July 2009



Cover Story & Features

Welcome to the Professional Safety articles section. Here you'll find this month's offering of articles that deliver cutting-edge information, lessons learned and practical guidance from practioners in the safety, health, and environmental profession.

Full-issue PDFs of Professional Safety (from January 2005 forward) are now available to members through ASSE's Members Only website. Each file contains interactive links to help members navigate through the file. We've also included links to ASSE, regulatory agencies and other sources, and the journal's advertisers. A reader simply needs to mouse over a link to be redirected.

Cover Story

Research to Practice

Safety Eyewear: How Much Coverage Does It Provide?

By James R. Harris, Richard Whisler, Douglas E. Ammons, Jim Spahr and Larry L. Jackson

More than 200,000 eye injuries occur in U.S. workplaces each year. Many of these workers were wearing some form of eye protection. Coverage provided by safety eyewear can be difficult to quantify. NIOSH researchers have developed methods to estimate coverage, information that should be valuable when designing and selecting safety eyewear and when establishing test performance requirements included in eyewear standards.

Features

Employee Involvement

The Safety Assurance Network: How Toyota Makes Sure Safety Is Everyone’s Job

By Jorge A. Colazo and Carlos Talpone

The safety assurance network (SAN) is a tool used to involve workers in the identification and elimination of potential safety hazards. This article reviews the conceptual framework and the steps to follow to implement this approach. SAN not only promotes improved workplace safety, it is also a powerful tool to enhance teamwork and raise workers’ awareness of unsafe conditions.

Fire Prevention

Lessons Learned: A Review of Published Investigation Reports From the Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire

By Frank J. Baker

The fire at the Charleston Sofa Super Store caused the deaths of nine firefighters. This tragic outcome was attributed to actions, inactions and conditions before and during the event itself. This article presents a review of existing investigative reports and highlights those items identified as critical to the overall outcome.