The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety's Web site is loaded with useful information for any hands-on loss control manager or researcher focusing on workplace hazard prevention.
CCOHS is a federal agency charged with helping employers and workers eliminate work-related illness and injury. Its site provides an easy-to-use entry point for studies, databases, descriptions of various workplace hazards and their causes, and an extensive collection of links to related sites.
CCOHS' site is presented in clear, easy-to-understand language appropriate for the general public as well as safety professionals. It even contains a Youth Zone, with information specifically for young workers, their employers and parents.
NEW:
www.ensuringsolutions.org
Ensuring Solutions
A Web site for the George Washington University Medical Center's Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems states that, while 17 million adults annually have alcohol-related difficulties, only 3 million receive help.
The site is simple to navigate, yet provides employers with helpful information on policies they can implement to strike a balance between safety needs and employee health and well-being. It contains numerous research reports, solutions and tools for employers.
For example, the site contains an Alcohol Cost Calculator for Business. It provides industry-specific information about the impact of drinking, such as the extent of related hospital emergency room visits, costs of missed workdays, and alcohol problem frequency per business sector.
www.cdc.gov/niosh
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
A safe bet for risk management professionals looking for valuable information on safety and loss control is the home page of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
NIOSH is the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness.
While the agency was established in 1970 by the same federal legislation that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, it is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The NIOSH homepage loads quickly and is designed primarily for function rather than form. Expanding its reach, the safety agency's Web site also provides information in Spanish.
Risk managers and other employer representatives will find valuable technical information about a vast array of safety and loss control topics using NIOSH's alphabetical or keyword search option. Of special interest is online access to NIOSH's general research, such as its finding of the questionable efficacy of back belts, as well as more specific research on topics such as chemical hazards.
NIOSH information is generally considered reliable because part of its mission is to conduct a focused program of research to reduce injures and illnesses among workers in high-priority areas and high-risk industry sectors, including mining, agriculture, construction as well as health care.
The Web site also contains links that reflect the national safety institute's efforts to encourage prevention activities through health hazard evaluations of workplaces-which can be requested by employers or workers-as well as training to prevent accidents and illnesses. NIOSH also provides links to useful databases.
Employers seeking helpful materials, such as a "Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards," should click on NIOSH's hyperlink to Publications & Products. Many safety-oriented publications can be downloaded or ordered there.
By Meg Fletcher
NEW:
www.osha.gov
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration Web site contains numerous sections, including one on ergonomics, which provides a wealth of information and resources that are free and easy to access.
Among other content, the section contains case studies on ergonomic improvements, industry-specific guidelines for ergonomics principles, and best practices developed in cooperation with employers. For example, several of the nation's airline companies helped OSHA develop the site's eTool solutions for baggage handling problems.
The site is particularly outstanding because its easy-to-comprehend and navigate layout is designed to encourage industry associations, labor organizations and employers to form safety alliances and collaborate in spreading the word about ergonomics.
www.workerscompinsider.com
LynchRyan Inc.
A Web log provided by Wellesley, Mass.-based cost control consultant LynchRyan Inc. can help risk managers tap information useful for responding to traditional safety and loss prevention challenges, as well as current events in the workers compensation realm.
LynchRyan employees update the site at www.workerscompinsider.com several times a week with news stories, links to recent court decisions, advice on managing cost drivers and a variety of safety and loss prevention tools and discussions.
One such posting, for example, appeared during the recent baseball playoffs. It discussed simple measures to prevent fatigued employees from causing work accidents after staying up late to catch the extra innings.
True to the blog format, each story or item posted on LynchRyan's site contains links to other related blogs or Web sites where more information is available, such as government agency Web sites, additional media stories, reports by industry associations and university research findings.
Want to understand organized labor's mindset on workplace safety? Then scroll though the links for related weblogs. One blog called Confined Space is loaded with left-wing labor politics but also has links to a number of serious labor union safety programs.
One of the good things earning LynchRyan's blog a spot among Business Insurance's Best of the Web for 2004 is an absence of advertising. LynchRyan employees may post some opinions or advice on the blog, but they don't push the company's services there. A separate Web site promotes the corporation's workers compensation consulting business.
The blog also has decent search capabilities. Type "safety" into a search field and several postings pop up. They include recent stories on preparations for the flu season, the potential for some incentive-based compensation programs to backfire and the rise in workplace deaths during 2003.
The site is easy to use, with various archives accessible by date or category, including Best Practices, Insurance & Insurers, Safety & Health and State News. Posting your own comments and responding to others is also encouraged. By Roberto Ceniceros
Notable sites
CambridgeSoft Corp.
www.chemfinder.com
Ergoweb Inc.
www.ergoweb.com
IBM Corp.
www.pc.ibm.com/ww/healthy-computing/
Injury Control Resource Information Network,
University of Pittsburgh
www.injurycontrol.com
International Safety Equipment Assn.
www.safetyequipment.org
National Fire Protection Assn.
www.nfpa.org
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
www.nhtsa.dot.gov
National Safety Council
www.nsc.org
Professional Development Unit
www.uksafety.net
Public Entity Risk Institute
www.riskinstitute.org
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
www.rospa.com
U.K. Health and Safety Executive
www.hse.gov.uk
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov
U.S. Department of Justice, Americans with Disabilities Act
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada
U.S. Department of Labor, Job Accommodation Network
www.jan.wvu.edu
U.S. Department of Labor, Drug-Free Workplace Advisor
www.dol.gov/elaws/drugfree.htm
Vermont Safety Information Resources Inc.
www.hazard.com
WorkCare
www.osh.net
Workers Compensation Research Institute
www.wcrinet.org
Best of the Web: Safety & Loss Control Services
