A Safety Champion


I was once asked the question… “who is your safety champion? 

Hazardous conditions are found everywhere in the office, home, sidewalk, etc. Colleges and universities with high level of scientific research have elevated hazardous conditions because of the materials and sources of energy stored and used in research, teaching and university operations.  

Workplace incidents are better addressed through collaborative efforts of colleges, departments, administrative office leadership, with by employee involvement. While all these approaches rely on the proactive actions taken by Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) professionals within the EHS office, much of the credit goes to you, our safety champion for recognizing the safety hazards and working with EHS to ensure the concerns are properly addressed. There is no better safety champion than you, the administrator, faculty, staff, student, researcher, shop floor employee, manager, visitor, contractor, etc. From the building coordinators notifying EHS of a new laboratory or shop set up, the faculty member serving on the EHS Safety Committee, to the student reporting an unusual odor in the building, you are our safety champions.  

Your actions remind us that by working together, we best achieve our shared goal of ensuring the safety and health of our workplaces, the university and our community. The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmingly illustrated that safety and health in the workplace and community requires everyone’s involvement. We now value health and safety in and out of the workplace more than we did the years before. It highlights safety as an intentional act, requiring everyone’s involvement.  

EHS department is proud to lead the university’s safety efforts by providing timely resources. Our new website has tremendous resources to guide you when it comes to workplace safety and health. You now have additional ways of reporting safety and health incidents to the EHS office. The Resources for section have information for targeted audiences- laboratory workers, visitors, etc..

As with every endeavor, there are opportunities for improvement. There is no better person to suggest improvement opportunities than you, our safety champion. We encourage you to Contact EHS with suggestions on how we can improve the site to serve you better. 

Again, thank you for being our Safety Champion. Join us with the resolve to make our workplace safer, for you and others.