OSC19 – It was great to connect with YOU!

By Erik Harden, BWC Public Information Officer

Thank you to all who made a workplace safety and health connection with us last week at the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo 2019 (OSC19)!

More than 8,000 attendees joined us for three days of workplace safety and health education, in-depth workshops, live demonstrations and much more. And more than 300 vendors made the Expo Marketplace more dynamic than ever.

It was great to see so many of you sharing your #OSC19 experience on social media, including our first-ever Snapchat filter. For a recap, check out the highlights in our Twitter recap and scroll back through our blog coverage from last week.

Remember to visit the OSC19 website’s Attendee Service Center by March 22 if you need to print course attendance certificates or access presentation materials from many of the sessions.

We hope you enjoyed your time with us this year. Remember to mark your calendars for OSC20, March 11-13, 2020, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

We can’t wait to celebrate the 90^th safety congress with all of you!

Violence against EMS workers a real threat

Self defense training, fitness needed, firefighter tells Ohio Safety Congress & Expo

By Tony Gottschlich, Media Relations Public Information Officer

Firefighters and paramedics are in the business of saving lives, but few are prepared to save their own when they encounter hostile situations on the job, a firefighter/paramedic and self-defense coach told an audience Friday morning at the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

“There’s a huge problem and we need to start coming up with solutions to do something about it,” Jon Grabo told a gathering of Ohio EMS personnel during an educational session entitled, Violence Against Providers: Information and Options for EMS Professionals.

Grabo pointed to federal CDC statistics noting 2,600 EMS personnel received hospital treatment in 2014 due to on-the-job violence. He added that EMS workers are 10 times more likely to be assaulted than the general population.

“Every run has the potential to turn violent,” the nine-year veteran of the Grandview Heights Fire Department said. “And it’s not just from the drunks, the domestic violence calls, the overdoses … It’s anytime, anyplace, from anyone.”

In his 1-hour presentation, Grabo showed videos of real-world violence against EMS personnel, discussed how to recognize a potentially violent situation and offered some options for dealing with it.

He made a strong case for EMS workers to stay physically fit. “Fitness may be the deciding factor in preventing injuries,” he said. “Fitness matters, it always matters.” And he made a stronger case for self-defense training that involves fighting back, not just deflecting blows. “Someone swings at me with a knife and I’m not supposed to take him down?”

The best and first option should be to escape the scene, put some distance between yourself and the threat, he said. Others include reason and talking. Force should always be the last option and should never be punitive, he said. “It is a means for stopping an attack or allowing for escape.”

Asked about his own hostile encounters on the job, Grabo replied, “I’ve been threatened, I’ve been challenged and everything, but I am really good at talking to people. I’ve never had to go hands on.”

Reversing the opioid epidemic

Pain expert argues for systematic effort

By Tony Gottschlich, BWC Public Information Officer, Media Relations

The opioid crisis afflicting the nation is “the worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history” and the United States needs a systematic effort to reverse it, a leading pain and workers’ compensation expert told a group of Ohio employers and workers gathered for the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo Wednesday.

“At least 7-10 million patients in the U.S. who are on chronic opioids are highly dependent or addicted,” said Gary Franklin, MD, MPH, a neurologist and medical director of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. “They’re in deep trouble and there’s no systematic effort out there to help them. Most go to their primary care doctors, who have no idea what to do, and a lot of these patients are getting abandoned. That’s the worst thing that can happen.”

Franklin’s lecture, entitled, “Reversing the Opioid Epidemic and Improving Pain Care,” was one of dozens offered on the opening day for Safety Congress, the annual safety and occupational health event sponsored by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) and held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Franklin said if this country is serious about reversing the opioid epidemic, it needs to do three things:

• Prevent the next wave of opioid users. Research shows most opioids don’t help most chronic pain patients. Many get worse and fewer return to work. Prescribe non-opioid analgesics as a first-line treatment.
• Systematically address and treat the millions or patients already on long-term opioids.
• Deliver community based, multimodal care for pain. There is strong evidence supporting cognitive behavioral therapy and psychologically informed physical therapy, he said.

And perhaps the most obvious of all: “If your patients aren’t improving, don’t give them more opioids.”

“This is a mess, and it’s our job as public servants to figure out how to help these patients,” said Franklin, who is also a research professor at the University of Washington.

While giving an overall bleak assessment of the opioid crisis and its challenges, Franklin paused in his lecture to compliment the Buckeye state, pointing to Gov. Mike DeWine’s RecoveryOhio plan and BWC’s Substance Use Recovery and Workplace Safety Program.

He ended his lecture with another positive note. “I do think we’re all in this together and we can figure it out.”

Franklin was joined in the lecture by Dr. Terry Welsh, BWC’s chief medical officer, who spoke about the substance use recovery program and other BWC efforts to mitigate the impact of the opioid crisis on the workforce. Also speaking was Tom Wickizer, a professor of public health at The Ohio State University. Wickizer made a case for an occupational health care model that can prevent long-term and/or permanent disability.

Welcome to day 3 of connecting at OSC19!

We hope you’re enjoying everything OSC19 has to offer! Our final day will feature a host of lectures, workshops and another live demo covering important safety and health topics.

Day two was a busy one! Colette Carlson, founder of Speak Your Truth, Inc., kicked off the day with an informative and fun talk about the importance of connecting and communicating to form the crucial relationships that drive productivity, engagement and collaboration.

She said the most successful people are those who can effectively communicate and connect.

Below, Colette gives a humorous demonstration of all the things we must worry about in a day. Maybe you just had to be there.

