According to OSHA, the $5 million awarded in Disaster Response and Recovery Training Grants will provide critical health and safety training for workers who are engaged in disaster response, clean-up and rebuilding activities in the hurricane-impacted Gulf States region. The grants will target hazards related to confined spaces; electrical work; construction; hand and power tools; heavy equipment operation; slips, trips and falls; mold; water contamination; respiratory, chemical and biological hazards; and animal and insect bites.

"New Jersey's newly adopted worker participation standard is a first-in-the-nation for the inspection of facilities that handle extraordinary hazardous substances," said Bradley M. Campbell, New Jersey's environmental commissioner. "Workers know their own facilities, and can help us strengthen protection of communities from the risk of catastrophic accidents."

The order, which went into effect Oct. 1, establishes procedures for employees and their union representatives to participate in Department of Environmental Protection inspections, investigations or audits of the 101 facilities regulated by the state's Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act and the law's associated rules and regulations.

Substantial research evidence supports the use of objective goals and activators to improve behaviors, if behavior change principles are applied correctly.

Holding people accountable for numbers (outcomes) they do not believe they can control is a sure way to produce negative stress or distress. Some people won't be stressed because they won't take the goal seriously anyway.

I remember the techniques for setting effective goals with the word SMART:

• S - for specific,
• M - for motivational,
• A - for achievable,
• R - for relevant,
• T - for trackable.

Smart goal setting defines what will happen when the goal is reached and tracks progress toward achieving the goal. Feedback from completing intermediate steps toward the ultimate goal motivates continued progress. Of course, it's critical the people asked to work toward the goal "buy in" or believe in the goal and believe they have the skills and resources to achieve it.

In the past five years, safety belt use has increased steadily from 71 percent in 2000 to 82 percent this year. The increase in belt use over the past year alone has prevented 540 fatalities, 8,000 serious injuries and $1.8 billion in economic costs.

DOT attributes the trend in large part to states that have passed primary safety belt laws. Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have primary safety belt laws that allow police officers to stop a motorist solely for belt violations.

The health protection and ventilation section asks the following questions:

• Is local or general exhaust ventilation provided during welding to maintain concentrations of toxic materials within acceptable limits?
• Do the suppliers of fluxes, coatings, coverings and filler metals supply information about the hazardous releases associated with these materials?
• Is mechanical ventilation provided when there is less than 10,000 cubic feet of space per welder?
• Is contaminated air exhausted from a working space discharged into the open air and away from sources of fresh intake air?
• Is first aid equipment for welders immediately available at all times?