Personal Protective Equipment

A successful safety and compliance team member cannot always be the most liked or the most popular, but must always be well respected.  They need to be able to talk to senior management, front line supervisors and employees and be open and honest about what needs to be done to ensure employee safety and regulatory compliance.

Paradoxically, change is a permanent part of life. Yet it's no excuse for neglecting safety. Tune into your emotional responses to change and become a 'change agent' for safety in any environment.

Experiencing high turnover?  Too many incidents?  The answer to these problems could lie in a new, innovative training program.

The OSHA Code of Federal Regulations (29 CFR 1910.269 Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution) requires employers to ensure that qualified personnel who perform work on equipment 50 volts or greater verify their knowledge of the regulations on an ongoing basis. To meet this important requirement, NSTAR Electric and Gas Corporation has implemented a highly successful self-service, computer-based learning program.

This feature's title is not a rhetorical question. There really should be an answer-a definitive, widely accepted answer we could all give quickly and consistently. There isn't and we can't, though we try with great confidence. When one of us comes up with something that sounds pretty good, another one of us disagrees.

A consistent, clear safety message backed by unwavering actions is what is takes to keep your employees flying straight.

A wide variety of on-site and online training programs from the industry's suppliers are available to utility safety professionals. In addition, trainers and educators are prepared to offer a range of courses.

As Safety & Health Director for CMS/Consumers Energy, Tom Taylor
discusses his role in developing, maintaining and auditing all safety
and health programs.

Headquartered in Jackson, Michigan, Consumers Energy is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation, an integrated energy company that also includes CMS Enterprises, whose primary businesses are independent power production and natural gas transmission. Consumers Energy, Michigan's second-largest electric and natural gas utility, is the 13th-largest investor-owned electric company in the U.S. The company provides service to more than six million residents in all 68 of the state's Lower Peninsula counties. As the 5th-largest investor-owned natural gas utility in the country, it delivers more than 360 billion cubic feet of gas through a system of 26,400 miles of pipelines.

Part 1 of a 2-part article.