In an earlier recorded discussion with Cal Beyer, we learned that the construction industry had very high rates of stress, depression, substance use and abuse, and suicide (see Why Mental Health and Suicide Prevention is the Next Frontier in the Construction Industry Safety).

And then, to add insult to injury, the COVID-19 pandemic came along, adding virus-related health concerns, economic and job-security stresses, and more concerns. This has made the situation worse, not better.

We keep tabs with Cal on social media (follow Cal on LinkedIn here) and have been listening in as he continues to raise awareness about this long-term issue and how the COVID-19 pandemic has been making things worse, and so we decided to ask him to join us, tell us about the situation, and tell us what we can do to try to help.

Thanks to Cal for participating in this discussion and for everything he’s doing to try to help on this issue in general. The recorded discussion is immediately below, and we’re going to publish it now, but give us a day or two and we’ll begin adding some helpful links to things Cal mentions in the discussion as well.

Here are links to some of the resources and organization Cal mentions in the discussion:

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-HELP)
• Wellbeing Trust 
• My earlier recorded discussion with Dede Montgomery discussing Fatigue, Shift Work, and More 
• Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention (CIASP) 
• Cal mentioned “psychological safety.” See our article on Psychological Safety here.
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (phone is 1-800-273-8255)
• Crisis Text Link (text HELP or CONNECT)
• Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas
• My earlier recorded discussion with Dr. Casey Chosewood of CDC/NIOSH on Total Worker Health 
• CDC Data on Suicide Risk–Jan, 2020 report on suicide risk by industry and occupation
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)

You may also want to check out our online health and wellness training courses.

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The Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing (go get your flu shots, friends!), and while many people are sadly without work or are working from home, quite a few Americans are indeed working “at work” and safety professionals are doing everything in their power to keep everyone safe and healthy.

OSHA’s been busy too, as you’d guess. Since the pandemic started here in the US back in February/March or so of 2020, they’ve created a series of temporary guidances for employers dealing with unique COVID-related challenges. And just recently–on October 2, 2020, to be exact–they released another.

The new OSHA guidance is called Temporary Enforcement Guidance – Tight-Fitting Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) Used During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic. We’ll point out some key points below, but as always we encourage you to read the entire OSHA guidance and get the words straight from the regulator’s mouth/pen/keyboard.

What Respirators Does This New Guidance Apply To?

Here’s what OSHA says on this: “It applies to tight-fitting PAPRs, approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), when used for protection against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19…”

What Workers Does This New Guidance Apply To?

Again, here’s OSHA: “…healthcare personnel or any other workers in high or very high exposure risk activities (e.g., emergency responders, mortuary workers, laboratory workers)…”

What Are the Underlying Reasons for this Temporary Enforcement Guidance?

It’s driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but also by teh resulting shortage of N95 respirators and supplies for fit-testing. Here’s how OSHA puts it: “…because of supply shortages of both disposable N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) and fit-testing supplies (e.g., Bitrex™, isoamyl acetate) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

You should also pay attention to this statement by OSHA: “This memorandum outlines a new enforcement discretion policy to permit the use of NIOSH-approved tight-fitting PAPRs, because of their positive-pressure design, for protection against SARS-CoV-2 when initial and/or annual fit-testing is infeasible due to respirator and fit-testing supply shortages.  This guidance applies only to fit-testing of NIOSH-approved tight-fitting PAPRs used as a contingency capacity strategy² when performing job tasks with high or very high occupational exposure risk to SARS-CoV-2.”

When Does This NOT Apply?

But hey, don’t think this means you can do whatever you want whenever you want. In particular, OSHA notes this temporary enforcement guidance DOESN’T APPLY in the following circumstances:

• PAPRs that have not been approved by NIOSH;
• PAPRs used by any workers with low or medium exposure risk to SARS-CoV-2;
• PAPRs used by any workers for protection against airborne hazards other than SARS-CoV-2 (e.g., chemical hazards); and
• Loose-fitting hooded PAPRs that do not require fit-testing.

Where Can You Learn More about OSHA’s Efforts Re: COVID-19?

They’ve got an entire page full of information and guidances. Check them all out here: OSHA COVID-19 Safety and Health Topic Page.

 

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Australian safety professional David Provan is an interesting voice in occupational safety, and recently I read two interesting papers he has co-authored: Safety Work v. Safety of Work and Safety Clutter.

I liked those articles so much we asked David to join us at the first-ever, inaugural meeting of the Portland, Oregon (USA) Safety Differently Book Club. David graciously accepted and he knocked it out of the park, talking about all of these topics with local safety professionals while an adult beverage or two were consumed here in the PNW. So thanks to David for that.

That conversation was so enlightening, I dug deep and asked David if he’d do a recorded discussion on the same basic ideas so we could present it to people who weren’t in the Safety Differently Book Club, and he kindly agreed. And the video below is the official record of that discussion.

We’d like to thank David again, we hope you give this talk a listen and find it useful, and we encourage you to drop your thoughts into the comments section below.

I plan on adding some related links and a transcript below at some point soon. Until then, enjoy the video and thanks for being patient with me!

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In this recorded video discussion with English safety professional Adam Johns, we talk about two big issues in organizational performance improvement (in general) that are big concerns in occupational safety as well: systems and complexity.

Our workplaces are made up of multiple systems, which is why systems thinking is so important when you’re trying to create improvements or solve problems. We  introduce this issue in our Systems Thinking for Workplace Performance Improvement article and it’s also something we discuss in our ATD Human Performance Improvement Model article.

Additionally, our workplaces are complex, particularly because they are sociotechnical systems, meaning machines and humans interact. This is different than just being complicated, in the way that a machine can be complicated. That’s because even though a machine is complicated, you can predict what it will do accurately, but when you add humans (and collections of humans, such as departments or organizations or multiple organizations), things become unpredictable. This can lead to what people refer to as emergence.

I’ve been familiar with Adam Johns for some time, but when I read his article on Complicated and Complex Systems in Safety Management, I knew I wanted to talk through this stuff with him. He was gracious enough to accept, sharing his time and knowledge, and the video below is the fruit of that. Thanks to Adam!

And we hope you enjoy the discussion. Let us know your thoughts.

Note: I’ll get workin’ on adding relevant links and a transcript for this discussion shortly! Thanks for being patient with me until then.

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