Report Details Safety Culture & Climate in Construction Workshop

A new report, "Safety Culture & Climate in Construction: Bridging the Gap Between Research & Practice," reveals outcomes from a recent workshop that focused on safety culture and safety climate and how the two impact worker safety and health in the construction industry. The workshop, held by NIOSH and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), provided sessions on ways to measure safety climate, interventions for improving safety climate, and how to define safety culture and climate in construction. In addition, the event helped identify steps that construction industry stakeholders can take to improve safety culture and safety climate. Such steps include improving site safety leadership, aligning and integrating safety as a value, optimizing management commitment and ensuring accountability.

The report includes descriptions of each session, session handouts, a list of safety culture and climate assessment tools, and results of participants' workshop evaluations. Visit CPWR's website to view the report.

Workers' Memorial Day Is Today

Today is Workers' Memorial Day. It is a day to remember and recognize those who died on the job or suffered from exposures to workplace hazards. American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) says this year marks the 25th anniversary of Workers' Memorial Day in the U.S., and many events are taking place throughout the nation today to help the cause.

Visit AFL-CIO's We Are One website to discover local events, or visit the AFL-CIO Workers' Memorial Day website to download information, toolkits, posters and much more.

EPA Announces Top 100 Companies Using Green Energy

EPA announced its list of Top 100 U.S. organizations using renewable energy. Through its Green Power Partnership, the agency chose organizations that use electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar power. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says these groups are doing their part to reduce carbon pollution and succeeding in business while doing so. "Making cleaner choices to power our communities, institutions and businesses reduces the pollution that contributes to climate change, protects America's health and environments, and supports continued growth in the green power sector," McCarthy says.

Here are the top 10 organizations listed in the Top 100 list:

1. Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, CA)
2. Kohl's Department Stores (Menomonee Falls, WI)
3. Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA)
4. Whole Foods Market (Austin, TX)
5. Google Inc. (Mountain View, CA)
6. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, AR)
7. Staples (Framingham, MA)
8. Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA)
9. City of Houston, Texas
10. U.S. Department of Energy (Washington, DC)

Visit EPA's website to see the complete list.

National COSH Publishes 'Preventable Deaths 2014' Report

A report released by National Council on Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), "2014 Preventable Deaths: The Tragedy of Workplace Fatalities" says that more than 50,000 U.S. workers die each year due to occupational injuries and illnesses. Key findings include:

• At least 4,383 workers died from sudden traumatic injuries in 2012.
• Tens of thousands of workers die each year form long-term occupational illnesses.
• Nearly 700 deaths can be prevented each year by adoption of a standard limiting workplace exposure to silica. 

The report also includes National COSH recommendations that address these workplace fatalities:

• Enhance workplace safety and health programs.
• Create stronger standards and regulations.
• Provide more access to OSHA services in multiple languages.
• Allow workers to file complaints.
• Provide public access to national fatality data.
• Strengthen and update OSHA laws.
• Work on immigration reform.

New Guidance on Emergency Communications Strategies for Buildings

Fire Protection Research Foundation has issued “Guidance Document: Emergency Communication Strategies for Buildings.” The document is derived from a full project report by National Institute of Standards and Technology and was developed to address needs identified by NFPA's Technical Committee for Emergency Communication Systems, which created NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code.

“While we know that effective communication strategies are critical in the event of a building emergency, there’s been little guidance on how to best communicate to occupants and ensure an effective, safe emergency response,” says Amanda Kimball, a research project manager for the foundation. Along with providing guidelines for the planning, design, installation and use of emergency communications systems, the guidance document addresses ways to test messaging from a comprehension and occupant-response perspective. It also offers sample messaging for five different emergency scenarios.