The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and The Dow Chemical Company are extending their Alliance for the second time to continue focusing on hazard prevention, particularly in the areas of process safety management (PSM) and ergonomics. The Alliance was first signed in January 2003 and renewed in May 2004.
“Our Alliance with Dow has proven that, together, we can improve worker safety and health,” said OSHA Administrator Ed Foulke. “We have developed safety and health topics pages, established best practices, and created case studies in ergonomics and motor vehicle safety: we welcome the opportunity to continue our collaboration with Dow and build on our successes.”
“This initiative has allowed us to bring the best of Dow together with the best of government to collaborate towards mutually beneficial goals,” said David Graham, vice president, Environmental, Health and Safety for Dow. The Alliance will continue to focus on sharing information among OSHA employees and industry safety and health professionals regarding Dow’s best practices, such as ergonomics and motor vehicle safety case studies, and publicizing results through OSHA and Dow developed materials, training programs, workshops, seminars, and lectures.
Since the Alliance was first signed in 2003, OSHA and Dow have presented workshops on the PSM standard and reactive chemicals. The Alliance helped to develop OSHA’s electronic assistance tool for ammonia refrigeration. Safety managers at Dow are participating on the editorial boards for various chemical- related Safety and Health Topics pages on OSHA’s Web site, including PSM, Reactive Chemicals, Ammonia Refrigeration, and Isocyanates.
The ergonomics and motor vehicle safety case studies that were developed under the Alliance are available on OSHA’s Web site. The ergonomics case study discusses how Dow has applied the “Six Sigma” management system strategy to identify and implement ergonomics solutions. The motor vehicle safety case studies focus on reducing motor vehicle accidents by identifying their root causes and implementing effective motor carrier and vehicle safety programs.
Source: www.osha.gov.