Our Division of Safety & Hygiene Superintendent Abe Al-Tarawneh led an educational session on the future of the workers’ compensation industry and occupational safety and health programming. Abe talked about the advances in science and technology that have led to major changes to business operations, resulting in structural changes to the economy and workforce utilization.

We presented four Ohio employers with Safety Innovation Awards yesterday.

These annual awards recognize employers who developed innovative solutions to safety concerns in their workplaces. Congrats to our winners!

• 1^st place – Francis Manufacturing Company (Russia, Shelby County)
• 2^nd place -TERYDON Inc. (Navarre, Stark County)
• 3^rd place – J&R Farms (Mount Vernon, Knox County)
• Honorable Mention – Yoder Drilling & Geothermal Inc. (Sugarcreek, Tuscarawas County)

We heard from a long-time safety professional whose catastrophic motorcycle accident inspired him to share his message. He told attendees that “whether you’re at work or at home, all it takes is a split second for something to happen and change lives forever.” Read more in yesterday’s blog post, ‘A split second’ nearly cost safety expert his life.

And finally, we said farewell to our 315 Expo Marketplace exhibitors yesterday afternoon. Thanks to all our vendors who make it possible for us to offer OSC free of charge!

We’re looking forward to a great last day of OSC19!

‘A split second’ nearly cost safety expert his life

Banged up but grateful, Derek Sang addresses Ohio Safety Congress

By Tony Gottschlich, Media Relations Public Information Officer

Derek Sang has worked his entire career in safety. He’s delivered 250 seminars on the subject across the globe, and he’s a frequent keynote speaker on the hazards of arc flash, flash fire and general safety.

The Arizona resident, who works in the flame-resistant clothing industry, also loves motorcycles, and he had racked up over a half million miles on the road without an incident until one evening in November 2016. As he entered a busy highway in Scottsdale, Arizona, a vehicle bumped his back tire, sending Sang and his $35,000 Harley-Davidson careening into a wall.

“Whether you’re at work or at home, all it takes is a split second for something to happen and change lives forever,” said Sang, speaking to a capacity audience Wednesday morning at the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

The crash shattered Sang’s body and launched the 50-year-old married father and grandfather on a long, grueling road to recovery involving multiple surgeries, excruciating skin graphs and enough hardware to stock a Home Depot store. Add to it the many hours of physical and occupational therapy, the toll on family, friends and colleagues and nearly $1 million in health care bills (covered by insurance, thankfully).

And Sang blames himself for all of it.

“We rode hard, we rode fast, we were experts,” Sang said of his motorcycle club. “I was overconfident and I was complacent. The day that accident happened I thought I was better than anyone else on the road.”

What does this have to do with job safety? Sang asked. Do we take shortcuts? Are we overconfident? When we’re used to performing repetitive but dangerous tasks, it’s easy to become desensitized to it, he said. There are names for this phenomenon, including “unintended blindness” and “normalization of deviance.”

Sang challenged his audience of employers and workers to think closely about those questions and examine their mindset. “What is your safety culture?”

“Complacency coupled with a false sense of security can and do produce catastrophic results,” he said. “It only takes a split second.”

Let’s connect at OSC19!

The 2019 Ohio Safety Congress & Expo continues today with a full day of educational sessions and expo activities!

Some of today’s highlights include general session speaker Colette Carlson sharing the importance of connecting with others, live safety demonstrations, Passport to Safety prize giveaways and much more. We look forward to connecting with you!

Yesterday was an exciting day with BWC Administrator/CEO Stephanie McCloud kicking off the first day of OSC by sharing the story of a family member who was injured while working around electricity.

The Expo Marketplace was busy all day! It was great to see exhibitors, instructors and attendees sharing their experiences on Twitter. See @OhioBWC for retweets.

Passport to Safety prizes were awarded throughout the day thanks to many generous vendors.

Live demonstration: Pushing and Pulling – What is Safe?

We had a full house for many popular sessions including, How to Be a Powerful Safety Change Agent.

If you have questions about BWC programs or services, we hope you’ll stop by booth 715 to chat with our experts.

Remember to refer to your event guide or the mobile app for session descriptions and locations, expo marketplace map and Passport to Safety guide. Enjoy your day!

OSC19 is all about workplace safety and health connections

By Abe Al-Tarawneh, Superintendent, BWC Division of Safety & Hygiene

Workplace safety and health are about connections; connecting best practices to work processes, connecting safety and health to your organization’s core values, and connecting your workforce to the resources it needs.

Every year, the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo (OSC) provides these resources to attendees during a three-day event, but the knowledge they receive lasts well beyond their brief time at OSC. Attendees take what they learn back to their businesses and use it to improve their workplaces as well as the safety and health of their employees, sharpen the quality of their products and services, and expand their productivity.

The theme for OSC, which opens today at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, is Connecting YOU to Safety & Health. This theme gets to the heart of the event – it connects Ohio employers with safety experts from all parts of the U.S., to provide the know-how to make their workplaces even safer and healthier. The Expo Marketplace – featuring more than 300 exhibitors – also connects attendees with the latest and greatest safety products and services.

The event is truly about and for YOU, the attendees. Every year we ask our attendees to complete a customer satisfaction survey. Your feedback shapes our offerings and it allows us to continuously improve our educational programming and services and thereby your experiences during the event.

Speaking of which, I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication that go into this event each year. From our planning committees and guest speakers to the expo vendors and BWC staff, the planning, preparation and commitment from staff and volunteers results in an event I’m truly proud of, and one that makes Ohio one of the safest and best places to work and live.