Greetings from the New Executive Director
For those of you who do not yet know me, I am Chris Trahan Cain. Although I have worked with Â鶹ÊÓƵ for two decades - the last five years as Deputy Director - this is my first UPDATE.
After twenty-six years of service at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, Executive Director Pete Stafford has retired, and Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Board of Directors has asked me to assume his duties.
Pete was the first full-time employee of Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and during his tenure he transformed a fledgling construction safety and health startup into a building industry institution respected by practitioners and academics alike. It was Pete who recruited me to join the Â鶹ÊÓƵ staff back in 1998, and he proved to be a remarkable supervisor and mentor in the years that followed.
I'm pleased to report that Pete will be staying on board as a consultant to ensure a smooth transition, and to help me launch Â鶹ÊÓƵ into its future. That future starts today with Â鶹ÊÓƵ's new course, , that OSHA has adopted as an elective for the OSHA 30-Hour outreach course. Read on to learn more about this and other new safety and health resources and research!
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New OSHA-30 Elective: Foundations for Safety Leadership
 In an effort to meet a long-standing need for safety leadership skills instruction for foremen and lead workers, with input from experienced OSHA outreach trainers, construction workers, and numerous safety and health professionals, we have created a new training course - Foundations for Safety Leadership (FSL). OSHA's Directorate of Training and Education has approved the 2.5-hour FSL course as an elective in the 30-hour outreach training program beginning January 1, 2017. The course can can be used as part of an OSHA 30-hour class or on its own, and is available on or from the .
To learn more, join us for a free webinar introducing the FSL program on January 19 at 2pm.
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New NIOSH Webinar Series Announced
Insurance and Workers Compensation for Construction - Untangling the Mysteries
We all want to improve safety and health on construction sites. Injury, illness and other data can help us as we make decisions, but not all data are easily available. There are ready sources of data relevant to construction safety and health from, for example, Â鶹ÊÓƵ and BLS. Another source is the insurance industry, however, many whose work could benefit from these data may not know how to obtain, interpret, and use insurance data. Starting this month, the NIOSH Office of Construction Safety and Health is introducing a new webinar series that will explain how construction projects and contractors are insured, how the insurance industry can influence safety and health, and how researchers can tap into this important resource.
The first webinar in the series, Setting the Stage: Insuring the Construction Industry -- General Contractors vs. Sub-Contractors -- What's the Difference? is scheduled for Thursday, January 19th at 11:00am (ET), with guest presenter William B. Noonan, Executive Vice President, Willis Towers Watson.
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TOOLS FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH
Hazard Alert: Electrical Safety (for non-electricians)
Electrocution injuries kill hundreds of construction workers every year -- most of them non-electricians. Â鶹ÊÓƵ's updated Hazard Alert on the topic is an excellent tool for reviewing electrical hazards with workers in every trade. For hard copies of the pocket brochures, email Â鶹ÊÓƵ; this and other Hazard Alerts can also be downloaded as . This is just one of many topics in the popular series: for a complete selection, .
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RESEARCH NEWS
Test Bench System Measures Handle Vibration in Hammer Drills
 Workers can be exposed to high levels of hand vibration when drilling into concrete or rock using hammer drills, exposures that can cause Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome. A Â鶹ÊÓƵ-supported research team has designed a robotic test bench system to measure the vibration generated by different tool models -- and to examine the impact of factors such as bit design, drilling force, bit sharpness, drill type, and vibration dampening. A new test bench system for hammer drills: Validation for handle vibration appears in the ; you can read a summary of the key findings .
Chris Trahan Cain, CIH
Executive Director
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Thursday, January 19th @ 11:00am (ET): Setting the Stage: Insuring the Construction Industry -- General Contractors vs. Sub-Contractors -- What's the Difference?
Thursday, January 19th @ 2pm (ET): Foundations for Safety Leadership. .
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Ashley Schoenfisch, Hester Lipscomb, Clayton Sinyai and Darrin Adams, January 2017. Effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on carpenters' work-related injury rates, Washington State 2000-2008.
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BAC Craft Committees Continue to Guide Masonry r2p Partnership Safety & Health Priorities.
SAVE: Ergonomics Training for Masonry Apprentices.
Keeping Aging Workers Safe.
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