February Newsletter 2012

 
Editorial

In last month’s newsletter we offered a nice prize for the person who offered the most innovative way they are going green. Sadly we received very few inputs. Wonder what that means, people are not reading the newsletter, or not going green, or too busy to respond. ISHM would like to know the reason so we can make improvements to our documents. It is going to be very important soon as we will send a questionnaire to all CSHMs. A high response rate will be beneficial as it will assure the CSHM exam measures the right knowledge areas.
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IN THIS ISSUE
SECTION ONE - Exam Questions
SECTION TWO - Shop Towels, are they dangerous?
Section Three - Resumes, is yours full of overused phrases?
Section Four -

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SECTION ONE - Exam Questions
Calling all CSHMs. You might be able to detect the panic in this article. ISHM really needs more quality exam questions. It is a long and arduous journey to take a question from the idea phase to actually being included in the CSHM exam. We have some very tight deadlines to make this all work. If you could possibly have 5 - 10 questions to manager@ishm.org by February 15th we could get them in the process for the next workshop. We are in need of questions in the following areas:

Section 6: Regulatory Compliance
Section10: Performance Metrics, record keeping, data analysis and statistics
Section 14: Management Systems (ISO, OHSAS 18000, ANSI Z-10, VPP, etc.)
Section 20: General Liability and Product Safety
Section 21: Fleet Safety
Section 23: Health and Wellness
Section 26, Occupational medicine, medical services, first aid

We ask that you use the guidelines in 'Manual for Writing Test Questions' which can be found at: http://www.ishm.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Manual-for-Writing-Examinati...
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SECTION TWO - Shop Towels, are they dangerous?
I received an email from a veteran safety professional with a link to a YouTube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af2QmN-QC88. It indicated that there is a definite safety issue using laundered shop towels, specifically exposure to dangerous metals. I found it interesting but I was skeptical as it was a Kimberly – Clarke film clip and I assume they would much rather you buy some of their disposable products rather than the reusable towels.

I then went in search of what I hoped would be an independent evaluation. I came across a company called Gradient, an environmental and risk science consulting firm renowned for specialties in Toxicology, Epidemiology, Risk Assessment, Product Safety, Contaminant Fate and Transport, and Environmental/ Forensic Chemistry.They published an article http://gradientcorp.com/alerts/pdf/Gradient_Study_MetalTowelsthat seemed to support the issue reported by Kimberly Clark.

Lynn Peoples wrote an article for “The Huff Post Green” that spoke to the issues with laundered shop towels, this may be found at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/toxic-metals-shop-towels_n_894109.html. The article was interesting and, of course, referred to the Gradient Report.

Certainly you will need to decide if your workforce is facing an unsafe condition. I have read enough to know that I would do more research before making a final decision.
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Section Three - Resumes, Is yours full of overused Phrases?
We recently read an article under an Associated Press byline titled “10 overused phrases to avoid putting on your resume”. The article was a rehash of the one that LinkedIn provided indicating that ‘creative’ was the most overused word followed by:
Organizational
Effective
Extensive experience
Track record
Motivated
Innovative
Problem solving
Communication skills
Dynamic

Kathy Sweeney,a certified professional résumé writer, says that when employers search for candidates in their databases, it’s based on “exclusion” rather than “inclusion,” In other words, employers look for keywords as a way to narrow the applicants down to the 10 or 20 most-qualified candidates. These chosen few are left standing only after others are weeded out.

But what some candidates think constitute keywords and phrases are actually vague generalities that show up on the majority of résumés.

“Keywords are not ‘team player’ or ‘good communication skills,’” Sweeney says. “If an employer searched for those phrases, they would receive about 1,000 résumés that would be considered ‘relevant’ to their search parameters.” Instead, keywords are solid functions like, “sales,” “marketing” or “business development,” she says.

The bottom line is that you could be the most qualified candidate for a given position but you may be excluded due to some of the terminology used in your resume.

We recommend that you ‘hit the net’. There are countless articles on the subject and if it helps improve your resume it will improve your chances of getting the coveted interview. Sounds like a great use of time.
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Section Four - Bee a Skeptic by Tom Slavin
Instead of reading books and writing letters like people did 100 years ago, today we connect via cell phone, Skype, email, face book, tweets, texting and so on. And travel today brings us face to face more often with more people. We get information from all kinds of sources besides the people we know: Internet, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV including news, talk shows and infomercials.
There is so much information it is hard to sort out fact from fiction. All of us, not just those who struggled with chemistry or biology, depend on the media and Internet to bring us stories from scientists who do the research. The problem is that information often comes in brief sound bites and is sometimes slanted to suit a particular purpose or fit an opinion. Competition encourages media to find interesting stories or sensationalize things to attract a wider audience.
We often hear the term “scientific consensus” but that term is an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp or boneless ribs. Scientific consensus is another way to say the opinion of a majority of scientists. They may be very smart people, but they are still expressing an opinion. And like other opinions it could be wrong. At one time the scientific consensus was that the earth was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. My mother died of colon cancer in the 1960s at a time when the scientific consensus was that dietary fiber irritated the colon and caused colon cancer. On doctors orders she followed a low fiber diet for several years while battling the cancer that eventually took her life. Evidence now shows that fiber may play a role in preventing colon cancer.
If media stories and scientific consensus are unreliable how can we sort out complicated information? We should all use the scientific method and apply careful scrutiny to stories. The “scientific method” has characterized science since the 17thcentury. It is a way to develop knowledge through systematic observation, measurement, and experiment to reduce biased interpretations of results. It proposes an explanation, conducts tests and modifies the theory. Conclusions must be verifiable and be based on tests that are repeatable and withstand careful scrutiny by other scientists. Scientists are constant skeptics who do not care about consensus, but who demand evidence.
Here are some ways we can be better consumers of scientific information:
• Look closely at the description of the underlying report and watch out for reporters who leap to conclusions. Look for other possible explanations.
• Research should be published and peer reviewed. How many times have we been told of some new health threat or medical breakthrough that gets contradicted later.
• Beware of confusing association with causation. Just because geese fly south for the winter does not mean that they bring the cold weather.
• Beware of measurement bias. The reported incidence of carpal tunnel disorder has risen greatly since 1970. Some have concluded that modern work must be more demanding. However, it could be due to increased awareness, better diagnosis, availability of an easy and profitable medical procedure to treat it, or to changes in compensation rules that now pay for the condition.
• Do not confuse response with damage. The body has many natural responses. Blood pressure increases when you stand up, but that change does not mean that standing up is bad for you.
• Watch out for observation bias. How often have we been told that sugar causes children to become hyperactive. In at least 12 studies of children with various levels of sugar there was no observable effect. Interestingly, parents who were told their children had been given sugar when in fact they had not, nevertheless concluded their child was more hyperactive. Our perceptions often affect our conclusions.
• Just because it is in print (or on the web) does not make it true. There are all kinds of wonder cures. Look for evidence in the form of scientific articles by multiple authors in peer reviewed journals, not just self serving articles by a single author in the some obscure publication.
We may have lots more information available to us now but that does not make us smarter. Avoid faulty logic and apply the scientific method. In other words be a skeptic.