If you’re new to occupational safety and health, and/or new to OSHA, even the most basic things can be unfamiliar or confusing.

And that’s why we’ve created our OSHA Basics blog series–to help you get a foothold on some of these important topics.

In this article, we’re going to introduce to you the OSHA Field Operations Manual.

We’ve got a list of other OSHA Basics articles on different topics at the bottom of this article for you as well!

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Ever heard about industrial hygiene without really knowing what it is or what an industrial hygienist does?

Well fear no more, friend, because we’ve teamed up with a real-life industrial hygienist to explain it all to us.

In this interview, Morgan Bliss, an industrial hygienist and an Assistant Professor in the Safety Management Department at Central Washington University, is kind enough to walk us through a comprehensive introduction to the field. So get ready to learn everything you ever wanted to know about IH! Not only that, Morgan:

• Prepared her own PowerPoint presentation to walk us through this discussion–you’ll see her slides below
• Included her own original artwork in that PowerPoint–you’ll see Morgan’s IH-themed drawings below too

If you’re the type who prefers to listen instead of read, scroll down to the bottom of this article for a recording of this discussion.

Also, remember that Morgan will be coming back to discuss the hierarchy of controls in a second interview soon.

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Our OSHA Basics series of articles explains basic, fundamental, and important topics related to OSHA and OSHA compliance.

In this OSHA Basics article, we’re going to explain to you what “incorporation by reference” means. Incorporation by reference is also sometimes known by the acronym IBR.

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If you’ve had your ear to the ground for the past 10-15 years, you’ll know there’s been a bit of a seismic shift in occupational safety and health that involves a movement toward risk management, safety management systems, and systems thinking.

We wanted to learn more and pull together a nice introduction to all this, so who better to talk with than Pam Walaski? Chances are good you already know Pam by name and by her work, but if not, we encourage you to check out this article, to follow her on social media, and to catch her giving at presentation at an ASSP conference or elsewhere, as she’s a great source of information on this.

So, let’s get started. Many, many thanks to Pam for her time and insights. Also, a quick head’s-up that Pam has agreed to do a second webinar that gives simple tips for implementing all this in your occupational safety and health program at work, so keep your eyes peeled for the second webinar.

And, if you’re the type who’d rather listen to the spoken word than read text on a glowing screen, know we’ve included the audio of this discussion down at the bottom.

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If your career is related to occupational safety and health, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the new ISO 45001 Global Standard for Safety and Health Management.

If you need to get up to speed on ISO 45001, we’re happy to announce we’ve got just the ticket for you: two interviews with Chris Ward, who played a big role in developing and publicizing the ISO 45001 standard.

In this interview, the first of two, Chris will give us an introduction to ISO 45001, answer some basic questions, and give us links to some resources for more information. In the second interview, to follow soon, Chris will share with us some tips for implementing ISO 45001.

We’d like to thank Chris for his work on the standard and for the time and knowledge he shared with us below.

And with that, let’s get learning more about ISO 45001.

One last note: for those of you who’d rather watch a recorded video of this discussion, we’ve got one for you at the bottom of this article.

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In this part of our OSHA Basics series of article, we’re going to quickly explain to you what OSHA’s 1910 standards for general industry and 1926 standards for construction are.

If this sounds like something you’d like clarification on, continue reading.

And know that this is just one article in a series of OSHA Basics articles we’ve been writing that cover basic OSHA concepts such as the General Duty Clause, Incorporation by Reference, and more. We’ve got links for other articles in this series at the bottom of this blog.

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Women working in the construction trades–carpentry, cement masonry, sheet-metal, iron working, electricians, and so on–face all the same challenges that men in the trades do, plus some challenges that the men don’t. These include ergonomic challenges from machines and tools typically designed for bigger people, the difficulty of finding PPE that fits properly, a work culture that’s at times unwelcoming and even abusive, sexual discrimination and harassment, and more.

In this article, we talk with Hannah Curtis, a Research Coordinator with the University of Washington, to learn more about these issues in general and to learn about a research study she conducted called Safety and Health Empowerment for Women in Trades (SHEWT for short).

We’d like to thank Hannah and everyone else involved in the study for their work, and give a special thanks for Hannah for taking some time out of her busy schedule to discuss these important issues with us. Below, she shares some eye-opening research about the scope of some of the problems, but also provides some tips for how we can all help to make the construction trades (and workplaces in general) a safer, healthier place for women. She also gives some great resources for women who are currently in the construction trades or who are looking to get into them–because despite some problems, the construction trades also offer great opportunities to women, as Hannah describes below too.

And for those who don’t like to read, we’ve included a recorded video of this discussion at the bottom of the article as well.

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Here’s another article in our OSHA Basics series.

In this one, we’re going to explain what OSHA’s Special Industry Regulations are and let you know where you can find them.

Read on to learn more.

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