Risk Management Magazine

In college, I worked as an intern for a mechanical contractor, installing HVAC and plumbing for large industrial projects. During the last of my four semester rotations at this company, I was assigned to work at a vehicle manufacturing plant that was being built in the area. There, I would learn a painful lesson on the importance of always wearing your personal protective equipment.

CE-SOHMS is designed to change an organization's safety program from compliance based to one where it is second nature to every employee. Rather than just following a regulation or checklist, the entire organization takes an ownership role. Organizations implement CE-SOHMS in three stages.

When deciding if PPE is required, management must first complete a workplace assessment to determine whether hazards exist that require the use of PPE and provide a written certification that identifies the hazards within the workplace. After determining that a hazard exists, controlling it at its source is the best way to protect employees.