Georgia can commemorate a significant milestone in public-private cooperation this fall. It's been 30 years since the Georgia Institute of Technology began providing occupational health and safety consulting services to businesses throughout the state.
Each year, the Occupational Health and Safety Program helps hundreds of Georgia businesses keep the workplace safe by complying with the requirements of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The program is located in the Human Systems Integration Division of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
"Reaching our 30th year of OSHA-related activity is a significant milestone," said Dennis Folds, GTRI chief scientist and head of the Human Systems Integration Division in the Electronic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS). "It underscores both the state of Georgia's need for OSHA programs and the quality of GTRI's handling of those programs."
Science and engineering consultants from GTRI currently provide two separate services to business:
- The OSHA 21D Consultation Program provides free, on-site safety and health consulting to smaller Georgia companies - those with fewer than 500 employees.
- The OSHA Training Institute Education Center offers safety and health courses in more than 20 topics, principally through Georgia Tech Distance Learning and Professional Education. GTRI partners with other regional educational organizations to provide fee-based, OSHA-approved courses in Georgia and other southeastern states.
"It can be challenging for smaller businesses to deal with OSHA and state requirements, and we're here to help them comply fully and stay safe," said Daniel Ortiz, a GTRI principal research scientist who directs the OSHA programs at Georgia Tech. "We have a dedicated staff of 17, comprised mainly of research scientists and engineers. They do a great deal of fact-finding and development of new ideas in the field to help businesses increase health and safety in the workplace."
The consultation program is funded mainly by OSHA, which provides 90 percent of the program's $1.38 million annual budget; the state of Georgia provides the balance. GTRI consultants provide on-site services to more than 200 Georgia manufacturing and other businesses each year, making some 450 visits to factory floors and job sites.
The education program, under which Georgia Tech teaches OSHA courses to the private sector, is paid for by the students themselves or by their employers. Occupational Health and Safety Program instructors train about 2,500 people yearly in these courses, most of which are taught through Georgia Tech Distance Learning and Professional Education. located on Georgia Tech's Atlanta campus. The courses are typically taught by the same consultants who work with industry.
Students can take a range of courses that cover a wide variety of subjects and industries, from hazardous materials and machine safety to the prevention of falls and respiratory problems. By taking several courses, participants can earn OSHA certificates in areas such as industrial safety and health, construction safety and health, safety and health program management and hazardous materials management.
"Our researchers wear both hats - consultant and instructor," Ortiz said. "And that's an advantage, because we can take our experience from the field and share it in the classroom."
GTRI's health and safety consultants are continually looking for ways to develop new and useful ways to promote safety, Ortiz says. One important new strategic area for the health and safety program involves teaching courses to high school students who are preparing for the workplace by taking vocational courses.
The aim is to help young workers grasp job-safety basics before they ever reach the job site. Those graduating from the course receive the OSHA 10-hour card, a qualification that can give them an advantage with employers mindful of complying with OSHA regulations.
"We want to make it automatic for young people joining the workforce to take safety precautions like putting on hard hats and safety glasses - the same way they always put on a seatbelt in a car because that's what they've grown up doing," said Michelle L. Dunham, a GTRI research scientist who works with the health and safety program.
The 30-year history of the GTRI health and safety effort reaches all the way back to the days of the Engineering Experiment Station, the original name for the organization that became GTRI. The health and safety group was initially managed by the late Bill Howard; Ortiz has been director since 2000.
"We believe that Georgia Tech, as a great engineering school, needs to promote safety awareness in everything our engineers do," said Terry Tibbitts, director of ELSYS. "A safety and health management system needs to be implemented at the very beginning of every project or process - it's cost-effective to operate that way, and beneficial for everyone."