The Niagara Frontier Chapter of the ASSP is excited to announce that Carol Schmeidler, MS, CSP, has reached her 40^th anniversary as a member of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

Carol is the manager of safety and industrial hygiene at University at Buffalo’s Environment, Health and Safety Services. She received her MS in Industrial Engineering from UB, and BA in psychology from State University of New York at Albany. Between her degrees, Carol worked to become a Certified Safety Professional, which required passing a rigorous national exam.

Many of us know Carol through her numerous years of volunteering for the Niagara Frontier Chapter. She has held positions as president, president-elect, secretary/treasurer, and chapter historian. Also, Carol is a two-time recipient of the Chapter’s Safety Professional of the Year award, being honored in 1992 and 2016. She recently concluded her service to the Chapter’s Executive Committee at the end of 2023.

Carol has served the ASSP nationally in many ways. She recently stepped down as the standards chair for the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty group. Carol has presented at several annual ASSP Safety Conferences, which draws attendees nationally and internationally. Also, she continues to be an enthusiastic supporter of WISE, Women in Safety Excellence.

Please join us in congratulating Carol for achieving this distinguished milestone and thanking her for dedicated service to the Chapter and ASSP. Well done, Carol! Best wishes for continued success as a dedicated safety professional.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a variety of resources to help small businesses keep their employees safe on the job. One of the most popular is the Small Business Safety and Health Handbook, available in English and Spanish. OSHA worked with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to comprehensively update this publication in 2021.  

The handbook features a set of self-inspection checklists to help employers identify and address workplace hazards. The checklists cover a range of workplace safety and health topics for general industry workplaces, such as electrical safety, fire protection, hazard communication, materials handling, and personal protective equipment. OSHA recently added new checklists for ergonomics, heat illness prevention, infection control plans, workplace violence, and young workers. Each one includes a list of relevant OSHA standards and other resources from OSHA and NIOSH.

The handbook summarizes the benefits of an effective safety and health program. It also reviews key safety and health resources for small business, including the OSHA On-Site Consultation Program and the NIOSH Small Business Resource Guide. For more information, visit OSHA’s Small Business page.

“The revised Small Business Handbook is a valuable tool to help employers identify where to take action to make their workplaces safer and more healthful for their employees,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Jim Frederick. “Safety has to be a continuous process that involves preventing injuries and illnesses, and saving lives.” “Small businesses face many unique challenges and providing a safe and healthy work environment shouldn’t be one of them,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The updated Small Business Handbook is an easy-to-use tool to help keep your most valuable asset – your employees – safe and healthy on the job.”

Our mailing list is pulled from the chapter roster maintained by ASSP. Those members who have indicated that they want to receive emails will are on the chapter email list. If you aren’t receiving emails, it might be that your address is incorrect or missing in the ASSP database, or a setting needs to be updated to receive emails. Here’s what you can do. Go to nf.assp.org and in the upper left corner, click the Change Address tab. It will take you to the member log in page of assp.org. Once you’ve logged in, you can check on your email address and settings. If you need more help or have difficulties, contact ASSP customer service, details below.

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An article authored by NFASSP member Ralph Estep, PhD, RN, CSP, CIH and Jillian Brown, MS, CSP titled Safety Challenges of Commissioning & Operation of a Covid-19 Treatment Only Hospital has been published in the April 2021 edition of Professional Safety Journal*.

Congratulations to Ralph and Jillian for being published! Thank you for showcasing Western New York’s health and safety ingenuity.

*PSJ is a benefit of ASSP membership.

Each peer-reviewed issue of Professional Safety offers practical guidance, techniques and solutions to help occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals identify hazards, protect people, prevent injuries, improve work environments and educate management that investing in safety is a sound business strategy. Annual subscription is included with your membership.