ASSE Website Hosts NIOSH PtD Conference Presentations
From NIOSH –
Prevention through Design—a new way of doing business: a report on the National Initiative on August 22 – 24, 2011 at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, DC. ASSE was a sponsor of the event. The conference agenda, biographical sketches of the speakers, and speaker presentation materials are available on this ASSE webpage: http://www.asse.org/professionalaffairs_new/ptd.php
The conference marked the mid-point of the Prevention through Design (PtD) National Initiative, led by NIOSH, which aims to prevent and control occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities by “designing out” or minimizing hazards and risks early in the design process.
The initiative promotes this concept and highlights its importance in all business decisions. A growing number of business leaders are recognizing PtD as a cost-effective means to enhance occupational safety and health. Many U.S. companies openly support PtD concepts and have developed management practices to implement them.
The goal of the conference was to take stock of the Nation’s progress in improving worker safety and health through the inclusion of prevention methods in all designs that impact workers. Significant progress has been made in advancing the prevention of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities by eliminating hazards and minimizing risks to workers in the design and re-design of facilities, work methods, processes, equipment, and products.
The conference brought together PtD leaders from industry, labor, academia, government agencies, and professional organizations to showcase their research results, engineering education enhancements, successful stakeholder practices, and policy development and advancement. In addition, presentations from the 3 finalists in the Design for Safety and Health student contest showcased PtD engineering student designs. A panel session that includes PtD thought-leaders concluded the event to identify areas that require additional focus.
Additional details on the Prevention through Design National Initiative can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/ptd/ and at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/PtDesign/.