Occupational Health and Safety Books

I believe this book fills a need that engineers always had. It explains in a very clear way how to do procedures in field operations and how to resolve different situations that can appear in oil and gas well testing... I really recommend it to the oil industry.

This manual is right on target. It is succinct, easy to understand and provides in-depth guidance concerning the OR-OSHA inspection process and the employer's response if it is cited. This information is absolutely critical for safety and human resource professionals needing to adequately represent their employers during the inspection and at the informal conference with OR-OSHA. Every worker needs the right tool for the job. This is the right tool when faced with an OR-OSHA inspection.

This manual is right on target. It is succinct, easy to understand and provides in-depth guidance concerning the OSHA inspection process and the employer's response if it is cited. This information is absolutely critical for safety and human resource professionals needing to adequately represent their employers during the inspection and at the informal conference with OSHA. Every worker needs the right tool for the job. This is the right tool when faced with an OSHA inspection.

If you want information about OSHA standards as it relates to health care, this is the book for you. It is easy to understand, covers all of the basics and even has chapter tests, (good for employee training). I have used this book to aid in writing a policies & procedures manual for my office. There are contacts at the back of the book for further information from a variety of sources. It covers fire, bloodborne pathogens, hazardous materials, respirators, TB, ergonomics, hazardous waste, radiation, infection control, confined spaces, medical records... It is an invaluable medical practice tool.

Anyone who sets foot in a darkroom should read this book. A little scary at times, but information you need to be aware of. Especially important for creative workers who often forget about the side effects of the materials they work with.

Geoff McIntyre faced the classic problem in summarization - make it too long and no one will read it, make it too short and it will not do justice to the subject. In keeping his essay to a easily readable 131 pages, but with enough depth to give useful insights, McIntyre has resolved his writing conundrum nicely. Looking at the subject through the triple lens of Tort Law, Reliability and System Safety is helpful, too. He cites a good number of references, including some I was not familiar with; as a researcher, this alone was worth the price of the book.

Any criticisms that I might have about unevenness are minor in the face of the breadth of the research that McIntyre lays on the table for the reader. Indeed, affording the myriad of authors their fair due must have been one of the most difficult tasks McIntyre faced. A few minor errors here and there are not fatal to the book, its message or its credibility. I'm not apologizing for them; knowledgeable, critical or careful readers always need to stay on their toes.

All said, this volume adds much more to a bookshelf than the slender space it takes up and I unreservedly recommend it to anyone who is serious in the field of safety, especially aviation safety. I cannot agree more with the author's central thesis that "safety is more than the absence of accidents." This is a concise restatement of Bannister's Law: "The difference in circumstances netween a small and a very large loss is often marginal." There is a world of wisdom in that statement.

This series of books is the ultimate reference for industrial hygienists. While the sheer size of Patty's is daunting, it should be on every IH's bookshelf. If you need to know anything about the toxicology of a chemical or other workplace health hazards, chances are it's in Patty's.

The Pocket Reference for Hazardous Materials Response is a great "true" pocket reference (4" x 6") for dealing with HazMat incidents. It is written by Dr. Chris Weber (Dr. Hazmat). Chris is a PhD biochemist as well as a 20+ year veteran firefighter in Michigan and Deputy Director of the Washtenaw County Hazardous Materials Response Team. It is designed to be used on the scene with well organized sections on Incident Management, container and markings identification, identification by physical and chemical properties (including tables on the really bad stuff), Incident Operations, decon, mitigation techniques and demobilization. Very thorough.

After years in the industry, I was pleasantly suprised to happen upon this terrific book, easily the best, most useful reference book in the field of risk assessment published in the last 10 years. If more of us in the field would use this reference, perhaps our written material would actually be clear enough for our clients and the public to fully understand. Get one for your office, or at least encourage your school's library to order one for its reference section.

The book provided a wealth of background on the topic of machine safety. I particularly appreciated how it detailed the history of the respective safety standards.