. As temperatures increase, this is must for police officers who are running call to call.
 
There are so many great ideas out there that Southern Oregon employers are putting together on how to keep folks cool at work. Please join us for the August meeting and get to know what other employers are doing to keep employees cool. See you then!
 
Heather Ashwill

Save the Date
The 2022 Southern Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Conference is coming to Southern Oregon on October 18-20 and will feature a mix of in-person and online training sessions this year. Please watch for our flyer coming out soon.
 
Professional Development Workshop
Tuesday, October 18th will feature an entirely in-person event including a 4-hour professional development workshop led by retired colonel Jeff Crapo of Ethos Academy. “Leadership is influence,” Jeff quotes John Maxwell. Jeff also quotes the Army leadership manual, “Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.” Jeff will lead us through his model of leadership training and help us better understand how purpose, direction, and motivation all work together to make you a more effective leader. You won’t want to miss it!
 
Special Session Banquet
Following the Leadership Workshop, we will have a special luncheon speaker. Dr. Nancy Knechel will present her sleep science research on how a person with three or more sleep risk factors has a 70% increased risk of on-the-job injury. This is profound research for safety professionals and a new layer of focus that can have a lasting impact on worker safety.
 
Award Ceremony
Next on the agenda, we will host our annual ASSP Award Ceremony featuring Craig Hamelund from Oregon OSHA. This year, we are bringing back the Bertak Award for Safety Committee Recognition, and Craig will recognize leaders and committee members for their hard work and accomplishments. Along with the Bertak Award, we will once again honor the Lundberg Award winners, as well as Business Leader Who Gets It Award, Safety Committee Champion Award, and Chapter Safety Professional of the Year Award. Award applications are posted on our website at: www.soassp.org/conference. Apply to recognize your safety leaders today!
 
Networking Mixer
Lastly, we will bring back our popular Networking Mixer celebration free to all ASSP Members and Conference registrants. We will offer food and beverage along with a no-host bar. The committee is putting together a fun opportunity to get to know other safety pros from our community, and it’s always a great time.
 
Online Safety Conference
The next two days, October 19-20 will be entirely online with dynamic speakers hosted live from our local region and around the country. We are offering three keynote sessions from Jeff Crapo of Ethos Academy, Linda Tapp of Safety FUN-damentals, and Jake Mazulewicz on Psychological Safety.
 
We will also offer three breakout tracks including the safety and health track, the safety committee series, and we are bringing back the construction track. The safety and health track will offer such sessions as Safety Technology, Ergonomics, Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention, Safety Management, and First Aid Playbook. The safety committee track will offer SC101 Safety Committee Introduction, COVE Visual Literacy, Seven Secrets to Root Cause Analysis by TapRoot, SC201 Safety Committee Toolbox, and SC301 Safety Committee Engagement. We believe this will be our best safety committee series ever so bring your team and give them the tools and inspiration they need to accelerate your safety program. Our construction track will feature five sessions including eToolbox Safety Apps for Construction, Focus 4 Hazards in Construction, Excavation Inspections, Suicide Prevention in Construction, and Silica Awareness.
 
We look forward to seeing you in October!
 
Enthusiastically,
Michael Hill
SOSAFETY Conference Chair
www.sosafety.org
www.soassp.org/conference

The systems approach to learning why something went wrong (or went well) focuses on the interrelationship between four main system element categories: Management, Employee, Equipment, and Environment elements. Everything that happens at every organization, happens because of the way these elements work together. Good organizational learning practices will focus equally on each of these system elements in order to learn how this works and why sometimes things don’t work.
Todd Conklin and Bob Edwards teach us that blame is the enemy of organizational learning. It is often pointed out that blame halts any learning that could occur. But how do we know when blame is occurring? Focusing on each of these elements may put decisions made by individuals under the microscope. When those decisions are identified as errors, is that blame? I would answer with a “no.” Conklin and Edwards tell us that human error is normal. When leaders understand that error is normal, recognizing human error is not blame.
In my opinion, blame has a lot to do with perception. If an employee that made an error sees that the only system element that is being discussed is the Employee element, that will be perceived a certain way. It will be perceived as blame, and the learning will stop at that point unless something changes. If the information being provided is only being used against the employee, it is natural to expect that the information stream will stop, and then we will be stuck with incomplete information.
          An employee that made an error, may even want to take full responsibility (and blame) for an event that went wrong. They may be disappointed that they fell into the human error trap and made a predictable and preventable error. Leaders, managers, and supervisors will be tempted to accept the apology and allow the employee to take more than their share of the blame. This is the easy way out. No organizational learning can occur if you let this happen, and there is a good chance that the error will occur again.
Instead, use this opportunity to learn about what happened, why it happened, and what else could have happened. There is a story about the work being done around this mistake that everyone needs to hear and understand before real solutions can be found. Provide support to the employees that could make that error again and find out what solutions can be implemented to make the human error less likely or less damaging. Focus on all four major work system elements of an organization and look for multiple solutions. Get input from employees that do that work and understand it. We should never lay blame when we are trying to learn, but we should also never allow someone in our organization to steal the blame in lieu of organizational learning.
 
 
Sincerely,
​
David Hanson, CSP
President, ASSP – Southern Oregon Chapter
Senior Safety Management Consultant, SAIF Corporation