Safe Work Practices on Snow-Covered Roofs

Whether for emergency roof repairs, snow removal or regular roof-mounted equipment servicing, there will be times this winter when an employee has to go up on the roof.

Working on a snow-covered roof poses significant dangers, including serious falls and exposure to extreme cold. These guidelines will help ensure that your company has proper controls in place to help minimize the risks of working on snow-covered roofs

As you develop a plan for roof work under these special conditions, consider the following questions:

- What special tools, equipment, protective devices, clothing and footwear will be needed? - Make sure all the necessary gear is on hand and ready for use.
- Do you have a means of safely elevating mechanized snow removal equipment to the roof? - Remember that employees will be working under adverse conditions during severe weather."   continued ...   (Via Occupational Hazards)

Snow removal from the top down.

Targeting Employees Under 30

Reaching under 30's with safety ...

"With the workplace demands of high-job turnover, expanding regulatory compliance requirements and a constant push to be more efficient in all aspects of your business, it only makes sense to use every advantage you can. As many of the traditionalists and baby-boomers are stepping out of the work force, the new recruits are moving in. If you're shaking your head at the thought of all of these "undisciplined, know-it-all kids" flooding the work force, you instead should be nodding your head at the creative possibilities you now have in the realm of safety training.

Let's set a few things straight: Every generation looks at the proceeding ones with a little skepticism. Traditionalists think Boomers should "do as they're told." Boomers think Xers should put in longer hours and gradually work their way up the ladder. Now along comes Generation Y and guess what? They have a whole new way of thinking.

One might characterize the new generation of employees under the age of 30 – "Gen Y" – as talented nomads. They are inclined to move through three, four or maybe even five jobs in their first 10 years, performing well but never hesitating to consider other possibilities. Traditional employer enticements such as a pension or retirement plan mean very little to those who are comfortable setting up their own investment accounts. As a safety professional, you are challenged with providing all the safety training they need in a timely manner. Since computers and Internet connections have become a staple in even the smallest of businesses, leveraging this technology for training Gen Y remains one of the best options available."   continued ...   (Via Occupational Hazards)

Generation Y.

WSU targets new approach for disabled

Accessible education for students with disabilities ...

"Wright State University has launched a graduate program that will help make education more accessible to students with disabilities — and it has a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to make sure the program's impact is felt well beyond WSU's borders.

The Technology-Based Learning with Disability Program, which kicks off in January, enlists graduate students in four other doctoral-level WSU engineering programs — biomedical sciences, computer science, engineering and human factors and industrial/organizational psychology — to search for methods and technologies to fulfill the educational needs of students of all ages who have disabilities, officials said.

The program's graduates will spread out across the country and help make education more accessible for students elsewhere, said Forouzan Golshani, director of the program and chairman of WSU's department of computer science and engineering."   continued ...   (Via Dayton Daily News)

Wright State.

Seeing Machines Advances Human-Machine Interactions

Progress in ability to study driver distraction ...

"Scene Camera, released in November 2005, is the latest innovation from Seeing Machines Pty Ltd, and is companion technology for the company's faceLAB R&D product.

faceLAB is a non-contact computer-based system created to map and observe the human face. It has revolutionized gaze and eyelid closure tracking and has demonstrated techniques that can forever change the way humans and machines interact. The computer vision technologies available in faceLAB are now used around the globe in research projects covering diverse fields of investigation: human factors problems, human-computer interaction, robotics, vision research, psychological studies, and intelligent vehicles R&D.

According to Professor Alex Zelinsky, one of the developers of the technology, a prominent application for faceLAB is in laboratory and simulator studies of driver fatigue, distraction, human workload management systems and intelligent vehicle applications. "Our faceLAB technology provides headpose, gaze direction and eyelid closure tracking and has immediate and far-reaching impact in the realm of transportation safety and active information awareness systems," he said. "It is used across the automotive industry by clients such as Bosch, Delphi, Volvo, Motorola, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Daimler Chrysler, Peugeot and Toyota, as well as many of the leading academic research groups and transportation authorities worldwide."   continued ...   (Via NE Asia)

Seeing Machine.