Everyone has to work to put food on the table and have the security he or she needs when the retirement years come. The workplace is an important part of life, and you need to be just as aware when working in the office as you are when you’re relaxing at home. You don’t want to get hurt emotionally or physically at work and spend your relaxation time recovering from a work-related injury.

The Safety.com Workplace Center will prepare you and the people around you with solutions to workplace safety hazards.

Expert Commentary: Worplace Harassment

Amy Oppenheimer is an attorney/consultant specializing in workplace harassment and discrimination.  She provides training, expert testimony, mediation, arbitration and investigation services.  She has testified as an expert witness on employers’ duties to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace and has trained human resource professionals on how to investigate charges of sexual harassment and other forms of workplace harassment and discrimination.  She is co-author of the book Investigating workplace harassment: How to be Fair, Thorough and Legal.  A 1980 graduate of U.C. Davis, Ms. Oppenheimer litigated sexual harassment cases for 12 years before becoming a neutral in the field.

• What to Do if You Feel You are Being Harassed at Work
• Workplace Violence

What Is Industrial Hygiene?

Industrial hygiene is the science of keeping people safe at work and in their communities. Industrial hygienists (IHs) are professionals dedicated to the health and well-being of workers. Originally industrial hygienists worked primarily in factories and other industrial settings but as our society has changed, so has the definition of industrial hygiene. Today, IHs can be found in almost every type of work setting. Industrial hygienists also use the term OEHS or occupational and environmental health and safety to refer to the work that they do.

• Carbon Monoxide: The Silent, Cold Weather Killer
• Do I Work in a Sick Building?

Watching Out for Chemicals in the Workplace

There are an estimated 650,000 existing hazardous chemical products -- and hundreds of new ones are being produced each year. Employees of all kinds work with these chemicals in a pure form or in a mixture.
-- Michael S. Levine, Ph.D. CIH

• Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace